(Mon-04-07-2016, 19:01 PM)Fred Wrote: Sorry what I meant about not a prescribed treatment, was that it's not prescribed for psoriasis as far as I know. 

I know Fred, no apologies necessary. Just that if you want LDN, it's best to have your Rheumatologist on board and possibly prescribed it for you.

(Mon-04-07-2016, 20:03 PM) Wrote:

(Mon-04-07-2016, 19:01 PM)Fred Wrote: Sorry what I meant about not a prescribed treatment, was that it's not prescribed for psoriasis as far as I know. 

I know Fred, no apologies necessary. Just that if you want LDN, it's best to have your Rheumatologist on board and possibly prescribed it for you.

My Rheumatologist just wants me to have Methotrexate, so I don't go and see her any more.

I doubt very much that LDN is available in France for psoriasis any way, but it's not something I would want to try so I'll stick to my Bio's as I'm happy.  

(Mon-04-07-2016, 19:58 PM)Caroline Wrote: Hi,

They are talking about me, so I will introduce myself and I will wish you a welcome to the club.  
Interesting medication this LDN. I am really interested in the backgrounds of the use of it. The research and the outcomes of that research.

Have a good time over here, and if you see my collegue walking in NYC, then give him my regards.  

Cheers,
Caroline

 Hi Caroline,

Nice to meet you.

Boy are you gonna love the info I have. I'll try to start the thread soon. Need to gather the info, and there is a lot of it. From it's original use, the researchers who discovered it's low dose effects, the pioneer doctors who began using it in their practice, the clinical cases and scientific studies published showing it's benefits, to the grassroot movement this pharmaceutical has produced.

BTW, who is your colleague? Maybe I know him. 

"My Rheumatologist just wants me to have Methotrexate, so I don't go and see her any more. I doubt very much that LDN is available in France for psoriasis any way, but it's not something I would want to try so I'll stick to my Bio's as I'm happy."

Hey, whatever works for you Fred, that's great. Everyone is different. Some medications work differently for many people. If something works for you, stick with it. I would.

Methotrexate was originally a chemo drug. Might still be. My Rheumatologist suggested I start with it.  But I told her about LDN and that I have decided to give this a try first. She's ok with my decision. I really love my Rheumy. Probably the best first visit experience I have had with any doctor. And I have seen many in the last 3 years. I obtained my LDN through an online pharmacy.

Hi
Welcome to the fold. To be honest I have never heard of LDN. I have only just started on orals having run the NHS gamut of lotions and UV and found to no surprise non were really effective.
 I look forward to curing my ignorance of LDN. As they say knowledge is power and it is certainly needed when visiting the Dermy.

(Mon-04-07-2016, 20:19 PM) Wrote:

(Mon-04-07-2016, 19:58 PM)Caroline Wrote: Hi,

They are talking about me, so I will introduce myself and I will wish you a welcome to the club.  
Interesting medication this LDN. I am really interested in the backgrounds of the use of it. The research and the outcomes of that research.

Have a good time over here, and if you see my collegue walking in NYC, then give him my regards.  

Cheers,
Caroline

 Hi Caroline,

Nice to meet you.

Boy are you gonna love the info I have. I'll try to start the thread soon. Need to gather the info, and there is a lot of it. From it's original use, the researchers who discovered it's low dose effects, the pioneer doctors who began using it in their practice, the clinical cases and scientific studies published showing it's benefits, to the grassroot movement this pharmaceutical has produced.

BTW, who is your colleague? Maybe I know him. 

(Mon-04-07-2016, 20:58 PM)JohnB Wrote: Hi
Welcome to the fold. To be honest I have never heard of LDN. I have only just started on orals having run the NHS gamut of lotions and UV and found to no surprise non were really effective.
 I look forward to curing my ignorance of LDN. As they say knowledge is power and it is certainly needed when visiting the Dermy.

Hey John,

Don't feel bad. I just recently found out about it myself. Yet it's been prescribed by doctors since the 80's. Maybe not for psoriasis, but it is showing promise for many autoimmune, inflammatory conditions. It even has shown incredible benefits with cancer. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I didn't know about LDN. Only stumbled upon it after getting stricken with this PsA.

Could you elaborate a bit on the subject you mentioned, that an auto immune disease is the result of a weakened immune state?

I have never heard of research or evidence in this direction.
There are pointers to, genetic effects, to stress, to bacteria, but I never have seen the link to a weak immune system.

If I think of that and see myself, it is also not fitting. With a weakened immune system I would expect to have more infections, other problems and be more vulnerable for viruses, for instance. And I am not. I hardly ever have a cold, while people around me are sneezing and breezing, it has been years since I had influenza and I am hardly ever sick nor do I have other problems besides the PsA.
Now it is of course possible that I am myself a bit weird example, I am Dutch you know, but still...

(Mon-04-07-2016, 22:00 PM)Caroline Wrote: Could you elaborate a bit on the subject you mentioned, that an auto immune disease is the result of a weakened immune state?

I have never heard of research or evidence in this direction.
There are pointers to, genetic effects, to stress, to bacteria, but I never have seen the link to a weak immune system.

If I think of that and see myself, it is also not fitting. With a weakened immune system I would expect to have more infections, other problems and be more vulnerable for viruses, for instance. And I am not. I hardly ever have a cold, while people around me are sneezing and breezing, it has been years since I had influenza and I am hardly ever sick nor do I have other problems besides the PsA.
Now it is of course possible that I am myself a bit weird example, I am Dutch you know, but still...

Funny you mention this Caroline, as I have experienced the same thing. When I changed to a healthy diet and started taking nutritional supplements, I haven't had  a cold, flu, or virus in the last 3 years. Yet I developed a tumor the size of a baseball , COPD, and now this arthritic condition, among other things. Go figure. Now Granted, obviously being a prior heavy smoker explains the cancer and COPD, but with these conditions, that are well known to suppress your immunity,  how is it I haven't as much as a cold in that time. It's a very good question Caroline.

Best I could assume, is that the immune system is very complicated. There are two main parts to immunity. Innate and adaptive. Innate protects us from pathogens like viruses, bugs, and so forth. Adaptive is generally considered what goes wrong with autoimmunity. They involve the T and B cells among others that improperly attack self cells mistakenly. Your immune system is dysfunctional,  hampered, or weakened. I need to pull the studies to explain it better. I'm sure any doctor is aware of this, at least they should be.

I will post the studies when I start the thread. I will document everything I say there. Would like to give a little background on my quest for health first, here in this thread, which I think is important to get an idea where I'm coming from.

My quest for health started about 4 years ago (2012). Prior to that I was a fairly healthy other than having a chronic back condition (cervical radiculopathy) which was fairly manageable. My back would go out 2 maybe 3x a year, lay me up for a couple of days, then I could return to work. But in 2012 one episode lasted a month. It was then I saw a Neurologist. Prior to that, I haven't seen a doc in 30 years. He diagnosed me with what I mentioned in quotes, and prescribed Gabapentin. When I asked about the prognosis, he said my back is arthritic and will progressively get worse. Naturally I'm getting older which I assumed was the cause. Anyway the Gabapentin had side effects, making me dizzy and light headed. So before heading back to the doc, I did some research. And on some forum where everyone was complaining about Gabapentin side effects, someone mentioned trying magnesium. They said it works on the same receptors as Gabapentin. I figured what the hell, it's a mineral everyone needs, what's the harm. Well, long story short, my back hasn't gone out since. And no longer take any medication for my back. Who knew it was a nutrient deficiency?

That was the begining of my quest for health. 

Shortly after that, I quit smoking, and developed a parasitic infestation that drove me nuts. This parasite lives on all of us, but on me they exploded in numbers a drove me crazy (Demodex). There's a chemical in cigarette smoke (benzene) that kills these critters in minutes. It's know wonder it never happened before. People who suffer with this infestation, try everything to eradicate them. Dousing themselves in kerosene to spreding hot mustard on their body. But the problem with trying to kill them, if that was even possible, because parasites have been around longer than us, longer than insects, is their ability to survive. Plus even if you were able to wipe them out, you would get reinfected any time you had contact with people. Everyone has these living in our eyelash follicles. No, the solution is to control them from within. Why everyone has them and are not bothered by them is due to our immune system keeping them in check. I went to my GP and checked for everything imaginable that could be checked for, that might possibly explain why my immunity was weak. Everything came back negative except vitamin D levels were low. Which BTW was suprising because I was supplementing a 1,000 IU's daily in my multi-vitamin. After supplementing more and using other nutritional supplements to boost my immunity, I was still dealing with this infestation. It was the worst two years of my life. 

Nine months later I went to the ER due to not being able to pass gas. Thought they would give me some pepto bismol and send me home. They wouldn't let me leave, admitted me right then, and told me I had a tumor in my colon that needed to be removed. This could explain my parasitic infestation as tumors suppress your immunity. Anyway, I was very fortunate. It was stage 2a, not aggressive, and all the lymph nodes came back clean. And no chemo was necessary. The only problem was, I developed a hernia which is common with surgeries that I'm still dealing with. Oh, and while I was in the hospital they said I had mild emphysema. So far no medication needed for that. 

After recovering from the surgery I noticed the parasites were still with me. While ordering my monthly supplements I needed to spend a few more dollars to get the free shipping. CoQ10 was on sale, and said let's try it. Never really considered it before because our body makes it, and is found albeit in small amounts in our food. Lo and behold is was the missing piece to my immunity. After the first night I saw dramatic reductions in the parasites. Just another nutrient deficiency. 

So twice I was able to beat a nagging problem with just giving what my body needs to function properly. Thought I was on my way, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, when all of a sudden boom, I develop this severe inflammatory arthritis (PsA). It's like everytime I take a step forward, I fall two steps back.

I spoke of how it hit me New Years, and was diagnosed in April. The problem for me is that this inflammation is systemic and could create havoc on my COPD and cancer recovery. My inflammation has reduced somewhat and I can't credit LDN for that as I started taking it after my last blood work. LDN could take up to 6 months to show benefits. Sometimes in only days but generally you need to give it time. Maybe it was the lipoic acid I recently added that reduced the inflammation. Or the weather, or whatever. I don't care. Just glad it's heading in the right direction. I know I will benefit greatly with LDN. It's cancer preventive, improves your immunity, benefits all autoimmune disorders, which for anyone with psoriasis or PsA should be a concern. Being how they are linked with 14 other autoimmune conditions.

Will need a couple of days to gather my research on LDN, and then will post a huge amount of information on it's possible effectiveness.

Thanks guys, glad to be here.

I should also mention that exercise, a healthy diet, and fixing all nutrient deficiencies, insufficiencies should be a prerequisite before any treatment.

Drugs, lifestyle, environmental toxins, stress, smoking, and probably a million other things deplete our reserves of nutrients. Not to mention the effects aging has on our bodies.

Here in the US many are insufficient/deficient in vitamin D and magnesium. These are very vital nutrients. Depending where you live, the soils could be selenium depleted as well. If you live inland you might be Iodine insufficient. Everyone must do their own research on these essential nutrients.

I could touch briefly on vitamin D. Those at higher latitudes north of Atlanta, Georgia are either insufficient or deficient and should supplement. That includes England, the Netherlands, maybe even France? REMOVED is the authority in vitamin D research. He created the test doctors use to check vitamin D levels. His seminars given at universities are all posted on youtube. Their must be like 40 of them. Just watch one as they are all the same lectures. I remember in particular him showing photos before and after of someone who applied vitamin D on their psoriasis, and the results were amazing. Well worth the hour spent as his lectures are loaded with info and he tells it in an amusing way. 

Remember, I was supplementing with a 1,000 IU's which is close to double the RDA/RDI and I was bordering on deficiency. So please take a look. If vitamin D works on psoriasis on the skin, it must be needed inside as well.

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Edit By Fred: Mention of Doctor removed.