Wednesday 25 March 2015

New treatment for Interstitial Cystitis

    As a GP I see many different problems. To-day I  would like to write about one special case that  came my way a year ago.
    A 30-year old English woman came to my office for a routine problem. She had come to work in Ireland  and somebody suggested to her  to have  me as her GP. I took a full  medical history too  and she told me about her  Interstitial Cystitis.  It started when she was 15 and  basically it felt like her bladder was on fire all day every day. She tried to have intercourse for the first time at 17 but the pain was so bad she decided never to do it again.
   She told me that she had attended numerous specialists in London and was in fact due to have her bladder removed soon after she came to see me.
   One of my special interests is LDN, lowdosenaltrexone, which is  excellent for chronic pain without having to use opiates. It also has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. I suggestd that she should go on LDN, increasing the dose very slowly to a maximum of 4.5 mg  daily.
   She came back to me recently for the contraceptive  pill. The pain was long gone and she was in a regular relationship. She was still on the LDN and had no side effects at all. The cost is about a euro or a dollar a day.
  She may relapse and indeed she would be almost certain  to relapse without  LDN. It may not work for anybody else but that is very unlikely.  I found out since that some cases of this condition did not do well on LDN but if they increased the dose over weeks rather than days it should be effective in many cases. That situation arises too in fibromyalgia where it is very effective in many cases by increasing the dose very slowly. I have dozens of successful cases there.
   I thought it would be worthwhile to put this information on Interstitial Cystitis websites.I put it on four and expected it to be gone before long. All the information was gone within 24 hours . I am not surprised  as successful treatment for this condition could make the staff unemployed.
  I could be resting in the sun in the south of France or Florida but seeing cases like this give me enormous satisfaction and I will keep going  as long as my health lasts.