The First Annual LDN Conference (2005)

Updated: Mar 9, 2008

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It was generally agreed that the First Annual LDN Conference, which was held in NYC at the New York Academy of Sciences, June 11, 2005, was a success by any measure. The conference room was filled with over 80 enthusiastic participants. The agenda (see below), including Dr. Bihari's keynote message, five panels of researchers, doctors, pharmacists, and LDN advocates, and a closing interactive brainstorming session involving everyone present, proceeded flawlessly.

Probably the most striking experience of the conference was meeting people face-to-face whom most had known only by their e-mail address for years. A spirit of camaraderie was palpable throughout the day, and many attendees left with a strong sense of community and shared mission.

We want to express our deeply felt thanks to all the participants, both to the panel members, and to all those who managed to attend—some from great distances and with significant disabilities.

There was general agreement that the presentations by each and every panelist throughout the day were not only informative but also of a very high quality. It would be impossible to select any best among them to present here, however, there were a few new developments which we felt have greatest potential to contribute to the widespread acceptance of LDN:

• Crohn's Study Successful; Large-Scale Trial Planned. Dr. Jill Smith, Professor of Gastroenterology at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center, recently completed an open-label, pilot feasibility study using low-dose naltrexone in Crohn's disease. As reported previously on this website, her pilot study began in November 2003. With her permission, it was reported at the conference that she was very pleased with the results of the study, and has submitted an application to the NIH to conduct a larger placebo-controlled trial. This is wonderful news—if it were to happen, it would be the first scientific clinical trial using LDN to be accomplished at a US medical center.
• Lenz Survey Demonstrates Marked Success Rates for LDN in MS. Dr. Skip Lenz presented a study, conducted with the aid of several research interns, in which virtually all of the clients of his compounding pharmacy who have received prescriptions of LDN were surveyed. The preponderance of use was for multiple sclerosis, with a lesser percentage for other diseases. Within the MS group, some 238 patients, over 90% reported definite improvement or no worsening while using LDN. As Dr. Lenz put it: "These numbers are...beyond just maybe."
• Gironi Plans Clinical Trial for LDN. Dr. Myra Gironi, MD, PhD, a neurological researcher from Italy, discussed her published work that has demonstrated reduced levels of beta-endorphins in all forms of MS, and, in addition, revealed that she is planning a clinical trial of LDN in the treatment of MS.
• First Book on LDN Published. Mary Anne Boyle Bradley spoke of her new book, Up the Creek with a Paddle: Beat MS and Many Autoimmune Disorders with Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), which has the distinction of being the very first published book devoted to the subject of LDN. The book details Bradley's own story of how she stumbled across LDN as a treatment for her husband's MS, and her activities as an LDN activist since. Her book is available from Amazon and other major booksellers, and is already receiving excellent reviews.
• Sedlock to Host Second Annual Conference. Susan Sedlock announced at the end of the conference that she would like to host next year's conference (the Second Annual LDN Conference) in Washington, D.C.!
  

A few notes about the multimedia files below:

• Audio: We have provided a complete audio recording of each speaker at the conference, below. Complete audio of the entire conference, minus breaks, can be found here. Also, please note that Dr. Bihari's keynote message appears in a longer version, below, than was heard at the conference. (The shorter conference version of his keynote can be heard on the complete audio recording of the entire conference.)
• Video: Brief video excerpts of conference speakers appear below, in QuickTime 7 format (the QuickTime 7 player can be found here for Windows, and here for Mac). Please be patient as each video takes time to download. If there is sufficient interest, we may make available a DVD of the conference—please contact this website if you are interested.
• Photographs: In addition to the photos of individual speakers, below, additional photographs of the conference can be found here.
• Slides: Slides used by speakers have been converted to PDF format for greater accessibility (see links, below).