mom2girls,
The only studies I know of is this one, with Crohns patients, but I know it does work with UC patients.
Why don't the doctors give it? Well, I'm no conspiracy nut, but it's because the doctors are in bed with big pharma. They make big profits when the doctor prescribes $$ expensive meds like the biologics, and even some of the 5asa can cost hundreds of dollars vs. LDN which may cost around $30. a month. There is no profit motive in it for them. You're probably wondering how the doctors profit from it? For every drug they write, they get a commission, not directly, but indirectly - via the system of big pharma rewarding the doctors who prescribe the most $$ drugs with "perks" - perks like cruises, paid expensive vacations, golf outings, etc...
Here's the info on LDN:
Here's the Penn State research done by Dr. Jill Smith with LDN and Crohns Patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21380937
Here's my story on LDN: I started on 4.5mg of oral LDN on 2/7/2011, and saw no change - still continuing to bleed at a 10.
When I spoke with the compounding pharmacist, she mentioned that I may not be absorping the LDN properly, and suggested I switch to a transdermal LDN formula, which would be a cream applied to the bottom of the forearm. She told me a lot of her pediatric patients do much better with the Transdermal LDN, and in some patients with absorption issues it helps too. Bottom line is it works!
LDN - low dose naltrexone is very cheap - it costs around $25-30 a month (for pills or the transdermal cream). Gastro doctors usually don't prescribe it because they say "it isn't the standard of care". My gastro refused to prescribe it, so I found a local osteopath who did. I did ALOT of research, and the bottom line is: it works!
Once you get the script for it, you'll need to get it from a compounding pharmacy, who'll make it up for you, and ship it to you. The best compounding pharmacy in the country for LDN is Skip's Pharmacy in Boca Raton, FL.
They ship all over the world - they have 20,000 patients with various conditions on LDN. That's where I get my transdermal LDN. If you contact them, they'll tell you who locally to you will prescribe it to you.
You can reach them at: 800-553-7429
www.skipspharmacy.com
Please, go to www.youtube.com write: Low dose Naltrexone in the search field and you will find a pharmacist explaining where in the U.S you can buy your medicine. You can also read these pages to find more info to bring to your doctor:
www.ldninfo.org
www.lowdosenaltrexone.org
www.ldnscience.org
www.ldnresearchtrust.org
and if you want to find what other patients have experienced when used LDN, choose UC, Or breast cancer, or Crohns Disease at:
www.ldndatabase.com
Hope this helps. Good luck to you.
Please let me know how it works out for you.