i got lucky though, i caught on to the whole LDN idea early on after my DX. and tried it first before any of the crab drugs. it just made sense to me.
does LDN guarentee a stop to the illness? no. but neither do the crab drugs. does LDN guarentee a stop to exascerbations? no. but niether do the crab drugs.
does LDN guarentee anything? no. but niether do the crab drugs.
as long as its a matter of 6 of one-half dozen of another, why not make the 'another' one that i can actually afford and relisticly pay for?
i really am a stingy individual, but i dont see what good a medicine like copaxone is to someone who cant even pay for it.

Wanted to clarify that I don't think flavoring has anything to do with the speed of release of the drug, just that apparently it does make some difference for efficacy. Both times that I tried other flavoring (banana and bubble gum, if I remember correctly), my symptoms were creeping back in. As soon as he got the right flavoring in, he replaced my rx with the Tootie Fruity/Raspberry, no charge.

I didn't try any other meds before LDN either, but I was 14+ yrs into the disease before I tried anything (not even steroids). There were several reasons I went that route:

- my neuro said the CRABs weren't likely to help my "type" of MS (mostly large spinal lesions, very few brain one's even that long into the disease)
- sensitivities/allergies to meds
- CRAB efficacy stats were not convincing to me
- report side-effects on the CRABs
- cost
- anecdotal evidence on LDN

I won't ever regret not trying anything else, but that is because I have been lucky that LDN has worked as well as I could hope for with any med. I do understand why neuro's recommend the mainstream meds first though, and I probably would too if I were in their position. Actually, I'd probably recommend Copaxone and LDN first.

Cherie