Alcohol Nutritional Therapy Recovery Story

Like other addictive drugs such as cannabis, tobacco, and sugar, alcohol can affect any or all of the

brain’s pleasure-promoting neurotransmitter functions. Alcohol can become a super-addictor by hyper-stimulating brain levels of serotonin, endorphin, GABA, and/or dopamine as well as disturbing blood sugar levels and creating pathological depletions in many other vital nutrients. Alcohol’s impact on the brain has been well-documented since the 1980s, when neuroscientists studying addiction worldwide discovered its profound impact. This discovery process is the subject of Alcohol and the Addictive Brain by eminent researcher and Alliance supporter Kenneth Blum, PhD.

Fortunately, the super brain-targeted nutritional solutions to alcoholism have also been well documented. Dr. Blum’s original 1980s clinical research studies (PLEASE LINK) have been beautifully expanded in several books by Alliance founders. The most thorough is Seven Weeks to Sobriety (Ballantine, 1997). Its author, alcohol, and nutrition pioneer Joan Mathews Larson, PhD, is Founding Director of the Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis, MN. Her book, which continues to sell well after 20 years, is based on a published study that found her nutrition-based program to have an 83 percent long-term sobriety maintenance rate.

Larson has a brilliant understanding of how hypoglycemia, as well as specific vitamin and other nutrient depletions, act as major biochemical instigators of alcoholism. In addition to describing her successful use of the amino acids and other nutrients, she addresses little-known biochemical conditions such as pyroluria and histamine imbalance that can also trigger alcohol cravings and other addictions.

Our California Alliance members talk about the number of wine alcoholics they have seen and how easy it has been to help them, even in outpatient programs. (Even those who have continued to live in the Napa Valley!) The aminos stop their cravings every time: GABA or theanine if they drink to relax; DPA or DLPA if they drink to kill the pain; 5-HTP or tryptophan if they drink to get to sleep or to take the edge off their anxiety or negativity. They’re usually already eating well, so adding a good multi-vitamin/mineral and some digestive enzymes plus glutamine (to re-regulate blood sugar) and fish oil often takes care of it.

Back in the 1970s when the for-profit addiction treatment field was young no one was treated for anything but alcoholism. During that time, before cocaine hit us in the 1980s, we had 50 percent success rates. This was the finding of researcher Terence Gorski’s famous follow-up studies (co-authored by early Alliance supporter Merlene Miller, MA). That’s because alcohol, used alone, takes longer to do its damage and so was easier to treat. Miller began to suspect from her groundbreaking research with Gorski on PAWS (post-acute withdrawal syndrome) that nutritional approaches could be critically important. Interestingly, Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, was a tremendous supporter of nutrient therapy for recovery. He credited it with finally eliminating the depression that had caused most of his pre-AA relapses and eroded the quality of his life, even in AA sobriety. Joan Larson’s book discusses this as does Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Ernest Kurtz (Hazelden, 1991) and Adventures in Psychiatry: The Scientific Memoirs of Dr. Abram Hoffer (KOS. 2005) who introduced Bill W. to nutrient therapy.

Another author and co-founder of the Alliance and a pioneer in developing the nutritional recovery process for alcoholics is Charles Gant, MD. Dr. Gant was medical director of the Tully Hill Hospital, an alcoholism rehabilitation facility in Syracuse, New York where he introduced individualized nutritional therapies into a conventional treatment setting with great success. See his book End Your Addiction Now (Square One, 2010). It includes a detailed chapter that introduces his more recent nutritional strategies for alcoholism recovery specifically (pp. 173-189). A close colleague of Dr. Gant in pioneering the nutritional recovery from alcoholism, Joseph Beasley, MD, has also written well on the subject, in books such as his How to Defeat Alcoholism: Nutritional Guidelines for Getting Sober (Random House, 1990) and his website addictionend.com.

For three years the county of San Mateo, California’s Criminal Justice Council and the Peninsula Community Foundation funded a nutrition-based Biochemical Restoration Program for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offenders with multiple offenses. Run by Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD, participants were taught over the course of four months the connection between what they ate and cravings for alcohol. They learned what to eat and what to avoid, and when to eat to prevent the consequences to their thinking and their sobriety of low blood sugar. In 1996 DesMaisons published her results as her doctoral dissertation: Comparing 32 offenders who finished the program to 32 control subjects sentenced to the usual treatment, those in the control group were rearrested and for more serious offenses four times the rate of program graduates. Two graduates violated probation, compared to 13 people in the control group.

In conclusion, a daily Pro-Recovery diet of regularly spaced meals and snacks high in protein, low in simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour, with individualized amino acids and other nutritional supplements can counteract years of malnourishment and help an alcohol-ravaged body and mind to find vibrant healthy recovery.

Till Death Do Us Part??

I have been sober for 12 years now and I bless each and every day for that! But, for me, it was almost...till death do us part. After ten years of increasing alcohol abuse and daily pot use, I was suicidal. I was only sleeping for 2 to 3 hours a night and unable to eat. My anxiety had gone through the roof. The pot had started making me intensely paranoid so my alcohol use increased.

What would I have left behind?

My two amazing, beautiful children, my loving connected family, friends friends friends, and the work and the message I am clearly here to share! The excruciating pain of near death....as I have learned from my personal experience in recovery and my training and study of the brain since...was a bio-chemical thing. Not to say that my childhood trauma, divorce, finances and lack of sober support didn’t play a role in my downward near fatal spiral. But...my lack of brain neurotransmitters, nutrient deficiency, hypoglycemia and severe anxiety were the addiction pieces that when addressed and balanced saved this woman’s life! Oh...and has kept her sober, happy, healthy, productive, peaceful, and purposeful for over a decade now!!!

Here is what I did

First, I discovered and read ”Potatoes not Prozac“ by Kathleen DesMaisons and “The Mood Cure” by Julia Ross. WOW... what a brain chemistry epiphany!!!

Here is what I ate

Then I began the Pro-Recovery Diet....as best as I could. I was in treatment at a center which did not have much of that available. However... I improvised! I ate protein and veggies, I searched the shelves for decent fats...found walnuts, canned salmon (think that helped save my brain) peanut butter, and olive oil (rare). Salad...was mostly iceberg...so I dug up some dandelions from the lawn ( that’s right I was willing and resourceful enough to feed my brain and be ridiculed ) and as much water as I could drink.

Here is what I did not eat

I avoided the bread (which was mostly white junk bread), candies, cookies, simple carbs, sodas etc....

Here are the supplements I took

I had my sister bring me the following; a good clean protein powder and green powder, a multi-vitamin and B complex, fish oil, l–tryptophan, l-glutamine, GABA-calm, zinc, Vitamin C, and a lavender essential oil. It worked!!!

Here’s how I felt

First, I felt a sense of calm and I must say a bit of disbelief. Disbelief...that these feelings were connected to bio-chemical imbalances and that this had not been addressed in either of the treatment programs I’d been in!! Back to the calm.... not the checked-out calm I had been seeking to handle my severe anxiety but a peace in my whole body and brain. My thoughts began to slow down. I was able to put coherent thoughts and sentences together, something my malnourished brain had NOT been able to do. I began to sleep for longer periods, 4-5 hours...then 7...this was so helpful. I could slowly begin to do my therapy and trauma work and 12 Step work...I was no longer too numb, too anxious, or checked-out. My energy began to come back and best of all...I began to feel bits of joy and hope. My journey had been extremely painful...but now I had hope that I could start the repair process in my body, mind, soul, and relationships. I am so deeply grateful for having found this bio-chemical link! Many of my colleagues in this field refer to the “the missing link” in addiction recovery. The body bio-chemical link. This link to the body is what ultimately saved me and has kept me sober, happy, and healthy for over a decade now!!! We are all marvels of design....when well-fed and connected to a supportive community we can even feel the fullness of our divinity!

Pati Reiss...Sober Since...4/14/05

Member of the Alliance since 2007. Alliance President of the Board since 2014

Certified Holistic Health Coach & Nutrition Recovery Coach

Food Nutrition Educator, Holistic Chef

patireiss.com