Nutritional Therapies for Addiction
By Emily Battaglia
Traditional treatments for addiction place a lot of emphasis on psychosocial counseling, behavior modification, and the use of pharmaceuticals to relieve cravings. Most addiction self-help groups cover similar ground, although often from a less clinical, more theistic or motivational perspective. One significant thing that these approaches have in common is what they lack—a nutritional component. Aside from the initial detoxification process, traditional substance abuse treatment does not rely heavily on a nutritional handling of addiction.
Recent research supports the theory that people who become addicted to substances may start out with a chemical imbalance which makes it harder for them to experience pleasure. Substance use only compounds this effect by not only exacerbating this imbalance, but also drastically reducing the body’s ability to absorb nutrition. Malnutrition leads to a number of physical ailments and impairs the body’s ability to obtain the necessary vitamins to effectively regulate body chemistry. In the last few years, nutritional counseling and therapies have begun cropping up at a greater number of addiction treatment centers.
In the late 1980s, researcher Kenneth Blum identified the inability of some people to feel good as a biochemical disease. He called it “reward deficiency syndrome”. In the course of pleasurable activities (such as eating or spending time with a loved one), most people experience a cascade of neurotransmitters. Dr. Blum proposed that some people either fail to produce enough of these neurotransmitters, or they are unable to properly distribute them through the body’s network. The result is an inability to derive pleasure from normally pleasing activities. These people may seek out substances as a way to remedy this situation and feel good. Ironically, substance abuse exacerbates reward deficiency syndrome by damaging neuroreceptors in the brain. This further deteriorates the body’s ability to properly utilize neurotransmitters and pushes the addicted individual even farther away from any natural ability to feel good.
Two of the most prominent nutritional approaches include amino acid therapy and intravenous vitamin therapy. These therapies are designed to replenish the health of recovering addicts and to create greater chemical balance in their bodies than they may ever have experienced before. The theory is that greater balance through better nutrition will complement more traditional behavior modification and motivational approaches by bolstering the addict’s ability to feel normal and good without using substances.
Amino acid therapy is a promising nutritional therapy being used by addiction treatment centers. Neurotransmitters are composed of amino acids. Amino acids in the body can be depleted by many factors, including malnutrition, stress, and genetics. Low levels of certain amino acids have been linked to cravings for sweets, tobacco, alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, and cocaine. The particular amino acids and that are missing determine the type of craving. As a treatment, recovering addicts receive a daily injection of an amino acid solution, over the course of several weeks or months. By injecting amino acids into recovering individuals, treatment providers hope to give recovering bodies the necessary materials to heal and repair disrupted brain chemistry.
Prolonged abuse of drugs and alcohol damages the gastrointestinal tract, impairing the body’s ability to absorb key nutrients. In addition, addicts often develop hypo- or hyperglycemia and acute deficiencies of specific vitamins (especially B vitamins), conditions which can trigger intense cravings and undermine the recovery process. One way to counteract this situation is to pump vitamins directly into the blood stream of a recovering individual. This bypasses the damaged gastrointestinal process and provides immediate delivery of crucial components for regaining health in all areas of the body. Typically, these intravenous vitamin regimens include vitamin C, magnesium, zinc, calcium, and B vitamins.
Nutritional therapies for addiction have been shown to be most successful in combination with more traditional behavior modification, self-help motivational, pharmaceutical, and substance abuse counseling approaches. Addressing the physiological roots of addiction promises to enhance treatment and promote positive long-term outcomes for recovering addicts.
References
Marshall, L., MSW. Beyond AA. Alternative Medicine. August 1, 2006.
Vukovic, L. Healthy Solutions—End the Cycle: Herbs and supplements to help conquer addiction. Alternative Medicine. September 1, 2007.
Lupick, T. (2007) Amino-acid therapy claims massive success in treating drug addiction. Straight.com. Retrieved June 23, 2008 from http://www.straight.com.
