Integrative Health Blog

Mindfulness and Sobriety: Help for Substance Use Disorders and Recovery

Posted by on Wed, Dec 23, 2020

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

~ The 11th Step in AA

The holidays are stressful and a time when many will over-use and abuse alcohol and other psychotropic chemicals. These times may present challenges for those of us who are committed to sobriety and they can be a risk for relapse. Understanding and applying the unique faculty of consciousness, mindfulness, may be extremely helpful during these celebratory times.

Mindfulness is Another Tool for Addiction Recovery

Mindfulness is not a cognitive faculty (thinking), nor is it emotional, sensory, or behavioral. Mindfulness is separate faculty of consciousness that is largely conferred by our prefrontal cortex or 1/6th of our brain, the part of our anatomy which mostly distinguishes us from animals. Kabat-Zinn has defined mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally. By focusing on the breath, the idea is to cultivate attention on the body and mind as it is moment to moment, and so help with pain, both physical and emotional.” In this series of articles on mindfulness, research is presented on many kinds of physical and psychological ailments and how mindfulness practice relieves them. I teach mindfulness to augment positive outcomes in my medical practice and have found it to be an extremely powerful intervention.

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Tags: mindfulness, addiction, functional medicine

Holistic View and Treatment Approach for Addiction to Drugs and Alcohol

Posted by on Mon, Jun 29, 2020

For quite some time, the public view towards drug or alcohol addictions was more focused on the problems of personal will power and lacking self control. But fortunately, the smoking cessation treatment programs in recent years have started to shed more light into our understanding about the unique biological needs in certain individuals driven by particular genetic predisposition and environmental factors.

Addiction to drugs and alcohol can predispose or coexist with other medical conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. Adolescence is the often the time when some may start to seek relief and experiment with drugs and/or alcohol by themselves or with peers. Adolescents may lack knowledge and understanding of consequences and not have a good social support system in place. 

It is important to raise awareness in patients, families and society to understand how some of the possible underlying biological causes and potential treatment options can have a direct impact on the outcome for individuals who become addicted, and to society at-large. 

While personal discipline and social standards still play a vital role in combating against drug and alcohol abuse, a holistic clinical and laboratory evaluation to identify the root causes based on analysis of certain biochemical profiles and particular nutritional needs may open a new realm of therapy and provide hope for those with substance use disorders. With the advancement in genetic analysis, a spectrum of mild presentations of inherited genetic deficiency has been increasingly recognized. A majority of them have therapeutic options. Furthermore, coexisting chronic medical conditions, such as Epstein- Barr virus (EBV) and Lyme Disease/co-infections must be ruled out before any psychiatric drug therapy should be implemented.   Many of the laboratory evaluations are available now and also covered by medical insurance. The goal is to enhance the treatment efficacy and improve the treatment outcome.

Treating the Whole Person

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Tags: addiction, holistic approach, integrative medicine

Limiting the Power of Sugar and Carbohydrate Addiction

Posted by on Mon, Dec 23, 2019

Just about everyone knows that sugar is bad for our health, but during the holidays, it appears with more frequency and is difficult to avoid. 

In case there are readers who have missed out on this fact, I will provide you with the crash course to start off this article.  The Atkins website   sums up 10 reasons why sugar is bad (listed below) and other websites go on to list 146 reasons why sugar is not a sweet thing for our health. 

10 Reasons Why Sugar Is Bad for Your Health

  1. Sugar causes glucose levels to spike and plummet, which cause mood swings, fatigue, cravings and headaches.

  2. Sugar increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

  3. Your immune function can be affected by sugar. As if being sick wasn’t bad enough, studies have shown that sugar can interfere with the way your body fights disease. Bacteria and yeast feed on sugar, so excess glucose in the body causes these organisms to build up and cause infections.

  4. A high-sugar diet can lead to chromium deficiency. Chromium, a trace mineral, helps regulate blood sugar in the body. While it can be found in meats, seafood, and plant foods, 90% of Americans still don’t get enough chromium because of refined starches.

  5. Sugar accelerates aging. After sugar hits your bloodstream, it attaches to proteins. The mix of these proteins with sugar causes the skin to lose elasticity and leads to premature aging.

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Tags: addiction, sugar

The Truth About Addiction: Drug and Alcohol Addiction is NOT Caused by Drugs and Alcohol

Posted by on Tue, Sep 19, 2017

President Donald Trump[1] has just proclaimed September 2017 as the National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.  One can’t fault any concerned American for bemoaning our #1 national epidemic that continues to escalate with no solution in sight.  In true Trumpesque form, the issue is being met head on and brazenly confronted, a welcomed call to action. 

Deaths from drug abuse kill more Americans by far than any other disorder, with tobacco alone killing nearly a half million Americans per year and underlying much of the death and disability of the classical #1 and #2 killers, heart disease and cancer.  Deaths from opioid abuse alone, heavily fueled by the prescription pad, now tally more than the deaths from auto accidents and gunshot wounds combined. 

Why can’t addictions be solved like many other medical problems; find the cause, address them, and be done with it?

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Tags: addiction, functional medicine, precision medicine, Dr. Gant

Opioid and Painkiller Abuse: Replace What is Needed in the Brain

Posted by on Wed, Aug 02, 2017

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”

Winston Churchill.

It’s all over the news. Deaths due to opioids and painkillers are rising dramatically and are now exceeding the mortality rates of auto accidents and gunshot wounds combined. The new healthcare budget may pump 45 billion dollars into opioid abuse treatment, intended to treat opioid abuse with the latest, more expensive, and perhaps equally addictive  prescribed opioids. This is tantamount to trying to extinguish a kerosene fire with gasoline. Morbidity and mortality rates will continue to worsen for opioid addiction, because certain basic, scientific truths about restoring the brain’s natural opioids are being ignored in society and even in mainstream healthcare.

Historically, when educational, prevention and treatment efforts are initiated to address various diseases, the morbidity and mortality associated with the targeted diseases declines. When mosquitos were found to be the vector in the cause of malaria, reputed historically to have killed more human beings than all other diseases in the history of humanity combined, the incidence of malaria dropped dramatically. Tuberculosis may have killed as many as 1 billion people in the 1800s, and its incidence has fallen dramatically with the advent of antibiotics. You probably don’t know anyone who has suffered from polio, as this vaccine has all but eradicated this disease.

History of Opioid Treatment

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Tags: addiction, brain health, opioids, Dr. Gant

Are You Suffering from Sugar Addiction?

Posted by on Thu, Apr 12, 2012

Eve Colantoni CHC

If you’ve tried to kick the sugar habit and failed, you could be facing a larger problem than you may have realized; you may be facing an actual addiction.  Sadly, sugar addiction is greatly misunderstood by most people; parents, teachers, even doctors and the medical community at large. In this article, you’ll learn why sugar is so addictive, how to tell if you’ve become addicted, and what steps you can take to break away from the grips of sugar addiction.

“Sugar and spice and everything nice!” The old saying takes us back to happy memories from childhood, but not all that we remember nostalgically is necessarily good for us.  In fact, one of the problems with sugar is that since it’s always been a part of our lives, from birthday parties, to holidays like Valentine’s day or Halloween, we think consuming it is all very normal.  A little in moderation never hurt anyone, right?  Well, when you see the history of sugar, and how it’s become woven into the fabric of our lives, and what it’s actually doing to your body, you may think differently.

Long before you or I were ever born, the first sugar refinery in the United Sates was constructed in 1689.  Many historians have now documented that much of the slave trade was initiated to find free labor to grow and harvest the plants from which sugar is derived; sugar cane or sugar beets.  In my opinion, it makes the scar that slavery left on humanity even deeper knowing that much of the atrocity was committed in the name of producing a drug that would further enslave us--sugar.

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Tags: addiction, holistic nutrition, integrative health, candida/yeast, sugar

Is Your Brain Addicted to Sugar?

Posted by on Wed, Apr 04, 2012

Eve Colantoni CHC

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Tags: addiction, holistic nutrition, integrative health, integrative nutrition, sugar, integrated health

Re-empowering Parents Through Predictive Genomics

Posted by on Tue, Nov 15, 2011

The best-seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Nurture Assumption, Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, by Judith Rich Harris makes a compelling case, based on sound research on identical twins and other data, that within reasonable attempts to provide our kids with a non-abusive environment, typical parenting does not matter much in how our children turn out!  I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but since the dawn of the scientific age, nutty assumptions and superstitions such as the earth being the center of the universe, have been challenged and abandoned.  The belief that parenting matters in how kids turn out is just another sacred cow destined for the waste bins of history. 

But take heart, because now you may assertively point out to those obnoxiously, proud parents who raised exceptionally talented and gifted children, that they are full of braggadocio hot air.  And if despite your best efforts, you’ve raised a kid who became a dropout, an addict or an academic flunky, you now have good cause to stop feeling guilty.

Nature, Nurture and Genetics

Identical twins, separated at birth and brought up in utterly different circumstances, turn out pretty much the same.  In fact their quirky traits, talents and behaviors have astonishing similarities, down to the ice cream they like with the same nut or chocolate sprinkles on top.  So, in other words, using our “fur-children” (dogs) as an analogy, within reasonable limits of a nurturing, non-abusive environment, raise them however you want; the Mastiffs will generally turn out to look and act like Mastiffs, and the Chihuahuas will generally turn out to look and act like Chihuahuas.  The only variable that seems to matter much is genetics - case closed, end of story, next.

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Tags: autism, nature v. nurture, addiction, genetics

Low DHA Levels Linked to Increased Suicide Risk

Posted by on Tue, Oct 04, 2011

by Chas Gant MD, PhD

In a recent study (August 2011) published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, it was found that low levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the major omega-3 fatty acid concentrated in the brain, may increase suicide risk.  A retrospective case-control study of 1600 United States military personnel, including 800 who had committed suicide and 800 healthy counterparts, showed that all participants had low omega-3 levels. However, the suicide risk was 62% greatest in those with the lowest levels of DHA.

According to Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD, acting chief, Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, "Omega-3 is already recommended by the American Psychiatric Association as adjunctive therapy for anybody with a psychiatric disorder, especially for those with major depression."

Suicide rates in military personnel have doubled since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and now "rival the battlefield in toll."  Other data and research suggests that nutritional deficiencies in the omega-3 fatty acids may increase vulnerability to combat deployment stress, manifesting as psychiatric symptoms including adjustment disorders, PTSD, substance abuse and alcoholism, major depression, impulsive violence, and suicide. In addition, studies conducted in civilian populations have also suggested that low DHA levels are linked to increased risk for suicide attempts and may contribute to adverse psychiatric symptoms.

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Tags: mental health, omega fatty acids, addiction

3 Ways to Practice Mindfulness Every Day

Posted by on Mon, Jan 17, 2011

Mindfulness is a separate faculty of consciousness totally distinct from cognition (thinking), emotion (feelings), intuition or sensory awareness (the 5 senses).

Mindfulness is not about Mystical Religions, awareness or meditation, although many religious and spiritual paths make use of mindfulness techniques.  Many therapies and psychotherapies are becoming “mindfulness-based” as it is discovered that all healing methodologies get better results if mindfulness is adjunctively applied. 

Mindfulness techniques are primarily taught to improve emotional stability, to manage stress, to expand ones intelligence, to become more productive and to lead a more joyful and meaningful life.

Scientific studies have proven that mindfulness involves about 1/5th of the brain, the frontal lobes, as well as other associated structures.  Like other skills, such as intellectual, musical or athletic, which are associated with the development of other brain regions, mindfulness can be practiced and improved over time.  Educational psychologists are studying mindfulness and devising methods to teach children how to practice and develop this skill. Mindfulness training is being introduced into school curricula around the USA. Future generations will someday be trained to use their whole brain and not just 80% of it.

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Tags: mindfulness, mental health, addiction, mind-body, Dr. Gant