Bringing the Powerful Healing of Integrative Medicine to People in Recovery from Addictions to Alcohol, Tobacco, Illicit Substances, Prescription Drugs and Processed Carbohydrates
Recovery from substance abuse disorders and addictions is usually referred to as a recovery of mind, body and spirit. This also describes precisely the Integrative Medicine approach to any physical or mental disorder provided by NIHA (National Integrated Health Associates) . Integrative medicine has advanced remarkably in the last few decades but strangely, very few of the powerful and healing integrative medicine methods have been made available to those in recovery from substance and alcohol use disorders.
Addictions may be the cause of 90% of prison incarcerations, 50% of psychiatric admissions and 25% of admissions to general medical hospitals, as well as a major factor in the incidence of suicides, murders, vehicular homicides, spouse battering, divorce and other kinds of social and occupational upheaval. When a loved one is suffering from an addiction, the stress of that relationship (codependency) can be at the root of any medical or psychiatric disorder, and this cause of illness is often overlooked by both conventional and non-conventional health care providers.
Generally speaking, when a recovering person or their loved one looks for help, they will find assistance for a recovery of mind and spirit – but not the body. You may even find “energy” treatments like acupuncture, but few resources are available to assist you in the natural regeneration of neurotransmitters like serotonin, or to assist in detoxifying your body from the residual poisons left over from the use of drugs and alcohol.
NIHA offers this missing link in recovery- a recovery of the body. For instance, we offer amino acid precursor therapies to help restore the imbalanced neurotransmitters that may have caused substance and alcohol use or abuse in the first place. These amino acid and nutritional therapies can be delivered through nutritional supplements, intravenously and transdermally (through the skin).
We also offer detoxification therapies such as infrared sauna, oxygen/steam treatments, IV’s and other detoxification treatments. We can provide functional laboratory testing prior to treatment to determine what your specific nutritional and metabolic imbalances and toxicities are, so that your unique “body” or physical causes of addiction can be pinpointed and corrected.
How to Proceed
All addiction therapies at NIHA are medically supervised and are adjunctive treatments. They are not meant to take the place of conventional addiction treatment or peer support groups like AA. Integrative addiction therapies at NIHA are intended to complement and enhance the benefits of conventional addiction treatment and support groups.
Diagnose and Treat the Root Biochemical Causes of Suffering
For nearly 4 decades I have provided “healthcare” for 10s of thousands of patients. In my opinion, authentic “care” entails taking the time and making the effort to deeply understand the root, unique, physical causes of each patient’s suffering. I have become skilled at reversing chronic medical and psychiatric disorders because I address the actual biochemical causes, but I would never label myself as a healer. I only facilitate a release of my patient’s biochemical potential for self-healing, which is already written into the very fabric of their 100+ trillion cells. Practitioners who define themselves as “healers” could not possess such knowledge about our vast, innate, self-regulating capacity to heal, and they must consequently limit their capacity to provide authentic “care.”
The knowledge originating from providing decades of health “care” has led me to realize that the so-called “healthcare crisis” is a crisis of ignorance, a preoccupation with diagnostic labels and diseases which somehow magically “just happen” without well-defined causes. I “care” to much about my patients to allow them to suffer from this delusion, so one of my first tasks as a healthcare provider is to make it clear that all chronic diseases, maladies, disorders and illnesses are merely fantasized labels for various types of mental and physical suffering that we had invented over the ages before we had the science to know what the underlying causes actually were. Now that the physical causes of most diseases are well known, I “care-fully” and urgently suggest to my patients, practitioners and now to you, that we all break through this ignorance and achieve far better outcomes than we are currently getting.
The healthcare field uniquely epitomizes a level of ignorance which I have not seen in other walks of life. For example, highway engineers would never describe a breakdown of transportation infrastructure in terms of certain “bridge diseases” or “road disorders.” Instead, they would describe that breakdown in terms of the infrastructure’s composition, such as the wear and tear on its constitutional steel, concrete and asphalt. Furthermore, they would describe certain factors which are “toxic” to the longevity of our roads and bridges, such as salt and extreme weather conditions, and suggest methods for limiting those “aging” effects. Why has the healthcare system failed to define health problems in this way?
Essential Molecules
Essentially, the infrastructure of your body is made of certain classes of molecules: 20+ amino acids (from protein), several essential fatty acids (e.g., omega 3’s from fish oil), essential vitamins, essential minerals, oxygen, fiber, water, sunlight (photons are particles too) and enzymes (from raw foods like uncooked fruit). Note that these are essential, which implies that if any of these are deficient enough, the basic mechanisms underlying life must (by definition) breakdown, and symptoms, maladies, illnesses, disorders and diseases must occur.
Functional Medicine Testing
Out of “caring” for my patient’s “health,” I must not let this happen, so I routinely order functional medicine testing to diagnose precisely what is deficient in each and every patient, and then replenish those missing, essential items. (see www.FunctionalMedicine.org and www.HealthSolutionCenter.com)
More importantly, I also order in-depth, diagnostic testing for toxins (AKA – “Toxic Load”), which accelerate a breakdown of my patient’s infrastructure, contributing to the appearance of symptoms and “diseases,” accelerating aging and causing premature death. If you cared for someone being poisoned, would you sit idly by and let it happen? How can we practitioners let this happen under the guise of providing “care?” And since medications are also contributing toxins, mostly prescribed to merely cover up symptoms, I am interested in eventually detoxifying those as well, so that my patient’s innate, self-healing mechanisms can be restored.
Some of the classes of toxins which I routinely test for and address are:
View the video to listen to my comments about the current status of conventional addictions treatment and what should really be done to overcome an addiction.
“Constitutionally Incapable” is the term used in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous to describe a person who can not recover from addiction. In other words, some individuals are thought to be so morally and physically “bankrupt,” that providing treatment and AA for them is a waste of time. Because of serious flaws in their psychological makeup (mind), their physical/medical condition (body) and/or their disconnection to anything greater than their own selfish interests (spirit), they will find it impossible to stop abusing alcohol and chemicals or establish authentic sobriety.
The founders of AA, building on the work of physicians like Benjamin Rush (1) for over 200 years, offered a window of hope for those who are Constitutionally Incapable of recovery, predicting that someday, when science has advanced far enough, the physical cause(s) which explain(s) why some individuals who appear to be hopeless, will be discovered, and rational, science-based, medical interventions will become widely available. They envisioned that those who seem to be Constitutionally Incapable of recovery will be treated properly and “reformed” into people who are indeed Constitutionally Capable of making a complete recovery.
Age of Neuroscience
That hope basically entails putting the recovery of “body” into the promised recovery of “mind, body and spirit.” Until very recently, the “body” part of that triad was not available. However, the Age of Neuroscience has to come into vogue, and the brain mechanisms explaining the symptoms of mental disorders, such as addiction, depression and anxiety, can now be explained. This phenomenon has been popularized on top-of-the-charts TV crime shows like bones and CSI, where laboratory science investigators collect DNA and other data at the crime scenes to determine the perpetrator.
Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, is one of the most powerful poisons on earth. If by some accident a child should ingest even a small amount of the substance through a nicotine patch, he or she would almost immediately go into convulsions that would in all likelihood be fatal. It’s so toxic that as few as two or three drops of pure nicotine applied directly to the skin of an average person will kill him or her within minutes. In lower doses, nicotine can cause high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat, tremors, convulsions, and central nervous system overstimulation. There is no known antidote for nicotine poisoning.
How is it that so many people habitually use such a powerful and potentially deadly toxic substance on a daily basis? Moreover, how is it that smokers who are addicted to nicotine are given prescriptions to the very substance they’re hooked on in order to stop smoking?
The answer to both questions lies in the way our brains work. And by the way, so does the answer to the question, “How can I quit smoking without resorting to using nicotine (and other stop-smoking drugs) and without risking further negative health consequences?”
Brain Neurotransmitters
Our brain cells, or neurons, communicate with each other by means of small molecules, called neurotransmitters, that they manufacture directly from nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. When neurons exchange these molecules with each other, they enable us to stay focused and alert, to be able to deal with stressful situations, and to block out pain, among many other things.
When sufficient amounts of nutrients are available to our brains so they can produce and exchange these chemical neurotransmitters in adequate amounts, we tend to stay on top of things, to remain relaxed and happy, and to get pleasure out of everyday life experiences. However, when our brains don’t have enough of the nutrients they need to produce neurotransmitters in sufficient quantities, we can become irritable, unable to focus, angry, even depressed. If neurotransmitter shortages continue for longer periods of time, we begin looking for ways to deal with them.
Disclaimer Note: The information within this website is intended for educational and informational purposes only. We strongly recommend that you consult with a licensed integrative medical practitioner such as Dr. Gant before acting upon any opinion or recommendation that may be expressed within this website. The statements herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. (FDA) Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
Recovery from substance abuse disorders and addictions is usually referred to as a recovery of mind, body and spirit. This also describes precisely the Integrative Medicine approach to any physical or mental disorder provided by NIHA (National Integrated Health Associates) . Integrative medicine has advanced remarkably in the last few decades but strangely, very few of the powerful and healing integrative medicine methods have been made available to those in recovery from substance and alcohol use disorders.
Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, is one of the most powerful poisons on earth. If by some accident a child should ingest even a small amount of the substance through a nicotine patch, he or she would almost immediately go into convulsions that would in all likelihood be fatal. It’s so toxic that as few as two or three drops of pure nicotine applied directly to the skin of an average person will kill him or her within minutes. In lower doses, nicotine can cause high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat, tremors, convulsions, and central nervous system overstimulation. There is no known antidote for nicotine poisoning.