There is a Medicine of Hope

 

Do you fit the profile?

Esther W. was embarrassed the first time she came into my office. "I just can't seem to quit smoking," she said. "I know there are so many people out there with worse problems than I have, I'm almost ashamed to tell you about mine." Esther had started smoking when she was a junior in high school, to be "one of the crowd," as she put it. That was fifteen years ago. She knew about the dangers: "I can read the warnings on the packs. I just can't make myself take them seriously," she said.

It had gotten to the point where she worried that she was harming the health of the other members of her family, particularly her two small children. She also confessed that she felt as if her husband, who had quit smoking the year before, no longer found her as attractive as he once had and that he'd hinted that her smoking was the primary reason. Esther had tried hypnosis, acupuncture, and a stop-smoking program sponsored by the American Lung Association. I could feel her frustration as she said, "I guess the straw that broke the camel's back for me was when our family doctor prescribed a nicotine patch for me. Isn't nicotine what I'm addicted to? How am I supposed to quit using an addictive substance when all my doctor does is give me a prescription for the same stuff?"

Or perhaps this sounds familiar to you:

Michael M. was eleven years old when his parents first brought him to see me. Within a few minutes of meeting him, I realized Michael was above average in intelligence. He got As and Bs in all of his subjects, but when I asked him about his classes he replied, "Bo-oring."

Michael had been identified as a boy with potential behavioral problems by his third-and fourth-grade teachers. He had gone to a child psychologist once a week for three months in the spring semester of fourth grade, but his unacceptable behavior didn't change. Early in his second semester in fifth grade, Michael's parents were called to a meeting with his teacher and the school psychologist. The teacher reported that Michael's classroom behavior had become "too disruptive." In Michael's teacher's words, "He's constantly fidgeting, and he rarely pays attention in class. He just doesn't seem to have a normal attention span." Both the teacher and the school psychologist recommended that Michael's parents consider "putting him on Ritalin."

His parents took Michael to see their pediatrician, and after a ten-minute consultation, the pediatrician told them that Michael was suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and gave them a prescription for Ritalin for Michael. Michael's classroom behavior got "better"-meaning he didn't fidget as much-and his behavior was deemed less disruptive by his teacher. His grades im proved marginally, but Michael still thought school was not very interesting. Every day, by the time his afternoon dose of Ritalin had worn off early in the evening, Michael became irritable and unable to concentrate or sit still. His parents decided to live with this behavior, considering they were no longer hearing complaints from school.

When school let out for the summer, and his parents tried to taper his Ritalin usage, Michael began to show hostility toward those around him in addition to being irritable and unable to concentrate. The family doctor advised his parents to keep him on the drug. They even saw a column in the local newspaper that recommended keeping kids on Ritalin during summer vacation. It was Michael who finally opened their eyes. "I don't want to take this stuff," he said. "I can't help it if I'm active. It's just me. I don't want to be a Ritalin geek, but I don't like it when I don't take it. I feel horrible."

Or maybe you're closer to this profile:

Jane L. is a twenty-eight-year-old woman who started her own public relations business and was working very hard to build it up. "It's just me and a secretary right now, but it's really beginning to grow," she told me proudly. The pride turned to sadness when she began to discuss her drinking problem. She and her husband had separated, then divorced, a little over two years ago. To cope with the stress of her divorce and the uncertainty of starting her own business, she began to have a glass or two of wine every night to help herself relax. Within a few months, she was drinking a bottle of wine every evening. She was exhausted every day because she was trying to recover from a hangover while she conducted her business. She started looking forward to weekends, when she could A Revolution in the Treatment of Substance Use Problems "really unwind." Translation: Drink even more heavily.

Jane began going to a therapist to get help coping with the depression she hadn't really been able to break out of since her divorce. After several months of consultations proved largely ineffective, her therapist recommended Prozac, which Jane's physician willingly prescribed. When I first met her, Jane had been taking the drug for five months, during which time she also continued to drink. When the subject of her drinking came up, the therapist at first told her, "You're not psychologically ready to quit using drugs or alcohol." As her drinking worsened, the therapist began to tell her, "You don't want to quit badly enough," and "Once you've worked through your psychological problems, you'll have a much better chance of stopping your drinking."

These are three of the thousands of patients I've helped to recover successfully from nicotine, alcohol, stimulant, opiate, and prescription drug problems. In this book, I'll tell you more about the specifics of their treatments and show you the step-by-step program that enabled them to end their substance use. Let me start by pointing out several things about these people that virtually all of my patients have in common.

First, they are all good people who began to use addictive substances for what seemed like justifiable reasons and who found that their substance use was causing problems. The message here is that you don't have to be an "addict" to have a problem with addictive substances.

Second, they had all received counseling or treatment from traditional sources, such as psychotherapists, school psychologists, and family physicians. Third, their treatment strategies had them using potentially addictive mood-altering substances, including nicotine, Prozac, and Ritalin. In each case, the substances were supposed to help them overcome their primary problems. Finally, they were unable to find solutions to their problems through traditional methods.

These brief case histories highlight two important tendencies. The first is the consistent failure of traditional approaches in treating substance use problems. The second is the growing tendency among physicians to put their patients at risk by prescribing potentially addictive mood-altering substances, substances that at best temporarily mask behavioral and substance use problems. At worst, the patients whom these prescription drugs are supposed to help actually become addicted to the substances themselves. These trends have led many people to question whether traditional approaches really work. The answer is not just a simple yes or no.

There's no doubt that traditional drug and alcohol treatment strategies used by most physicians and in most drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities have enjoyed some success. On average, around 25 percent of the people who use these traditional methods do recover. But there's a catch: Approximately 20 percent of all substance abusers recover with no treatment at all. In any case, if you have a substance problem, your chance of recovery through traditional methods is about one in four, and I think those are lousy odds. Whether it's your therapist, your M.D., or your AA sponsor, he or she is in effect saying to you, "Do it my way. I'll help you recover." What they're not saying is that you may recover if you're the lucky one in four patients. I think you deserve better.

I've spent the past twenty-five years treating compulsive substance users, from smokers to alcoholic and drug-dependent people. I became frustrated very early by the obvious inadequacies of traditional methods used by most of the addictions treatment community, and this frustration led me to begin closely following the exciting new scientific research in the field of biochemistry. It is A Revolution in the Treatment of Substance Use Problems this research-virtually ignored by most addictions treatment professionals-that has become the basis for my revolutionary new substance abuse treatment strategy, the Power Recovery Program. This program takes full advantage of what the research has taught us, and it has consistently achieved outstanding recovery rates.

The proof of this is in the results. While I was Medical Director of the Tully Hill Hospital, a fifty-six-bed, JCAH-approved (Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospitals) drug and alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation facility near Syracuse, New York, I developed a treatment program that incorporated totally natural nutritional supplements (including nutrients such as amino acids, vitamins, and minerals) into the overall treatment plans for thousands of patients. This nutritional supplementation protocol was based on the revolutionary new discoveries in biochemistry to which I've referred. According to a clinical outcome study conducted by New Standards, Inc., an independent research group that assesses drug and alcohol recovery results, more than 80 percent of the patients who followed through with the nutritional protocols I implemented remained alcohol-and drug-free two years after completing their treatment. That's over three times better than the national average when conventional methods are used. These results suggest that with the Power Recovery Program, the odds are as high as five to one that you will be able to successfully overcome your substance use problem.

The primary reason my patients have been able to achieve such dramatic results using the Power Recovery Program is that I've developed a plan that avoids what I call "the four myths about compulsive substance use." Let me dispel these myths right now.

Myth 1: Compulsive substance use is a sign of lack of will power, or of an underlying moral or spiritual problem.

Myth 2: Drugs and alcohol are the causes of substance abuse.

Myth 3: Chronic substance users are "victims" of a disease that can be treated as we treat other diseases: with prescription drugs.

Myth 4: Once you've successfully stopped using drugs or alcohol, you have to engage in a constant struggle not to relapse.

None of these myths is true, but most physicians and counselors specializing in alcohol and drug rehabilitation will tell you that they are. They've become the cornerstone beliefs of almost all traditional approaches. In fact they're rationalizations that are often used as excuses for the ineffectiveness of the addictions treatment strategies of the past fifty years or so. Let me put it another way: If you were a doctor and able to cure only about 25 percent of the patients you treated, of course you'd think that the condition you were treating was a very difficult one. And if you started with the idea that the condition you were treating resulted from a moral weakness in your patients, your approach to the condition would reflect that idea. It's called a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you subscribed wholeheartedly, as most doctors do, to the idea that all diseases were caused by outside agents such as germs, and that by taking medications to control these agents you could control disease, it would be a small jump to call substance problems "diseases" caused by nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs, and to attempt to treat A Revolution in the Treatment of Substance Use Problems them with prescription drugs, as you treated other diseases.

Clearly, traditional approaches are producing unacceptable recovery rates in large part because they're based on incorrect assumptions about the nature of substance problems. I've been able to avoid these pitfalls with the Power Recovery Program because I've translated recent biochemical research into a revolutionary approach that treats substance problems where they really happen: at the cellular and molecular levels.

Let me give you some background. Every one of the tens of trillions of cells in our bodies functions according to an ancient and complex set of biochemical laws that have been evolving for billions of years. Most of these cells have become highly specialized, performing one or a small number of very specific tasks. Within each individual cell in our bodies, millions of chemical reactions occur every second. Each of these reactions requires a specific combination of nutrients, in precisely the right amount, in order to take place. If we're not getting the nutrients we need, we may not be supplying our cells with the raw materials they need to carry out their complex chemistry. This can result in a condition of biochemical imbalance, and it can cause our physical and mental health to deteriorate if left uncorrected.

Imbalances are particularly important in the biochemistry of brain cells, or neurons. Neurons produce chemical substances called neurotransmitters. These substances are the brain's messengers, and by exchanging neurotransmitters among themselves, neurons control virtually every aspect of our lives. Several key neurotransmitters, which I'll discuss in more detail in this and following chapters, affect our moods and behavior dramatically. When the brain is unable to produce them in adequate supply, or when toxins (including nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs) compromise their normal activity, or when illness or stress depletes them, we may feel restless, depressed, angry, or agitated, or be unable to focus or concentrate. So common are these feelings among people who abuse drugs and alcohol that, if you have a substance problem, you probably recognize them in yourself. Perhaps you use drugs or alcohol to help overcome them.

Potentially addictive substances, including nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, Prozac, and Valium, to name only a few, function by short-circuiting brain chemistry. Their chemical structures are such that they literally substitute for the neurotransmitters the brain may be unable to produce in adequate amounts. That is, they make us temporarily feel better and change our behavior by "fooling" the brain into thinking it is producing enough of certain neurotransmitters.

Let me give you an example of how this process works. The neurotransmitter dopamine has a powerful effect on the way we feel and behave. When brain cells are producing this neurotransmitter in adequate amounts, we feel focused and alert. Dopamine also enables us to get the fullest enjoyment from pleasurable experiences. Under normal circumstances, our brain cells use nutrients to produce billions of molecules of dopamine every second. This assembly takes place according to a formula that does not vary. If there is a shortage of even one of the necessary nutrients, dopamine cannot be produced in adequate amounts, causing us to have difficulty concentrating, putting us in a bad mood, and inhibiting our ability to enjoy pleasurable activities. A number of drugs, cocaine and Ritalin in particular, act as substitutes for dopamine, temporarily making us feel the way we would feel if our brains were producing dopamine in adequate amounts.

In short, based on my medical practice and the scientific research of the past twenty-five years, I have come to understand that substance problems are the result of biochemical imbalances that disrupt the normal workings of brain cells.

Most addictions treatment professionals believe incorrectly that substance use problems are caused by emotional and psychological factors, even by the substances themselves. In fact, scientific research has shown that substance cravings, mood swings, sleep problems, and dysfunctional behavior are driven by biochemical imbalances that disrupt the production of neurotransmitters. The imbalances result when our brains are unable to get the nutrients they need to produce adequate amounts of neurotransmitters. Through the Power Recovery Program, these imbalances can be corrected and normal neurotransmitter production restored by making sure our brains are supplied with the natural nutrients they need. The key component of the program is taking specific nutritional supplements that provide the brain with the raw materials it needs to rebalance its biochemistry. In other words, the most critical component in recovering from compulsive substance use is rebalancing brain chemistry. Many studies, which are documented in the Bibliography of this book, provide conclusive evidence that this is true, and my experience in successfully treating thousands of patients for the past two decades confirms it.

As you can imagine, in the light of this new knowledge about the biochemistry of addictions, we've had to significantly change what we mean by the word "recovery." Recovery is no longer simply the removal of drug or alcohol residues from the body of a substance user. And it does not consist simply of a psychological or spiritual transformation, as most traditional treatment programs would define it. Recovery is the re-establishment of normal brain chemistry. That chemistry may have become disrupted through the prolonged use of one or more toxic substances, including alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes; by toxins in the environment; by physical or emotional stress; by nutritional deficiencies; or because of a genetic predisposition. The key to recovery is getting your brain chemistry back to normal. The Power Recovery Program shows you how to eliminate the need for drugs and alcohol in your life by using only natural nutrients to rebalance your biochemistry.

The Power Recovery Program has one purpose: to help you, as a recovering substance user, improve your outcome, regardless of what else you do. By "improve your outcome," I mean dramatically increase the odds that you'll be able to successfully recover from your substance problem. You'll notice that I haven't said that you need to abandon any treatment strategy you're using now. If you're following a traditional recovery strategy, you've got about a one-in-four chance of success. If you combine that strategy with the Power Recovery Program, the evidence suggests that you'll increase your chances of recovery to five out of six. Even if you're not currently following a recovery plan, the Power Recovery Program will give you the best chances for complete recovery. The program is unique because you can use it as a standalone strategy, or you can combine it with any other program you're currently following.

The three patients whose case histories I outlined at the beginning of this chapter will give you a good idea of the different ways the Power Recovery Program can work. Both Jane and Esther decided to discontinue the programs they were following. After our first appointment, Esther immediately stopped using her nicotine patch. Within twenty-four hours of beginning the Power Recovery Program, her cravings for cigarettes had completely disappeared. "It took me about two months to become a nonsmoker," she said, "but it only took one day to quit cigarettes." She went on to explain what she meant by "becoming a nonsmoker": "I had to get over all the little habits associated with smoking, like reaching for a cigarette in my purse, or thinking I needed a cigarette after dinner. I didn't crave cigarettes at all. But I had to get over going through the motions of smoking."

Michael's parents' first reaction when they realized their son had a substance problem was one of anger. They felt as if they had been coerced into putting their son on Ritalin without having been given adequate background information. They were unaware, for instance, that Ritalin is classed, along with heroin and cocaine, as one of the most addictive substances known. In fact, Ritalin disrupts brain chemistry in exactly the same way cocaine does. Fortunately, Michael's experience had a very positive resolution. The results of a series of diagnostic tests I prescribed for him showed the real roots of Michael's behavior problems: He had elevated lead levels (heavy metal poisoning) as well as digestive problems that prevented him from absorbing certain nutrients in his food.

His father's response was, "Why didn't our family doctor discover these things?" Unfortunately, the answer is that he didn't look for them. Michael's doctor went for what I call "the ten-minute solution." He did a cursory examination, then prescribed Ritalin. It's modern medicine's equivalent of the Old West gunslinger's creed: "Prescribe first, ask questions later." Within two weeks of beginning the regimen of nutritional supplements designed to detoxify his body and restore his impaired digestive function, Michael no longer needed Ritalin, and his behavior had improved remarkably. His mother's comment sums the situation up: "He's actually behaving better now than he did when he was taking Ritalin."

Jane was able to stop drinking almost immediately and taper her Prozac dosage down to nothing within two weeks after she began taking the Power Recovery Program nutrients. Within three weeks, her attitude had brightened significantly. "You know," she said, "my situation hasn't changed that much, but I really feel like I can cope with it now. For the first time in two years, I'm in touch with my feelings and not masking them with alcohol or prescription drugs." Jane began to see another therapist who understood the benefits of the Power Recovery Program and worked with Jane to help her deal with her true feelings.

I've talked about the low success rates of traditional addictions treatment programs, and now we're in a position to understand why those success rates are low. To put it simply, none of the traditional strategies takes into account the physiological basis of substance abuse. While no one denies that there are emotional and psychological components to many, if not most, substance problems, the fact remains that if you ignore the biochemical component of substance use, you can expend tremendous resources on psychological and emotional support and still not get to the primary causes of the substance problem.

The laws of biochemistry are absolute and unchanging, and we live according to them, whether we know it or not. By following my Power Recovery Program, you'll be getting yourself back in synch with what I refer to as "your billion-year-old biochemistry."

Life is essentially a chemical process. Our biochemistry is the end result of the evolution, over billions of years, of an extraordinarily complex set of chemical interactions. As our knowledge of this biochemistry increases, we're learning how to correct disruptions to it and restore its normal functions without the use of toxic substances, including alcohol and "recreational" and prescription drugs. In the process, we're beginning to understand that biochemistry is the key to health and that restoring normal biochemical functions is the key to eliminating disease and disease-like conditions. We're also learning that the best way to restore our health is by providing our bodies with the natural nutrients they need. As we've seen, the physiological basis of addictions rests in nutritional deficiencies that prevent our brains from functioning normally.

Tell Me More About the Power Recovery Program

Let's take a look at the components of my plan. The Power Recovery Program has three stages:

1. Quick-Start: Reduce or eliminate your drug and alcohol cravings within twenty-four to seventy-two hours. The first stage of the Power Recovery Program is called Quick-Start. It enables you, through simple questionnaires, to identify specific nutrient deficiencies that are the true causes of your chemical dependence. It then provides you with a program of nutritional supplements that will raise the levels of those nutrients in your body and quickly enable your brain to resume producing neurotrans- mitters more normally. The most dramatic effect of the Quick-Start stage is that your drug or alcohol cravings can be significantly reduced or even eliminated very quickly, usually in one to three days, enabling you to concentrate on the other aspects of your long-term recovery.

2. Detoxification: Cleanse your body of toxins. The Detoxification stage of the Power Recovery Program works to rid your body of all types of toxins, not just those resulting from drug use. Toxic substances have accumulated in your body as a result of substance abuse, but you may also have high levels of toxins in your body as a result of environmental pollution and pesticides and chemical additives in the food you eat. In fact, high levels of toxins from these and other sources often cause biochemical imbalances in the first place, by damaging our digestive tracts or by interfering with our cellular biochemistry. In addition, many alcohol and drug users have poor eating habits; their diets are often unbalanced, and they tend to eat excessive quantities of sugar and other refined carbohydrates. Over time this can cause disruptions in brain chemistry that lead to or exacerbate drug cravings. In Stage Two you will begin a second regimen of nutritional supplements that will help you cleanse your system of toxins.

3. Long-Term Biochemical Rebalancing: Correct secondary biochemical imbalances that have resulted from your drug use. This stage of my program enables you to deal, not just with the small group of nutrients that is disrupting your brain chemistry, but with other secondary nutritional imbalances that, if left uncorrected, might eventually result in a return of your substance cravings.

If you're like most people, when you hear that there's an addiction recovery program that will reduce substance cravings, detoxify your body, and help heal the physiological damage done by drug and alcohol abuse-and do it all using only natural nutritional supplements-you're probably somewhat skeptical. And you've probably got a lot of questions. I've compiled the questions, along with their answers, that I'm asked most frequently by my patients.

How do I know your program is going to work? Are there any studies that document the success of this approach?

More than five thousand of my patients and others have used my program to support successful recoveries from their alcohol and drug problems. The Bibliography of this book includes a list of books and articles published in peer-reviewed journals that show that nutritional supplementation not only helps in recovery but may be the most important part of any recovery plan. In fact, these studies suggest that the biochemical imbalances that nutritional supplements can correct are, in and of themselves, the direct causes of addiction.

Why hasn't anyone told me about using nutrients to help me overcome my substance problem? Should I tell my doctor or my counselor or my AA sponsor I'm taking these nutrients? Should I continue other treatment programs along with the Power Recovery Program?

While in medical school, your doctor, if his or her experience was like mine, had less than one hour of training on the subject of nutrition. Physicians are taught to give the highest priority to diagnosing and treating acute and life-threatening medical problems. Chronic medical problems, especially those resulting from nutritional and biochemical imbalances, are, by necessity, given lower priority. Unless your doctor has done a great deal of independent study on the subject of nutrition since then, he or she is really not qualified to comment on the nutritional basis of addictions. Couple that with the medical profession's overwhelming bias toward using prescription drugs-which is the preferred and appropriate treatment strategy for acute medical problems-and you'll understand why you've not heard about treating addictions using nutritional supplements. Like your physician, most people in such substance support groups as Alcoholics Anonymous have had no training in nutrition. It's not their fault that they're unable to inform you about this approach to treating addictions. My own case is a good example. Since I received almost no education about nutrition in medical school, I had to do a tremendous amount of independent research to learn about human biochemistry and the ways nutrition affects it. That research has led me to develop the Power Recovery Program. I would encourage you to discuss my Power Recovery Program with your doctor or counselor. I'd especially recommend that you make them aware of the books and articles in the Bibliography, so that they can appreciate the scientific basis of my approach. I also encourage you to continue with any spiritual or psychological programs you're currently pursuing, if you feel they're aiding your recovery. These programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, will give you emotional support while my Power Recovery Program will improve the physiological foundation on which your recovery is based.

My doctor told me I have a genetic predisposition for alcoholism. Can the Power Recovery Program still help me?

The Power Recovery Program is the only kind of recovery program that directly addresses genetic predispositions for chemical dependencies. If you've been told that you have a genetic predisposition for alcoholism or any other chemical dependence, this simply means that you are more genetically vulnerable to specific nutritional deficiencies and that your reactions when you're exposed to certain toxins are more severe than those of most other people. Those who are genetically vulnerable to these conditions must pay closer attention to their nutritional requirements and minimize exposure to toxins such as alcohol and drugs. Where genetic vulnerability is extreme, people must avoid exposure to drugs and alcohol completely.

I've been a smoker and a heavy drinker for twenty-five years. Is it too late to start taking these nutrients?

It's not too late at all. In fact, it's more important than ever. As we age, our ability to ward off injury from toxins in the environment is lessened, and our nutritional requirements increase. These conditions are made worse by nicotine, alcohol, and drug use. Even in long-term substance users, though, biochemical imbalances are correctable by using the nutrients in the Power Recovery Program.

I heard that the Food and Drug Administration had banned some amino acids. Are these nutrients safe?

Only one amino acid, tryptophan, has been banned, and it was banned, not because of any problem with the amino acid itself, but because of contaminants in one batch of tryptophan from a particular manufacturer. Tryptophan is now available by prescription. We eat all the amino acids, including tryptophan, every day as part of our regular diet. Amino acids are in virtually all the foods we consume, and are absolutely necessary nutrients to support life. Amino acids, along with the other nutrients in my Power Recovery Program, are naturally occurring substances that are not only harmless but necessary for good health.

Can I do your program at home, or will I need to check into a hospital?

The Power Recovery Program can be done at home or in the hospital. If you are at risk for severe withdrawal symptoms, you should seek professional help, which might include hospitalization. If you're not at risk for severe withdrawal, you can safely do the Power Recovery Program at home. Whatever your choice, the Power Recovery Program will improve your outcome.

I smoke cigarettes because they help me concentrate. I'm afraid if I stop smoking I won't be able to get my work done.

Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, artificially stimulates receptors for several different neurotransmitters. If you smoke cigarettes, your brain overcompensates for the presence of nicotine by producing less of these neurotransmitters, relying on nicotine to do the job the neurotransmitters are designed to do. The Power Recovery Program resupplies your brain with the nutrients needed to jump-start the production of these neurotransmitters. This means that, instead of relying on cigarettes to help you concentrate, your brain will be able to produce the neurotransmitters that enable you to focus naturally, without nicotine. Not only do most people experience no reduction in their ability to concentrate when they stop using cigarettes with the Power Recovery Program, they find that their ability to concentrate is improved, even without cigarettes.

How will the nutrients make me feel? Will they make me tired? Give me more energy?

It's important to understand that nutrients themselves don't make you feel a certain way. What they do is enable your brain and body chemistry to begin working properly so that you actually experience your own feelings and not feelings that are temporarily and artificially induced by the presence of toxins, such as nicotine, alcohol, and drugs, in your brain, or by the absence of neurotransmitters due to nutritional deficiencies. Our biochemistry did not evolve successfully over billions of years by making us sluggish and depressed. We're designed to be alert, focused, and full of energy. When we get enough of the proper nutrients, our brains and bodies will take care of the rest, making us feel the way nature intended.

How will I know the nutrients are working? Are there tests I should have to determine whether they're working?

First, if the Power Recovery Program is followed correctly, there is almost no way that its nutrients won't work, unless your body is so highly toxified that you're unable to absorb and use them. Most of the nutrients you'll be taking are almost certainly missing or in short supply in your diet. They're especially important in supporting recovery. Everyone responds somewhat differently to the nutrients. You may find that they improve your mood and frame of mind dramatically, or the effects on you may be more subtle. I've known many cases in which the first people to notice the positive differences in the mood and behavior of people using the Power Recovery Program were family and friends. Whether the differences in how you feel are subtle or startling, stay with the Power Recovery Program. You can only benefit by it. There are a number of tests that can help you pinpoint your nutritional deficiencies with great accuracy. These tests are discussed in Part III, which deals with long-term biochemical rebalancing.

Can I overdose on any of the Power Recovery Program nutrients or develop a dependence on them? What happens when I quit taking them?

It's virtually impossible to overdose on the Power Recover Program nutrients in the quantities recommended. Since they are nutrients, your body has developed natural ways of getting rid of them if they are present in excessive amounts. As you increase the amount of nutrients you take in, the levels of nutrients in your body increase as you build up reserves of them. These increased levels of nutrients mean that your body can use them when necessary-in times of physical or emotional stress, for instance. Over time, you will be able to reduce the amounts of nutritional supplements you take and still realize the benefits of healthy brain chemistry. Alcohol and drugs are mind-altering toxins that actually deplete the levels of nutrients in your body, which causes you to crave more of them to compensate for decreased nutrient levels. That's why you can become dependent on drugs, and why you can't develop the same kind of dependence on nutrients. If you stop taking the nutritional supplements, your body will go on extracting nutrients from the foods you eat and benefiting from the nutrients that have built up as a result of taking supplements. Depending on your diet, toxin exposure, stress levels, and genetics, you may eventually deplete your nutrient stores again, if you've stopped taking nutritional supplements. Just resume your Power Recovery Program supplements to correct the condition.

What if I'm allergic to some of the nutrients? Are there any foods I should avoid when I'm taking the nutrients?

The nutrients I recommend for the Power Recovery Program are completely natural and nonallergenic. It is extremely unusual for anyone to be allergic to these nutrients, because they are freer of allergy-causing substances than almost any other food in your regular diet. There are foods that you should avoid, not just while you're doing the Power Recovery Program, but at all times. Primary among these are "junk foods," meaning highly processed foods that are high in sugar and empty carbohydrates and chemical additives and preservatives. (If you do continue eating junk foods and abusing alcohol and drugs, you'll need nutritional supplements more than ever.)

About the Author

CHARLES GANT, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the American Academy of Psychiatrists in Addiction and Alcoholism, served as medical director for the Tully Hill Hospital, a drug rehabilitation facility in Syracuse, NY. He is now in private practice and lectures widely on biomolecular medicine and his substance abuse therapies.

 
 
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