Pantothenic Acid And Alcoholism

Written By Nutriwonders

CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR CRAVING FOR ALCOHOL? Dr. Roger Williams, the same doctor who discovered one of the most famous B vitamins, pantothenic acid, seems to have proven that you can.

He conducted experiments in which he offered laboratory rats a choice of water or l0% alcohol with water. He observed that when fed normal rat chow, about l0% of the rats chose alcohol and drank excessively. However, he found that by adjusting the vitamins and minerals in the rat chow, he could significantly change the number of "alcoholic" rats. Decreasing nutrients induced alcoholism in almost all of the animals, while increasing nutrients to megadose levels eliminated the urge to drink alcohol in virtually all the animals.

With this research available, why then is alcohol viewed as a mental disorder with treatment focusing on psychological and behavioral techniques? Alcoholics die at a rate three times that of the general population, and almost 25% of treated alcoholics commit suicide. Programs that seek to uncover the emotional problems that drive the alcoholic to drink and emphasize personal responsibility and spiritual guidance have an abysmal success rate. There are no statistics for AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). However, other programs report that only l5% to 25% of alcoholics treated by these techniques remain abstinent after one year. Many of them continue to be plagued by cravings, anxiety and depression.

This last fact is interesting in view of what William Mayer, M.D., former chief of the U.S. Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration says. He says that alcoholism is "a disease...genetically determined...clearly progressive... We can predict its course even though the speed of its course may vary from person to person. It is ultimately fatal. It leads to a predictable physical deterioration and often some mental impairment, and it occurs in people who have no discernible previous psychological or emotional disorders."

WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D. director of the Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis, discovered scores of studies clearly establishing the genetic-nutritional connection and has spent the last 20 years developing, refining and implementing nutritional protocols for treating alcoholism.

IT WORKS! 75% of the Health Recovery Center graduates remain sober one year after treatment. In a follow-up study of 95 graduates published in the International Journal of Biosocial and Medical Research, 74% were still abstinent after 3 1/2 years. The alcohol craving was stopped. The former alcoholics ceased to suffer from depression, anxiety and other unpleasant symptoms most recovering alcoholics experience.

WHY DOES IT WORK? Many alcoholics have a genetic inability to convert essential fatty acids in food to prostaglandin E1 and, as a consequence, are almost always depressed from their teens. In these people, alcohol activates the protaglandin E1 in the brain and dramatically elevates mood. They drink because it's the only thing that makes them feel normal.

Therefore the program includes those nutrients which the body requires for the elevation of mood by stimulating the productions of hormones such as serotonin. The nutrients include Vitamin C, B-complex, Glutamine (an amino acid), tryptophan (an amino acid found in sufficient quantities in many protein powder mixes) which produces serotonin, and essential fatty acids such as gamma-linolenic acid which is found in Evening Primrose Oil, Borage Oil and can be made in the body from Flax-seed oil.

All of these nutrients can easily be found in any health food store or in the vitamin section of your local pharmacy.

Good Health!

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