From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
Whether you find yourself craving cigarettes, alcohol, coffee or sugary “treats” or you’re embroiled in an unhealthy relationship with some kind of drug, you might wonder how to change your behavior. Or, if someone close to you is dealing with an addiction, you might be looking for solutions that you could suggest.
Of course, addiction is a massive topic and impossible to summarize in a blog. I’ll give you some mainstream perspectives and then counter that with some actionable steps and therefore hope, for folks struggling with substance abuse.
What Dr. Google or an MD might say about addiction
A Google search brings forth 168 million results on the topic and suggests that there are several definitions of addiction.
- Brain disorder: changes in the brain affect one’s ability to manage reward and motivation and resist urges.
- Physical dependence: when the physical body is accustomed to a substance and has withdrawal symptoms when the substance use is stopped.
- Psychological dependence: this refers to the mental aspect of an addiction to increase pleasure and reduce pain.
- Compulsive behavior: one’s inability to avoid a harmful substance despite knowing its dangers.
- Medical disease: an illness resulting from complex interactions among a person’s life experience, their environment, genetics and brain circuits.
Whatever the definition that’s associated with an individual’s addiction, sources agree that the outcome is compulsive behavior with that substance that has potentially harmful consequences.
What causes addiction
According to Dr. Google there are many potential causes of addiction. Stress, anxiety, depression, peer pressure, a history of sexual or physical assault, and family history of addiction can increase a person’s risk of having addictions.
Perhaps the most pertinent to our discussion is the persistent use of a substance that results in a dependency on that substance because it affects the pleasure centers of the brain giving dopamine hits out like candy. The use of coffee, cigarettes and alcohol are the most common substances that people use persistently to the point of feeling psychological cravings and physical symptoms of withdrawal when they don’t have the substance. A coffee withdrawal headache is a well-known side effect for someone who’s addicted to caffeine. You wake up in the morning with a slight headache and just think that you’re tired and need coffee to get you moving – but the headache is actually caffeine withdrawal, and you feed your addiction by drinking more coffee.
Symptoms associated with addiction
Symptoms of someone with a coffee addiction will be vastly different from someone with an addiction to a narcotic drug, for example, but a compulsive yearning for the substance is a feeling that underlies all addictions. And the stakes are much higher for someone who has a cigarette or alcohol, or narcotic addiction than for someone with a coffee addiction.
An addicted person finds it difficult to go without the substance, feels intense cravings and keeps using the substance despite negative, harmful consequences. Quite simply, it’s the need to have the substance regularly. This calls to mind the intense addiction of a chain smoker who lights a new cigarette from the one they’re finishing.
Dr. Google might suggest medical testing
There are many online tests that you can do to measure the degree to which you might have an addiction to a substance. Most of these yes or no screening tests are geared towards the use of more dangerous substances like alcohol and drugs.
If your doctor suspects you to have a problem with addiction, they may send you to a psychologist or psychiatrist for assessment.
Dr. Google might … I mean, Will, suggest drugs
The most common drug used to address an addiction is nicotine patches for smokers who want to stop smoking. Methadone is commonly used to treat opioid addiction and Naltrexone is used to treat alcohol addiction.
What I say about addiction
I agree that coffee, cigarettes and alcohol are among the most common addictions that people are dealing with. But nowhere did I find anyone in the mainstream talking about sugar addiction.
Sugar is the gateway drug
Addiction specialists talk about marijuana as a “gateway drug”, setting the stage for the use of more harmful drugs and substances. I believe that sugar is THE gateway drug.
Dr. Abram Hoffer, co-founder of orthomolecular medicine with Dr. Linus Pauling, continued practicing medicine into his eighties. Dr. Hoffer was convinced that “Sugar is an addiction far stronger than what we see with heroin. It is the basic addictive substance from which all other addictions flow. Refined sugar and all refined foods such as polished rice, white flour, and the like, are nothing less than legalized poisons.”¹
A 2007 study called “Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward” showed that rats much preferred sugar to cocaine when given the choice.²
Think of the number of grocery store shelves that are dedicated to sugary “foods” and how many of those are targeted to children’s daily meals starting with sugar-laced breakfast cereal.
Young people are growing their bodies and brains and need the best nutrition possible. Unfortunately, their parents let them eat too many ultraprocessed foods, fast foods, soda, and sugar. Such diets can create severe nutrient deficiencies, especially the depletion of zinc, magnesium, and essential fatty acids. Reduced amounts of these nutrients are known to cause mood changes. Also, high sugar intake can deplete vitamin C and B vitamins, necessary for proper mood balance.
These nutrient deficient mood imbalances can set the stage for children and teenagers seeking out sugary comfort food which they keep eating as their body tries to find the minerals they are lacking.
I believe, as mineral deficient young people grow into adulthood, they attempt to correct their mood imbalances with increasingly dangerous substances: coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. And I believe that this trend started with the overuse of sugar.
Supplements to support you with addiction:
The first, and easiest step in dealing with any kind of addiction is to address the deficiencies that every addicted person has. This is also a way to support a loved one who is struggling with an addiction because you are simply offering them nutrients.
Magnesium should be in the picometer, stabilized ionic form. And the dose should be around 600mg per day.This liquid magnesium is diluted in a liter of sea-salted water and sipped throughout the day. Magnesium is necessary for the proper function of 80% of known metabolic functions. And magnesium is necessary for the production of serotonin and dopamine – so why take a toxic substance for a dopamine hit when you can take magnesium. We have had countless customers tell us that they were able to quit their addictive substance when they began taking our formulas.
Vitamin D is a prohormone, which regulates the production of hormones as well aiding the absorption of calcium to protect our bones. Most vitamin D blood tests show that we may need about 5,000iu a day along with a dose of vitamin K2. Remember, magnesium is necessary for the activation of vitamin D.
Vitamin B Complex – a methylated and food-based B complex formula along with two sulfur-based amino acids provides several vitamins that are necessary for adrenal support and detoxification as well as all the critical methylation functions of the body.
Multiple Minerals – picometer, stabilized mineral ions support thyroid hormone production as well as adrenal and sex hormone balance.
I know you’re reading this blog because you’re already tapped into the kind of information I share about illness and disease and their underlying explanations, solutions and interventions. And I know you’re likely frustrated because you’re in possession of this information that could help someone you care about. Please forward this blog to someone you care about who has questions and concerns about their hormones.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
¹Ferrie H. “Sugar: The Universal Epidemiological Poison.” Vitality. Nov. 1999.
²Lenoir M, Serre F, Cantin L, Ahmed SH (2007) Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. PLoS ONE 2(8): e698. Aug 1, 2007.
