Category Archives: Natural Addiction Treatment Certification

The Neurobiology Of Abuse, Addiction And Chemical Dependency

July 27, 2014

What is neurobiology?

Neurobiology is the study of nervous system cells and their organization into the functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior. Neurobiology is different from neuroscience, since neuroscience is much broader and looks at the study of the nervous system generally. Neurobiology focuses on the study of neurons, which are cells that are specialized to receive, propagate and transmit electrochemical impulses. Scientist have identified that in the human brain alone, there are over hundred billion neurons.

Is there any relationship between Abuse, Addiction and Dependency?

There can actually be argued that all these are related in one way or the other. In this case, the main condition which can be triggered by all the others is addiction. For instance, when a person develops a chemical dependency, it becomes impossible for the person to survive without taking the drug. This makes the person to make the drug part of his/her life. The prolonged usage of this drug will eventually result into addiction of the person by the drug.

On the other hand, looking at what abuse is, it is the usage of drug for a purpose other than the intended use of the substance. It can also be defined as the improper usage of a drug, whereby if it was a prescription drug, the patient uses it the wrong way and not the way the doctor recommended. This may result to drug resistance and thus the person will be required to use higher amount of the same drug if in future it is to produce the equivalent effects as before. This with time results to addiction to the drug and consequently the person will not be able to live without the drug.

How do drugs work in the human brain?

Most addictive drugs work by altering the way the brain works. The effect of the drugs that addicts look for (especially stimulants) occurs by alterations in the brain to trigger pleasure. One drugs get into the brain, they tap into the brain’s communication system. Once they are inside the brain’s communication system, they disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive and process information. The following are the ways through which the drugs work in the brain;

  • Imitation of the natural transmitters – natural transmitters are the chemical messengers in the brain. Due to the similarity in the chemical structure between drugs and these neurotransmitters, the drugs are able to false fully activate the nerve systems and hence make them send abnormal messages through their network.
  • Overstimulation of the reward system – this occurs by flooding the circuit with dopamine., which is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation and general feelings of pleasure in the body. Almost all the drugs abused are able to activate this system, especially the stimulants. This is why the users of such drugs frequently want to use them due to the pleasure they get from the drugs’ use.

How does the process of addiction entail?

Drug addiction is not something that happens overnight. It is a process that relatively takes a long period before a person becomes an addict. This period will though vary from person to the other. The common changes that will occur in the human brain before addiction occurs are discussed below.

  • Brain adaptation – with time, the brain adjusts to the surges in dopamine by decreasing the number of dopamine receptors available. This will reduce the functioning of the reward system circuit. This results to the drug user having now to take higher amounts of the drug substance in order to attain the effect they could easily attain before after just taking a little of the drug substance. This effect is the one termed a tolerance, and the drug user at this stage is said to be tolerant to the drug.
  • Other than the dopamine, there will be other changes in the brain – the prolonged abuse of drug substances lead to damage in the brain chemical system, including glutamate and the neurotransmitter that influences the reward system circuits and also the ability to learn. Impairment in the brain can occur sometimes, especially when the optimal concentration of glutamate is altered by the drug abuse.
  • Trigger of conscious memory systems- the abuse of drugs can trigger the conscious memory systems. From psychology, conditioning is a way of learning. In this case, the environmental cues such as certain people and places may become associated with the drug and hence trigger uncontrollable cravings if the individual is exposed to these cues, even when the drug itself is not available.
  • Addiction – this is actually the step in which almost all the other alterations in the brain leads to. The brain imaging studies of drug addicted persons have indicated that changes in the areas of brain that are critical to judgment, decision making , learning and memory and also behavior control. This seeks to explain why addiction occurs, since these changes are likely what drive the drug abusers to seek out and take drugs compulsively, even when they have negative effects on their bodies.

Finally, I wish to remind you that addiction is curable and you just need to seek the qualified professional to help you out in the recovery process.

Is there any relationship between Abuse, Addiction and Dependency?

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NAD and Addiction Pain Treatment

July 27, 2014

Is NAD The Best Treatment For Pain?

Nicotinamide Adenine DinucleotideIn every treatment, the aim is always to provide healing to the patient within the shortest time possible and at the same time ensuring the medication remain friendly to the patient and doesn’t have harmful side effects. Contrary to this expectation, some of the medications used to solve the patient’s health problems seem to pose some danger to the patient. This danger could be in the form of side effects or addiction.

The problem of side effects has arguably been addressed in many cases and the cases are minimal and if any, they are those unavoidable and can be explained by the opportunity cost laws. To address these medication related problems, ways of proper choice of medication have been sought. One of the problems whose solutions have been sought over time is the medication free from addiction to the patient.

How can pain be cured without addiction?

Pain is normally a complex condition to treat and therefore there are many treatment options to choose from. The bad news though is that some of these (medication) methods have been proven addictive to the patient and at some point if addicted, the patient will not be able to stay without taking these medications.

The best way to safely manage pain is by choosing a method of treatment that will not result to be addictive in the long run. Is there such a method? Yes, there are methods which scientists have proven addiction free. One and of course the most effective in treatment of addiction is the NAD treatment.

What is NAD?

NAD is an abbreviation which stands for Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide. It is a metabolic co-enzyme which occurs in our bodies in two compounds; NAD and NADH. These enzymes are the ones responsible for all the activities in our bodies. NADH is used for improvement in mental clarity, being alert, concentration and memory as well as in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease from a person. This molecule is normally formed from vitamin B3 (niacin).

What is NAD energy deficiency?

Every human body requires energy for survival. This energy doesn’t exist naturally, and thus it must be made available in our bodies by the biochemical processes within our bodies. NAD is a co-enzyme which acts as the power plant in our body and if it is low in our bodies, there will be obviously a metabolic energy deficiency. This metabolic energy deficiency is normally referred to as NAD Energy Deficiency (NED). This deficiency in NAD can result to many diseases related tot it such as: – Chronic fatigue, Depression, stress anxiety and variety of other illnesses. This means that one of the best way of treating pain or chronic fatigue is by raising the number of NAD compounds in the body to ensure that there is no deficiency. This will consequently ensure that there is sufficient supply of metabolic energy required to cure the pain.

Why does NAD treatment not cause addiction?

NADAmong the known medications which cause addiction to the patient in the long run, are the medications which use drugs. NAD treatment enjoys the fact that it doesn’t use drugs in its treatment. This is actually what makes the NAD treatment preferred by many people over many other treatments which makes use of prescription drugs or over the counter drugs to treat pain. Unlike these other treatment methods, NAD is a natural treatment method which uses the principle of body’s ability to heal itself if the necessary conditions are maintained. The condition in this case is by ensuring there is no deficiency in NAD and thus the ensuring all body’s activities are correctly taking place. This is due to enough generation of energy (Metabolic energy) by the NAD co-enzymes.

How safe is NAD treatment?

Many researches have been done on NAD therapy to determine its effectiveness and effect in the treatment. Scientists have found sufficient grounds through these researches to conclude that NAD therapy is very safe for treatment of any human being. An advantage of NAD treatment is that it is a natural energy supplement which also generates cellular energy. This energy may also help you in the following:-

  • It may act as a potent antioxidant and a free radical scavenger since phagocytes normally use NADPH as a source of their energy to destroy pathogens in the body. In this case, it will protect your body from free radicals and to prevent sicknesses and damage. Another important task that NAD plays in your body is that it protects your cells from DNA damage by genotoxic particles.
  • NAD plays a role in enhancing your moods and emotional balances since these co-enzymes are found in the brain. They perform this task through synthesis of the neurotransmitters which are important for maintaining a positive state of the mind.
  • Another benefit that you will get from NAD therapy is that it increases the mental clarity and alertness. Research has shown that brain uses 10times more NAD energy than any other body organ.

Looking at all these benefits and there is no addiction when one uses the NAD TREATMENT FOR PAIN, there is every reason to now conclude that this is the best treatment method for pain.

Is NAD The Best Treatment For Pain?

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NEURAL PROLOTHERAPY

July 26, 2014

NEURAL PROLOTHERAPY CURE FOR PAIN

What is pain?

Pain refers to a natural response by the human body to prevent us from causing more injury on the already injured area. The intensity and persistence of pain gives rise to two types of pains: – one of which is the pain that experience briefly then disappears. An example of this kind of pain is the one we experience when we touch a hot object. This pain disappears after some time. The second time of pain is the one that persists and occasionally this is the kind of pain that takes you to the doctor. It is referred to as chronic pain. This pain is normally termed as neurogenic pain.

NEURAL PROLOTHERAPY

How do we experience pain?

Pain is normally communicated to the brain through our autonomic nervous systems which composes of nerves. These signals are sent to the brain once a given part of the body is injured, saying that it is in pain. The interpretation of this signal takes place in the brain and it then makes us aware of the pain, which prevents us from making more injury to the affected area.

What is neural therapy?

This is a treatment of gentle superficial injections that treats chronic pain and dysfunction through resettlement of autonomic nervous systems (ANS) at the site of pain. This results to normal signaling from the nerves to the tissues and the organs that they control.

The autonomic nervous systems functions without our deliberate in order to control vital activities such as blood circulations, metabolism, body temperatures, heart beats etc. The problem with this system is that it can be disturbed by some negative influences such as pollution, toxicity, noise, stress etc. If this disturbance happens, the autonomic nervous systems will not be able to function normally and hence effects such as chronic pain.

The only solution to this problem is by restoring the system to its functional state. The good news is that researches have proven that neural therapy has the capacity to restore this system so that the autonomic nerves can communicate normally again.

Neural therapy can be used to treat quite a wide variety of conditions. Such conditions which can be addressed by this therapy are the chronic pain. Chronic pain condition can improve significantly even after just one treatment. Some of the conditions which benefit from effectiveness of this treatment are Neuralgia, Sciatica, Neck and back pains. The effectiveness of prolotherapy can be realized when a person is treated with neural therapy prior to or at the same time as the prolotherapy treatment.

Is neural therapy treatment painful?

This treatment uses a very thin needle to inject and thus it is almost painless. The needle which is used to inject this sugar solution under the skin is almost the size of hair. This means you may not even feel it. The advantage of this treatment method when used to treat pain is that it will relief you of pain almost immediately. The relief comes within a few seconds of the injection since the injection focuses on the pain area.

How long does it take me to be pain free?

When subjected to perineural injection therapy, these treatments should give you pain relief anywhere within two hours to two days. In case the pain comes back within one hour after the medication session, it is very likely that the therapy won’t work for you and thus other medication option may need to be considered. The other treatment which will be of help in this case is the Prolotherapy. After every session, you should remain painless for longer and longer periods until the pain doesn’t come back or it may even never come back at all.

NEURAL PROLOTHERAPY

Can I be able to stop my pain medication after this therapy?

Yes. Many of the people who have undergone this therapy have reported to have been on narcotics and nerve pain medicine for long time. At the end of the therapy when the pain has gone, you can actually stop your pain medication. This is one of the reasons why neural therapy makes it possible for you to treat pain while remaining free from addiction. It saves you the addiction which would have resulted from the prolonged use of these pain killing medications which are reported to be among the leading contributors of drug related addictions. It is although advisable that when you are stopping your pain medication you should do it gradually (slowly) to avoid the withdrawal effects which follows abrupt stoppage of taking addictive substance.

Are there any side effects of using NPT?

This therapy doesn’t have many associated side effect, but prolonged soreness at the injection site and temporary bruising may be among the uncommon side effects. Just like with any other injection, NPT injection may pose potential risks of infection, fever, allergy, and sometimes no relief or even worsening of pain however, these are rare cases to be reported and if they occur, NPT may not be the causation.

Are there restrictions in terms of activities that one can do while under this treatment?

When you are under this treatment, we in fact encourage activity. If you remain active, your blood will be flowing well. Exercise helps much when undergoing this treatment. Therefore there are not restrictions on activities when under this medication.

Where do I get this treatment?

You don’t have to be worried about this anymore! The best known doctor who many people recommend when it comes to Prolo Neural Therapy, Dr. Akoury is here for you. Call us today and get your problem addressed.

NEURAL PROLOTHERAPY CURE FOR PAIN

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Understanding Food Addiction

July 25, 2014

Food Addiction: Is it True?

Food AddictionAddiction has been known to emerge as a result of a prolonged habit. This means that addiction doesn’t always have to result from drugs, but it can as well come as a result of behaviors such as shopping, internet, gambling and not forgetting eating. Eating to many of us is an activity that we normally do when it is time for eating or simply when we have to eat. This is sometimes not the case. Especially with fast foods which by nature are palatable and mouth wetting. If a person has access to such foods, he/she may develop a behavior of every time wanting to eat these foods. This is despite the fact that some of these foods may have negative health effects, such as body being overweight. At this point, the person taking the food is considered addicted.

How do you know you are a food addict?

There are common habits which can suggest whether or not you may be suffering from emotional eating and food addiction. You should examine yourself based on these habits and if you identify yourself with one or several of them, you should consider visiting a professional to discuss your eating habit. The following are some of such habits:-

  • The addict may develop fear of food – the person may seem to avoid some foods. These people suffer the views that such foods are harmful and thus avoid them. They will always give excuses for not being able to take the food and sometimes will try to avoid events in which the food is to be eaten.
  • Emotional eating – the people with food addiction will seem to un-necessarily eat a lot of food. This is especially the case when they are stressed, anxious or worried. This habit of overeating leads one to feeling guilty and hence the anxiety about their eating habit makes them to eat even more. This habit of overeating can easily become a viscid downward spiral.
  • Abrupt weight loss or gain – many addicts of food will suffer poor body image and a feeling that they want to lose weight. This weight loss is normally not easy when someone is eating un-healthily. For a food addict to maintain the required diet it is almost impossible and thus an intervention is required for such a person to be helped to recover. This problem can be solved by many of nutritionists and doctors. If you are suffering from food addiction, you should consider visiting a doctor or a nutritionist to get you problem solved.
  • Food addicts may engage in substance abuse – the food addicts frequently engage in abuse of dangerous substances such as laxatives. They also engage in harmful activities such as self-induced vomiting, frequent fasting and excessing exercise.
  • The food addicts may be food possessed – the addicts of food who are food obsessed are normally very easy to be observed. These people will always want to talk about food. They are ever thinking about food, the amount of food they can eat every day, the amount they previously ate and they possess anticipation to eat.

How can food addiction be overcome?

Are you a food addict? Or do you know a person who is a food addict? The knowledge of how addiction can be treated is vital. Unlike the other types of addiction, overcoming the food addiction is not easy. For example when dealing with drug addiction, you will be encouraged to stop taking the drug, but it is impossible to stop taking food. So how can a food addict overcome?

  • You need to reprogram your taste buds – if you are addicted of sugary foods, you need to start reducing the rate at which you take these sugary foods. Try to also avoid adding sugar to the foods that are not supposed to be sweet. Try to slowly reduce taking of sugary foods in the favor of fruits and vegetables. This will restore your sensitivity in the taste buds and reduce craving for the addictive food.

Food Addiction

  • Have a good planning of your meals – avoid just eating what your mind thinks about. It is important to plan your health eating and ensure you eat responsibly, by avoiding overeating. An addict will always rave for a given food, so try to avoid being drawn to taking the unplanned foods.
  • Hunger moderation – another factor that causes people to overeat is hunger. You should learn to moderate your hunger and eat the food amount that is healthy to your body.
  • Understand your weaknesses – as a matter of fact, each person has a given food that he/she cannot turn down. For example, there are some people who cannot go past a place selling ice cream without having to buy. The best way to do away with what you cannot resist is to avoid it. Avoid the places which will tempt you with these foods.
  • Get yourself healthy ways of cope – when you stop taking some foods, there will be left a void, for example the time used to walk looking for cookies. Ensure you do a healthy activity during this time, for instance hiking or going out with friends.
  • If the therapeutic treatment methods do not work to help you out of the food addiction, opt the medical treatment. Visit your doctor and be open to discuss the problem with him/her.

Food Addiction: Is it True?

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PAIN AND ADDICTION: COMMON THREADS

July 22, 2014

Pain is a complex disease whose treatment needs to be keenly addressed. There are variety of medication options which treat pain and from which the patient can choose from. When the pain being experienced by the patient results to be chronic, this becomes a concern which is common with chronic pain patients

Is there any relation between pain and addiction?

pain and addictionWe can actually argue that there is a relationship between pain and addiction. Where does this relationship originate? The relationship of addiction and pain result from the choice that the chronic pain patient chooses when trying to treat this pain. While some methods are proven to cure pain without leaving behind addiction to the patient, some of the medications for pain (Especially prescription drugs like opioids) are known to cause addiction especially when abused. The addiction of such drugs results from their ability to cure pain. These drugs are administered to the patient and initially they tend to treat pain. Over time the body tends to be resistant to these drugs and hence they must be taken with higher frequency and sometimes in higher quantity. If such a drug continues to be taken, it eventually reaches a point when the patient cannot do without it, since the pain temporarily stops when the drug is taken and returns after a short while. This forces the person to be a regular taker of the drug, not necessarily willing but forced by pain experienced. This is the point at which we consider the person to be an addict of the pain killing drug.

Addiction and pain related terminologies

There are terminologies which are related to pain and addiction which results from pain medication. These terms are described below:-

  • Dependence – this refers the situation which results when the patient is exposed to a given medication for an extended period of time. If the medication for example was indented to treat pain, at this stage the person will be living by the medication, which means the pain will only stop when the person takes the medication. This patient is considered to be dependent on the medication and without which the patient will suffer pains. This condition may look like addiction but actually it isn’t.
  • Tolerance – this is yet another term related to pain and addiction. This condition develops over time, and necessitates having to use more of the medication to receive the same effect. This condition is reached when the patient’s body has gotten used to the pain killing medication and the small medication which used to kill the pain no longer has that ability over the body to treat the pain and thus the dose has to be increased to achieve the desired effect (treatment). This condition also should not be seen as addiction because actually it isn’t.
  • Withdrawal – this refers to the symptoms that occur if the medication is suddenly stopped. This is because the cell receptors throughout the body that are used to medication are without it. This is normally the case when the patient is taking significant amounts of opioids and suddenly stops taking them. These symptoms may be severe and even make the patient feel sicker than before. This sometimes may make the patient want to keep on taking them since it is better when taking them than when withdrawn. Some of these symptoms may come in the form of:- tremor, diarrhea, sweating, nausea, vomiting, gastric upset, stress, depression etc. This condition if not given a close look may seem to look like addiction to a given substance, but in the actual sense it isn’t. Withdrawal is though closely related to addiction and sometimes it may be very difficult to differentiate between them. This makes the withdrawal effects to be termed as addiction in most cases.
  • Addiction – this is a situation of psychological need to have a drug or behavior. Some of the common addiction types are the addiction from drugs, internet, eating, shopping, gambling etc. this is the biggest of all the others we have mentioned above (Tolerance, withdrawal and dependence). When a person is addicted by a pain killing drug like opioids, the patient may develop dependence and tolerance to the drug and incase he/she tries to stop taking the drug suddenly, there may be withdrawal which you must go through. This is a both psychological and emotional effect of not having the pain killing drug, which in this case is very difficult for the addict to stop.

pain and addiction

it is very advisable that, if you feel you are being addicted to the pain killing drug that you have been using in the past, be honest to your doctor and speak with your doctor about it. This will ensure that the doctor evaluates your condition in time and consequently help you out by changing the medication while it is not too late.

What causes opioid addiction?

Opioids are prescription medication which is used to treat pain. Sometimes the patient may not use the medication as directed by the physician. This is one of the leading causes of addiction since opioids aree highly addictive. When it becomes an habit for the patient to use opioids, this definitely results into addiction.

Is there any relation between pain and addiction?

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