How to Treat Alcoholism with Niacin
My video is about the treatment of alcoholism with niacin. This is the first video in a series I’m doing called “Nutrition & Alcoholism” where I focus on different nutritional steps that helped me cure my addiction and hopefully it can help others.
I was an alcoholic for years, but I changed when I began seeing alcoholism from a nutritional viewpoint. It took years of research–of trial and error–but I cured myself of this addiction through taking the right supplements and focusing on healing my entire body through nutrition.
Alcoholism is a poison on every single system of the human body. It effects the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas, the skin, the brain–so since it’s creates such an onslaught on the body it only makes sense that the only way you can cure it is by healing the entire body.
One of the first things that gave me hope that I could change was niacin. Niacin exerts a number of powerful benefits on the body and mind all of which can be beneficial to alcoholics (and anyone). It’s an anxyolitc (meaning that it relieves anxiety). It works on the benzodiazepine receptors (the same ones that Valium and Xanax work on). It also helps relieve depression and it aids in detox just to name a few.
So many people are on some sort of medication for depression these days and I started thinking about it–what’s with the explosion of depression in this country? Mental health issues didn’t seem to be so ubiquitous a hundred years ago. And I think I came up with an answer (it’s not a shock that it all comes down to money).
Niacin is added to food (bread, grains, etc) because as a population we don’t readily get niacin from our modern American diet. However, there’s two forms of niacin–nicotinic acid and niacinamide–and niacinamide is the form that’s added to food because it’s cheaper.
Niacin is critical for the formation of serotonin, the feel good neurotransmitter. It goes like this–the amino acid tryptophan is used to make niacin and serotonin and niacin production gets priority over serotonin. When the body senses that there isn’t enough niacin it will take the raw materials it would use to make serotonin to keep making niacin.
Here’s the rub: niacinamide doesn’t shut off the niacin pathway like the more expensive nicotinic acid, so the body constantly thinks that there isn’t enough niacin and it redirects its supply of tryptophan from serotonin production to keep making niacin.
The less expensive niacinamide keeps the population from developing the more obvious diseases associated with niacin deficiency like pellagra, but at a cost to mental health–leading to a whole host of problems ranging from depression to schizophrenia to alcohol dependency.
Now, I feel like it is my mission to share what I’ve learned with the world and hopefully help others suffering. Plus, I love all things nutrition. I’d be happy to answer any questions or comments.
———————————————————————————-
Mi video es sobre el tratamiento del alcoholismo con niacina. Este es el primer vídeo de una serie que estoy haciendo “Nutrición y alcoholismo” donde me centraré en nutrición diferentes pasos que me han ayudado a curar mi adicción y esperamos que pueda ayudar a los demás.
Yo era alcohólico durante años, pero he cambiado cuando me comenzó a ver el alcoholismo de vista nutricional. Tuvieron que pasar años de investigaciones, de ensayo y error, pero yo ME HE curado de la adicción a través de la adopción el derecho suplementos curación y centrándose en todo mi cuerpo por medio de la nutrición.
El alcoholismo es un veneno en cada sistema del cuerpo humano. Efectos en el hígado, los riñones, el páncreas, la piel, el cerebro, de manera que se crea tal ataque en el cuerpo que sólo tiene sentido que la única manera en que puede curarla es curación por todo el cuerpo.
Una de las primeras cosas que me dio esperanza de que se pudiera cambiar la niacina. La niacina ejerce un número de ventajas sobre el cuerpo y la mente de todo lo que puede ser beneficioso para los alcohólicos (y nadie). Se trata de un anxyolitc (es decir, que se alivia ansiedad). Funciona en los receptores benzodiacepínicos (las mismas que Valium y Xanax trabajo). También ayuda a aliviar la depresión y sida en desintoxicación, sólo para nombrar unos pocos.