Managing Addictions

Addictive behaviours

The whistle stop guide for that whirlwind of a carousel

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samantha prior

What is an addiction?

An addiction is classed as a pattern of behaviour or activities you partake in even though they have a detrimental effect on your life.  

Some examples:

Alcohol

Promiscuity  

Smoking

Drugs

Social Media

Online Gaming

Potential factor for repeated negative behaviour

• Fundamentally your body likes homeostasis. If any of your natural mood boosting chemicals are low or out of kilter the body will encourage behaviours that boost them to help you feel better. It is the body’s logical coping mechanism.  
• Genetics accounts for 40-60% of addictions. Addictions are classed as a chronic brain disease. GABRG3 gene on chromosome 15 has been linked with alcoholism in families. GABRG3 is involved in GABA movement between neurons. GABA is a brain chemical that gives you a calming effect
• Low levels of good bacteria are found throughout our body. We have more bacteria in our body than we do cells. Our bacteria has a symbiotic relationship with us, what this means is we look after them and they look after us. Part of their role is to make us feel relaxed or calm by producing certain natural neurochemicals ie: bacteria L.Rhamnosis enhances GABA production to calm us in stressful situations[i].
• Reduced white brain matter this is the area where impulse control and learning takes place. The more someone drinks the greater the damage to the frontal lobes.
• Advertisement Your brain processes 400 billion bits of information per second, you only consciously are aware of 2,000 of these, so how much are we absorbing subconsciously from our surroundings?

Neurotransmitters involved in dysregulated/addictive behaviours

Dopamine is your reward - motivating neurotransmitter, it’s that little pat on the back that says ‘good job, shall we do that again’. We naturally release dopamine in response to food or a sexual encounter.  Substance abuse gives an intense surge of dopamine, making it highly rewarding. However, the more unnatural hits you have, the lower your natural dopamine falls and therefore the bigger the chase you have to get for that same dopamine hit! An example being - If you are a smoker, the level of dopamine you will naturally be producing is lower of that to a non-smoker.

GABA  is the calming neurotransmitter of the brain. GABA and adrenaline are supposed to be in balance in the brain. Drinking regularly causes the brain to produce less GABA, because the brain begins to rely on alcohol for part of the calming effect. When you suddenly stop drinking, your brain chemistry is out of balance. You don’t have enough GABA neurotransmitter, and you have a relative excess of adrenaline, which causes all the withdrawal symptoms.

Serotonin your happy chum keeping you in good spirits. As serotonin is released when we eat sugary foods, or carb load, overeating is often linked to depression. We produce between 70 - 90% in our digestive system. This could explain why you get that fluttering feeling when you are super excited about something.

Oxytocin this is your cuddly attachment chemical. It is known as the ‘monogamy hormone’. The more you release when you are with someone through being intimate, the more attached you become to them. Drugs such as MDMA encourage the release of oxytocin to make us feel close to one another.

Below is a table describing the ups and downs of certain neurotransmitters that are involved in negative behaviours. Substances flood the brain with neurotransmitters. When the brain is flooded it becomes less sensitive to the neurotransmitter and therefore needs more to get the same reward.

This is very much a chicken and egg scenario. Did the environment throw everything out of balance or is this genetic. We have many gene mutations but it tends to be environmental factors to them  being switched on or not

Neurotransmitter	Too little	Right balance	Too much
GABA	Anxiety, Low levels can be the trigger or the cause of  addictions depression	Calming effect, reducing fear and anxiety.  No alcohol withdrawal effect	Impaired short term memory, aggressive, poor spatial awareness, unregulated behaviour
Dopamine	Fatigue Depression Forgetful Unable to cope with Stress Low libido Weight gain	reward- motivation, makes you want to re-inact a behaviour as it gives you pleasure and approval.	Impulsive behaviour to achieve instant gratification
Serotonin	Depression Anxiety Obesity Obsessions Alcohol Abuse Disrupted sleep Phobia	happy and positive upbeat feeling	Confused, aggressive
Oxytocin	Irritable Avoids being tactile/intimate Unable to orgasm Crave sugary food Disturbed sleeping patterns	Affectionate Intimate Sexual relationships based on emotion and contact A feel of connection with people Calm Content	Sugary addictions Mechanical rather than emotional connection with sexual interactions Irritable Poor communication Unable to orgasm Anxiety

Lifestyle

Positive Goals Dopamine is hardwired to be released when you do something positive. Make a list of positive goals you would like to achieve ie: learning a new skill, attending workshops/seminars.

It’s all about the P’s Poor Planning equals poor performance. Therefore give yourself step by step guides on your daily plans. A diary I would highly recommend that includes mindfulness:

Trigg won diary of 2018.

Support


Russell brands 12 step guide to recovery

Great listen/read. Pull from it what you will and use what works for you best. Label yourself the best you see respectful to yourself. Sometimes labelling yourself as an addict can be a self-fulfilling or someone elses fulfilling prophecy of you! Be kind to yourself!

Diet Protocol

The dopamine diet – Tom Kerridge

Serotonin boosting foods

Pre and probiotic foods to encourage neurotransmitter synthesis.

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[i]Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain regulates emotional behavior and central GABA receptor expression in a mouse via the vagus nerve.

Bravo JA¹, Forsythe P, Chew MV, Escaravage E, Savignac HM, Dinan TG, Bienenstock J, Cryan JF.

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21876150  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Sep 

20;108(38):16050-5

January Detox Drink

Juicing is a great way to boost the metabolism, support digestion and encourage fat breakdown. After the heavy Christmas season, many of us are trying to shift those additional pounds we enjoyed putting on so much through Christmas treats.

Below is a recipe that you can follow each morning to cleanse the system and boost that weightloss. The ingredients are included to supress the appetite and kick start the digestive system that may have become a little sluggish over the last few weeks.

Juice:

2 carrots

1cm cube of fresh ginger

½ teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

½ a lemon

1/4 of a medium sized pineapple

1 teaspoon of organic burst wheatgrass

2 teaspoons of organic bust spirulina

300 ml of still filtered water

The fat metabolising trick:

After juicing, aim to drink within 15 minutes whilst the digestive properties of the juice are still active.  

Festive Party Season Tips for Evenings out on a Jolly

Ideally I would recommend not drinking this season to keep you in optimum health, but instead, lets keep healthy with the top tip rundown for an enjoyable party season:

Pre- party planning

·         Take a potent probiotic daily to replenish the beneficial bacteria lost from alcohol

·         Take a B complex daily to keep your energy and mood in check

·         Have liver supportive foods in your meals such as beetroot, onion, cruciferous vegetables and onions to support detoxification of toxins through the liver caused by alcohol

On the evening

·         Replenish your electrolytes to keep you hydrated by having coconut water before going to bed  

·         Have beetroot juice before going out to aid the liver

·         Make sure you don’t go out on an empty tummy and add salt to your dish to reduce dehydration

·         Have a glass of water with each drink that you have to keep yourself hydrated

·         Aim to stick to organic red wine which is rich in phytochemicals that are less toxic on the system

Following morning

·         Have a glass of coconut water to replenish some electrolytes lost

·         Have a banana to rebalance your blood sugar levels and also to replenish potassium lost from dehydration

·         Take a B complex to avoid lethargy and to replenish those that are lost

·         Take a liver supportive supplement the following morning to detox the liver

Below are some top ingredients to keep with you and some reasons why they will help your jolly along:

Probiotic

It’s the winter months which can make you more prone to the sniffles and a few other ailments, and we don’t want you missing your party season because you were poorly; therefore it is so important that if you are going to drink, you take a probiotic alongside and this why:

Alcohol leaves the party with the gatecrashers and takes your friends with it

Think about it this way, when you clean your hands with anti-bacterial gel, it contains alcohol to kill all bacteria present. Now, think about when you drink alcohol you are essentially doing the same, it’s a bit like paint stripper on your digestive tract wiping out good aswell as bad bacteria. 

B complex

Alcohol can exhaust your body in a number of ways leaving you feeling lethargic with alcohol blues, therefore it is important to replenish to keep you lifted and not wasting the following day

Beeing busy bees should not be flat-lined the following day  

Alcohol when it depletes your beneficial bacteria also has an impact on the b vitamins that they produce. Your B vitamins are your go getters that feel you with energy and support the production of your happy brain chemicals to keep you feeling alert and cheery

Electrolytes

You wake up the following morning and you are feeling a bit dehydrated.  In the evening you may have noticed that you were constantly noticing you needed to visit the rest room, this causes a loss of many minerals that aid water balancing in the body.  The minerals to consider in this situation is calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. 

Here you go, all prepared for your jolly season….enjoy!

Sober October

So tomorrow many people have signed upto the challenge of an alcohol free month with Macmillan Cancer.

Great benefits to sober October

·         Giving your body a nice well earned break before the Christmas season begins

·         Feeling smug when everyone has a hangover and you feel on good form

·         Getting back into a fitness regime, you can become more than a ‘gym member’

·         Spending time doing old hobbies and new

·         You are setting a new routine,  who knows it may stick after October

·         Extra spending money for December shopping and events

Getting into good health

·         Think about when you use antibacterial gel on your hands, it is made from alcohol to remove any signs of bacteria! Exactly the same happens when you drink alcohol you end up stripping your gut of beneficial bacteria that can leave you feeling ‘alcohol blues’ and lower your metabolism meaning weight gain is easier.  During your detox include probiotics from live yoghurt, prebiotic foods such as banana and onion and take a potent good probiotic.

·         Treat yourself to a massage preferably a lymphatic massage to breakdown any toxins in the body, make sure you have plenty of water to drink after a massage as the release of toxins into the system can make you feel a bit queasy

·         Have plenty of liver supportive foods daily in your diet such as beetroot, artichoke, onion and salmon to really help remove toxins from the system.  You could even think about doing a 9 Day Detox to get you into

·         Have a challenge, like a project that you want to have completed at the end of the month so that you have a distraction from social drinking activities, this could be a night class or a project that you schedule in at home.  This can be really rewarding and could be the start of you doing hobbies you have not done in a while.

 

·         When you have friends around, you can get non-alcoholic champagne from Waitrose if you don’t want to have obvious soft drinks. However, this is a great time to experiment with mocktails. Invite your friends round and see who can be the most creative. Go sober have some great recipes

First recipe of October

It is predicted to snow in October so if it does begin to get chilly, I have come up with a nice alcohol free mulled wine for you to try…Enjoy

Part 2 of your detox

If you are finding it difficult to stick to the detox, and finding the weightloss is now having a plateau effect there are a few suggestions today to help you keep motivated and to change things up a bit.

Phosphatidylserine is rich mainly in organ foods (i.e. heart, kidney, liver) but can also be found in meat and fish. The phospholipid helps support metabolism by blunting the stress hormone cortisol and generally improving mood. Cortisol levels are increased when stressed, high levels can cause insomnia which affects metabolism and cortisol also encourages fat to be deposited around the stomach area.  

Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that has a supportive role on the liver to encourage weightloss, taking vitamin C encourages anything between 10-30% improved energy output when exercising and also encourages detoxification and breakdown of fat in the system.  To get a high amount of vitamin C in the diet can be difficult therefore supplementing with a powder, providing anything between 1-grams of ascorbate, can be a good idea to boost these levels.  Living or working in a city makes the requirements for Vitamin C higher as pollution causes your body to use Vitamin C rapidly as an antioxidant to protect the body’s cells from pollutant damage.

Tumeric contains a phytochemical called curcumin which gives it the yellow colour. Turmeric can be an added ingredient to add to dishes to provide flavour and to give your liver a gentle boost. This helps to detoxify the system and support the metabolism of fat in through the digestive system.

Raspberry ketones are found naturally in raspberries, ketones are also found in cranberries and blackberries.  Try to include these foods in your breakfast as they inhibit fat storage by encouraging fat breakdown.

Weight bearing Exercise encourages circulation which will support the removal of toxins from the body.  Using weights can be really effective in improving the muscle to fat ratio. Even slim people can have higher levels of fat on the body than muscle and the problem with this is that fat is where toxins are stored.  Therefore, by doing some exercise you are already affectively cleansing the body of harmful aging substance.

January Detox

As the festive period comes to a close lots of us feel that a little detox is the way to get back into shape. So try these tips and tricks for a New Year, New You!

New Year, New You

January Detox

You may feel a little fatigued from late nights and plenty of indulgence. A lot of us will feel that a detox is what we now need to do to get back into shape, to feel refreshed and back to our lively selves. Here are a few tips to help you kick start your health kick.

Detox the liver
N-acetyl cysteine is a natural amino acid found in protein rich foods. The amino acid is really supportive to the liver by aiding detoxification of nicotine and other chemicals that may have built up during the Christmas party season.

Cleansing
Sea Plasma is a green food that is very gentle to the system. The food is nutrient dense and gently stimulates the system to eliminate toxins from your lymphatic system which can be cleansing and anti-aging.

Support digestion
Digestive enzymes are naturally found in raw foods. It is a good idea to have foods that contain natural digestive enzymes daily to support the digestion of foods and to support the immune system. However, as well as having raw foods such as salads, taking supplements that contain natural digestive enzymes can give some additional support.

Building muscle and healing health issues caused by alcohol
Glutamine helps to encourage a good level of muscle on the body and supports healing of the digestive tract. Healing of areas such as the digestive tract can be a good idea after the festivities as alcohol can cause distress to the digestive lining by puncturing holes in it.

Helping with nausea caused by a detox
Ginger helps protect the liver and supports stomach and gastrointestinal activity which can reduce any possible spasms, encourage detoxification and reduce nausea that may be caused by the removal and breakdown of toxins.

Reducing constipation and toxic build up
Colonic Hydrotherapy aids the removal of toxic waste that may have built up within the colon over a long period of time. By having a colonic you naturally encourage the muscles to stimulate movement to push toxins out of the system. This can be a great way to reduce bloating as well as being cleansing.

Removing toxins that may have accumulated in fat cells
Deep tissue massage can help to relax the mind, reduce bloating and water retention and also stimulates the lymphatic system to remove any unwanted toxins from the body.

Make sure that after the massage you have plenty of water to reduce the risk of headaches caused by toxins being broken down.

Enjoy a healthy start to your year

Beat the hangover

Beat the  hangover...

We would like to share some ‘Pretox’ secrets to help you beat the hangover…so if you do get a little carried away you won’t feel so bad the next day.

Choose your evening meal wisely

Try to include beetroot and artichokes in your evening meal before you get merry as these foods encourage bile flow through the liver. This is almost a kick start to the liver function detoxifying the alcohol you are going to drink.

The hangover breakfast

Poached eggs, onions and beans contain an amino acid; cysteine and sulphur that support liver pathways and help breakdown a toxin called acetaldehyde which is produced by alcohol in the liver and is more toxic than alcohol itself!

Symptoms of high levels of this toxin are rosy cheeks, increased heart rate, sweating and feeling sick so make sure you have these items ready to cook in the morning.

Hydrate to reduce the headaches

Drinking alcohol switches off the Anti-Diuretic Hormone (ADH) causing you to produce more diluted urine when you are drinking. This causes you to feel dehydrated the following day as it upsets your potassium: sodium and calcium: magnesium levels; these are also known as your electrolytes.

Coconut water is one of the richest sources of electrolytes and therefore it would be a good idea to have stock at hand in the fridge for the morning.

Bicarbonate is not overly pleasant in taste but rebalances the electrolytes (potassium and sodium) so is often used as to help with hangovers.

Natural aspirin

Drinking causes an inflammatory reaction that can cause aches, headaches, nausea and dizziness.

Berries and mushrooms naturally contain Salycillic Acid which is a component of aspirin to reduce aches and pain by reducing inflammation.

Drink organic wine

If you choose to drink alcohol then organic wine is a better choice as this naturally contains antioxidants and fewer toxins than other alcoholic drinks.

Gentle Exercise

Although exercise may be the last thing that you want to do when you are not feeling your best, gentle exercise such as yoga or walking will help stimulate circulation, get your brain functioning and encourage the release of happy endorphins that tend to be low the morning after the night before, also known as the ‘alcohol blues’.

And for those of you who would like to enjoy a non-alcoholic drink this winter why not try to make our non-alcoholic mulled wine by checking out the recipe on our website.

http://nutritionallybalanced.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/remedy-for-common-cough-cold-and-flu.html  

We hope these tips have been useful, enjoy the festivities. 

Tips to beat the hangover!

Weekend has come and gone, you’re walking into the office feeling like a camel has been licking your face and an elephant has been stomping on your head! The thought that is going through your head is ‘I’m never drinking again!’

I would love to say ‘don’t drink’; instead I will suggest drink in moderation and follow the 10 tips below.

Tips

1.       Milk thistle before and after going out strengthens and rejuvenates the liver to detoxify toxins.

2.       Primrose oil supplemented in the morning may prevent any withdrawal symptoms of depression by stimulating the positive brain chemical; prostaglandin E.

3.       Vegetable juice containing beetroot/celery or make a meal with broccoli, cauliflower and onions.  These foods are liver friendly and encourage the removal of toxins from the cells.

4.       Dandelion tea or coffee would be preferable as they are not dehydrating and cleanse the liver! Do not have coffee to sober up; this will only dehydrate the body causing the alcohol to be more concentrated in the system. 

5.       A good quality red wine is your best option when it comes to health benefits. Red wine contains antioxidant substances polyphenols which are lost in white wine.   

6.       Water (1 liter), sip to rehydrate in the morning to increase toxic elimination.

7.       Chromium supplementation and fruit juice; or fresh fruit with bio-yogurt, muesli and seeds. This will help to re-balance your blood sugar levels.  Lethargy and hangovers are symptoms of low blood sugar.

8.       Vitamin C supplementation to encourage the removal of toxins from the cells.

9.        Run or walk first thing in the morning, it may sound painful, but it will increase your circulation and detoxification process.  

10.   Magnesium supplements is beneficial at reducing headaches by relaxing the muscles for increased blood circulation. 

Note: Consult a health professional before taking any supplements if you are on any forms of medication!