KateC,
In July 2007, Dr. Julian Whitaker had a very interesting interview about alcoholism with Joan Mathews-Larson, Ph.D., author of “Seven Weeks To Sobriety”.
She runs the ONLY alcohol recovery center in the country, which is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she treats alcoholics with large doses of nutritional supplements—large doses of vitamins.
She started the center in 1980 after her 17-year-old son, who was an alcoholic, committed suicide while he was sober.
Dr. Whitaker told how back in the 1950’s, Dr. Roger Williams offered rats either 100% water or 50% alcohol / 50% water.
Dr. Williams found that when rats were fed their normal rat chow, about 10% became alcoholics, the same as in our culture.
He then reduced vitamins and minerals in their diet, and nearly all the rats became alcoholics.
However, when he gave them high doses of vitamins and minerals, all of the rats stopped drinking alcohol.
Joan Mathews-Larson, Ph.D. explained that most people see cravings for alcohol as a character weakness, and groups like Alcoholics Anonymous completely ignore the idea that craving for alcohol might be a nutritional deficiency.
She explained that people who crave alcohol are hypoglycemic, and drinking alcohol is a quicker way to raise your blood sugar than even eating a candy bar.
So they are really trying to relieve the low blood sugar.
She said that when they tested alcoholics, they found that ALL of them were hypoglycemic or moving into diabetes.
She then said that when these people drink, their bodies release large amounts of insulin which driving down blood sugar, triggering more drinking.
She also said that most people who crave alcohol have an allergic gut which reduces absorption of vitamins.
She said in the early days of her clinic, they would just huge doses of B-vitamins to patients by injection twice a week, and many people thought that they were getting amphetamines because it gave them their energy back and they felt great.
Dr. Whitaker, who recommends large doses of nutritional supplements to his patients, also said that many of his patients who used to crave alcohol, said that they no longer craved alcohol after they started taking large doses of supplements.
You might consider reading her book.
I have not read her book so I don’t know exactly what she suggests, and I would strongly suggest that anyone interested read the book to learn exactly what she suggests, but until you read the book, you might consider taking a couple capsules of B-100 vitamins, which contain 100% of the RDA of all the B-vitamins, 3 or 4 times per day, and see if this helps.
That is you might try taking 1-2 tablets with breakfast, 1-2 tablets with lunch, 1-2 tablets with dinner and see if this reduces your desire for alcohol.
I would strongly suggest reading her book to find out exactly what she suggests based on her 28 years of experience.
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I have the interview on my iPod, however, unfortunately, they have removed it from Dr. Whitaker’s website.
http://www.healthytalkradio.com/index.cfm/5160?dateStart=2007-07-15
