Bill Wilson and Abram Hoffer connection and B3.
Bill Wilson and Abram Hoffer connection and B3.
However, there is one more very serious under rated component to this story. Bill Wilson and Bob Smith began AA (alcoholic anonymous) in June 10, 1935 and later Bill meet Abram Hoffer authour of many books and publications and in his book on
, in a chance encounter, Bill asked Abbram if there might be something that could help with the on going pain that has resulted from so much damage done to the nervous system by drinking so much alcohol for so long. Bill went onto say that about a third of ex heavy drinkers suffer from this ongoing pain. Abram Hoffer wondered about this. He recommended 3g vitamin C and up to 3g of B3 split into 3 doses after each meal. Bill was grateful and to my knowledge tried it and it alleviated some of the symptoms for himself and most of members that went onto try it for themselves. Bill remained an advocate for nutritional support for ex alcoholics for the rest of his life.
Getting nutritional support after quitting drinking is one thing. At A&E (accident and emergency) it is a well known treatment for acute alcoholics to receive vitamin intervention before they have quit drinking, because of Wernicke encephalopathy, which can kill. This condition is treated with high doses of B1 (Thiamine), and it helps patients with their memories and helps them avoid acute death. What treatments are there for before quitting carbohydrate addiction and what treatments are there for after quitting carbohydrates? Similarly the same can be said for
and before and after caffeine and before and after gluten etc...pain killers...nicotine..etc....
This gave me the idea that my drinking problem was perhaps a combination of micro addictions, that might respond to being individually dealt with and supported with nutritional intervention. It also later became clear that the original drinking problem might have been accelerated because of malnutrition in the first place! I needed to do some experiments on myself and see if my alcohol consumption could be reduced without any real effort apart from mindfulness, nutrition and a clear desire to retire sober and getting off the other micro addictions. Results and actions followed follow.
With hind sight I would have done things differently. However, what I did do, mostly because of panic, is instigate periods of time without alcohol, just like what is suggested by every book that I had read up till then on quitting alcoholism. This abstinence does indeed accelerate the whole process of getting off alcohol, and still remains the one sure fire way to reducing alcohol dependence. I did notice that after a particularly long period of time off alcohol (45 days) that I had a strong desire for something. I was feeling like I needed alcohol. This is what my brain was telling me anyway. I assumed it was the psychological aspect of alcohol addiction, I decided that the pain/uncomfortableness was so bad that I would have a shot of gin! This did not work. Which was a good and a bad thing. The feeling did not go away. It was good because, now I knew I did not have a pure alcohol addiction and it was bad because I still had the uncomfortable feeling and I had gone back to drinking, after all alcohol is a pain killer and it did help, but I could of chose another pain killer right?
Since I had not yet dealt with any of the under lying micro addictions that I may of had or intervened with any nutritional supplementation yet for any of my afflictions it was quite an ordeal and quite a disconcerting feeling. Now that we are talking about supplementation it is important at this stage to mention the astounding discovery made by Abram Hoffer that a significant enough amount of trauma in ones' past life, be it a period of time in ICT/ICU (intensive care trauma unit) or a term in a labour camp or being a POW (prisoner of war) where malnutrition was a normal part of the punishment, can lead to a
written by Andrew W. Saul Ph.D. in his book Doctor Yourself. This discovery he made is backed up by the study that revealed how POWs returning from WW2 (world war two) after being incarcerated for more than a year had different dying rates. Some took nutritional supplementation and lived on average till their early 80s vs the ones that did not take nutritional supplementation upon their return or did not keep it up died at an average age of 65 years old.
I suspect other trauma can be included in this list too. According to
he cites emotional trauma can happen even whilst still in the womb. I agree with this and also I suspect caesarean section and even serious illness in the first two years of life that require antibiotics and I am sure there are more can be considered trauma. So for these people that have an underlying need for extra nutritional support. I would not be surprised to find out that they have difficulty coping with stressful situations and that if they try drinking at any time in their lives, they might find it takes away some of their pain, because alcohol is a physical and emotional pain killer.
This feeling of uncomfortableness could also have been hyper (high) or hypo (low) glycaemia (sugar). Indeed it turned out that I did have pre diabetes, self diagnosed by using a glucose reader and taking my blood fasting sugar levels. My results were as high as 8mmols (millimols) or 120+ dll (decilitres) these readings are high. My readings should have been lower somewhere closer to 100 dl or 5mmols. This cites another good example of where outside conditions are being confused with alcoholism. So our list has grown. It is now pre-diabetes, sugar, caffeine, sulphates SO2 (sulphur dioxide), gluten or finally alcohol, and there is of course the obvious and that is thirst.
So if it turns out you have pre-diabetes than for some, this is incurable, but for others it is possible to reverse this. I managed it, I was one of the lucky ones. I very occasionally get hypoglycaemic due to poor food choices earlier in the day, which sets off a chain reaction and leads to sugar being low. Just in case you are interested this chain of events starts with a meal that is too high in carbs. This results in sugar levels rising temporarily too high followed by a slump in sugar levels. You may ask, but was you not therefore too high in sugar to start with? Fair question. If your sugar levels rise and your pancreas is still working it will pull that sugar level down with insulin thus turning all that sugar to fat and storing it under your skin, but if your pancreas is not working properly than your sugar levels may stay high, which is very dangerous, for that matter the opposite is also not good, sugar levels in your blood stream should also not be too low. At any one time our blood stream can only hold approx a maximum of just 5g of sugar. This is a very tightly controlled mechanism. However, that been said alcohol drinkers are by definition are according the drink aware website
If there are all these other parts to a desire for alcohol that may contribute to alcohol consumption, than what is one to do? In my opinion they all need to be dealt with simultaneously. Slowly convert to a carbohydrate free diet and also only drink pure alcohol with no sugar or sulphates and avoid gluten and other lectins, (ps tequila is a lectin), in it and mix each drink with plenty of water, add some stevia (sugar substitute of your choice) for flavour if you need and only consume alcohol after you have eaten. In fact it could be argued that drinking a short in the evening is better than any amount of sugar. However, one must keep in mind that any alcohol is just refined sugar, that means it sucks nutrients our of our bodies to be consumed. It is a negative food.
Just remember to keep these parts of the equation seperate in your mind. So that if after a drink you are still craving something, first try the healthy options like some dates or figs or dark chocolate, next if this is not cutting the mustard (doing it) for you then you might be facing a sodium dioxide (sulphates) problem. I think this molecule/chemical is very dangerous. I am still working on this problem, so in the short term find something that has sulphates like alcohol free wine or alcohol free cider and include this for the next 20 minutes or so and then see how you feel. The only other thing on the list is gluten. Now gluten is a lectin, so you can choose any other lectin too. White potato is a lectin as are peanuts so keep a bag of peanuts around just in case. If the feeling is really bad, then I would eat it all at once. However, I hear you asking what about the nutritional support and how does that work? By the way nearly all if not all processed foods contain sulphates. Infact the government cite that manufacturers do not even need to put sulphates on the ingredients if it contains less than 10 ppm (parts per million) when 100 ppm if breathed in can kill! This means you could go and grab the meat of a burger thus avoiding gluten or if vegan you could eat a processed snack bar. It is important to get into the habit of taking these seperately so that you can feel the effects if any. However, in a crisis eat anything! I have found that corpious amounts of alcohol free wine that still contain sulphates really take the edge off. So I would start there if I were you. Luckily for me I got of wheat (lectin and gluten) many years ago.
I wish I could say that it is in this crisis moment that vitamins and amino acids work best, but I cannot say that. This is because vitamins and amino acids are like nudging the boat from the side. You are already on a journey and we have mentioned the major players, and that engine is propelling you forward, vitamins and minerals and amino acids can only help with the direction/trajectory. This crisis situation is one of the worst feelings in the world, and we will do almost anything to escape it. However, it is best dealt with by avoiding entering into the state in the first place.
Your question here might be how do we avoid entering into this feverish state in the first place. Well the answer is difficult. The reason it is difficult is because, you may have an emotional dependency, which is only plumeted to via and with the aid of alcohol. Similarly we feel. Some relationships take us somewhere. To feel alive is really important to us. I think I might rather feel alive than healthy. However, I have personally decided to feel alive doing things that are as healthy as I can manage. Sometimes it is still not enough. I live in hope that this multifaceted approach to dealing with life and alcohol will lead to the breakthrough we all deserve.
Just to finish up on the major players here. Finding which of the players are most likely to take away that crisis feeling is a really significant step, and hopefully it is not all of them, but it could be, it was for me, now you have found the status quo with regards your addictions it is now possible to work with vitamins and minerals and amino acids and slowly watch what these major players do with each passing week on the nutritional supplementation.
The most imortant supplement to begin with is vitamin C. Take 1 -2g after each meal or if you are fasting till lunch time or later then it is OK to take vitamin C on an empty stomach just like it is with all the B vitamins too, because they are water soluable. Do not take any mineral supplements on an empty stomach or you might throw up. This vitamin C supplement will make a huge difference to your health and give you a real boost. By the way if you have four small meals then take the vitamin C after every meal still. Because, vitamin C is safe especially if you are not on any medication. However, my research has not found any medications to be adversly affected. However, if one starts to get healthier on vitamin c, then perhaps they can begin to lower their medications from their doctors, so this would need close monitoring by your doctor or health care professional. Also reaching bowel tolerance is just considered that you have now taken the optimal amount, and this could be a personal goal that of reaching bowel tolerance at least once a month.
B1 (thiamine) is the next most important supplement. This is the brains conductor. It will start to repair any structural damage to both the subconscious and the frontal lobes which is where the decision making part of the brain is. So you might start making better choices! It is also what your are given in AE (accident and emergency) after being admitted whist being drunken disorderly and injured. Next is B3 (nicotinamide)(niacin) all the same stuff, these are just different names for the same thing. This somehow made the most difference to Bill the co founder of AA (alcoholic anonymous). He said his CNS (central nervous system) was shot to pieces, after all those years of drinking and he was suffering for it. When Abram Hoffer offered B3 as a supplement Bill tried it and to his amazement it really helped. He went on to recommend it at his AA meetings.
Next is amino acids. N Acetyl carnitine and Tyrosine and N acetyl cystine will help with cravings. Next is magnesium as this will help you to sleep and lack of sleep will be a problem going forward and this will need your constant attention. There is a thing now called
and there are lots of websites that will help here. The reason sleep is important is because, the CNS (central nervous system) will calm down with these B vitamins and magnesium thus taking away a huge amount of agitation that seems to drive us to drink sometimes.
There maybe other deficiencies that one has that are contributing towards a CNS aggitated state or towards a confused state such as choline. Choline is one of the few B vitamins (well technically it is not a vitamin or a mineral, but it is closest to a b vitamin in how it behaves), supplements that in trials have helped
This is not a surprise because, one third of our brains dry weight is lecithin and choline is concentrated lecithin. Other supplements that may have significant contributing factors towards your sobriety is B12 and B6 because these form part of the energy equation called
and this is very important if you would like your energy back without drinking. So keep the supplements going, it might be you were drinking to feel alive! So take the supplements that makes one feel alive without drink too, at least in the hope that one can feel alive without drink. PS any success in feeling alive with drink is short lived. Drink will suck out all your remaining vital vitamins and leave you for the gutter or the dogs in the end in my experience and opinion.
I have found with these supplements and the occasional abstinence from drinking alcohol that my happiness without alcohol is increasing and my consumption has dropped to one third of what it used to be, but it has taken a couple of years. There is an important psychological component to not drinking too, which is the focus of nearly all the other books I have read on alcolism. Remember most alcoholics are also malnutritioned and have the same disease rates as developing countries where food is lacking with diseases like early death, and heart disease, diabetes and this could be because, alcohol depletes the body of vital nutrients. This food in developing countries is nutrient poor because it is just one crop. People work on these subsistance farms with poor nutrients in the soil and only one crop, therefore, they themselves are malnutritioned. These poor souls have all the diseases of the malnutritioned.
The psychology of addiction in my opinion has a nutritional component too. Emotional stress is just as depleting of nutrients in the body as is alcohol. It is also fair to say that sport or a hard physical job can play a big role in nutrient depletion. If one was to add to this a diet that was devoid of nutrients that would be bad enough, but if the diet actually added more stress on the body in that it stressed the body, like gluten/lectins or too much caffeine or smoking or too much drinking then this could be considered more than a tri-factor of destruction. The secret to making progress is to pick one area for yourself where you are most likely to make the most progress and that offers promise of succeeding and let that area be your peronal area to contribute to the organism as a whole (you) in question, instead of taking away too much that in the end puts more stress on the body. If the psychological is easier to fix than that is great, if the diet is easiest to fix than that is great, or if taking a bunch of supplements is easiest, that is great, or if quitting smoking is the easiest thing to do, that is fine, or if changing jobs or taking a break from work is an option than that is great. It is just important to realise that the body can almost always heal itself if given enough opportunity and rest.
Now of course if you are thinking
I am not sure if I can or want to change now so as to improve my future self or my future selves lives,
then I would recommend listening to
and buy
or if you have enough money get some counselling from someone that has studied him. The reason for this, is that there is a point of no return. About 5% of the population, get hooked on alcohol, for what ever reason and never return to main stream productive life, ever! According to Dr Petterson.
So is drinking safe? Are there levels of drinking that are safe? This site has the most positive approach to drinking I have seen in a long time. It is not too late to
