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The laws of biochemistry are absolute and unchanging, and we live according to them, whether we know it or not. By following my Power Recovery Program, you'll be getting yourself back in synch with what I refer to as "your billion-year-old biochemistry."

Life is essentially a chemical process. Our biochemistry is the end result of the evolution, over billions of years, of an extraordinarily complex set of chemical interactions. As our knowledge of this biochemistry increases, we're learning how to correct disruptions to it and restore its normal functions without the use of toxic substances, including alcohol and "recreational" and prescription drugs. In the process, we're beginning to understand that biochemistry is the key to health and that restoring normal biochemical functions is the key to eliminating disease and disease-like conditions. We're also learning that the best way to restore our health is by providing our bodies with the natural nutrients they need. As we've seen, the physiological basis of addictions rests in nutritional deficiencies that prevent our brains from functioning normally.

Tell Me More About the Power Recovery Program

Let's take a look at the components of my plan. The Power Recovery Program has three stages:

1. Quick-Start: Reduce or eliminate your drug and alcohol cravings within twenty-four to seventy-two hours. The first stage of the Power Recovery Program is called Quick-Start. It enables you, through simple questionnaires, to identify specific nutrient deficiencies that are the true causes of your chemical dependence. It then provides you with a program of nutritional supplements that will raise the levels of those nutrients in your body and quickly enable your brain to resume producing neurotrans- mitters more normally. The most dramatic effect of the Quick-Start stage is that your drug or alcohol cravings can be significantly reduced or even eliminated very quickly, usually in one to three days, enabling you to concentrate on the other aspects of your long-term recovery.

2. Detoxification: Cleanse your body of toxins. The Detoxification stage of the Power Recovery Program works to rid your body of all types of toxins, not just those resulting from drug use. Toxic substances have accumulated in your body as a result of substance abuse, but you may also have high levels of toxins in your body as a result of environmental pollution and pesticides and chemical additives in the food you eat. In fact, high levels of toxins from these and other sources often cause biochemical imbalances in the first place, by damaging our digestive tracts or by interfering with our cellular biochemistry. In addition, many alcohol and drug users have poor eating habits; their diets are often unbalanced, and they tend to eat excessive quantities of sugar and other refined carbohydrates. Over time this can cause disruptions in brain chemistry that lead to or exacerbate drug cravings. In Stage Two you will begin a second regimen of nutritional supplements that will help you cleanse your system of toxins.

3. Long-Term Biochemical Rebalancing: Correct secondary biochemical imbalances that have resulted from your drug use. This stage of my program enables you to deal, not just with the small group of nutrients that is disrupting your brain chemistry, but with other secondary nutritional imbalances that, if left uncorrected, might eventually result in a return of your substance cravings.

Tags: Addictions

About the Author

CHARLES GANT, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the American Academy of Psychiatrists in Addiction and Alcoholism, served as medical director for the Tully Hill Hospital, a drug rehabilitation facility in Syracuse, NY. He is now in private practice and lectures widely on biomolecular medicine and his substance abuse therapies.