Once upon a time I drank a fifth and a half of vodka every night, smoked through three
packs of menthol light cigarettes every day and wrestled with addiction to crack and powder cocaine, bingeing, cravings, fearsome mood
swings, a trigger temper and waxing and waning waist sizes.
Mainstream experts peg people like me as having an addictive personality. They recommend a nice anti-depressant to perk me up and perhaps
some Ritalin to rein in my jumpy mind with a mood moderator to back the spike of the Ritalin. They prescribe Atenolol to calm my transient
oddball heartbeat, a little Trazadone to get me to sleep and oh, years of therapy wouldn't hurt either.
Not once did anyone ever consider how the foods I ate as a youngster and adult may have affected me on the deepest level of my body, mind,
heart and soul.
How did we ever make it to this place in time if we, as humans, need all those drugs and counseling to make it through our lives? Did the
vital peoples over the march of time have some secret to their longevity, spirituality, contentment and beauty that we're missing today?
You bet they did.
| The drug and alcohol abuse research literature reveals that addicts have a propensity to involve themselves in
substance abuse rather than using more responsible and healthy coping mechanisms when experiencing anger, frustration,
stress, or anxiety in their daily lives. |
These "primitive" people understood the rhythm of nature and wisdom of the traditional foods they needed to not only survive, but thrive.
Food is energy and life gives life. They knew it and their way of living and their countenance proved it out over millennia.
Often we begin to set our society up for addiction and illness later in life by the foods we eat -- the worst offender being white sugar.
It often leads to "the bigger kick" of cigarettes, drugs and alcohol without the user necessarily knowing why. Aspartame and the 15,000
chemicals in the foods we consume on any given day begin to wreak havoc on our endocrine systems. These chemicals are added to foods with the
explicit intent of making the consumer unable to stop wanting, drinking or eating them. Foods without proper nutrients or with certain
additives shut off the appestat and create bingeing.
| Addiction always brings about changes in the addict’s brain and mind. Some of these transformations
include chemical changes, physiological changes, anatomical changes, and behavioral changes |
There is money to be made off of a chronically sick society. In 2000, Americans spent around 21 billion dollars on OTC meds and 145
billion dollars on prescription meds. We're certainly not getting healthier as we come up on 2010, so these numbers are likely significantly
higher. The pharmaceutical companies are laughing all the way to the bank and many of them are under the same parent company as fast food
makers.
| Chemicals like amyl nitrite and isobutyl nitrite (“poppers”) and nitrous oxide (“whippets”) are often sold at
concerts and dance clubs. They can permanently damage your body and brain. |
Americans spent roughly six billion dollars on fast food in the 70's; today, we're spending close to 150 billion dollars. McDonald's alone
spends around two million dollars a year on advertising. Their goal is to increase their sales by 20% every year. I'd say they're doing a
great job of hitting that goal by all the folks waddling around. The Coca-Cola Company is one of the biggest polluters of water in the world.
Let's not fail to mention what their products do to the pancreases and appestats of all the people they have convinced to buy their products
by their slick advertising propaganda. They've saturated the adult market and are fond of targeting children. To this wellness professional
the impact is clear, but many experts just don't buy that what we eat has that much of an effect on our bodies.
| According to U.S. mental health researchers, teenagers who engage in drug abuse (including the abuse of
tobacco or alcohol) and/or sexual intercourse are significantly more likely than youth who abstain from such activities to
become depressed, have suicidal thoughts, and attempt suicide. |
Francis M. Pottenger wrote a book called "Pottenger's Cats". He carefully documented over a period of 40 to 50 years what happened to cats
as he fed one group raw, wholesome foods felines ought to eat vs. canned milk, dry food and other highly processed foods. By the second
generation, the teeth in those cats and their bone structures began to change. They were skittish and with the next generation, the defects
were even more profound. They began to sit in the corners of their pens, their coats were dull and they couldn't land on their feet as their
properly fed "study buddies" did. By the fourth or fifth generation, the junk food cats had died out.
| Is drug addiction a disease? Whether it is or it isn't does not diminish the fact that drug addiction
directly or indirectly leads to a host of health, financial, relationship, employment problems that eventually destroy the
addict and in many respects destroy the addict's family and his or her relationship with relatives, neighbors, co-workers,
and friends. If it functions like a disease, gets treated like a disease, and prematurely kills and destroys people like a
disease, chances are fairly certain that it is a disease. |
Our children are coming up on the second and third generation of being brought up on fast food, laden with sugar and additives. Of course,
we're not cats but the implications are chilling.
Type 2 Diabetes was once reserved for adults in their late 40's, hence Adult Onset Diabetes. Now it's showing up in 6 year olds with the
new improved name of Type 2 Diabetes. By the year 2010, estimates are that 43% of children born in that year will be diabetic. The impact on
our medical system will likely break it, never mind how well these junk food junkie kids will fare emotionally. The levels of addiction to
food or other poisons of choice will also increase significantly.
| Crack is a smokable form of cocaine that has been chemically altered. Cocaine and crack are highly addictive.
This addiction can erode physical and mental health and can become so strong that these drugs dominate all aspects of an
addict's life. |
And what is the allopathic or naturopathic answer? Find a drug or herb to curb the symptoms of chronic disease that are directly related
to what is going into our mouths. These medications or herbs merely treat symptoms brought on by ingesting foods that have no nutritional
value whatsoever and, in fact, add to the slow demise of our increasingly sick society.
What keeps kids off sugar and adults off pills and alcohol is learning to eat foods the way we did thousands of years ago, which is not,
interestingly enough, low fat, high carb. How much have we evolved over 10,000 years? Not one iota, yet we're putting "foods" in these
wonderful mechanisms called our bodies that can't be utilized or coped with. "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A. Price ought
to be required reading for anyone in the health/fitness/wellness industry. If you haven't read it, I would challenge you to do so. The
evidence is hard to refute, just by the photos alone. "The Diet Cure" and "The Mood Cure" by Julia Ross, M.D. as well as "Beating the Food
Giants" by Paul A. Stitt are also very convincing reads.
| Attention teenagers: doing drugs won't make you happy or popular or help you to learn the skills you need as
you grow up. In fact, doing drugs can cause you to fail at all of these things. |
A single farming family ruins 4000 to 7000 acres of productive land every forty years by mono-cropping and using chemical fertilizers and
pesticides. It takes millions of years for Mother Nature to generate the three feet of rich topsoil that will sustain crop growth. Al Gore
admirably has brought to world attention the sorry state of our planet. What continues to be missing in all that rhetoric is how important it
is to get our people well so they may enjoy the greening of our world.
The annual application of billions of tons of pesticides, herbicides and other farming chemicals, billions of dollars spent on
OTC/prescription medications and eating foods "made more functional" clearly isn't the answer. If it were, 300,000 people wouldn't be dying
every single year from preventable diseases. When we sustainably farm and consume foods (indeed products) in the manner our Creator intended
the circle of life will be complete. Our planet will heal and so will our people. Only then we will enjoy the vitality that is our
birthright.
| While you or your friend or loved one may be hesitant to seek professional help, please realize that treatment
programs offer effective, organized, and structured services with individual, group, and family therapy for individuals with
alcohol and drug abuse problems. |
Nancy is an ACE certified, IDEA Elite level personal fitness trainer with nearly 30 years practical training and teaching experience.
She is also certified through the CHEK Institute as a Holistic Lifestyle Coach level 2. She will complete her CHEK Exercise Coach
certification in March 2008 and undertake her HLC3 sometime late in 2008. An expert author, she has been featured in "Pacific Northwest
Magazine", The Seattle Times, the "ACE Professional Newsletter", the IDEA Fitness Journal, is a regular contributor to the IFJ "Tricks of
the Trade" column and has had several articles published on DivineCaroline and Ezine. Nancy has also completed the LMT course of study
through the Brenneke School of Massage, attained a high green belt rank in Shito-Ryu karate, studied ballet, tap and jazz dance and has
been a competitor in swimming, track, softball, basketball, volleyball and karate. Her proudest accomplishment to date is her ongoing
triumph over alcoholism and drug addiction, offering a unique perspective into the ever evolving journey to wellness. Leading by example
has become her most powerful motivational tool.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_Jerominski
| Drug abuse includes the use of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, or other "street
drugs"; and the abuse of legal prescription and nonprescription drugs. Some people turn to drugs as a way to get a
"high" or to relieve stress and emotional problems. |
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| While enrolled in inpatient drug rehab, patients participate in individual, family, and group
counseling sessions, attend classes, and hear lectures. The activities aim to educate patients about drug addiction
and alcoholism, help them recognize that they have the disease, and help them adjust to a life without drugs or
alcohol. In addition, patients often are introduced to self-help groups, such as Narcotics Anonymous. |
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