The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism: Orthomolecular Treatment of Addictions

This book outlines nutrients to clear the body of alcohol poisons. But more importantly it deals with the leftover cravings. An alcoholic or drug addict is severely malnourished and adding the proper nutrients can return to health without suffering. In a world of hyperbole on cures, this is the real deal.

We KNOW that alcohol causes vitamin deficiencies, especially the B vitamins. We KNOW that the progress of this malnutrition is linked to the progress of addiction. WE know that there is a vicious cycle going on here. Why then, don't we KNOW the obvious: Vitamin deficiency itself increases addiction; and if so, doesn't it make sense that vitamin deficiency is a CAUSE of addiction? And if so, eliminating the deficiency should help TREAT addiction? Hoffer inspired Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Annonymous, to encourage the AA members to use B3 and other vitamins. Both of these leaders, and others following, discovered that vitamin therapy actually works. This book is a concise, MUST READ for alcoholics and their families. What's there to lose, ten bucks for the book, a couple hours reading and another 10 bucks for some vitamins? Dolev Gilmore, author of Nutrition and Your Child's Soul: Don Quixote's Heart-Cry

IT'S TOO BAD THAT ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS REJECTS NUTRICIAN AND VITAMIN SUPPLIMENTS AS COMPLIMENTARY ASSISTANCE IN HELPING AN ALCOHOLIC TO OBTAIN MAXIMUM HEALTH THROUGH ORTHOMOLECULAR HEALING...IN MY OPINION AA IS CLOSED MINDED AND BLINDED TO THE FACT THAT THE ALCOHOLIC IS SICK AND MUST ACHIEVE WELLNESS ANYWAY POSSIBLE, FOR CERTAIN THE ALCOHOLIC SUFFERS FROM MALNUTRICIAN...THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR THOSE WHO CAN ACCEPT IT AND FOLLOW IT'S SUGGESTIONS. IT'S ALL ABOUT CONQUERING ADDICTIONS, THERE IS HELP...

Dr. Andrew Saul and the late Dr. Abram Hoffer, have produced yet another absolutely essential book, THE VITAMIN CURE FOR ALCOHOLISM. The title is intriguing, as we have always been told that, even though an alcoholic may stop drinking, he can never actually be cured. The authors beg to differ. We learn that alcoholics suffer from a nutritional deficiency that can easily be treated with vitamin supplements. We learn also, that Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, promoted the concept of a nutritional approach to curing alcoholism after being successfully treated by Dr. Hoffer. This is an important book. Integrating a nutritional therapy with the traditional behavioral and psychological approaches (as Bill W. did), has proven to be the key to the cure of alcoholism. If alcoholism is truly a "disease", then it is essential, the authors state, that we not forget to heal the body with nutrients, in order to bring about a truly holistic cure.

The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism Orthomolecular Treatment of Addictions by Abram Hoffer, PhD, MD, FRCP(C) and Andrew Saul, PhD 2009, Basic Health, 134 pages [...] The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism explains how patients can stop craving alcohol and restore their health. Two credible authors wrote this enlightening book. By the time he passed away at age 91 ½, Abram Hoffer, PhD, MD, FRCP(C) had earned an international reputation for researching and developing orthomolecular psychiatry (as a complementary dimension of care), teaching other doctors and educating the public. Thousands of patients recovered. Co-author Andrew Saul, PhD contributed his fascination with forgotten treatments and his capabilities as an author and an educator. Before he became a physician and then a psychiatrist, Abram Hoffer obtained a PhD in biochemistry. Hoffer's advanced degree, research experience and observation skills proved useful during his medical studies. He learned to respect patients and above all, to do no harm. Starting in the 1950s and continuing for sixty years, Dr. Hoffer researched the chemical basis of psychiatry and developed treatments for schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, depression and alcoholism. Hoffer did the first double-blind placebo-controlled experiments in psychiatry, in the 1950s. He tested niacin and niacinamide (vitamin B3) for schizophrenia and discovered that optimum (large) doses of vitamins B3 and C can heal psychosis and restore normal brain function. Linus Pauling, PhD (Nobel-prize-winning chemist) read about Hoffer's vitamin therapy and found it so inspiring that, in 1968, Pauling invented a new word when he described Hoffer's practice of prescribing nutritional supplements as "orthomolecular" psychiatry. When his patients had hallucinations, neurotransmitter imbalances, food sensitivities or addictions, Hoffer knew that episodes of mental illness can have a number of causes. He treated each patient according to the practice guidelines of psychiatry. Hoffer noted their mental status and took medical, mental and family histories, checked for infections and tested for medical problems (such as thyroid, adrenal, blood sugar and hormone disorders) before prescribing medications and complementing other treatments with vitamins, minerals and other nutritional supplements. Dr. Hoffer noticed that some patients tried to self-medicate with alcohol. Perhaps patients drank during episodes of schizophrenia or psychosis because they hoped to control their hallucinations, delusions and perceptual distortions. Abram Hoffer administered vitamin treatments when patients went psychotic, over-indulged drinking or took LSD. Over his long and distinguished career, Dr. Hoffer helped thousands of patients by fine-tuning their diets and prescribing regimens of nutritional supplements. He learned that vitamins, trace minerals, amino acids, antioxidants, energy and enzyme cofactors can normalize metabolism and stabilize brain chemistry. Orthomolecular tr

Bill W. was successfully treated by Hoffer and Osmond, leaders in the field of vitamin research, for clincal depression -- which plagued him throughout his years of sobriety -- and Bill became an active proponent of mega-vitamins for members of the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship during the last twenty years of his life. He and other early AA's also participated in Hoffer and Osmond's research with LSD as a means of inducing the kind of insight Carl Jung postulated was required to "kick the habit" of addiction. This little volumn, Hoffer's last work, published only weeks before his death in 2009, details this. It also cites how the Foundation Board (now AA World Service, Inc) that Bill set up to include medical doctors resisted this input. Since Bill's death in 1971, the pamphlet that he wrote for AA distribution on the topic of vitamin therapy has been suppressed and then omitted from AA's list and Bill's "official history" has been "cleaned up" to purge this information. Why? Issues of control and ignorance in the service of those benefit from these, by walling off what challenges them, they get to keep their jobs and status as leaders in the field. An eye-opener!