Nutritional treatment for detoxification and recovery from alcoholism: the functional/molecular medicine approach

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Jan, 2005  by David A. Arneson,  Angela Pinkhasova

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Introduction

Conventional treatment for alcoholism, or drug dependency, has been focused on mono-therapeutic approaches. The literature is inundated with treatment regimes that are based on medical, counseling, or spiritually-based approaches. Unfortunately, rarely are these protocols used simultaneously and rarely is treatment successful when the holistic approach is ignored. At best, most treatment programs, even those claiming holistic treatment, are bimodal in their approach. And when they are utilized together, nutrition is often overlooked as a necessary component of detoxification and recovery. Certainly, one can find ample information, on the Internet and elsewhere, on the nutritional aspects of treatment of alcoholism. However, rarely do these nutritional protocols address the deeper issues. Fortunately, there are leaders in the field of integrative/functional medicine who are changing the way we look at treating chronic disease--nutritionally. Alcoholism is now recognized as a chronic disease. When treatment programs utilize body-mind-spirit approaches with well-designed nutritional protocols, the successes are dynamic. In this monograph we will attempt to introduce the concepts of functional/molecular medicine for the treatment of alcoholism and suggest why studying the deeper issues of nutritional therapy is an absolute necessity for successful detoxification and subsequent successful recovery.

Functional/Molecular Medicine

Functional medicine is a practice of medicine that focuses on holistic treatment of the individual rather than the treatment of the disease symptom. The primary focus is prevention of disease states but it is highly efficient in returning individuals to health even when the disease is created by lifestyle choices. Functional medicine requires that the practitioner understand how things are designed to work, and for what purpose, at the molecular level and how this design/purpose affects the function of the organism as a whole. There is recognition, by the physician, that there are numerous complex actions and interactions that must occur at the cellular levels to keep the patient at optimum health. This complexity is compounded when we accept that each individual is "an island unto himself." The individual nature of each patient must be recognized as well as how his/her disease manifests itself through environmental influences. Functional medicine is not about ignoring science. It is intimately involved with science, yet understands that movement toward science-based health on the physical level must coexist with emotional and spiritual health. (41)

Molecular medicine, and how the environment influences molecular and cellular events, is an integral part of functional medicine. Molecular medicine addresses cellular function and how these functions change through the changing internal and external influences of the individual environment. Unfortunately, molecular medicine without the necessary focused nutritional components along with pharmaceutical drug components is common in the treatment of alcohol and drug dependency. Many times, rather than assist the patient to recovery, the pharmaceutical treatment adds to the chemical burden, resulting in abnormal metabolism at the cellular level. It may be that chemical therapy at this level is sometimes necessary, especially if the patient is a danger to self or others. Yet in our clinical experience, we find this is rarely the case when the program encompasses functional/molecular medicine with nutritional components.

One of the primary advocates of molecular medicine with the nutritional component is Majid Ali, MD. (40,42) Dr. Ali states that molecular medicine refers to a practice of medicine based on molecular events that occur before cells and tissues are injured by disease. Rather than treat the disease, we should design treatment protocols, based on knowledge of cellular structure and function, which satisfy the cellular requirements of the individual. (49) There is little doubt that the treatment of alcoholism, and drug dependency, benefits from this approach.

Functional medicine has been in the process of conceptualisation for the past decade through the practice of naturopathy, with physicians trained in science and nutrition, and holistically educated medical doctors and health professionals. Since the early 90's, its leading proponent has been Jeffery Bland, PhD. (41) In this article we use functional medicine as meaning both functional/molecular medicine with necessary nutritional/environmental components. In both concepts one thing is abundantly clear--nutritional therapy is not so much about what we eat or drink. Rather, it is about how what we eat or drink--in combination with environmental factors--affects genetic functions and molecular events in the body and mind. Jeffery Bland states, "We are not really what we eat but what we absorb from what we eat." (59) He goes on to point out that gastrointestinal dysfunction (common in alcoholics), causes poor absorption of nutrients.