Conference Feedback

“The best conference I’ve ever attended, and I’ve been to quite a   few!” a counselor told me.
“Hard boiled eggs for an afternoon snack. Wow!” wrote the treatment program executive.
“There was a special kind of energy among attendees,” said Stan Stokes, MS, LPC, CCDC, founder of Bridging the Gaps in Winchester, Virginia and conference speaker.
“You attracted people from all over, didn’t you!” noted Renée Zito, Director, California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP), our Saturday luncheon speaker and honored guest who discovered the man sitting next to her at our Sacramento event came from Hodgdon,
Maine.

Brain Repair for Addictive Disorders: Successful, Cost-Effective,  Drug-Free Therapies conference is history and I am a happy Executive Director of the hosting agency, Community Addiction Recovery Association (CARA).

The thank you notes are sent, especially to Renee Zito who allowed the ADP to serve as our co-sponsor this year. My hardworking Administrative Assistant, Marina, is taking a few well-earned days off. Little Glenn County, around 100 miles north of Sacramento, is finishing a grant proposal to SAMHSA (the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to integrate into their existing Drug Court the nutrition and acupuncture protocols they learned at the conference. The President of the Board of CARA discovered we actually made $6,000 on the event. Since our 2007 conference lost over three times that amount I am ecstatic. People liked what they heard. They liked how we walked our talk, providing wholesome food throughout the conference: eggs, sausage, whole grain bread for breakfast; country potatoes, chicken one day and salmon the other, and grilled vegetables for lunch; apples, hard boiled eggs, and nut mix for afternoon snacks.

The audio recordings of the majority of speeches are available from Audio Chuck at audiochuck@comcast.net or 916-335-0020. His costs are reasonable and there are discounts for multiple purchases. See more details at our website at www.carasac.org/Conference/index.shtml

Video recordings are currently being edited, as we raise money to do them one by one.  The first to be available in a matter of days will be Stephen Schoenthaer, PhD, speaking on Prison-Based Nutritional Research: Less Violence, Lower Costs. (Nutritional interventions implemented in a variety of state and local institutions in California, New York, Virginia, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Kansas were able to dramatically reduce violence and improve cognition and behavior. Learn the costs and implications of these six controlled trials). Contact us if you are interested in purchasing a copy of Dr.  Schoenthaler’s presentation for $25.

The Conference Resource Book is also available to the public, for $35 each plus $6 for shipping. The Book includes speaker bios, some of  their handouts, and the majority of PowerPoint presentations.

I feel so blessed to have had the support of my Board of Directors Joanne Bodine, Nancy Fiorini, and Allen Green as well as our clever, resourceful Administrative Assistant Marina Roy and talented graphic  designer/printer Maria O’Neil of MO Graphics to help me create a conference that pleased participants, exhibitors, and speakers  alike.  Our goal is to change the paradigm of addiction treatment in this state, adding nutritious food and nutritional supplements from day one in treatment everywhere, and using acupuncture to help every client begin to feel good as soon as each enters a treatment door.

The next holistic nutrition-based conference will be in June, 2010 in  Miami, Florida, hosted by Giordano & Goldfarb Holistic Addiction Treatment, Inc. If you want to be on our mailing list, send us an  email at info@carasac.org.  We are looking forward to hearing from you. Meanwhile, you won’t mind if I beam from ear to ear, relieved  that the months of anxiety are over, and joyful knowing the conference was appreciated by all. =)

The day is open

Nothing noted in my appointment book next to any hour day or night. Open time! I imagine the millions of people over the centuries and across the world for which this would be unthinkable luxury. And, I am grateful.

This day I choose to fill composing a press release on the miracle of nutrition for brain repair.

I spoke about this topic for just twenty minutes last Thursday at the monthly Networking Cafe sponsored by the Sacramento Food Bank. I told the forty or so people there about the ease with which they could figure out their own emotional needs, just using a questionnaire and a few minutes of their time. For example are they depressed? In this post I’m going to detail the two major kinds of depression: serotonin deficiency depression and catecholamine deficiency depression. Serotonin is the chemical in our nervous system that makes us feel calm and cheerful. Catecholamines include dopamine, adrenalin, and noradrenalin, three chemicals in our nervous system that make us feel alert, awake, and focused.

Do you look out the window and complain the world is a mess and it’s all your fault? That’s serotonin deficiency talking. Serotonin deficient people are obsessive compulsive, suffer panic attacks, or in worst cases start talking about suicide. They have afternoon cravings and can’t sleep at night. They are irritable and have flash anger, even to the point of violence. What produces more serotonin in the body is the amino acid L-tryptophan. Since tryptophan isn’t easy to find on health food store shelves, the more practical choice is a product called 5HTP, or 5-hydroxy tryptophan, which is cheaper and more easily obtained than L-tryptophan. For good results take the 5HTP during the afternoon and evening, away from protein foods.

What if the person is depressed but looks at the world as a grey place without charm or reason for enthusiasm? It isn’t his fault the world is a boring place to be. What if this person can’t focus on anything he wants to do, but instead his mind moves in a constant stream of thoughts and needs that pull him in multiple directions, each seeming as important as the next? What if fatigue dogs him, and he longs for coffee or some other stimulant to be able to follow through on his good intentions. This is a catecholamine deficiency depression and one handy remedy is the amino acid L-tyrosine. For best results take the L-tyrosine morning and early afternoon, away from protein foods. Avoid L-tyrosine if you have ever had melanoma or currently have high blood pressure.

Taking amino acid supplements supplements a wholesome diet with plenty of protein in it. Aminos after all are fragments of protein. Cut the white sugar and white flour products and substitute whole grains like whole wheat pasta and bread and brown rice, add lots of vegetables, a few fruits a day, and have some kind of protein at every meal. You will feel the difference and it will feel much better than the brief surge from a power soda or coffee latte.

You can change your brain for the better with these changes in diet and supplements. It happens within days. In fact when you swallow an amino acid, you might feel better within 30 minutes. How’s that for filling a day with good news?