Addiction recovery is a complex journey where nutrition plays an essential role. It
provides the essential foundation for rebuilding the body and mind. Interviewing Nicola Newton, our Nutritionist and Health Coach, we discovered the often-overlooked benefits of nutrition whist recovering from addiction.
HOW CAN NUTRITION IMPACT ADDICTION RECOVERY?
NICOLA NEWTON: Nutrition can have a huge impact on recovery, if you’re fuelling your body and mind right, ensuring you have right nutrients for cognition, energy production and neurotransmitter production… this all makes a massive impact on addiction recovery.
NN: My general approach is that I first take a full detailed case history with a client where we go through everything together. We then work out what's going to work for them and what isn't… it’s all about meeting the client where they’re at. If it's not going to work for them, then there's no point in doing it.
It's about creating small manageable steps that the client can improvise where it's not going to impact too much on their recovery or give them too much stress, but create a balance and do it at the right pace for them.
Some clients might want to jump right in and go for it... they want everything and they can manage that. But then for others it can be quite overpowering when they've already got enough on their plate. It's about breaking it down and finding out what the client wants, what their health goals are and what symptoms they've got at present.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE OFFER OF FUNCTIONAL TESTING?
NN: This brings us onto whether there is a need for functional testing. If they're coming in with gut issues it might be a stool test, or if they're experiencing low energy we might want to look further into that though blood tests. If it’s a hormonal issue then we do hormonal testing. There's lots of different testing that we can do, it's all optional but if we really want to just dig a little bit deeper so that we can support recovery as much as we can, functional testing is really helpful.
ARE THERE SPECIFIC NUTRIENTS OR FOODS THAT SUPPORT THE HEALING PROCESS DURING RECOVERY?
NN: Nutrition is really important during the recovery of addictions, so ensuring that you've got a well-balanced diet covering; protein, fats, carbs, hydration - that's really going to be beneficial. Studies show that magnesium is really helpful in addiction recovery and that it can lead to the ongoing maintenance of recovery.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE GUT PLAY IN ADDICTION RECOVERY?
NN: So the gut plays a huge role in addiction recovery as the gut is where 90% of serotonin is made, so you can imagine how important it is to have optimal gut health. For those who may not know, serotonin controls mood and it’s also the precursor to melatonin so it helps with sleep, anxiety, depression…it’s really implicated in anxiety disorders, panic attacks and can have a huge impact on how well we recover.
The microbiome is often negatively affected in addiction. It can affect the brain's reward system, and this triggers a need for constant dopamine hits. This then feeds into a cycle of dysregulation where the dopamine hits need to get bigger, so having more of a substance to get that hit or they're taking more and more risks to get that hit. It's just perpetuating a cycle of extreme highs and extreme lows that becomes hard to maintain.
HOW DOES WHAT WE EAT INFLUENCE OUR MOOD AND MENTAL WELL-BEING?
NN: So what we have is a massive impact on our mental health and mood. I like to use the car analogy with this so you wouldn’t put diesel in a petrol car and expect it to run right, so why would you put junk food in your body and expect to be functioning well?
If you’ve not got the cofactors needed for energy production or neurotransmitter production then you can probably run alright for so long, but after a while things are going to start to slide. You’re going to start noticing that your cognition’s a bit groggy, you’re not thinking straight, you can’t think clearly, you’re tired, a little bit irritable…
On the other side of that, if you are fuelling your body right and you give yourself enough protein, vegetables all the hydration and everything you need to make your body run well, you’re going to feel well, you’re going to feel amazing - like you can tackle anything.
THE ROLE OF HYDRATION
NN: Hydration is key for overall health and recovery. Looking at brain health in particular the brain is made-up of 75% water, so dehydration is going to have a massive effect on brain health leading to slower cognition, fatigue, low energy or irritability.
Thank you to Nicola for her insightful contribution to this interview. If you are struggling with addiction recovery, contact us at Montrose Health Group by calling +44 (0) 1433 350 500 or by filling out the contact form on our website.
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