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Health & Fitness

See Spinal Hygiene Wellness first in the series

(continued)

Dr. Connie Miller

Dr. Connie Miller of the Fryday/Miller Wellness Centre in Southampton, maintains that any addicted person will have one or more vertebrae out of alignment. Dr Connie Miller shows why combining chiropractic, auriculotherapy, and amino acids, may be the groundbreaking answer to all addictions including nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, eating disorders, sex and gambling.

After taking Mike's case history, Dr. Miller examined him on the treatment table with a system she is certified in called Torque Release Technique. Dr. Miller is able to tell which vertebrae in Mike’s spinal column were out of alignment, a condition called "subluxation." "For chiropractors, a subluxation means a separation from wholeness," says Dr. Miller. "It interferes with your body’s ability to function in a whole way, which is a form of neurological insult."

What’s the connection between a misaligned spine and addictions?

It has to do with the interruption of a precise sequence of chemical changes in your brain called the "brain reward cascade." If this cascade is not interrupted, you feel a sense of well-being and pleasure. If the sequence is interrupted, resulting in what is known as "reward deficiency syndrome," you may seek mood-altering substances or activities. The brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters must be released in the right sequence, like falling dominoes, for you to feel good.

The biochemical end of the line is the release of dopamine; dopamine reward may be the biochemical secret to understanding addictions.

How does a misalignment in your back interfere with the flow of chemicals in the brain?

Dr. Miller explains that emotions and feelings are felt not just in your head, but in your spine as well.

If your spine is misaligned anywhere along its length, that condition can interfere with the proper operation of the limbic system and the flow of reward chemicals in your brain Chiropractic gets the dopamine flowing again, balancing the brain reward cascade. Chiropractic offers the public something that conventional medicine cannot: a drug-free addiction treatment program.

Dr. Miller maintains that any addicted person will have a spine with at least one or more vertebrae out of alignment. Using an FDA approved hand-held spinal adjustment instrument called the "Integrator", Dr. Miller makes a few chiropractic adjustments during each visit, painlessly administering a minimum of force and pressure.

Integrator

According to research reviewed by Dr. Miller, two key factors play a role in causing addictions. First, according to Kenneth Blum, Ph. D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, there is a genetic cause. Dr. Blum discovered the same genetic flaw (called "the A-1 allele of the D-2 dopamine receptor") in 69% of severe alcoholics compared to only 20% of nonalcoholic people.

Blum’s treatment, based on 30 years research, involves the use of amino acids to balance the brain reward cascade chemicals (called neurotransmitters) which are chronically deficient in the addicted person.

In addition to correcting misalignments, Dr. Miller starts her patients on a series of three amino acids (precursors or building blocks for the proteins normally found in foods) taken daily as oral supplements. They include DL-phenylalanine (500 mg. 3 times daily), L-glutamine (500 mg.), and L-tyrosine (500 mg. 3 times daily). Dr. Miller will keep her patients on this amino acid combination for at least a year into recovery.

Although according to Dr. Miller, chiropractic adjustment will remove the interference to the natural flow of brain chemicals, it is still necessary to shore up the body’s supplies of these substances, vital to addiction recovery.

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04/03/2009 12:01 AM

Specifically, the amino acids, especially DL-phenylalanine, the "addiction-treatment king," will help the brain restore the "brain reward cascade" and the body-wide sense of well-being it induces. By reducing stress and lifting depression, they will help make important changes in the patient’s behavior and attitude, which are crucial to the success of her treatment program.

Miller practices a form of ear acupuncture

Above Dr. Miller performing auriculotherapy; treating ear points with her hand-held micro current stimulator, the "Stim Plus Pro." Below: Dr. Miller adjusts a patient with the "Integrator," an FDA approved device, invented to reproduce the hands of a chiropractor, to remove misalignment.

Miller uses special integrator

Dr .Miller practices a form of ear acupuncture that uses a micro current rather than needles. Auriculotherapy helps relax patients, which opens addicted persons to the therapy program and encourages compliance. It also enables them to feel less apathetic and more highly motivated to stay off drugs. It reduces drug cravings and their sense of physical and emotional withdrawal.

Dr Miller also uses a device called the Stim-Plus Pro, which is a small hand-held probe that delivers between five and 20 Hz in micro current to specific ear points for 30 to 60 seconds per point. This compares to needle-delivered ear acupuncture that requires anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes of stimulation. This micro current probe is painless, efficient and specific, and helps release the pleasure-producing brain chemicals called endorphins more quickly and thoroughly than needle treatment
 

Stim-Plus Pro

Like falling dominoes, brain chemicals must be released in the right sequence for you to feel a sense of pleasure. If that release, or neurotransmitter "cascade," is interrupted, you don’t experience enjoyment.

Dr. Miller also recommends her patients with nicotine addiction take daily detox baths in Epsom salts and baking soda. This helps eliminate the over 4000 chemical compounds, which are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic, that build up in the body from years of smoking.

Dr. Miller’s program consists of six auriculotherapy treatments and 12 torque release adjustments over a four-week period of a total average cost of $700 including a month's supply of amino acids. Dr. Miller stresses that due to each individual’s unique response to the program that some times more treatments or fewer treatments may be required.

She also states, "This treatment program is not a magic bullet", the patient has to be ready and willing to quit for it to work. In reality, what the program does is optimize the patient's ability to deal with cravings and withdrawal symptoms by restoring proper nervous system function.

Testimonial:

Dear Doctor Connie

Thank you for introducing me to auriculotherapy as an aid to stop smoking. It made the task almost effortless.
In early December of 2006, You gave me treatments on three consecutive days. Two days after the third treatment I stopped smoking completely. The effort was minimal. I had lost the craving for nicotine.

In the middle of September 2008, due to circumstances, I began to think (falsely) that smoking would help.

I went to you for two treatments and have not had the craving since.

Again, thank you.

Mike Whyte

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