Music Therapy Offers New Hope for Addiction Recovery

by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Natural Health

We’re in the middle of a drug-addiction epidemic in the United States, and increasing numbers of overdoses — and fatalities — have a lot of people worried. Many addicts are in and out of treatment centers and go right back to drugs and alcohol.

But Recovery Unplugged Treatment Centers have been reporting remarkable success using an innovative form of music therapy to treat addiction and help recovery.

Only about 7 percent of clients leave the centers’ facilities in Fort Lauderdale and Austin before completing treatment programs, according to Paul Pellinger, certified addictions counselor. The national average, he says, is 42-45 percent.

Richie Supa, famed songwriter and director of creative recovery at Recovery Unplugged, says the key to the organization’s success rate is the way the program uses music to speed recovery from addiction.

“Music does several things to the brain and the body,” Supa explains. “Everybody likes music and the lyrics. We didn’t invent the wheel, but applied it to addiction recovery.”

Pellinger explains that a growing body of evidence suggests music has unique and powerful impacts on the brain — not unlike the effects of drugs. Researchers have found it can ease depression and combat Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

Studies have even shown listening to music fires endorphins — neurotransmitters generated in the brain’s pleasure centers — which can generate feelings of euphoria during exercise and other activities in ways comparable to exercise and psycho-pharmaceuticals.

“There is science behind music [impacts],” Pellinger says. “It lights up the brain like a hit of cocaine.

The center’s use of music starts before the client even arrives, Pellinger explains, and when they leave it goes with them.

Interviews conducted before arrival help the center to pinpoint a client’s music interests. When they are picked up by a driver, their favorite music is magically playing in the vehicle. When they leave treatment, they go with an MP3 player and earbuds.

“Focusing on consequences doesn’t really help an addict,” Pellinger says. “We need to communicate to the soul, not the head.”

The center’s success, Pellinger says, is based on several key principles. First of all, music helps to establish rapport with clients.

“If you don’t have this, you’re not going anywhere,” he says. “If they are still having trouble expressing ideas, there is probably a song about it. This provides engagement for them to start thinking and talking. Once we get them to talk about ‘their truth,’ I can help them re-frame it and normalize feelings.”

“We also use music as an anchor to help people remember things,” Pellinger said. “If I asked you what you had for lunch yesterday, you probably couldn’t tell me, but you could probably tell me what your favorite songs were years ago. This helps clients associate and remember.”

One of Richie Supa’s songs, “I’ve got this,” refers to the tendency of addicts and drunks to shrug off help. Former clients have talked about remembering those lyrics and being able to change behaviors. Clinicians are taught to communicate to the head, but music helps people remember what they need to do to stay sober.

The vibrations of music are also important in recovery. “People in post acute withdrawal are jumpy and have aching bones. The vibration of music penetrates the body and acts as a calming factor. Vibrations are equally as effective as Xanax if you let it work for you,” Pellinger says.

Eighty-five percent of the clients who treated by Recovery Unplugged are not musically trained, Pellinger says, but everyone still responds to music.

Supa’s involvement in Recovery Unplugged came after 26 years as a drug addict. When he went into recovery in 1988, he started writing a song called “Amazing” for Aerosmith.

The huge success of this song helped Supa see that he had done much more than write a good song. “Amazing” reached a lot of people who needed help, he says.

“People tell me that this song saved their lives. That planted a seed way back then,” Supa notes. “I know the dark side and I know walking out of the shadows into the sunlight. My new album, ‘Enemy,’ touches on all the emotions.”

Supa had been playing at detox centers before Recovery Unplugged, and started to see emotional responses to his music.

“I knew I was making a connection,” he says. He developed a one-man show called “Recovery Unplugged,” and when he met Pellinger, who has been an addictions counselor for 29 years, they knew they were on the same page.

Pellinger’s treatment center, then named “Harmony,” was renamed Recovery Unplugged and Supa became director of creative recovery.

“We got amazing results with music,” Supa says. “We allow clients to sing along and it provides a sense of unity. Music is non-threatening and when I deliver a message the clients don’t sit with their hands across their chest. There is no psycho-babble.”

Supa has invited his friend Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, among other musicians, to participate in programs at Recovery Unplugged.

One former client, 2 ½ years clean, is Doug Tibbs, also a musician.

“All the stories are similar,” Tibbs says. “You come to a fork in the road and you are going to die, or you’re going to get your life back.”

At Recovery Unplugged, Tibbs played with Supa twice a week.

“I had been in other places that were like hospitals, and Recovery Unplugged was the complete opposite,” he notes.

“Music is universal,” Tibbs says.

Supa agrees.

“The greatest thrill for me is when a parent hugs me and says thanks for getting my kid back,” Supa adds. “If you want to find yourself, lose yourself in helping other people. This is a rebirth for me.”

For more information about Recovery Unplugged: 954-703-6152.

Symptom-Free Virus May Spark Gluten Allergy

by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Natural Health

A common virus in infancy could trigger a life-long allergy to gluten and lead to celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which affects one in 133 people in the United States, researchers said Thursday.

Celiac disease is caused when the body has an improper immune response — much like an allergy — to the protein gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley.

The disease damages the lining of the small intestine, and has no cure. It can only be treated by adopting a gluten-free diet.

But if Thursday’s study in the journal Science — based on experiments using mice — is confirmed in larger studies in people, researchers said a vaccine might be able to prevent celiac disease in the future.

“This study clearly shows that a virus that is not clinically symptomatic can still do bad things to the immune system and set the stage for an autoimmune disorder, and for celiac disease in particular,” said senior author Bana Jabri, director of research at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.

The study found that intestinal bugs called reoviruses can make the immune system overreact to gluten, a protein that is already difficult to digest.

Given to mice, “one common human reovirus triggered an inflammatory immune response and the loss of oral tolerance to gluten, while another closely related but genetically different strain did not,” said the study.

The virus led to a surge in antibodies that may leave a “permanent mark on the immune system that sets the stage for a later autoimmune response to gluten.”

Most infants eat their first gluten-containing cereals around six months of age, a time when their immune systems are more vulnerable to viruses.

“During the first year of life, the immune system is still maturing, so for a child with a particular genetic background, getting a particular virus at that time can leave a kind of scar that then has long-term consequences,” Jabri said.

“That’s why we believe that once we have more studies, we may want to think about whether children at high risk of developing celiac disease should be vaccinated.”

Co-authors of the study were from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; the University of Naples, Italy; Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School; the Broad Institute at MIT; the University of Montreal; and Stanford University.

Pets Protect Kids From Allergies and Obesity

by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Natural Health

If you’re thinking about adding a dog to the family, you have two good reasons to say “yes,” say researchers from the University of Alberta. Their study found that babies from families with pets — 70 percent were dogs — had higher levels of two microbes that protect against allergies and obesity.

There is a catch, though. “There’s definitely a critical window of time when gut immunity and microbes co-develop, and when disruptions to the process result in changes to gut immunity,” said pediatric epidemiologist Anita Kozyrskyj.

Her team’s research found that exposure to pets in the womb or up to three months after birth increases the amount of two bacteria, Ruminococcus, which has been linked to a reduced risk of childhood allergies, and Oscillospira, which has been linked to a lower risk of obesity.

“The abundance of these two bacteria were increased twofold when there was a pet in the house,” said Kozyrskyj, adding that the pet exposure was shown to affect the gut microbiome indirectly — from dog to mother to unborn baby — during pregnancy as well as during the first three months of the baby’s life. In other words, even if the dog had been given away for adoption just before the woman gave birth, the healthy microbiome exchange could still take place.

The study also found that the immunity-boosting exchange occurred even in three birth scenarios known for reducing immunity: C-section versus vaginal delivery, antibiotics during birth, and lack of breastfeeding.

In addition, the study suggested that pets in the house reduced the likelihood of the transmission of vaginal GBS (group B Strep) during birth, which causes pneumonia in newborns and is prevented by giving mothers antibiotics during delivery.

Kozyrskyj theorizes that one day there may be a “dog in a pill” to help prevent allergies and obesity.

“It’s not far-fetched that the pharmaceutical industry will try to create a supplement of these microbiomes, much like was done with probiotics,” she said.

Previous research has also found that children raised in homes with pets have fewer allergies. A study published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy found that children who were exposed to pets before the age of six months had fewer allergy-related conditions such as asthma, hay fever, eczema, and upper respiratory infections as they grew older. Another study found that babies who lived in homes with pets had fewer colds and ear infections during their first year of life than babies living in homes without pets.

Pets are also good for mom and dad. Dogs have been found to lower the risk of heart disease, stress, depression, and chronic pain.