How Does Nutritional Therapy in Treatment Transfer to Health and Wellness in Recovery?
Hippocrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” This is symbolic of how we view nutritional therapy in treatment here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab. We know that nutrition must be one of the focal points to truly heal at the cellular level.
What Does It Mean to Heal at the Cellular Level?
Healing at the cellular level is all about healing the entire “Self” – the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It is also about holistic addiction and mental health care that focuses on the individual as well as utilizes all the means, methods, and modalities currently available for recovery.
Many recovery centers and facilities only offer “cookie-cutter,” “one-size-fits-all” treatment plans. We here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab know that these plans are often ineffective. This is because they don’t address individual health and wellness needs.
The Importance of Individualized Addiction and Mental Health Care
No two individuals have the same backstory, so no two individuals should expect to recover from the same recovery plan. Yet, this is often what happens.
The key is to start the recovery process with an individualized and comprehensive intake. This is an intake that takes into account one’s career, personal, familial, and social elements that directly affect one’s life and potentially drive one’s addiction and/or mental health issues. A personalized intake process is also going to take into account one’s specific goals for long-term recovery and the best modalities to use. This last aspect of multiple modalities leads to the concept of what is known as the multi-angled approach.
Better Understanding the Multi-Angled Approach to Recovery
The multi-angled approach to recovery is all about utilizing every area of treatment opportunities. This includes psychotherapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), experiential therapies like nature immersion therapy and surf therapy, and holistic healing methods like yoga, acupuncture, and meditation. Of course, it must also include some form of nutritional therapy in treatment.
The multi-angled approach is also an ideal way to avoid relapse. Many people don’t realize just how prevalent relapse currently is in the U.S. (and around the world). According to the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychiatry Reports, “It has long been known that addictive disorders are chronic and relapsing in nature. Recent estimates from clinical treatment studies suggest that more than two-thirds of individuals relapse within weeks to months of initiating treatment.” Also, “For 1-year outcomes across alcohol, nicotine, weight, and illicit drug abuse, studies show that more than 85% of individuals relapse and return to drug use within 1 year of treatment.”
Getting to the Root/Core Causes of Addiction and Mental Illness
The multi-angled approach is also particularly effective because it gets to the root/core causes of addiction and mental illness. Many people don’t realize that addiction is about a lot more than the physical alcohol or substance. Addiction goes much deeper below the surface, which is why almost all professionals within the recovery industry understand addiction to be a disease.
Because addiction is a disease, it must be treated in ways that go beyond simply putting down the drink or the drug (though that is certainly a big part of it). This is why many people in 12-Step recovery like to say, “It’s about the thinking way more than it is the drinking.” Also, just as there are emotional components that lie beneath the surface of addiction, there are health and wellness issues that also often need attention. One way to provide this pivotal attention is via nutritional therapy in treatment.
Better Understanding Nutritional Therapy in Treatment
Nutrition is often severely affected by mental illness and addiction. According to the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition Reviews, “[S]ubstance use can compromise the user’s nutrition and greatly affect their dietary habits. In general, this population has a disrupted and chaotic lifestyle, and money is usually spent on drugs rather than on food. This severely affects the user’s food intake, which eventually leads to undernutrition.”
It is also important to understand that nutritional therapy is as much about what one puts into their body as one leaves out of it. According to the Journal for Nurse Practitioners (JPN), “Nutritional Therapy uses food to prevent and reverse diseases that plague most western societies: diabetes, obesity, heart disease, arthritis, and depression. In order for food to be therapeutic, it must be nutrient-dense, measured in part by the nutrients and anti-nutrients contained in consumed foods. Nutrients are plant and animal sources providing macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat), micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants, probiotics), and fiber.” Further, anti-nutrients are “food products that have no biological necessity.”
Nutritional Therapy: A Focus on Gut Health
Another critical aspect to take into account when it comes to nutritional therapy in treatment is a focus on gut health. Many people don’t realize just how crucial a healthy “gut” can be for one’s mental health.
According to the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients, “Several gut microbiota, especially Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, are demonstrated to affect mental health through microbiota-gut-brain axis, and the gut microbiota dysbiosis can be related to mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders. On the other hand, dietary components, including probiotics (e.g., Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium), prebiotics (e.g., dietary fiber and alpha-lactalbumin), synbiotics, postbiotics (e.g., short-chain fatty acids), dairy products, spices (e.g., Zanthoxylum bungeanum, curcumin, and capsaicin), fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and so on, could exert protective effects against mental disorders by enhancing beneficial gut microbiota while suppressing harmful ones.” In other words, the food that one eats can greatly affect one’s mental state and well-being.
Utilizing Nutritional Therapy With Other Modalities
Of course, nutrition alone is not going to be the sole “cure” for issues of mental health or addiction. There are also many means, methods, and modalities that should be utilized with nutritional therapy to ensure that an individual gets the type of well-balanced recovery they both deserve and desire.
These modalities may be represented in many different avenues of recovery, such as nature immersion therapy and art therapy as experiential therapies, yoga and meditation as holistic healing methods, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as psychotherapeutic methods.
Nutritional Therapy in Treatment and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
CBT is a great way to get to the underlying issues that one often struggles with when dealing with issues of addiction and/or mental health. This type of therapy is also ideal for focusing on the negative views that one holds about themselves and the world around them.
CBT can be particularly beneficial because it makes an individual a part of the process. They become “active participants in the recovery process. According to the peer-reviewed journal Cognitive Therapy and Research, ”Consistent with the medical model of psychiatry, the overall goal of treatment is symptom reduction, improvement in functioning, and remission of the disorder. In order to achieve this goal, the patient becomes an active participant in a collaborative problem-solving process to test and challenge the validity of maladaptive cognitions and to modify maladaptive behavioral patterns. Thus, modern CBT refers to a family of interventions that combine a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and emotion-focused techniques.”
Nutritional Therapy in Treatment and Nature Immersion Therapy
Just as nutritional therapy is a more natural and holistic form of therapy, nature immersion therapy utilizes a similar approach. Nature immersion therapy uses the local environment to help the individual to better get in touch with themselves by getting in touch with nature.
It has long been known that connecting with nature offers many different benefits. According to the U.S. National Park Service, “5 minutes walking in nature improves mood, self-esteem, and relaxation,” and “[f]requent exposure to nature reduces anxiety and depression while promoting a sense of wellbeing and fulfillment. Physical activity in a green space can reduce stress and lower cortisol levels by 15%.” Also, “Physical activity in a green space can improve cognitive control, short and long-term memory, and overall brain function.”
Nature immersion therapy also offers many more benefits specific to mental health. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Besides physical health improvements, nature exposure can bring about positive influence upon psychological constructs such as boredom, friendliness, wellbeing, and liveliness. Also, “Besides improvements to physical and psychological well-being, exposure to natural environments has been shown to bring about positive impacts on cognitive functioning.” However, “While cognitive restoration and physiological well-being are the prominent and renowned benefits of nature exposure, there is one important construct that is often overlooked in environmental psychology research studies – that is, the human-nature relationship, also known as connectedness to nature (CN).”
This “connectedness to nature” can also be found in the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean that surrounds Hawaii’s Big Island via surf therapy. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Carefully planned water activities tailored to the needs of the individual can contribute to correct psychosocial and cognitive development. The International Surf Therapy Organization summarizes the benefits of adequately indicated surf therapy as follows: improved physical health and mobility; improved mental health, including reduction of specific symptoms, such as posttraumatic stress and depression; improved well-being (strengthening of trust and confidence, encouragement of independence, resilience and protective coping strategies) and improved social skills.” Another great experiential therapy is art therapy.
Nutritional Therapy in Treatment and Art Therapy
Art therapy can be an ideal therapy for those individuals who struggle with direct psychotherapy (“talk therapy”). It can also be a great supplemental therapy to psychotherapies like CBT as well. The point is that art therapy can be very versatile.
Art therapy can also be very beneficial. According to the peer-reviewed journal Cureus, “Art therapy is used most commonly to treat mental illnesses and can aid in controlling manifestations correlated with psychosocially challenging behaviors, slowing cognitive decline, and enhancing the quality of life.” Also, “Art therapy can help people express themselves more freely, improve their mental health, and improve interpersonal relationships. The basis of art therapy is established on the idea that people can recover and feel better via artistic expression.”
Art therapy is also an ideal way to connect with one’s “inner self” and start to heal from the inside out. Other methods that can help with this are practices like yoga therapy and mindfulness meditation.
Nutritional Therapy in Treatment and Holistic Healing Methods Like Yoga and Meditation
The iconic yogi and spiritual teacher B.K.S. Iyengar said, “Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together.” This is emblematic of what yoga and recovery are all about. It is about getting everything working in a helpful and healthy manner again (the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual).
Yoga and meditation have been practiced for thousands of years. Originally, they began solely as religious or spiritual practices, but they have since moved into many other realms, such as fitness and wellness. Meditation and yoga are also a big part of many people’s mental health recovery.
Yoga offers a myriad of benefits for those struggling with addiction and/or mental health issues. According to the International Journal of Yoga (IJOY), “Therapeutic yoga is defined as the application of yoga postures and practice to the treatment of health conditions. Yoga therapy involves instruction in yogic practices and teachings to prevent reduce or alleviate structural, physiological, emotional, and spiritual pain, suffering, or limitations. Yogic practices enhance muscular strength and body flexibility, promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function, promote recovery from and treatment of addiction, reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, improve sleep patterns, and enhance overall well-being and quality of life.”
Adding a practice of meditation to yoga and nutritional therapy in treatment can also be highly beneficial. According to the International Quarterly Journal of Research in Ayurveda (AYU), “During the process of meditation, accumulated stresses are removed, energy is increased, and health is positively affected overall. Research has confirmed a myriad of health benefits associated with the practice of meditation. These include stress reduction, decreased anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in pain (both physical and psychological), improved memory, and increased efficiency.” Another meditative practice that has since moved into the experiential realm of therapy is horticulture therapy, which is therapy via engagement with growing plants (including fruits and vegetables).
Like yoga and meditation, horticulture therapy offers a vast array of benefits. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “People’s interactions with plants, through goal-orientated horticultural activities in the form of active gardening, as well as the passive appreciation of nature, could be therapeutic to people with mental disorders in many ways. First, horticulture could have emotional benefits, such as reducing stress, reducing psychiatric symptoms, stabilizing mood, and increasing the sense of tranquility, spirituality, and enjoyment. Second, it could help people to reduce fatigue and restore attention and cognitive ability.” It is also a great way to help individuals connect to the food that they eat during nutritional therapy in treatment.
Nutritional Therapy in Treatment: Food Is Medicine at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab
The Buddha famously said, “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” The same is true here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab; we love our clients until they learn to love themselves.
Here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab, we also understand the concept that food is medicine, which is why we focus so intently on only offering the best local organic foods at our center. We believe that healing must happen on all fronts if it is to happen at the cellular level.
Remember, recovery is all about the journey, never the destination. There is no better place to start that fruitful journey than right here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab.
It is hard to underestimate the extensive benefits of nutritional therapy offered here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab. Our personalized approach to nutritional therapy supports healing at the core root level. Furthermore, the tools and techniques of nutritional therapy carry these benefits into long-term sobriety and overall wellness. If you feel like you or a loved one is struggling with issues of addiction, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders, we can help get you on the positive path toward long-term recovery right away. You don’t have to do this alone. For more information regarding the benefits of nutritional therapy for mental illness and addiction recovery, please reach out to Exclusive Hawaii Rehab today at (808) 775-0200.