Preface

Alcoholism: The Nutritional Approach (1959)

PROGRESS IN THE SOLUTION OF the highly important problem of alcoholism has been hampered by considerable confusion with respect to ways and means of advance.

The attitude of the medical profession is of great interest and is certainly an index to the true state of affairs. Most physicians prefer not to have alcoholics among their patients, for the simple reason that doctors are aware of their inability to help alcoholics with their basic problem. Most medical men and laymen consider alcoholism a psychological problem. Many therefore look to psychiatry for help, but here, too, in vain, because few psychiatrists welcome alcoholic patients. The most consistent advice given alcoholics by the medical profession is "Join Alcoholics Anonymous." This, in the writer’s opinion, is excellent advice, because Alcoholics Anonymous has a most enviable record for effective work.

This advice when looked at objectively is, however, phenomenal. Is there a parallel in the case of any other disease, for treatment of which physicians refer sick people to a lay group? Obviously this is a state of affairs that would not exist if there were a recognized medical treatment for the disease.

We believe that through biochemical studies we have discovered important causes of this disease, and that advance toward prevention, if not cure, can be expected to be rapid. We do not wish, however, to overemphasize biochemistry and physiology to the exclusion of psychology. We are convinced that people are not built in separate compartments--anatomical, biochemical, psychological--but that they are integrated in such a way that alcoholism, for example, has its roots in every aspect of an individual’s make-up.

In the past seven years since an earlier volume dealing with nutrition and alcoholism was published, there have been new discoveries, with a substantial increase in insight into the disease. These I have tried to set forth in the present volume. While there are many worth-while ideas in the earlier volume, it carried an implication--namely that alcoholics might well look forward to a life of moderate drinking--which I cannot now endorse. If an alcoholic is able to drink moderately for a time, this is strong evidence that his appetite has been changed. However, at the present time in the actual handling of alcoholics, the risks of reversion are too great. The dedication of this volume to Alcoholics Anonymous is testimony of the fact that my advice to alcoholics now coincides with that of this organization, namely that alcoholics should abstain. I believe that by nutritional means we can help tremendously in achieving this end.

The greatest hope for the future lies, I believe, in the prevention of the disease. This is a goal which I believe physicians, social workers, the National Council on Alcoholism, members of Alcoholics Anonymous, church groups, and all other interested parties can endorse. Since the preventive means which we emphasize are nutritional, it is fitting and proper that they be sought out and presented by one whose lifework has been predominantly in the field of nutritional biochemistry. While the nutritional means which we outline in this book will be found, we believe, to be basic and highly effective for eliminating physiological craving, this does not mean that we minimize the use of educational, religious, psychological, social, or other means to help alcoholics meet the other problems which are not possessed by alcoholics alone, but are common to humanity.

We hope that this volume may effectively promote the cooperation of physicians, ministers, and others who may deal with alcoholics and of research workers who will help ferret out more fully and adequately the basic factors which contribute to this devastating disease. We think that the future looks bright, and that so far as the scientific side is concerned, the disease can be controlled and, even better, prevented, provided we work at the problems with our eyes wide open to the facts which are here presented.