Best Vitamin And Mineral Supplements For Alcohol Detox

Although research is ongoing, there’s some evidence that milk thistle can help reduce the symptoms of cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis. If you’re working on reducing best supplements for alcoholics your drinking, milk thistle can be one way to protect your liver from the damaging effects of alcohol. In fact, it leads to a deficiency in important compounds that this amino acid helps to produce. It is required to produce both GABA and glutamate, brain chemicals required to maintain a balance between feeling calm and energized. Heavy drinking causes an imbalance in these brain chemicals as well as a deficiency in blood levels. Chronic drinking damages the lining of the stomach and intestines, leading to problems absorbing nutrients.

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Vitamin B1 deficiency can cause weight loss, irritability, fatigue, and in extreme cases lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, also known as wet brain. Supplements can help reduce alcohol cravings by addressing nutritional deficiencies, regulating neurotransmitters, and providing antioxidant support, among other mechanisms. In this article, I will discuss how to use l-glutamine for alcohol cravings, which is an amino acid supplement that you can get inexpensively.

Foods for Your Brain

If you can find a pure or reliable source of CBD, it might be worth trying as a supplement for alcohol withdrawal. L-glutamine is another great supplement for anyone trying to reduce their alcohol consumption. This amino acid occurs naturally in the body and many protein-rich foods, and is a building block for some of the brain chemicals that regulate anxiety and depression.

• These include supplements for alcohol cravings, repairing your liver, and rebalancing your nervous system.
• Magnesium supplements can improve cognitive deficits caused by chronic alcohol abuse by improving cerebral blood flow10.
• We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies.

Glutamine

No headache or fogginess like I would normally have after a few drinks. My friend texted me that morning and said the same thing, noting that she slept a lot better than she usually did after drinking. Nighttime is typically when my mind races and I’m most likely to be gripped by anxious thoughts, but most nights during my maiden kanna voyage, I avoided any major bouts of anxiety. I can also confirm sleeping like a baby the first night after enjoying a cup of kanna. The functional herbs featured in this 20-calorie-per-serving supplement provide antioxidants and polyphenols similar to those provided by red wine, according to the company.

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• Thirty subjects with methadone dependence were given 2 grams of ALCAR daily during a 3-week detoxification period, and it reduced their pain and the length of their withdrawal (49).
• The only way to protect the liver long-term is to eliminate or drastically reduce drinking.
• In fact, a study in 1982 reported that 100% of patients admitted for depression were deficient in vitamin B2.
• DL-phenylalanine can also be a useful supplement for alcohol withdrawal.

To put it simply, NAC enables your liver to create Glutathione, and Glutathione is your body’s primary detoxification mechanism. For example, patients with WE may be too confused to find their way out of a room or may not even be able to walk. WKS can be life threatening with symptoms ranging from mental confusion, paralysis of the nerves in the eyes, and paralysis of extremeties. The chronic administration of vitamin C can also prevent the development of tolerance and physical dependence on morphine (59, 69). First of all, vitamin C levels are significantly lower in drug addicts (68). Some of the best food sources of zinc include oysters, grass-fed beef, pumpkin seeds, cashews, mushrooms and spinach.

Zinc is an essential mineral for mental health, especially if you struggle with chronic anxiety. The mineral has been shown to decrease dependence on opiates, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamine and alcohol, and reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms when stopping these drugs (84). It sort of feels like drinking a cup of coffee, so it’s helpful if you want to stop or reduce your intake of caffeine. Lastly, in abstinent alcoholics, elevated omega-3 intake reduces stress and cortisol, and omega-3 fatty acids significantly lower the desire for alcohol in mice (30, 31). Other studies have shown that omega-3 supplements reduce cravings for nicotine and reduce the number of cigarettes people smoke daily (26, 27).

Understanding the Link Between Trauma and Addiction

When I weened off psychiatric medication, I took large doses of vitamin C every day. However, I still recommend at least short-term zinc supplementation to ensure you get enough. Magnesium is one of the three nutrients that I think everyone should be taking for their brain, as most people are deficient. Every tissue in your body has vitamin D receptors, including the brain, heart, muscles, and immune system. Oxidative stress can change neuronal pathways and cause addictive behaviour.

Nutrient deficiencies in people with alcoholism

It also increases the number of acetylcholine and dopamine receptors in your brain (2-7). I personally have experience with tobacco, nicotine, alcohol, stimulant, benzodiazepines and antidepressant dependence, addiction and withdrawal. Therefore, long-term alcohol use leads to lower nutrient consumption and can affect how the body uses this limited supply of nutrients. As a result, many individuals who misuse alcohol may become malnourished.