Brain Function in the Lead-Up to Alzheimer’s Disease

Medical consultant Dr. William Leach maintains a private practice in Longwood, Florida. With a medical career spanning more than 30 years in the state of Florida, Dr. William Leach is highly trained and skilled in the treatment of complex geriatric diseases.

Patients exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease may remain unaware that their brains have likely experienced toxic changes over the course of a decade before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease began to appear. Amyloid plaques are structures that exist between the brain’s nerve cells, and neurofibrillary tangles are tangles of fibers that result from abnormal protein deposits. When the brain produces an abnormal amount of these plaques and tangles, it can disrupt and hinder the nerve cells’ normal communication processes, which may result in the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The compromised nerve cells die once their communication processes have ceased. As they die, patients may experience memory failure, changes in personality, or problems with normal daily functions. The amyloid plaques and tangles remain a topic of research: Although it is now clear that brains affected by Alzheimer’s typically contain a higher quantity of tangles and plaques in particular regions, it is not yet clear whether they cause Alzheimer’s Disease or are produced as a result of the disease.

What is known is that physical exercise, mind based exercises and even daily significant amounts of coffee consumption will slow down or prevent the development of dementia.

ACAM Offers Certification in Chelation Therapy

A family physician with more than three decades of experience, Dr. William Leach currently operates a comprehensive private addiction medicine practice in northern Florida. Outside of his Florida-based practice, Dr. William Leach maintains memberships in several national organizations, including the American College for Advancement in Medicine, a nonprofit that educates health care professionals on the application of integrative medicine.

As a leader in education about heavy metal detoxification and therapy, the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) offers a training course for physicians, naturopaths, and nurses. The course includes a robust curriculum and hands-on lab work that provides participants the skills and knowledge needed to properly diagnosis and treat patients who have been exposed to toxins.

In order to be eligible for the course, an applicant must be a licensed medical doctor, naturopath, or nurse practitioner in good standing. Applicants who meet these criteria and complete the necessary course work are then required to take an exam that covers a wide range of detoxification topics. Successful candidates demonstrates their understanding of safe and effective treatment strategies.

When Food Becomes an Addiction

As an experienced addiction medicine practitioner, consultant, and advocate, Dr. William Leach of Florida has treated individuals struggling with a variety of addictions. Dr. William Leach, a Diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, treats food addiction, which can be just as serious as drug or alcohol addiction.

Widely accepted by the medical profession, the concept of an addiction to food has recently become more widely accepted by the general public. Food addiction occurs in the same manner as other more extensively publicized addictions such as drug and alcohol dependence. Appealing foods, such as those high in sugar, fat, or salt, lead to the release of pleasure chemicals in the brain. When these chemicals react to other neurotransmitters that drive human behavior, the person’s brain perceives that it needs that food for survival. Recent evidence demonstrated that these foods, especially sugar, caused the brain to consistently release opium in the brain. The brain then becomes “addicted” to the presence of opiates cause by sugar intake. This brain sugar addiction is similar to the brain addicted to heroin or prescription pain pills. Researchers have demonstrated this: They addict the lab mice to sugar, then give them an opiate blocker, and they go into physical opiate withdrawal exactly the same way a heroin addicted human would when given an opiate blocker!.

Furthermore, as is the case with other addictions, food addiction also leads to a tolerance effect, wherein the person needs to eat ever-increasing amounts to feel the same level of pleasure. Withdrawal symptoms have also been recorded in humans struggling with food addiction. Those who are addicted to a certain food may eat to the point of illness or expend extra effort to obtain the addictive food. If left untreated, these kinds of compulsions can cause not only obesity, but also a host of other health problems in the short and long term.

Factors that Increase a Person’s Chances of Addiction Recovery

Dr. William Leach specializes in addition medicine and has treated patients at various Florida addiction and detox facilities. Currently, he works in central Florida as the medical director of the Darryl Strawberry Recovery Center. There, Dr. William Leach strives to help athletes along the road to recovery.

Rather than a one-time fix, recovery from drug or alcohol addiction is an ongoing process. This process is challenging, both physically and mentally. Experts recommend that individuals get treatment at a facility where they can be monitored by medical professionals. Once the individual detoxes safely and leaves the facility, the challenge is to stay clean. There are a number of factors that increase the likelihood that the individual will be successful in the long term.

Having a stable, emotionally healthy home and social environment is an important factor. It is more difficult for individuals to stay clean if their living environment is not safe, or if their friends and family are not fully supportive of the individual’s recovery. Additionally, a person in recovery should develop positive, active ties to the community. Whether this occurs through volunteering, employment, or creative hobbies, the individual should strive to develop a sense of purpose and a healthy outlook.

How Drug Detoxification Fits into the Recovery Process

A board certified physician in Florida with a focus on addiction medicine, Dr. William Leach has assisted patients for over 30 years. By helping individuals recover from drug addiction, Dr. William Leach provides important services for patients, their families, and their Florida communities. Among his many areas of expertise is assisting patients who are in detox.

For those who are physically dependent on one or more drugs, being closely monitored and supervised by medical professionals during the detoxification process is vitally important. Substance withdrawal can present a variety of symptoms, some of which may be life-threatening. In a facility that offers detox services, the individual’s health is monitored closely, and professionals can administer drugs to make the process safer and more comfortable. The process can be completed in a relatively short amount of time, often within a couple of weeks.

However, while detox treats the physical aspects of drug addiction, it does not treat the mental aspects. It is important that individuals continue with the process of recovery by receiving some type of mental health treatment, such as counseling or group therapy. An addiction or detox facility will typically connect an individual to these services.

Dr. William Leach of Longwood, Florida: Specializing in Addiction Medicine

Dr. William Leach is an experienced addiction medicine practitioner. He completed a fellowship in the subject at the University of Florida and holds board certification from the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM).

Addiction medicine focuses on screening for, treating, and preventing addiction and substance abuse. Specialist physicians in the subject are certified by the ABAM, which requires them to show competence in several areas of care, including diagnosing and screening for health issues related to addiction and substance use, accurately conducting patient histories, and detecting physical signs of intoxication, acute substance use, withdrawal, and chronic use of substances. Physicians specializing in addiction medicine also receive training in communication to ensure that they approach their patients in a nonjudgmental, respectful manner, utilize accurate nomenclature that does not stigmatize the patient, and be firm and structured with patients when necessary.

Dr. William Leach on Suboxone Medication Assisted Treatment of Opioid Dependency

A medication that combines naloxone and buprenorphine, Suboxone, is used to treat patients with opioid addiction and opioid dependency. The medication is designed to be taken only under the strict supervision of a fully qualified and experienced physician. Using Suboxone for the treatment of Opoid Dependency is called mediaction assisted treatment and goes hand in hand with counseling and other life saving Psycho Social interventional
approaches to drug dependency. All these treatments together foster the Self Awareness required to survive the life threating brain disease of addiction.
Suboxone received approval from the Food and Drug Administration specifically for its ability to be life saving in the treatment of patients with the brain disease of addiction whose brain’s drug of choice was opoids. Full details about the benefits and risks of the medication are available at Suboxone.com.

In order to become certified for medication-assisted treatment of opioid dependency, physicians must meet strict registration requirements of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Drug Addiction and Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) and must submit to random inspections by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Physicians must also complete the proper education required in order to be able to prescribe this life saving medication. The American Society of Addiction Medicine is one organization which provides such education.

About the Author:

A licensed physician in Florida, Dr. William Leach has extensive experience with addiction medicine. Dr. Leach’s patient-oriented intervention services at his North Florida comprehensive private addiction medicine practice include suboxone maintenance and detoxification. In addition to taking the Suboxone prescribing education, Dr. Leach has completed an extensive post graduate fellowship training program at the University of Florida, Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, Division of Addiction Medicine. He is Board Certified in Addiction Medicine.

Florida Doctor William Leach on Drug-Addiction Intervention

Drug-addiction interventions are professionally-led meetings in which an individual with the brain disease of addiction is surrounded by loved ones who share with the individual how the disease of is affecting both the patient and the loved ones around him or her.  Typically, the individual is brought to a family member’s home or other comfortable location on a pretense in order to increase the likelihood the individual will arrive. The intervention professional will then explain the reason for the meeting.

The intervention professional ideally is a Medical Doctor who is board certified in addiction medicine and accompanied by a licensed addiction therapist specialist (LMHC, LCSW, PhD, PsyD). Addiction is a life threating brain disease. In the hopefully soon to be very distant past and all too often present, these meetings are led by an “interventionist” who is a commissioned marketing sales representative for himself and a multitude of treatment centers. Sometimes an unlicensed “addiction professional” is placed in this role.

Addiction is a life threatening brain disease. All other life threatening brain diseases are attended to by medical doctors.

As more and more addiction medicine physician specialists are trained, with 10 years of post-graduate medical education, hopefully this important attempt to save the patient’s life will be led by the highest trained level patient care physician professional. While the individual may become angry, he or she may be persuaded to stay to hear letters that the gathered loved ones have written explaining the impact the individual’s brain disease has had on their lives. Intervention letters typically involve loved ones telling the individual that they are no longer willing to support the individual’s brain disease by providing a place to stay, money, or other means of support.

If the intervention is successful, the individual will accompany the professional to a drug treatment facility. However, if the individual refuses to accept treatment or attempts to leave, the professional will typically follow up with the individual, attempting to persuade him or her to seek treatment. Provided it is led by a trained professional, intervention can be a powerful method of encouraging the treatment of a person with a drug addiction.

Dr. William Leach maintains a private practice in Central Florida, where he offers a range of medical services, including treatment and therapy for all patients suffering with the brain disease of addiction.

Dr. William Leach, Florida Medical consultant, discusses Orthomolecular Medicine

Conceived of by two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, PhD, orthomolecular medicine seeks to restore balance to the body. Coined by Dr. Pauling in 1968, after the Greek word for “correct,” orthomolecular refers to fixing one’s biochemistry deficiencies by re-introducing vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and other natural substances to a person.

It involves treating patients on the molecular level. In essence, the body is food transformed. Food is made up of molecules. The body is made up of molecules. The primary concept behind orthomolecular medicine relates to the individual’s biochemical make up.

While genetics play an important role in how people develop and their likelihood to contract diseases, biochemical abnormalities may also cause physical and psychological illnesses, including schizophrenia.

Over the past nearly 45 years, orthomolecular medicine has garnered support from members of the medical community. Since 1994, the International Society of Orthomolecular Medicine has served as an association of practitioners who follow this theory when treating patients. The biggest organization of its type, the International Society of Orthomolecular Medicine consists of regional bodies throughout Africa, Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

About the Author:

A former Lieutenant Commander in the US Public Health Service, William Leach MD FAAFP ABAM directs an addiction and family medicine clinic in North Florida. Throughout his career, Dr. Leach has garnered experience in and practiced orthomolecular medicine.

Teaching Mindfulness as a Treatment Strategy in Addiction By Dr. William Leach

Drug use has been shown to cause reversible damage to the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems of the brain (among many other areas), dis-enabling the individual’s ability to regulate both self-control and emotion respectively. Because of this finding, leading edge scientific evidence based addiction treatment programs are adopting methods to target this damage. Many addiction centers have implemented mindfulness education programs. With its origins in Eastern self-awareness training and meditation, mindfulness teaches individuals to pay attention to present moment experiences with openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be with what is. Mindfulness is practicing living in the waking meditative state. Living in the present mindful moment is where all peace, happiness, harmony, cooperation, sharing and reverence for life reside. Mindfulness practice essentially reinforces the natural condition: that of living as a human being in contrast to living as a human doing (where humans spend most of their time). Adopting and following mindfulness practice has demonstrated results in activating the prefrontal cortex and stimulating the growth of the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with memory and learning. Furthermore, research has shown that mindfulness practice is associated with fostering the development of the areas of the brain that enable a person to show empathy.

Humans with the structural brain disease of addiction often have difficulty believing that they are able to change and have a lack of awareness of both their present condition and their associated mal-adaptive behaviors. Research on mindfulness meditation indicates that temperament or character qualities, once viewed as unchangeable, can be altered significantly. Mindfulness assists the human by fostering the growth of their personal self-awareness (elsewhere commonly referred to as “recovery”). Increasing clarity and decision-making ability follow. Mindfulness training facilitates a person’s ability to see options in a more objective fashion. Incorporating these effective mindfulness skills and effectively drawing upon the support of self-aware others will propel the individual into ongoing lifelong self-awareness. Abstinence from the addictive substance (or process) and practiced lifelong self-awareness is the “cure” for addiction.

About the author: Based in North Central Florida, Dr. William Leach operates a comprehensive practice in addiction medicine. Dr. Leach teaches mediation, mindfulness and self-awareness training to patients. He completed his Clinical Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at the University of Florida McKnight Brain Research Institute. He is also specialty certified in addiction by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.