The Wellness Recovery Connection or The Great Physicians Rx for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction

Author: John Newport

A leading wellness advocate offers a step-by-step holistic plan for the 50 million people in recovery – a personalized blueprint for adding years to their life and life to their years. Includes a foreword by leading relapse prevention expert Terence T. Gorski.

Based on over thirty years in the trenches as a wellness professional and counselor, John Newport, Ph. D. shares the missing dimension in recovery and the reason why the majority of people battling alcoholism and drug addiction fail to reap the full benefits of recovery and optimal health: They don’t adopt a wellness-oriented lifestyle.

Newport breaks down the nebulous concept of wellness into 7 steps, and gives people in recovery – and their families – specific tools to design their own blueprint for optimal health, including:

Nutrition: nutritional hazards associated with alcoholism and drug addiction, and how to lay a sound nutritional foundation for recovery.

Exercise: role of exercise in preventing relapse and enjoying optimal health, with tips on how to get started.

Stress Management: practical tips on stress management and meditation, specifically geared to people in recovery.

Spiritual Needs: tips on how to manifest your unique sense of central purpose, and how this will help you stay clean and sober and move toward optimal health.

Social Supports: how to develop a strong social support system, sexuality in recovery, and more.

Conquering Substitute Addictions: including nicotine addiction, caffeine addiction and junk food binging.

HealthCare: why our health care system is "wired backwards", and how recovering people can effectively work with doctors and other health care resources.

A must read for people in recovery, and treatment professionals.

Publishers Weekly

For those with drug or alcohol addictions, arresting that dependency is, obviously, crucial for survival. But overcoming addiction's insidious effects on the body by taking charge of one's health is critical as well. Newport, a wellness professional and counselor with 25 years of experience, focuses on the "neglected stepchild" of recovery: basic wellness concepts that, he says, are often disregarded. Newport emphasizes that "taking it one step at a time" works for integrating a wellness-oriented lifestyle into recovery. Years of drinking and doing drugs produce an undernourished body that needs a decent nutritional foundation, which Newport covers in detail. Additionally, many former alcohol and drug addicts develop new addictions (to caffeine, nicotine or junk foods), and Newport discusses ways to prevent this from happening, including engaging in "moderate intensity physical activity," stress management and meditation. He outlines meaningful applications to accompany the spiritual dimension of wellness and recovery, and challenges readers to set long-term goals. Numerous resources, from literature to Web sites, will be of further assistance. This excellent book would be a fine supplement to any recovery program. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword	xi
	Acknowledgments	xv
	Introduction	xix
Part I	The Importance of Wellness to Recovery
1	Wellness: The Missing Dimension in Recovery	3
2	The Importance of Wellness to Early Recovery and Relapse Prevention	9
3	Claiming Your Birthright to Optimal Health	27
Part II	Integrating the Cornerstones of Wellness into Your Recovery Program
4	The Nutritional Hazards of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction	43
5	Your Nutritional Foundation for Recovery	57
6	Physical Exercise: Fitness and Recovery	89
7	Stress Management and Meditation	105
8	Developing a Strong Social Support System	125
9	Cultivating Your Central Purpose, Spirituality and Life Satisfaction	141
10	Conquering Nicotine Addiction	155
Part III	Your Personal Blueprint for Wellness and Recovery
11	Conducting Your Personal Wellness Assessment	179
12	Action Planning for Wellness: Getting Started, Monitoring Your Progress and Following Through	207
13	Making Optimal Use of Health Care Resources	231
14	Parting Thoughts	253
Appendix	Suggested Resources for Wellness and Recovery	259
	References	271
	About the Author	285
	Share Your Journeys in Wellness and Recovery	286
	Wellness and Recovery Web Site	287

Book review: L'apprentissage dans l'Ère Globale :les Perspectives internationales sur la Globalisation et l'Éducation

The Great Physician's Rx for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Author: Jordan Rubin

Jordan Rubin, along with Joseph Brasco, MD, shows readers how to apply the 7 Keys to Health and Wellness and naturally fight Irritable Bowel Syndrom, a painful and debilitating disease.