Nutrition & Exercise

Learning to Properly Nourish the Body is an Important Part of Recovery.

People who suffer from alcohol or drug addiction almost always experience some level of malnutrition.  Alcohol is high in empty calories that lead to feeling full but do not support the health of the body.  Drug addicts are often so distracted by the cycle of getting high, crashing and looking for another high that eating and self-care are severely neglected.

Drugs and alcohol also deteriorate the body’s natural chemical processes for creating emotional stability, mental clarity and pleasurable sensations.  Drugs and alcohol prevent the body from properly absorbing two amino acids (the building blocks of proteins).  These amino acids are key components in the body’s production of neurotransmitters (chemicals produced in the brain which transmit messages to the body).  These neurotransmitters –norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin – allow the body to experience well-being. When the natural production of these neurotransmitters is disrupted by drug or alcohol abuse, it compounds the addict’s dependence on substances because he loses the ability to feel good naturally.

In addition, alcohol and drugs can prevent the body from properly absorbing and metabolizing nutrients, as well as properly expelling toxins.  Drug and alcohol addiction can significantly damage the digestive processes of the body and many addicts experience digestive problems such as constipation, diarrhea, indigestion and poor appetite.

The Importance of Exercise in Addiction Recovery

Like all things in drug and alcohol addiction recovery, exercise should be done in moderation.  In order for an exercise program to work, it needs to be both consistent and frequent.  

Enterhealth’s residential exercise program helps:

• Increase the metabolic rate so that calories are burned more efficiently even when we are at rest
• Burn stored fat and build up muscle tissue.  Muscle cells are metabolically active and burn calories, whereas fat cells are inert
• Increase free fatty acids, which better enable the body to process and utilize dietary fats
• Decrease total serum cholesterol and increase levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), the "good fats" associated with lower risk of heart disease
• Lower blood pressure
• Increase the levels of mood-elevating neurochemicals, such as endorphins, so that we feel better mentally as well as physically

Enterhealth’s personalized wellness program is an integral part of our comprehensive addiction recovery approach and includes individual time with a trainer as well as a dietician to address physical and dietary patterns recommended for balance and healthy living.  These wellness tools learned in residential addiction rehab are not only beneficial for those suffering from addiction, but also helpful in everyday life.  Additionally, yoga, massage therapy, acupuncture and stress reduction groups are incorporated to enhance overall wellness.

Enterhealth creates science-based, medically driven, state-of-the-art alcohol and drug addiction treatment plans uniquely suited to where you are in your recovery journey.  

Enterhealth’s medically driven alcohol addiction treatment and drug rehabilitation treatment offers personalized residential and outpatient programs in Texas, uniquely suited to where you are in your recovery journey.  

Call Enterhealth 24/7 at 800.388.4601 or email us at info@enterhealth.com for more information.  Don’t just get clean/sober.  Get well.