Addiction vaccine could be approved in five years

<p> </p><p>Some of the best medical minds in the country are working on a vaccine to help people kick a disease that often lasts a lifetime and ends in death. They're working on a cure-all to addiction. A shot that would stop a life of smoking, drinking or drugs before it starts.   "I have a husband who is an alcoholic and so if he could get a shot of something that would get him to stop drinking, that would be great (laughs)," Valois Mickens said. Mickens laughs, but knows her husband's 20 year alcohol addiction is not a joke. Her 25-year-old son is also a smoker. "Once you're an addict you're a lifetime addict. If you can take a shot of something to get it to stop, that's great," Mickens said. Mickens is eager to learn more about a simple vaccine that could cure nicotine, alcohol and cocaine addiction. Maybe even obesity. "So what we do is basically make a cocktail such that we can trick the immune system into recognizing something like cocaine or heroin as being foreign and the immune system will attack it as something foreign and basically remove it," Dr. Kim D. Janda from the Scripps Research Institute said. We spoke to Dr. Kim Janda, a professor for the Scripps Institute via Skype in San Diego. He's been working on the addiction vaccine for the last 25 years. "The main problem has been trying to get a vaccine which works in all humans. Though some of these vaccines only work in about 30 percent of the people," Dr. Janda said. Dr. Janda hopes to finally get FDA approval within the next three to five years. Then he plans to make the addiction vaccine affordable and available to everyone. So for those with addictions, like Felix Baez, who has tried everything to quit smoking, "I've tried the patches, I've tried the gum, I've tried cold turkey and nothing," Baez said. To those who treat addictions like Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chair of psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in Brookln, it's a great idea. "I think it's a terrific idea and we would probably be further along right now with a vaccine that worked if vaccines were more profitable," Dr. Kolodny said. This vaccine can't come soon enough.</p>

Addiction vaccine could be approved in five years

  Some of the best medical minds in the country are working on a vaccine to help people kick a disease that often lasts a lifetime and ends ...

Read more »

Mum tells of battle to beat a serious addiction to Diet Coke

<p> </p><p>Claire Ayton drank seven pints – or four litres – a day for 10 years in the belief it was “normal”. She only realised she was an addict after seeking help to lose weight and has now ditched the fizzy pop after hypnotherapy. The teaching assistant, 36, drank up to 14 two-litre bottles a week – totalling 7,280 over the decade. Kicking the habit will save her almost £1,000 a year. Advertisement >> “I didn’t think of it as an addiction,” said the married mum-of-two, of Pailton, Warwicks. “But I topped 13st after putting on 3st in 12 years. I was always tired and went to see my GP when I found I couldn’t lose any weight, but I didn’t mention how much Diet Coke I was drinking because I didn’t think it was relevant. “I went to see a hypnotherapist in August and told him. He was surprised and said I needed to cut it out of my diet. Since then I’ve not touched a drop. “There were a few side-effects at first but now my head’s clearer and I have more energy. I’ve lost 5lb and am aiming for more.” Claire’s hypnotherapist Russell Hemmings, of Coventry, said: “Hers was the worst case of fizzy drink addiction I’ve ever treated. I’m glad she kicked the habit.” In June a University of Texas study revealed that regularly guzzling diet sodas actually makes people fatter – by boost-ing a craving for sweet foods.</p>

Mum tells of battle to beat a serious addiction to Diet Coke

  Claire Ayton drank seven pints – or four litres – a day for 10 years in the belief it was “normal”. She only realised she was an addict a...

Read more »

Bill Wilson and the Ouija Board,Bill W. Had Warts, Just Like the Rest of Us | DREAM WARRIOR

<p> </p><p>Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, often used a Ouija board to contact spirits. His wife Lois said that Bill would get messages directly from the spirit world without even using the Ouija board. For a while, his participation in AA was deeply affected by his involvement with the “witchboard.” Wilson claimed that he received the twelve step method directly from a spirit without the board and wrote it down. (Source: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson–His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever)Personally, Wilson had a lifelong attraction towards mysticism and junk religion. He was drawn — by its ritualism, not its theology — to Catholicism, and seriously contemplated converting. Later in life, Bill W. flirted with Gerald Heard’s and Aldous Huxley’s West Coast Vedanta and took LSD with the two trippy gurus. Bill was consistently a spiritualist, going through life with AA’s Big Book in one hand and a Ouija board in the other. In the basement, Bill W. had a “Spook Room” where he would communicate with the dead. (Source: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson–His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever)</p>

Bill Wilson and the Ouija Board,Bill W. Had Warts, Just Like the Rest of Us | DREAM WARRIOR

  Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, often used a Ouija board to contact spirits. His wife Lois said that Bill would get m...

Read more »