Why Florida Detox?^®

SAFEST RAPID DETOX CENTER- Florida Detox and Dr. Sponaugle have performed rapid detox on a HEART TRANSPLANT PATIENT referred by Cardiologists from a major university medical center. She was addicted to 3,000 mg/day of Oxycontin. This validates the safety of Dr. Sponaugle's protocol for rapid detox.

LOWEST RELAPSE RATE IN AMERICA - In response to the White House's request, Dr. Sponaugle was a guest speaker asked to educate White House staff, regarding the application of more scientific treatment in a clinical setting. Dr. Sponaugle explained that the integration of modern brain science with quality counseling has enabled Florida Detox to achieve far superior relapse rates than traditional 12 step programs

As of June 2009, our six month combined drug and alcohol relapse rate is down to nine percent.

The improvement in our relapse prevention is derived from applying our comprehensive anti-aging, brain wellness program to all addicted patients.

The anti-aging/wellness program is extremely efficacious in preventing drug and alcohol craving. Patients who suffer alcoholism and drug dependency have multiple hormonal and nutritional deficiencies. If untreated, these deficiencies actually cause more drug and alcohol craving.

University studies reveal that 70 to 80 percent of patients in America relapse six months after completing their their drug detox or alcohol rehab. This high failure rate is derived from the lack of knowledge and brain chemistry expertise at most addiction treatment centers.

Their addiction doctors do not know why they should or how they can, optimize your brain chemistry and brain function. If we change your brain, we stop your addiction. You can not expect your addiction to change if we don't change your brain.

In 1998, we first began attempting to revolutionize addiction treatment. At that time, we assumed that our job was to utilize my intensive care medicine and anesthesiology skills, to design a safer and less painful drug detox.

We had no idea that "talk therapy" and AA did not work for most people. We believed the myth!

We offered patients a more scientific and safer detox program, then we referred them to famous rehab centers in Arizona, California and Minnesota etc.

Within months of their detox treatment, over half of these patients relapsed. They returned again and again for our rapid detox treatment or to detox alcohol.

We originally had focused only on perfecting the rapid drug detox and designing a painless alcohol detox. We left the "addiction treatment" and "alcohol rehab" to counselors and rehab centers.

Having spent years in the medical and surgical arena, I had great difficulty accepting "the accepted" horrific failure rate in addiction medicine. I took it personally.

I knew there had to be a missing link. I prayed for wisdom. What is it that makes them "feel better or more normal" on different drugs? Why do they feel that they can not make it through the day without drugs like Vicodin, Oxycontin or cocaine?

Prayer is often answered with hard work. We had to work intensely with patients, aggressively research thousands of articles on brain science, learn from our patients how to apply the brain science and constantly analyze the addiction trending, the choice of drugs and alcohol by different personality profiles.

Eleven years and five thousand patients later, we have proven that there are multiple biochemical causes of drug addiction and alcoholism. Some are inherited and run in families, others are acquired from living in an industrialized country. There are environmental toxins produced by the industrial revolution that are distorting our brain chemistry and hormonal balance. These toxins are fueling the current addiction explosion in America.

Dr.Sponaugle, Founder and Medical Director, of Florida Detox, and his Research Director, Steven Sponaugle, have performed more intensive clinical testing and extensive biochemical research than any other addiction treatment center in America, possibly the world.

Because of our unprecedented addiction research, Florida Detox and Wellness Institute has more meaningful clinical data than any drug rehab center in America. The knowledge obtained from our research enables our Florida Detox team of doctors and nurses to stop your drug or alcohol craving, therefore, your drug addiction stops.

Other nationally renowned treatment centers rarely measure more than routine, inexpensive blood tests like a CBC blood count and comprehensive metabolic profile, in addition to a urine drug screen. Their "addiction specialists" really don't know or believe that biochemical causes of drug addiction and alcohol addiction are the primary factor.

How do you know if you don't "look." They have never researched the biochemical causes of drug and alcohol craving because they were wrongly taught, and most continue to believe, the "greatest myth" ever propagated. That is, "addicted patients willfully abuse drugs and alcohol because they can, they have weak character, poor morals, they are derelicts who want to do drugs and alcohol."

This is the furthest thing from the truth. I have successfully treated over 5000 addicted patients and I have yet, to meet a single patient, who really wanted to be a drug addict or alcoholic. I have met many who were terribly afraid to come off their drugs because they knew their brain "felt like crap" every time they had previously stopped.

We can not successfully take patients off their medication, drugs and alcohol, unless and until we know how to make their brain feel just as good without the drugs, as it did when they took the drugs/alcohol.

When we correct and fine tune chemistry that controls electrical brain function, they feel just as good as their judgmental relative- They don't like, want or need the way their old drug makes them feel. When brain chemistry is normalized, the old drug of choice now actually makes them uncomfortable,because it now upsets the chemical/electrical balance in their brain. Are you excited, you should by now have more hope, but, please keep reading.

Other addiction treatment centers attempt to "talk" you out of your biochemical craving and subsequent addiction. Talk therapy does not change your inherited brain chemistry nor will it stop your biochemical craving.

With their non scientific addiction treatment, your craving will unfortunately continue. After you relapse, you will be labeled as drug addict or alcoholic, by the unknowing addiction doctor who failed to correctly diagnose your brain physiology.

The addiction "specialist" will say to you, usually in the presence of your family, "well, you have failed again, what is wrong with you, don't you want to be clean?" I suppose if they make you feel "dirty" it is easier to project their treatment failure onto you.

The truth is, these addiction doctors with minimal knowledge of brain physiology and cellular function continuously misdiagnose addicted patients like Peter, (see Home Page) or Todd, (see Alcohol Treatment). Why? How can that be? They fail to correctly diagnose the "true biochemical cause" of your alcoholism or drug addiction.

Many fail to diligently study, they do not keep up with advances in brain science which have grown exponentially in the last five years. Other addiction doctors will not accept the exceptional brain research that continuously validates the biochemical basis for addiction, because it invalidates their personal recovery and what they have preached for 15 years.

Recently,the CEO of a famous Arizona rehab center was interviewed by TV news anchors. Immediately following the demonstration of several brilliant PET scan/addiction studies performed at the National Institute of Drug Addiction, the treatment center CEO rejected the science. He ignorantly stated,"I don't know if I think much would will come out of this, we all know that 12 Step produces the best addiction treatment." HISTORY LESSON: It took 18 years for physicians to accept the diagnostic EKG.

The best addiction treatment compared to what? Multiple University studies have confirmed that Twelve Step programs without scientific treatment produce 80-90 percent one year relapse rates. Typically over 50 percent relapse in the first month!

I think traditional detox centers and their medical directors need to raise their expectations and standards. Addiction Doctors must be willing to move forward with science which is not exclusive of spiritual counsel. Counsel is Biblical, Moses needed counsel. Wisdom and science come from God, he gives us more each decade.

We don't drive 1939 cars to work,except maybe for fun. When Bill and Bob wrote the Big Book of Alcoholics in 1939, Penicillin was not being prescribed. How much brain science do you think was available? You certainly would not accept 1939 science for your cancer therapy or cardiac surgery.

We explained this phenomenon during our White House presentation and recommended mandatory brain science CME courses for all American doctors. The advent and cumulative effect of many chemicals/toxins in the last fifty years is playing havoc with American brains.

The National Institute of Mental Health states that depression, anxiety and insomnia disorders have tripled since 1980. All these disorders cause addiction. We have proven that we can effectively treat all of them when we optimize brain chemistry.

We understand that your brain really does "feel more normal" on certain drugs or alcohol. We can change your brain for the better, better at work, better at home. We also know why you love one drug and dislike another. Our research has made it very clear.

Once you and your family have attended Dr. Sponaugle's "The Science of Addiction" workshop, you will know why you "really like" Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycontin, Cocaine, Xanax or alcohol. You will also learn how we can take your good, but, addicted brain and make it a great, non addicted brain!

In the family workshop, addiction/anti-aging/wellness seminar, you will see functional brain scans that match specific personalities. You and your family will begin to recognize your personality profile as Dr. Sponaugle describes behavior patterns that match.

Dr. Sponaugle will explain specific brain chemistry/physiological issues whether neurotransmitter, hormonal, toxic or head trauma that cause brains to look abnormal on the functional brain scan.

Then Dr. Sponaugle will explain the chemical and electrical effect that various drugs and alcohol have on the brain. This enables you to understand the precise brain effect of the drug you use as you correlate your personality profile with the matching brain.

Different drugs release various brain chemicals from brain cell storage units called vesicles. Drugs can either activate your under active brain regions or quiet overactive brain regions, depending on which brain chemical is released to activate receptors on the next brain cell.

In the last 11 years, we have found that 95 percent of all addicted patients, even chronic pain patients, ultimately use opiate pain pills, drugs like Ambien/Xanax or alcohol to balance their specific brain chemistry.

When we diagnose these issues and correct the brain chemistry and therefore the brain's electrical current, which is modulated by the chemistry, we negate the patient's need for drugs and alcohol.

We evaluate over thirty different biochemical causes of craving for drugs like Oxycontin, cocaine, Xanax and alcohol. When we balance your brain chemistry, hormones and nutritional deficiencies, you will have no more drug or alcohol craving! No more "white knuckling through each day!

You will also feel 10-15 years younger within the first few weeks of our comprehensive anti-aging, brain optimization and total body wellness program!

Please ask the Florida Detox call center staff to connect you with not one, but, several patients, including doctors, who are grateful to have their life back.

These patients want you to know the truth, that we are practicing the most intense, intelligent and comprehensive addiction treatment available as of 2009.

They will gladly speak with you because they were once in your shoes, hopelessly craving and continuously relapsing to drugs and alcohol.

Todd, (see alcohol treatment) had been through 44 alcohol detox and rehab programs over 32 years of drugs and drinking. Todd now has no alcohol or opiate craving, has stopped drinking 38-40 cups of coffee per day and is down from three packs of cigarettes daily to a half pack. Our patients like Todd, can relate to you and can best explain the difference in our drug treatment program verses all the other drug treatment centers. They can validate the exceptional success of our drug addiction treatment and scientific rehab program.

ADDICTION EXPERTISE - Dr. Sponaugle says," Detox alone is worthless, detox and counseling is not much better because it has proven to fail 80-90 percent of the time. Successful addition treatment requires intensive work, adjustment of multiple brain chemistry issues, those inherited and those created by the drugs and alcohol.

To achieve 12 percent relapse rates, we must correct multiple hormonal and nutritional deficiencies. Frequently, we must diagnose sub clinical infections,for example, infections that you are unaware you have contracted from mosquitoes, ticks, horses, house hold pets and other people.

These undiagnosed infections steal your energy because your immune system is working in overdrive and their suppression of your brain's pituitary gland causes hypothyroidism, adrenal shut down and ovarian/testicular suppression. The pituitary gland and hypothalamus are the only part of the brain unprotected by a "filter" called the blood brain barrier.

The pituitary gland quickly succumbs to infectious inflammation and shuts down production of multiple hormones: growth hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, ACTH which stimulates adrenal gland production, LH and FSH which stimulate production of Testosterone, Estradiol and Progesterone.

If you are female, you must read "Hormones and Addiction" an article Dr. Sponaugle recently presented at the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine Spring conference. Dr. Daniel Amen, neuroscientist, psychiatrist and founder of the Amen Clinics in California liked the scientific article so much, he posted it on his website, www.amenclinics.com

Melanocyte stimulating hormone is also deficient in patients with severe pituitary suppression from mold toxicity and infections. We can not make enkephalins or endorphins without MSH or DHEA, another reason infections and toxicity cause pain syndromes, fibromyalgia syndrome, joint/muscle stiffness and concomitant anxiety and insomnia disorders.

Adrenal shut down leaves you without your "get up and go" chemicals. Ninety percent of your epinephrine or "pure adrenaline" is made in your adrenal glands. Only 10 percent of your norepinephrine is made in the adrenal glands, 90 percent is made in your brain's central nucleus called the Locus Cereleus.

Cortisol is another important hormone made in your adrenal glands. If Cortisol is suboptimal, you will suffer lethargy, fatigue, increased physical pain and lack of zest for life.

At Florida Detox and Wellness Institute, we frequently diagnose infectious toxicity in chronic pain patients who have traveled America, seeking diagnosis from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, John's Hopkins, Columbia, Stanford etc., only to be dismissed by mainstream medicine and told, "it is all in your head" or "you simply must live with your pain and take opioid pain medication the rest of your life."

These patients often suffer from Stachybotrus [black mold] or Aspergillis mold toxicity or systemic fungal overgrowth. Others suffer from undiagnosed Lyme's, Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma or stealth viral infections such as Epstein Barr, Cytomegalovirus, Herpes I, II and VI,or West Nile. When treated with high dose intravenous vitamin C and other modalities, their pain stops and they no longer need Xanax for sleep and Oxycontin for pain.

You can not win the pain and addiction game when you are treated by addiction doctors who know minimal neuroendocrine immunological science and the commonly associated infectious diseases that frequently cause chronic pain syndromes.

Research well and pray that God will give you the wisdom and discernment to choose an addiction treatment center that will practice with passion and excellence, one that will set you free and greatly improve your quality of life. God bless.

1. Scientific Diagnosis - True Cause of Addiction - Most treatment centers will simply diagnose patients as "drug addict" or "alcoholic." At Florida Detox^®, Dr. Rick Sponaugle will accurately diagnose the "true cause" of your addiction.

2. Lowest Risk of Relapse - Most detox centers offer a maximum of one month treatment. At Florida Detox^® medical management is provided for three months after the detoxification process. This intense outpatient treatment, both medical and herbal, will stop drug and alcohol craving in 90 percent of patients treated by Dr. Rick Sponaugle.

3. Less Fear Fear of painful withdrawal symptoms prevents many patients from seeking addiction treatment. Dr. Rick Sponaugle has developed safe and painless detox protocols for alcohol, benzodiazepines and opiate pain medication. We utilize intravenous sedatives and medications in a safe hospital based detox unit. This more sophisticated approach yields a safe and painless technique.

4. More Convenient - Patients and their families prefer the accelerated detox program at Florida Detox^® because absence from family and work is greatly diminished compared to standardized 28 day programs. Patients normally spend one week in Florida for completion of detox and then follow up counseling and medication management continues for the next three months.

5. Safety - Florida Detox^® provides the safest medical detox in America. (see "safety" page)

6. Cost Effective - The cost of treatment at Florida Detox^® is approximately half the cost of most 28 day treatment centers. Due to the development of the Florida Detox^® accelerated detoxification method for alcohol, Xanax, and opiates, addicted patients spend only one week (not four weeks) away from work, minimizing lost wages.