Florida Detox® & Wellness Institute
♦ Scientific Addiction Treatment ************♦ Chronic Fatigue
♦ Anti-aging Wellness Programs*************♦ Fibromyalgia
♦ Treatment for Neurological Disorders ****♦ Healthy Weight-Loss
Whether patients come to Florida Detox & Wellness Institute for our scientific addiction treatment or our wellness programs, Dr. Sponaugle’s Brain and Body Wellness program restores the patient’s brain and body to optimal health. This program reverses years of aging, as you can see in the pictures below. Those patients who have suffered significant weight-gain, return to their optimal weight without changing their eating habits.
Please view the before and after photos of our many grateful patients.
Rick Sponaugle, M.D.
God designed an environment that would give us fullness of health. We have, however, created an environment that is laden with man-made toxins yet void of nutrients required to maintain optimal health.
“For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…”
- The great Jewish prophet, Jeremiah
Please select one of our Drug Detox or Wellness Programs:
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Alcohol Detox |  |
Oxycodone Detox |
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Ambien Detox | |
Oxycontin Detox |
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Fentanyl Detox | |
Percocet Detox |
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Fioricet Detox | |
Roxycodone Detox |
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GHB Detox | |
Suboxone Detox |
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Heroin Detox | |
Ultram Detox |
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Hydrocodone Detox | |
Valium Detox |
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Klonopin Detox | |
Vicodin Detox |
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Methadone Detox | |
Xanax Detox |
See a complete list of Drug Detox Programs >>
Addiction Treatment
Most Experienced Rapid Detox Center – Dr. Rick Sponaugle and Florida Detox®
We are proud to announce that Dr. Rick Sponaugle was featured in the October 2011 edition of Life Extension Magazine!
Since the inception of Florida Detox® Dr. Sponaugle has treated 6,000 patients from over 30 countries.
Dr. Sponaugle is the most experienced Rapid Opiate Detox Doctor in the world.
The Sponaugle Protocol for Rapid Opiate Detox has been featured on Dr. Phil, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Watching our painless Opiate Detox, Dr. Phil said, “Florida Detox® has an amazing detox.”
Dr. Sponaugle utilized his Cardiac ICU – Anesthesiology training to design a safe and painless opiate detox. It prevents opiate withdrawal patients normally go through with Opiate Detox at other Detox Centers.
Safe and Painless Opiate Detox
Our painless opiate detox is the safest opiate detox in America, for this reason, Kansas Cardiac Surgeons chose Florida Detox® for their heart transplant patient, their own ICU nurse suffered an Oxycontin addiction of 3,200 mgs a day! They knew their transplanted heart wouldn’t tolerate Oxycontin Detox at other detox centers.
Safe and Painless Alcohol Detox – Xanax Detox – Klonopin Detox – Ambien Detox
Scientific Addiction Treatment – Stops Drug and Alcohol Craving
A safe and painless drug detox is important, but, it does not stop relapse!
Drug Detox does not stop drug craving! Detox and Counseling are not enough!
Why bother to detox if you are going to relapse? We must stop your drug and alcohol craving.
At Florida Detox® we have successfully stopped drug and alcohol craving in thousands of patients; many patients who previously spent $300,000 to $900,000 at other detox and rehab centers because the underlying biochemical cause of their drug craving was not diagnosed. Patients like Todd, Peter, Michelle, Cheryl are thankful and have shared their video testimonies.
Dr. Sponaugle Invited to Speak on Addiction Treatment at The White House
Dr. Sponaugle was invited to the White House to explain how and why his science based addiction treatment achieves 90 percent success rates as compared to 10 percent success rates at America’s traditional rehab centers.
He explained to Deputy Chief Rubin Brazalis that the knowledge gained from his addiction research and that from scientists at the National Institute of Drug Abuse has enabled him to stop “biochemical” drug craving in his addicted patients.
Dr. Sponaugle further explained that AA based, 12 step programs attempt to coach patients through each day of craving leaving patients a set up for failure because they must “white knuckle” through each day of craving.
Dr. Sponaugle explained that drug craving is actually biochemical in nature and that patients will crave the biochemical effect of any drug that temporarily balances their brain chemistry. He further explained that when the underlying cause[s] of biochemical craving is diagnosed and subsequently treated, addicted patients no longer need or crave drugs.
Dr. Sponaugle enlightened the White House staff regarding the many different medical disorders he has discovered can cause drug craving. These disorders range from inherited brain chemical deficiencies to pituitary tumors. This medical disorders are routinely overlooked at America’s rehab centers because they are too focused on talk therapy.
Dr. Sponaugle emphasized that there is no “disease of addiction,” a common myth propagated by addiction doctors. Rather, there are many disease states that cause drug craving and lead to addiction.
Patients are misdiagnosed as “drug addicts” by addiction specialists who lack adequate knowledge of brain physiology and biochemistry. Dr. Sponaugle explained to Bush’s deputy chief that he diagnoses medical disorders in patients who have attended 12 or more rehab centers only to be misdiagnosed as a drug addict.
America’s addiction doctors misunderstand the concept that patients use drugs and alcohol to balance their brain chemistry, not to get high. Dr. Sponaugle explained that some patients are trying to get high-er, to a normal if they have inherited an underactive reward center. This phenomenon is called Reward Deficiency Syndrome.
Other patients use drugs to quiet their overactive brain regions. Unfortunately, over time, the drugs used by patients to self-medicate will actually distort their brain chemistry to a greater extent than what they inherited. Their drug induced hormonal and nutritional deficiencies worsen drug and alcohol craving.
America’s addiction treatment centers fail to diagnose and treat drug induced deficiencies of brain chemicals, hormones and amino acids, therefore, patients fall into a “black hole” immediately following their drug detox. The black hole is described by alcoholics as the “dry drunk” syndrome. The “black hole” is the reason that sixty percent of America’s addicted patients relapse within four weeks of their detox!
At Florida Detox & Wellness Institute, Dr. Sponaugle begins correcting brain chemistry, hormonal and nutritional [amino acid] deficiencies during the patient’s drug detoxification process. He corrects over 65 biochemical deficiencies in the average addicted patient, many come in on Monday feeling depressed and suffering fatigue, but, they leave the detox unit on Friday feeling and looking 10 years younger.
Dr. Sponaugle’s Addiction Research
Dr. Sponaugle has spent years comparing the drug craving patterns of his patient’s with their Brain Scans, Brain Chemistry patterns, hormonal deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies and biotoxin [neurotoxin] levels.
Through this research, we have discovered a myriad of underlying biochemical and medical disorders that cause drug and alcohol craving. They must be treated to stop drug relapse.
We have determined that patients use drugs to stimulate underactive brain regions or to calm overactive brain regions. Addicted patients will continue to relapse until these inherited and acquired disorders are properly diagnosed and treated.
Florida Detox® Brain Wellness Program
Our Brain Wellness Program is actually a comprehensive Anti-aging Brain and Body Wellness program that stops drug and alcohol craving while simultaneously healing drug-induced brain damage. See SPECT scans below
We use our comprehensive Brain Wellness Program to treat many Neurological Disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Autism, ALS and Multiple Sclerosis. For more information on these disorders, go to their respective pages under Wellness Programs.
What is the Florida Detox® Brain Wellness Program
Diagnostic
We perform evaluation of approximately 250 biochemicals and biomarkers including: Brain Neurotransmitters, Hormones, Amino Acid levels, Vitamin and Mineral levels, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Enzyme levels and biomarkers for; Neurotoxicity [Industrial Toxins and Trichothecene Mold Toxins], Stealth Infections [Lyme, Bartonellla, Mycoplasma], Immune Cytokines, Auto Immune Disorders, GI Dysbiosis, Leaky Gut Syndrome, Celiac Disease, 110 Food Allergy testing, and Parasitic Blood Infections like Babesiosis.
These disorders cause excessive brain inflammation, destruction of brain tissue and distortion of brain chemistry patterns causing the above mentioned Neurological Disorders in addition to Addiction, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Panic Disorder and Bipolar Symptoms which patients often unknowingly self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.
Treatment
We perform oral and intravenous optimization of Brain neurotransmitters, Hormones, Enzymes, Amino acid levels, Vitamin and Mineral levels. Dr. Sponaugle has designed an intravenous toxin removal program which accelerates the removal of neurotoxins and heavy metals that destroy brain tissue and play a major role in Alzheimer’s, Autism, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease.
Dr. Sponaugle’s Brain Wellness Program also reverses Alzheimer’s findings on PET scan.
Read Doug’s story on Alzheimer’s page.
Medical Disorders That Cause Drug and Alcohol Craving
In 2010, Dr. Sponaugle used his Brain Wellness Program to diagnose the following medical disorders in addicted and wellness patients. These disorders were causing drug and alcohol craving in many patients, but were misdiagnosed at previous detox centers:
- Brain Tumors – 11 Brain Trauma – 8
- Female Hormonal Imbalance – 91
- Mold Toxicity – Tricothecene Ochratoxin Aflotoxin – 126
- Stealth Infections – Lyme – 88, Mycoplasma – 6, Babesiosis – 5, Bartonella – 11
- Aromatic Solvent Toxicity – Benzene – Toluene – Mandelic Acid – 62
- Intestinal Dysbiosis – 455
- Inherited Brain Chemistry Deficiencies – 389
- Imbalance of Brain Chemistry from these medical disorders – 480.
The majority of our patients were diagnosed with 10 or more of the above medical disorders, yet their previous rehab doctors had failed to diagnose them.
If your brain “feels more normal” on drugs or alcohol, you are suffering from undiagnosed biochemical and medical disorders.
Opiate Addiction Causes Brain Damage – Proven By SPECT Brain Imaging
Below in the box on the left, you can compare the SPECT scan of a healthy brain to that of a patient suffering 7 years of Methadone Addiction. The Methadone addiction brain suffers from markedly decreased blood flow as compared to the healthy brain.
Below in the box on the right, you see again, the brain suffering 7 years of Methadone addiction and to the right, Deborah’s brain just6 weeks after her Methadone Detox at Florida Detox & Wellness Institute. Our Brain Wellness Program reversed Methadone-induced brain damage in WEEKS, verses one year as studies have proven is required. Deborah’s brain suffered from 20 years, not 7 years of Methadone Addiction. Deborah also suffered a Xanax addiction of 20 mgs a day.
Methadone Brain - Markedly Reduced Blood Flow
Methadone Damaged Brain Compared to Deborah's Brain with Improved Blood flow after only 6 Weeks of Treatment with Dr. Sponaugle!
Patients suffering opiate addiction demonstrate severe reductions in blood flow to the brain on SPECT brain imaging, more loss of brain blood flow than cocaine addicts and alcoholics. Compromised brain blood flow is the primary cause of early Alzheimer’s Disease.
SPECT Brain imaging at Universities and the Amen Clinic have proven it takes at least one to two years of abstinence from drugs and alcohol for brain scans to return to normal. Eighty percent of addicted patients in America never make it to one year, they can’t overcome their drug craving.
- Accelerates healing of opiate induced brain damage – this stops opiate craving and prevents prevents relapse.
- Prevents the post detox “black hole” that causes many patients to immediately relapse following detox. When we optimize brain function in addicted patients, they no longer need Oxycontin or Roxicodone to feel normal.
Deborah volunteered for an ABC documentary on scientific addiction treatment, see media page. We referred her to the Amen Clinic six weeks after her rapid detox for Methadone. Deborah lost the 70 pounds of weight she gained from Methadone Addiction within just 8 weeks because of our Anti-aging Body & Brain Wellness Program!
This weight loss is typical of female patients treated at Florida Detox & Wellness Institute.
Deborah is now 3 years post detox and free from her Methadone prison of 20 years. She is happy, healthy and a successful business consultant. She has taken up surfing at age 55 and plans to visit Florida Detox to make a new video testimony.
Additional Validation that Opiate Addiction Causes Brain Damage
University of Minnesota study proves just three days of IV morphine causes loss of brain dendrites. Dr. Sponaugle has stated for five years that opiate pain medication will most likely not be utilized in the future. Is your pain doctor aware of this study?
Failure of Traditional Detox Centers and Rapid Detox Centers:
Doctors at traditional detox centers and rapid detox centers repeatedly fail to diagnose the addicted patient’s underlying cause of opiate craving. Patients repeatedly relapse after their opiate detox to drugs like Heroin, Oxycontin, Oxycodone or Roxicodone because their brain needs the biochemical effect of these opiate medications to achieve a feeling of normalcy - to treat feelings of depression, fatigue, lack of motivation, brain fog and general malaise.
Clearly, the greatest advantage of the Florida Detox Program is Dr. Sponaugle’s ability to make the brain of an opiate addict feel as good without opiates as it does on opiates like Oxycontin and Roxicodone. This requires properly diagnosing and treating, inherited and acquired, medical disorders, biochemical deficiencies and imbalances of the patient’s brain chemistry.
This scientific addiction treatment allows 91 percent of our patients to achieve success – we have the lowest relapse rate in America, only 9 percent of our patients have relapsed 6 months after their opiate detox. Other rapid detox centers simply perform detox as if it is a surgical procedure and pretend to provide aftercare programs through naltrexone implants and referrals to counseling or AA meetings.
If detox and counseling ALONE were enough to prevent drug relapse, national relapse rates would not be 80 percent!!
Naltrexone Therapy
Long term saturation of opiate receptors with Naltrexone is a huge mistake. The patients natural endorphins cannot get to their opiate receptors if they stay on Naltrexone, this causes malaise and depression, the medical term is dysphoria. The dysphoric state caused by long term Naltrexone therapy actually causes more craving for opiate medication, these patients suffer a similar depressive symptoms as alcoholics called the dry drunk syndrome, a state of constant craving.
The assumption that opiate craving occurs at the opiate receptor is an elementary concept propagated by detox doctors who have failed to perform an intense study of advanced brain science. The myth that opiate craving can be blocked by saturating the brain’s opiate receptors with Naltrexone is as outdated as methadone maintenance.
The key to stopping opiate abuse is to make the patient’s brain feel as good without opiate pain medication as it does on opiates. This is accomplished by optimizing the patients brain chemistry.
Florida Detox® – Most Successful Addiction Treatment in America - 90 Percent Success Rate - Lowest Relapse Rate of 9 Percent!
The Florida Detox 90 percent success rate has nothing to do with our painless detox and everything to do with our Brain Wellness program which is the key to preventing relapse through cessation of drug and alcohol craving.
Florida Detox® & Wellness Institute offers the following:
- The Safest and Least Painful Drug Detox in America
- The Most Scientific Addiction Treatment in America
- Optimization of Brain Performance – Increased Cognitive Function And Memory
- Treatment for Neurodegenerative Diseases – Alzheimer’s – ALS – Autism – Multiple Sclerosis – Parkinson’s
- Treatment for Depression – Anxiety – Insomnia – OCD – Panic Disorder – Bipolar Symptoms
- Analysis of 250 Biochemicals - Enzymes – Infectious Biomarkers – Immune Cytokines – Biotoxins
- Treatment for Chronic Fatigue – Fibromyalgia – Headache Syndromes
- Optimization of more than 100 Brain Chemicals – Hormones – Enzymes – Nutrients – Immune Cytokines
- Weight Loss Through Optimization of Metabolism and Brain Function –
- Treatment for stealth infections Lyme Disease – Mycoplasma – Babesiosis – Bartonella – RMSF
- Treatment for Mold Toxicity – Tricothecene – Ochratoxin – Aflatoxin
- Treatment for Aromatic Solvent Toxicity – Benzene – Toluene – Mandelic Acid
- Treatment for Gastrointestinal Dysbiosis
- Treatment for LGS – Leaky Gut Syndrome and Associated Food Allergies
- Diagnosis and Restoration of Multiple hormonal deficiencies
- Diagnosis and Restoration of Multiple Nutritional Deficiencies
- Diagnosis and Detoxification of Environmental Toxins
- Intravenous Program for Expeditious Removal of Heavy Metals and Biotoxins
Our patient consultants are available to answer your questions about our Scientific Addiction Treatment and our Wellness Programs.
Call Toll Free 888 -775-2770 or fill out the quick info form and our staff will get back to you as soon as possible. We are extremely careful and confidential with your information. At Florida Detox & Wellness Institute, we will do everything we can to help you or your loved get the medical expertise or addiction help they need. You can also request more addiction help and wellness information online by clicking here.
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