NATCHEZ — On Saturday, Edgewood Plantation is hosting a forum and book-signing event about a treatment used to battle addiction, depression and neurodegenerative disease with author and founder and CEO of Springfield Wellness Center, Paula Norris Mestayer.

The discussion is free to attend and lasts from 10 a.m. until noon Saturday hosted by Hedy Boelte of Natchez at Edgewood Plantation at 31 Airport Road.

“Paula and I have known each other for a very long time,” Boelte said, “… and I wholly support what she is doing.”

Attendees will hear from Mestayer and a handful of patients who have battled chrocnic traumatic encephalopathy (a concussion disease), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and have all been treated using the methods discussed in Mestayer’s book, “Addiction: Dark Night of the Soul; NAD+: The Light of Hope,” Boelte said.

Psychiatric experts would also be on hand Saturday to answer any questions attendees have, she said.

“We will have plenty of copies of the book available, and I have read most of it myself,” Boelte said. “It has some very significant success stories that are, for me, the driving motivation behind this support I have for this treatment.”

Publicist, Leslee Goodman said Mestayer’s work walks readers through nearly 20 years worth of experience she has using an intravenous nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) injections to treat the detox symptoms from addiction as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, acute and chronic anxiety and now — over the past few years — patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“(Mestayer) will focus on primarily on what we know about NAD+ in terms of anti-aging treatment,” Goodman said, “however these days, almost every family has someone dealing with addiction.”

Goodman said how NAD+ treats addiction is not completely known, though more and more research on it is being developed on the topic.

“People once thought that addiction is a choice,” Goodman said, “… but more recent research shows that addiction affects the midbrain, so it’s not an executive decision. The midbrain is triggered when a person experiences stress which causes the fight or flight response. … If a person is using a drug to calm stress, then the brain stops being able to produce dopamine needed to reduce stress.

“In order for them to get relief, a person has to get the drug or cope with the stress to not use. It appears that NAD+ can help the person reset, so they not only do they not need the drug anymore but their body’s natural stress response — dopamine — kicks back in.”

Goodman said hardback and paperback copies of the book are available for $15 to $30 each, shipping included, and may be purchased at Saturday’s event or online at www.springfieldwellnesscenter.com/book.