Natural antidepressants

Natural antidepressants

















When you go to the doctor due to depression symptoms, the first thing most of them do is reach for their prescription pad. While there are times that a medication is the appropriate choice, it should not be the first choice of the medical profession. Medications given for depression often have side effects, some severe, and they are very expensive medications. Unless you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or thoughts of harming others, there are natural antidepressants that you could try before resorting to drugs.

One of the most natural ways to help depression is to live healthier. Many of us seem to be filling our lives with too many activities and we end up depriving ourselves of proper diet and sleep. A good part of our mental health is derived from our physical health – if your body feels good and full of energy, then it is much more likely that our minds will feel the same. If you don’t feed the body properly, it is not able to maintain optimal condition and this can also affect how you feel mentally.

Exercise is one of the easiest and most effective natural antidepressants available to us. Not only does it help with maintaining stable weight and health, it actually affects us in ways that directly contributes to good mental health. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which make you feel good and also lowers the amount of cortisol produced. Cortisol is a hormone connected with stress and produced in larger amounts when we are under stress.

Getting more exercise can have other positive effects that enhance our moods and banish depression symptoms. When we have a healthy body, our self image is usually better and therefore so are our confidence levels. Losing weight or getting in shape can go a long way in boosting self-esteem. When you exercise, you are not able to dwell on the negative things that are contributing to your depression. That will lower stress levels and help you to relax which can make you feel better instantly.

There are also herbal and nutritional supplements that have been found helpful to those suffering from depression. Omega-3 fatty acids, St. John’s Wort, Vitamin D, kava kava and ginkgo biloba have all been shown to help with relieving depression symptoms.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to have many physical health benefits but are now being discovered to also have mental health benefits. A study that was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry revealed that the lower the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood, the greater the level of depression found in the patient. Fish oil supplements given for 12 weeks found the depression lessened or disappeared. You can get more omega-3 fatty acids by eating more fatty, cold water fish or taking a fish oil capsule supplement.

Vitamin D is another nutrient that has been connected to depression when you don’t have enough of the vitamin in your system. This vitamin increases serotonin production in the brain which is a mood enhancer. You can get out in the sun more to spur your body’s own manufacture of vitamin D or take a supplement in order to get more vitamin D in your system.

St. John’s Word, kava kava and ginkgo biloba are all herbs that have been shown to relieve stress and anxiety, both contributing factors to depression. These herbs are all weak MAO inhibitors which is the action of many antidepressant drugs but without the side effects that usually come with the medications.

If you or someone you care about appears to be suffering from depression, perhaps you should try some of these natural antidepressants before turning to a pill bottle.

Antidepressants Target Wrong Cause

Antidepressants Target Wrong Cause

More than 25 million Americans visit their doctor every year for treatment of depression. Antidepressant medications are prescribed for most cases of depression. However, less than half of people taking antidepressants get relief. The current dogma is that stress is a major cause of depression. Now research reports that antidepressant drugs have been targeted at the wrong cause.

The study, presented at the 2009 Neuroscience Conference in Chicago, investigated the molecular changes associated with chronic stress and depression. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine first examined genes in the brain regions linked with depression of severely depressed rats and humans. The scientists then exposed the depressed rats to chronic stress for two weeks. They examined the genes again in the same brain regions. The depressed-related genes and stress-related genes were compared.

The researchers found that there was no overlap between the stress genes and depression genes. "This overlap is insignificant, a very small percentage," says researcher Eva Redei in a news release. "This finding is clear evidence that at least in an animal model, chronic stress does not cause the same molecular changes as depression does."

This discovery suggests that antidepressant drugs are not treating depression, they are treating stress. The researchers are now studying genes that differ in depressed rats to narrow down molecular targets.

Exulin Antidepressant Supplement

Nutritional deficiencies can contribute to the symptoms of depression. Taking natural nutrients along with following a healthy diet and exercise plan can help relieve depression.

Progressive Health's Exulin is an antidepressant supplement containing clinically evaluated nutrients such as L-phenylalanine, rhodiola rosea, vitamin B6, folic acid, methylcobalamin, St John's Wort and gingko biloba. Exulin helps restore nutrient deficiencies associated with depression and alleviate depression symptoms

credit by http://blog.progressivehealth.com/antidepressants_target_wrong_cause.html

Antidepressants and talk radio

Guess who started antidepressants yesterday? Me! I did! And they’re FREE because the doctor I saw has apparently a limitless supply of free samples. So I have a followup appointment in four weeks. I have mixed feelings about the appointment itself, because I really thought he was going to question me more about my symptoms–it all happened very fast. Well, no matter.

So my dad’s work schedule and my class schedule sometimes coincide such that he can drive me to campus, which I appreciate. He usually listens to the same talk-radio station, which I’ve only just begun to really listen to as we drive.

Today the subject was this news item, concerning a man who has been charged with a felony count of putting foreign objects in edible substances. He and his wife were arguing, you see, and he wanted her to calm down, so he put half of an anti-depressant in her tea. Now the woman found out because she gave her three year old son a sip of the tea, and he spit out the white (probably mostly dissolved) substance.

As it happens, the anti-depressant he used is the one I’ve been given, Lexapro. I can already testify that when partly dissolved it tastes pretty nasty. So lucky break, I guess–one half-dose of anti-depressants wouldn’t have an effect on the woman, but I dunno if it would fuck with a three year old’s body

Now, you or I might speculate that for a woman to press charges against her husband and the father of her children, she has to be quite upset with him. Therefore we should 1) presume that this was a really scary or upsetting experience for her, and 2) acknowledge the likelihood that this is not the only disturbing, upsetting, controlling, or frightening thing her husband has done.

But at least one of these radio hosts, and the callers, wers less inclined to that view. Oh yes. One of the radio hosts did indeed say that it was not okay to drug someone without their consent, but I also got to hear people talking about how it’s okay to drug someone if you mean well by it. I also heard that it was okay to do if he wanted to watch the Superbowl and she wouldn’t calm down. I also heard that it was okay because it was just such a tiny little pill. I also heard that it was okay to do if he just really wanted her to stop fighting and relax.

I will note that one woman called in to say that she thought the whole discussion was outrageous and they were only entertaining the notion the man’s actions were acceptable, because they themselves were men.

And then! Oh no, they weren’t done yet. One caller took the opportunity to discuss her very special views on anti-depressants themselves. Yes, doctors will simply prescribe medication as a cure-all, she said. Taking anti-depressants, she said, is like taking diet pills when you “haven’t even tried” to lose weight through diet and exercise. Yeah, she went there. Now remember that I’m sitting next to my dad, who is himself a little iffy on my medication. Well, one of the radio hosts (actually the one who had said drugging someone else without their consent is Bad) agreed, and said that *he* was depressed sometimes–yes, depressed enough to get those pills if he wanted to–but, well, he tried them for a week and then gave them up and that was that. To which the radio host who thought it was okay for a man to drug his wife if he really wanted to watch the SuperBowl said, well, if you have a doctor who will prescribe anti-depressants without actually determining if that’s what you want or need, that’s a bad doctor, that’s not a standard doctor. To which there wasn’t much of an answer.

Sheesh. One day I’m on these pills and already I get the humiliating experience of listening to someone question my choice to take meds, in front of a family member who could really stand not to hear that shit.

Antidepressants and Violence

In 1989, Joseph Wesbecker shot dead eight people and injured 12 others before killing himself at his place of work in Kentucky. Wesbecker had been taking the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant fluoxetine for four weeks before these homicides, and this led to a legal action against the makers of fluoxetine, Eli Lilly [1]. The case was tried and settled in 1994, and as part of the settlement a number of pharmaceutical company documents about drug-induced activation were released into the public domain. Subsequent legal cases, some of which are outlined below, have further raised the possibility of a link between antidepressant use and violence.
They were dispensing care to soldiers, that the soldiers themselves called cookie-cutter treatment where everyone would be given a 20-minute briefing and sent off with a prescription for the anti-depressant Zoloft.

credit : http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2009/11/antidepressants-and-violence.html

Antidepressants and Violence

In 1989, Joseph Wesbecker shot dead eight people and injured 12 others before killing himself at his place of work in Kentucky. Wesbecker had been taking the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant fluoxetine for four weeks before these homicides, and this led to a legal action against the makers of fluoxetine, Eli Lilly [1]. The case was tried and settled in 1994, and as part of the settlement a number of pharmaceutical company documents about drug-induced activation were released into the public domain. Subsequent legal cases, some of which are outlined below, have further raised the possibility of a link between antidepressant use and violence.
They were dispensing care to soldiers, that the soldiers themselves called cookie-cutter treatment where everyone would be given a 20-minute briefing and sent off with a prescription for the anti-depressant Zoloft.

credit : http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2009/11/antidepressants-and-violence.html

Is Taking Antidepressants Safe During Pregnancy?

Is Taking Antidepressants Safe During Pregnancy?
















Women on antidepressants are facing a very difficult choice when they become pregnant, and many of the benefits and risks of continuing treatment is not very clear from the results of the joint report of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Psychiatric Association.

The report confirms that there are still many more questions than answers on antidepressants represent a danger for the children born to women who take them. The report also includes guidelines that help to identify patients and doctors, who can not and should not discontinuation of the drug. The report concludes that there are pregnant women, bipolar disorder, antidepressants, psychotic episodes of experience, or suicidal thoughts or have a history of suicide attempts should not be taken.

Charles Lockwood, obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine, said: "We know that untreated depression involves real risks to children. This is not conjecture. We know far less about the risks of drug use of antidepressants. It is clear that further investigation is required. "

Doubled in a previous study, the rate of use of antidepressants by women who were pregnant more than between 1999 and 2003. The study found that in 2003 about one in eight women took antidepressants, such as a point while they were pregnant. Increased use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor of serotonin and SSRI antidepressants such as Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac is mainly responsible for this increase. These drugs are generally considered safe for pregnant women at the moment, but soon the security problems, particularly with regard to the antidepressant Paxil

Credit http://www.healthnews.com/

The Danger of Antidepressants

The Danger of Antidepressants

Apparently, you can not throw a stone these days without someone who is or knows someone who has been on antidepressants. Are almost as common and easy to use as an antibiotic to take in case of fever or taking sleeping pills if you can not sleep are obtained. The ease of their availability and frequency, and the lax rules that doctors use to manipulate these "miracle" drug, as some call it, has, unfortunately, the reality is that for most people, among them are used incorrectly and stolen.

Rather than problems in their lives, both long and short term, which is actually the cause of depression or anxiety, the person who actually take the easy way out and avoid the real issues and injury in the long term. For many antidepressants are not more than their "drug of choice" instead of alcohol, marijuana or nicotine, and because it is a "seal of approval" by the FDA and have been sold by pharmaceutical companies, which do not consider the damage. The sad truth is that nothing could be further from the truth.

The first thing we must remember when it comes to antidepressants, which is generally the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake) or SNRIs (including norepinephrine in the mix) that these products are distributed by companies pharmaceuticals. These companies have the goal ... make money. You do not have a particular interest in your health, welfare or anything about you, if you can not buy their products. E 'in their interest that you believe that antidepressants are "good" way to treat depression, although many studies have shown that not only provides long-term benefits compared with placebo, but it's really a great loss can be done various side effects, and misuse of patient management problems in his life was being able to antidepressants.

credit by http://www.marijuanawithdrawal.org/

Why Antidepressants Don't Work

Why Antidepressants Don't Work

Most people never take anti-depressants to alleviate depression. Why? Since the cause of depression has been simplified, and medications for the treatment have focused on the wrong target, according to a new study, which appears to dive into some strong positions on depression.
One is that stressful events of life are a major cause of depression. The other is that an imbalance in neurotransmitters in the brain, causing depressive symptoms.
These assumptions were the basis for the drugs currently used to treat depression, and it seems that may be defective.
Antidepressants neurotransmitters are present on the popular molecular explanation of depression, which is that they are the result of low levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine increase is based.
New research has found convincing evidence that depression beginning in fact already in the chain of events in the brain. In essence, the drugs have focused on the effects and not the cause.

The researchers also found evidence that the powerful molecular longstanding dogma that stress is usually eliminates a major cause of depression. New research shows that almost no overlap between stress and depression related genes, genes.



Dr. Mercola's Comments



Zwei wichtige Ergebnisse wurden auf dem Neuroscience 2009 Konferenz zeigte im letzten Monat ... die Ergebnisse, die wir gefunden haben, warum Antidepressiva nicht mehr als die Hälfte derer, die sie verbrauchen, zu arbeiten.

Research, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, gefunden:

1.Chronic Stress verursacht nicht die gleichen molekularen Veränderungen, die Depression ist, aber die Mehrzahl der Antidepressiva beruht auf der Annahme, dass die Depression ist eine Ursache von Stress. Die Annahme scheint richtig zu sein, was bedeutet, dass Medikamente praktisch nutzlos sind.

2.An Ungleichgewicht von Neurotransmittern im Gehirn können Symptome einer Depression führen, wie lange geglaubt wurde. Stattdessen scheint die biochemischen Vorgängen, die zu Depressionen zu Beginn für die Entwicklung und das Funktionieren von Neuronen. Dies bedeutet, dass Antidepressiva auf die Auswirkungen der Depression ausgerichtet sind, und alles zu verlieren, wenn ... noch einen weiteren Grund, warum sie so wirksam für die meisten Menschen.

Leider hofft der leitende Forscher der Forschung werden "eröffnen neue Wege für die Entwicklung neuer Antidepressiva", wenn in der Tat ein Medikament Lösung ist nicht die Lösung für den Menschen helfen, die unter Depressionen leiden.