If you are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, do be aware that taking anti-depressants may harm the unborn baby.

If you are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, do be aware that taking anti-depressants may harm the unborn baby. Read this BBC News report. You may like to read further about anti-depressants on my webpage here, and some further advice for pregnant mothers here.

Anti-depressants increase the risk of falls for elderly people with dementia

BBC News reports that anti-depressants increase the risk of falls for elderly people with dementia. "Many dementia patients also suffer from depression and drugs known as selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are frequently prescribed. But the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reports that the risk of injuries from falls was tripled."

Now that's a real shame, because anti-depressants should not be being prescribed at all, since research has shown that Anti-depressants are 'no better than dummy pills'. People who are suffering from dementia have enough to contend with, without having to cope with an increased risk of falling and all the other adverse effects of anti-depressants. - Rather than these unhelpful, harmful meds it would be better to try to improve the nutritional status of dementia sufferers. I suggest, for example, making sure they are not deficient in vitamin D. An adequate level of vitamin D would strengthen their muscles and bones (and immune system) and would render falls from any cause less likely to result in hip fractures and other broken bones. It's well past time that prescribers read the relevant research and acted on it, instead of carrying on in their own sweet uninformed way regardless.

What if it's not too much fat that you are carrying around? What if it's excess water weight?

What is it's not too much fat that you are carrying around? What if it's excess water weight? - That's right. - Have you considered that it could be fluid retention that is your problem? If it's fluid retention it is a simple matter to reduce it. You need to eat less salt and salty food.

Your excess weight is likely to be water weight/fluid retention if you are one of the people who are vulnerable to salt, also known as sensitive to salt. The vulnerable groups include people who take or have taken certain prescribed steroids, including prednisone and prednisolone, or certain other prescribed drugs, women who take or have taken HRT or other oestrogen-containing drugs such as some contraceptive medications, people who take or have taken amitriptyline or other tricyclic antidepressants, or SSRIs like Prozac, people who take or have taken some other psychotropic/psychoactive drugs, pregnant mothers, PMT sufferers and people who ate salt as children.

If you fall into one of the vulnerable groups I have listed or if you ate a high salt diet as a child you will be sensitive to salt. People without this problem can eat salty foods without doing a lot of harm to themselves, because their kidneys will excrete the sodium which is excess to their requirements. But for people sensitive to salt, some of the excess sodium, along with the water it attracts, will enter their blood stream and not be excreted. So they carry extra weight - as water - around with them all the time. They also lose more heat from their bodies because the surface area of their body has increased with the added water, and the rate at which a body loses heat is proportional to its surface area. - They therefore need extra calories to do the extra work and to provide the extra heat. - So their appetite increases in order to obtain these extra calories. - So they may very well eat more to satisfy their genuine need for calories. - If what they eat is salty, then the cycle will repeat itself and they are likely to become obese.

To break the cycle and put the process into reverse, all that is necessary for them to do is to eat less salt. And eating extra potassium by way of fresh fruit and vegetables will accelerate the excretion of the sodium and water and speed up the weight loss. If you want to lose weight, eat less salt!

Is there a link between antidepressants and breast and ovarian cancer?

Is there a link between antidepressants and breast and ovarian cancer? A new meta-analysis of 61 trials identified a connection in nearly 33 percent of the epidemiological and pre-clinical studies conducted between 1965 and 2010 found an association between cancer and antidepressants. And the link was stronger among women using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Moreover, the study found researchers with industry ties were significantly less likely than researchers without those affiliations to conclude antidepressants increase the risk of breast or ovarian cancer. The authors of the meta-analysis, which was published in PLoS Medicines, suggest the findings raise public health and policy issues, “because there is increasing evidence that financial ties among industry, investigators, and academic institutions can affect the research process.”
Read article at pharmalot.com And see antidepressants.

Truthman speaks out against GlaxoSmithKline

Truthman speaks out here against nefarious practices by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug company. He writes about the illegal marketing of depression drug Wellbutrin as a weight-loss aid, and the tragedies caused by SSRI anti-depressants, including Prozac, Seroxat, Citalopram and Zyprexa, because of their grave side-effects. If you ever think of taking any of this pharmaceutical junk yourself, I urge you to ponder Truthman's words and the words of Dr David Healy, an expert on SSRI drugs, and think again. Improving your nutrition is far more likely to lessen depression than any pharmaceutical mind-altering drugs. Can you really trust GSK or other drug companies with the safety of your brain/mind when you read of their iniquitous behaviour? - Your brain is not infinitely elastic. Guard it from assault by psychotropic drugs.

Antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby

The Daily Mail reports that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is warning pregnant mothers that antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby. In particular they warn that there is an increased risk that babies will be born with a rare lung condition if the mother is taking SSRI antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Seroxat.

Doctors are supposed as far as possible to avoid prescribing drugs to pregnant mothers because pharmaceutical drugs are far, far more harmful/dangerous to unborn babies than they are to the mother herself. It is shameful that medics give so little heed to this precaution. In fact, prescription drugs are also more risky to pregnant women than to women who are not pregnant. - So it's a no no all round...

Coupled with all that, antidepressants don't work anyway! See Anti-depressants are no better than dummy pills

See also amitriptyline

advice for pregnant mothers

And see Sodium in foods.

Non-drug therapies for depression include:

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

SSRI anti-depressants increase risk of developing cataracts

Some anti-depressant drugs are associated with an increased chance of developing cataracts, according to a new statistical study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and McGill University. The study, based on a database of more than 200,000 Quebec residents aged 65 and older, showed statistical relationships between a diagnosis of cataracts or cataract surgery and the class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as between cataracts and specific drugs within that class.

See physorg.com article.

And remember Anti-depressants work 'no better than dummy pills'

SSRI antidepressants taken in early pregnancy linked to birth defects in the babies

The Guardian reports that there is a link between women taking certain anti-depressants in the early weeks of pregnancy and birth defects in a small proportion of the babies born to the women.

These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)

I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.

Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.

As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding salty food.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

'They' are touting anti-depressants again, despite the fact that they work no better than dummy pills.

BBC News reports that despite only one in seven patients in a study experiencing improvement after 12 weeks, the study leader Professor Tony Kendrick, a GP and researcher at the University of Southampton, said although the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence wants doctors to restrict SSRIs to the most severe cases, the SSRI drugs should be prescribed for mild to moderate depression and were 'good value for money'.

I wonder why Professor Kendrick says this, when it is so clearly not true? - Fortunately, Dr Tim Kendall, joint director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, has sensibly pointed out that using drugs for mild to moderate depression doesn't make much sense because of the risk of a lot of side-effects. He advocates psychological therapies.

Remember, Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'

Non-drug therapies for depression include

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Anti-depressants work 'no better than dummy pills'

Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Researchers discovered the drugs, which cost the taxpayer almost £300 million a year, generally work no better than dummy pills, and said exercise and therapy should first be prescribed instead.

Only a small group of patients with extreme depression showed any beneficial effect, the team from the University of Hull reported.

Prof Irving Kirsch, the lead researcher, said: "In the best interests of patients it is time for a change of emphasis to non-drug treatments and reserve these drugs for very severely depressed patients."

In England 31 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants in 2006. More than half were for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI).

The study, published in the journal Public Library of Science: Medicine, looked at the results of 35 clinical trials in the US involving 5,000 patients taking SSRIs, including Prozac, Efexor and Seroxat. Prof Kirsch said patients taking the drugs did improve, but so did those on a placebo - showing most of the effect was psychological.

He added: "One of the problems with anti-depressants is the risk of side-effects, such as an increased potential for suicide. Given that risk, it is important to know there are alternatives that seem to do as well or nearly as well but without the side-effects.""

31 million antidepressant prescriptions in a year in England is ludicrous! - Dangerous drugs like this should be avoided. Doctors' prescribing freedom should be curbed.

Non-drug therapies for depression include

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html