I’ve had serious concerns about antidepressants for years. You may have read my warnings in these pages. But now it appears that these drugs are far worse for you than even I imagined.
A new study suggests that using antidepressants can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. And the clincher is that the researchers did what I have repeatedly asked for. They looked at the overall risk of dying in those taking the drug versus those who did not take the drugs. What they found should make you run away from these drugs as fast as you can.
According to the researchers, your risk of dying is 55% greater if you take an antidepressant! And it does not matter if you take one from the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) class or another type. SSRIs include the popular Paxil, Prozac, Effexor, and others. Sounds like the drugs are effexing your heart.
Lana Watkins, PhD presented her Duke study on March 4, 2006, at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Denver. Watkins prospectively analyzed the clinical data of 921 Duke University Hospital patients receiving a cardiac angiography. That is a risky test that can determine the extent of blockage in your arteries. Almost 20% were on antidepressants. That is an amazingly high figure. And SSRIs were used by 66% of those patients.
The patients were followed over an average of three years. During that time 21.4% of the patients who were taking antidepressants had died. Only 12.5% of those not on antidepressants had passed away.
The researchers adjusted for such factors as age, gender, heart pumping strength, smoking history, degree of other illnesses, heart procedures, depression survey scores, and education. And still the patients taking antidepressants had a 55% higher risk of dying.
The difference between SSRI and non-SSRI anti-depressant use —61% vs. 49% — was not statistically significant. Hence, any type of antidepressant increases your risk. Dr. Watkins said she was surprised since the SSRI drugs have been considered safe. There is something important going on here that we do not fully understand, she said.
You got that right, Dr. Watkins. And thanks for your courage in reporting these results. What we do not fully understand is that drug companies rarely if ever look at the long-term, all-cause morbidity (injury) and mortality rates from their chemicals.
In physics, there is a universal law. Action brings reaction. Medical pundits ignore this basic truth. If you take a drug that forcibly alters a metabolic pathway, the system will readjust. The effects may well spill over into another pathway, harmfully altering it.
If we had an honest drug evaluation system, it would not take years later to discover problems after thousands of deaths. The FDA would be demanding all cause morbidity and mortality studies out the chute.
A companion study reported at the same conference found that if your brain has a less active serotonin system (affected by SSRI drugs), you are more likely to have early atherosclerosis. Drugs almost always mask problems without repairing them.
If there is a receptor in your cell that can be activated by a chemical, you can be sure that God put it there to be activated by a natural substance, most likely from a plant. Drugs force-feed receptors or forcibly shut down enzymes. It makes far more sense to use remedies that give your cells and enzymes the nutrients they need to work optimally. By shutting down an enzyme, the drug brings it into balance with competing enzymes that are not working at capacity.
Does not it make more sense to increase the activity of the deficient enzymes to restore balance than lowering activity of the ones that are still efficient?
If you suffer from depression, please do not turn to drugs. You do not want to increase your risk of dying by 55% — especially when there are alternatives that work better and are much safer.
The first place to start is to clean up your diet. Then eliminate heavy metals or other toxins, get more exercise, and make other positive lifestyle changes. That way you will get your brain to make more serotonin rather than consume a chemical to mask the problem.
You can also use nutrients to replace your antidepressants. The best ones are omega-3 oils, SAMe, St. Johns wort, B vitamins, sunshine (vitamin D), and balanced minerals.
Ref: 64th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Denver, March 4, 2006.