Worth forwarding to friends:

Antidepressants Slice and Dice Brain

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison

http://www.thepeopleschemist.com/foundation.html © 2007

Imagine a lobotomy...A saw cracking your skull, followed by a surgical knife slicing and dicing a large portion of your brain - the portion responsible for helping you cope with all the nastiness in the world. You know, things like the exorbitant income tax or the millions of children who go without clean water each and every day. Or, the millions of helpless infants who are stabbed with vaccines and subsequently suffer from autism.

Without the ability to cope, a lobotomy would surely open the doors to all kinds of craziness from the nastiness in the world....depression, suicide, and murder become a reality...And this is exactly what an SSRI (antidepressant) can potentially do at the molecular level - remove that portion of your brain that helps you cope...Maybe that is what happened to 81 year old Jordan Stone.

Thirteen days after taking the SSRI Prozac, on April 28, 2003, Jordan's wife of 56 years, Kathy, found his lifeless body hanging from a beam in a back room of their shop. Not depressed at the time of his appointment, Jordan was given a free sample of the antidepressant for "chest pains!" Apparently, a pretty drug rep convinced Jordan's doctor that Prozac could be used for these types of "off-label" purposes. By FDA standards, this is totally illegal. But those standards are never enforced by the consumer watch dog turned Big Pharma lap dog. Regardless of what they are prescribed for, a chemical lobotomy is a real and present danger to SSRI users.

SSRI's strive to increase the levels of a "coping" molecule known as serotonin in the brain. It helps us FIND happiness when it's covered in an avalanche of nastiness. SSRI's attempt to boost serotonin by "selectively" stopping the "reuptake" of it among brain cells. This is where the whole SSRI acronym came from - "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor." It's a slick name that seems to hypnotize medical doctors into prescribing submission, but it's a really stupid idea.

Nothing is selective in the body. While trying to block the reuptake of serotonin, SSRI's can also prevent its release. The areas of the brain responsible for release and reuptake are so damn similar (after all, they work on the same molecule) that an SSRI isn't smart enough to understand which one it is supposed to work on. So it does what any dumb drug would do, it blocks both. The end result: no coping molecules in the brain. Deep sadness, fear or anger can set in. This was observed in the early studies performed on SSRI's, but test subjects were allowed to drop out or mask the pain that comes with a chemical lobotomy using pain killers and/or muscle relaxants. This served as an easy way for Big Pharma to hide the detrimental effects of SSRI's - FDA approval ensued, and so has the ripple effect of suicide.

Truth doesn't stay hidden forever. FDA is proposing a "black box" warning to outline the risk of suicide among all antidepressant's such as Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.

SSRI's block another coping molecule in the brain, dopamine. It's the molecule that lets you FEEL happiness. When you make love to your wife, win a marathon, or tell your micro-managing boss at work to shove it, dopamine yields the feelings of love, accomplishment and victory. It's also the molecule that keeps you protected from Parkinson's disease. Aside from being a zombie, the Harvard School of Public Health recently warned that due to lack of dopamine, people taking antidepressants are nearly twice as likely to suffer from Parkinson's compared to those not taking them.

By removing serotonin and dopamine from the brain, users can't FIND or FEEL happiness courtesy of a lobotomy - minus the saw and surgical knife. Instead, they become buried in the avalanche of nastiness...And if you can't find or feel happiness in life, what's the point? What's gonna stop you from snapping your neck or spraying bullets on your classmates like the "trench-coat killer" in Colorado?

Thanks to pretty drug reps, off-label drug pushing and the FDA approval of antidepressants, chemical lobotomy and its ripple effect is here, but not here to stay... if the People's Chemist has anything to say about it.  Use Mother Nature in place of dangerous drugs.

Supplements that aid in a chemical process known as "methylation" help coping: folic acid, trimethylglycine (TMG) and methylsulfonyl methane (MSM) are among them.  These vital substances can be obtained naturally from spinach, sunflower seeds, shellfish, and beets - or taken as dietary supplements.  For severe depression, the essential amino acid and natural serotonin booster L-tryptophan (not 5-HTP) is a much safer alternative than SSRI's. It is readily available and it won't accidentally remove your coping skills and throw you into suicide or rage.  Interval training and minimizing sugar are of course vital lifestyle habits for ensuring proper state of mind. 

Avoiding drugs and relying on Mother Nature to help us cope will ensure that we rise above the nastiness in the world and strive to and make it a better place...We can start by saying no to prescription drugs, especially SSRI's.

About The Peoples Chemist:

Shane Ellison has an MS in organic chemistry and has first hand experience in drug design and synthesis. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his studies in physiology and biochemisty. Today, Shane is an internationally recognized authority on insulin resistance and type II diabetes. His dedication to natural health prompted him to write Health Myths Exposed and The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol Lowering Drugs. He is co-author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health with Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Julian Whitaker. A passionate speaker, Shane has been a guest lecturer at major universities and corporations such as British Petroleum and appeared in the award-winning documentary by Dr. Gary Null entitled Prescription for Disaster.  Beat obesity, diabetes and heart disease by getting his Foundational Health Education here: http://www.thepeopleschemist.com/foundation.html