Natural Cure for Depression Silenced?
By Dr. Michelle Kmiec, Wake Up World
Depression affects over 25 million Americans a year. But did you know there is a highly effective natural treatment? Inositol – or Vitamin B8.
Inositol Deficiency Linked to Depression
A 1995 study found amazing results treating depression with inositol. As reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry (Vol. 152, No. 5) “the overall improvement in scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was significantly greater for inositol than for placebo at week 4. No changes were noted in hematology or in kidney or liver function… Inositol had a significant antidepressant effect in this study.”
A 2001 study continued to find impressive results, and “continuing reports of inositol’s efficacy in the treatment of depression, panic disorders, and OCD should stimulate replication studies”. Yet conventional medicine (in all its wisdom) continues to treat depression with pharmaceutical medications, despite the findings of a 2010 study that “the benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo may be minimal or nonexistent in patients with mild or moderate symptoms”.
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My guess is, even if you suffer from depression, you haven’t heard about this study. And I’d even go further to guess that most of you have never heard of inositol.
Well if this is you, don’t feel bad. Far too many doctors are also unaware of this vital substance – and that is truly the travesty! The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that nearly 15 million American adults suffer from amajor depressive disorder, and sadly that number does not include or reflect undiagnosed mild depression or the depression that occurs in children. But each year, doctors are prescribing increasing amounts of anti-depressants, which translates to a multi-billion dollar profit (per year) for pharmaceutical companies.
Naturally, any of the numerous antidepressants prescribed today come with a lengthy side-effect sheet including the increased risk of suicidal thoughts, especially in younger patients. Other common side-effects include:
- Dry mouth
- Drowsiness
- Dizziness
- Sexual dysfunction
- Blurred vision
- Skin rash
- Weight gain or loss
- Insomnia or prolonged sleep
- Irritation
- Anxiety
Whew!
Antidepressants Causing More Harm
Where does a person turn when prescription drugs are causing more problems than they are “fixing”? Especially when medical doctors advocate against the use of nutritional solutions, let alone acknowledge that we live in a nutrition deficient country?
Sadly, the answer is that many people opt to finally try the natural route only to find that it didn’t work. This is often due to following reasons:
- They didn’t take the nutrients long enough to experience a change.
- They needed to take the nutrient in a higher dosage, but didn’t for fear of “toxicity”.
- They became confused because of contradictions and misinformation regarding the natural method and simply gave up; now even more depressed than when they started!
All of the above listed reasons are unnecessary. Despite the extensive positive research on many natural treatments, our “healthcare” dictators insist on only recognizing drugs and profit, and patients have come to expect a quick fix instead of a lifestyle change. And the responsibility for this rests largely on the lap of the FDA and AMA.
Your Welfare is Not in the Best Interest of The FDA and AMA
It is interesting that the medical establishment boasts a nearly 95% safety rate regarding antidepressants. However this is a dangerously skewed percentage, giving the patient a false sense that the drug they are taking is actually safe.
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, author of ‘Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?‘ said the following of the alarming correlation between antidepressant use, human behavior and health conditions:
We have witnessed no decrease in suicide, but increases in murder/suicide, suicide, unwed pregnancies, domestic violence, manic-depression, MS, hypoglycemia, diabetes, bankruptcies, divorce, mothers (parents) killing children, road rage, school shootings, cancer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and fibromyalgia since these serotonergic drugs have become so popular and I relate it directly to the effects of these drugs.
~ from the article, “The Aftermath of Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Fen-Phen, & Many Other Serotonergic Drugs
Overdose is also a problem, according to a 2013 press release from the United States Centers for Disease Control:
In 2010, nearly 60 percent of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drugs…. The researchers also found that drugs often prescribed for mental health conditions were involved in a significant number of pharmaceutical overdose deaths. Benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs) were involved in nearly 30 percent (6,497) of these [pharmaceutical overdose] deaths; antidepressants in 18 percent (3,889), and antipsychotic drugs in 6 percent (1,351) ~
More Regarding So-Called “Safe” Antidepressants
Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has treated patients with Prozac and discovered significant safety issues. He wrote “Personal Review: Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants with Safe Effective Alternatives” to bring to light the true darkness of how drugs are approved by our “respected” FDA. An absolute must read!
Of course, any potential treatment depends upon FDA approval. And if a claim is made regarding a vitamin, mineral, or some other natural supplement without the FDA stamp of approval, you could be looking at a serious fine and/or jail time. However, even when the required research is done and the results prove positive, conveniently they often get buried or only partial results are allowed to surface; strategically placed negative studies appear; the cry from the skeptics and the pro-drug community is that the study did not have a significantly large enough trial group or that the long term effects are still unclear.
Well, the following shows the problem with “ethical and unbiased” research. Dr. Joseph Glenmullen found that congress had allowed itself to be manipulated by Big Pharma – and this is no big secret. Shockingly, drugs are routinely approved without long-term confirmation of safety! And short term studies (6-8 weeks) were often designed for only one purpose: market approval.
If a study is designed for specific outcomes, just how unbiased are the result? Do you think the results are skewed? You bet they are. And if you are one who trusts in the FDA stamp of approval, think again for the sake of your own health!
Think Again!
When studies find a natural substance is effective against depression, without the horrific side effects, and is something the body actually needs, why isn’t it given any attention?
If the FDA truly have our health at their forefront of their priorities, why then aren’t they putting their stamp of approval on inositol as fast as they do for drugs such as Prozac?
If a natural substance helps bring balance to our biochemistry, wouldn’t the next logical assumption be that we, as a nation, are possibility nutritionally deficient?
Doesn’t bringing the body back into balance sound more like the intelligent approach to health and wellness, rather than taking a chemical drug with serious side effects that does nothing more than mask the symptoms?
Where is the media, if they are truly unbiased?
And more importantly, why are we the public – or should I say the “FDA guinea pigs” – outraged and demanding the truth?
Dr. Michelle Kmiec is a licensed chiropractor who also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Biology. She is life-long athlete who after curing herself 100% naturally from autoimmune neurological symptoms and anxiety, became an avid nutrition health researcher/promoter, Founder of the natural health website Online Holistic Health and author of Healthcare Freedom Revolution: Exposing the Lies, Deceit and Greed of the Medical Profession.
You can follow Online Holistic Health online, on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.