Here's some depressing recent medical news:Antidepressants don't work.
What's even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into
believing that they DO work. As a physician, this is frightening to
me.Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care
medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in
this country.
The study I'm talking about was published in The New England Journal of
Medicine. It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on
antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show
benefit -- but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are
ineffective. (1)
That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they
do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of
psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of
drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.
The problem is even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies
hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of
people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent
taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it
another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.
That leaves us with a big problem -- millions of depressed people with
no effective treatments being offered by most conventional
practitioners. However, there are treatments available. Functional
medicine provides a unique and effective way to treat depression and
other psychological problems. Today I will review seven steps you can
take to work through your depression without drugs. But before we get
to that, let's take a closer look at depression.
What's in a Name?
"Depression" is simply a label we give to people who have a depressed
mood most of the time, have lost interest or pleasure in most
activities, are fatigued, can't sleep, have no interest in sex, feel
hopeless and helpless, can't think clearly, or can't make decisions.
But that label tells us NOTHING about the cause of those symptoms. In
fact, there are dozens of causes of depression -- each one needing a
different approach to treatment. Depression is not one-size-fits-all,
but it is very common.
Women have a 10 to 25 percent risk and men a five to 12 percent risk of
developing severe major depression in their lifetime. (2) One in ten
Americans takes an antidepressant. The use of these drugs has tripled
in the last decade, according to a report by the federal government. In
2006, spending on antidepressants soared by 130 percent.
But just because antidepressants are popular doesn't mean they're
helpful. Unfortunately, as we now see from this report in The New
England Journal of Medicine, they don't work and have significant side
effects. Most patients taking antidepressants either don't respond or
have only partial response. In fact, success is considered just a 50
percent improvement in half of depressive symptoms. And this minimal
result is achieved in less than half the patients taking
antidepressants.
That's a pretty dismal record. It's only made worse by the fact that 86
percent of people taking antidepressants have one or more side effects,
including sexual dysfunction, fatigue, insomnia, loss of mental
abilities, nausea, and weight gain.
No wonder half the people who try antidepressants quit after four
months.
Now I want to talk to you about the reasons why doctors and patients
have been deceived by the "antidepressant hoax." Despite what we have
been brainwashed to believe, depression is not a Prozac deficiency!
How We have Been Deceived by the Antidepressant Hoax
Drug companies are not forced to publish all the results of their
studies. They only publish those they want to. The team of researchers
that reported their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine
took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both
published and unpublished. They dug up some serious dirt ...
The unpublished studies were not easy to find. The researchers had to
search the FDA databases, call researchers, and hunt down hidden data
under the Freedom of Information Act. What they found was stunning.
After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people,
they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were
published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published. Those
that showed negative results were, in the words of the researchers,
"published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome."
That means the results were twisted to imply the drugs worked when they
didn't.
This isn't just a problem with antidepressants. It's a problem with
scientific research. Some drug companies even pay or threaten
scientists to not publish negative results on their drugs. So much for
"evidence-based" medicine! I recently had dinner with a step-uncle who
runs a company that designs research for drug companies. He designs the
study, hires the researcher from an esteemed institution, directs the
study, writes up the study and the scientist just signs his or her name
after reviewing it.
Most of the time, we only have the evidence that the drug companies
want us to have. Both doctors and patients are deceived into putting
billions of dollars into drug companies' pockets, while leaving
millions with the same health problems but less money.
The scientific trust is broken. What can we do? Unfortunately, there is
no easy answer. But I do think functional medicine, on which my
approach of UltraWellness is based, provides a more intelligent way of
understanding the research. Rather than using drugs to suppress
symptoms, Functional Medicine helps us find the true causes of
problems, including depression.
I see this in so many of the patients I have treated over the years.
Just as the same things that make us sick also make us fat, the same
things that make us sick also make us depressed. Fix the causes of
sickness -- and the depression takes care of itself.
Consider a few cases from my practice ...
A 23-year-old had been anxious and depressed most of her life and spent
her childhood and adolescence on various cocktails of antidepressants.
Turns out, she suffered from food allergies that made her depressed.
Food allergies cause inflammation, and studies now show inflammation in
the brains of depressed people. In fact, researchers are studying
powerful anti-inflammatory drugs used in autoimmune disease such as
Enbrel for the treatment of depression.
After she eliminated her IgG or delayed food allergies, her depression
went away, she got off her medication -- and she lost 30 pounds as a
side effect!
Here's another story ... A 37-year-old executive woman struggled for
more than a decade with treatment-resistant depression (meaning that
drugs didn't work), fatigue, and a 40-pound weight gain. We found she
had very high levels of mercury. Getting the mercury out of her body
left her happy, thin, and full of energy.
Or consider the 49-year-old man with severe lifelong depression who had
been on a cocktail of antidepressants and psychiatric medication for
years but still lived under a dark cloud every day, without relief. We
found he had severe deficiencies of vitamin B12, B6, and folate. After
we gave him back those essential brain nutrients, he called me to thank
me. Last year was the first year he could remember feeling happy and
free of depression.
These are just a few of the dozens of things that can cause depression.
The roots of depression are found in the 7 keys to UltraWelless and the
7 fundamental underlying imbalances that trigger the body to
malfunction. Taking antidepressants is not the answer to our looming
mental health epidemic. The real cure lies in rebalancing the
underlying systems in your body that are at the root of all healthy and
illness.
Here are a few things you can do to start treating your depression
today.
7 Steps to Treat Depression without Drugs
1. Try an anti-inflammatory elimination diet that gets rid of common
food allergens. As I mentioned above, food allergies and the resultant
inflammation have been connected with depression and other mood
disorders.
2. Check for hypothyroidism. This unrecognized epidemic is a leading
cause of depression. Make sure to have thorough thyroid exam if you are
depressed.
3. Take vitamin D. Deficiency in this essential vitamin can lead to
depression. Supplement with at least 2,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 a
day.
4. Take omega-3 fats. Your brain is made of up this fat, and deficiency
can lead to a host of problems. Supplement with 1,000 to 2,000 mg of
purified fish oil a day.
5. Take adequate B12 (1,000 micrograms, or mcg, a day), B6 (25 mg) and
folic acid (800 mcg). These vitamins are critical for metabolizing
homocysteine, which can play a factor in depression.
6. Get checked for mercury. Heavy metal toxicity has been correlated
with depression and other mood and neurological problems.
7. Exercise vigorously five times a week for 30 minutes. This increases
levels of BDNF, a natural antidepressant in your brain.
Overcoming depression is an important step toward lifelong vibrant
health. These are just of few of the easiest and most effective things
you can do to treat depression. But there are even more, which you can
address by simply working through the 7 Keys to UltraWellness.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
Have you been diagnosed with depression?
How have antidepressants worked for you?
Do you plan to try any of the approaches mentioned here?
Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
References
(1) Turner EH et al. 2007. Selective publication of antidepressant
trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. New England Journal of
Medicine. 358: 252-260.
(2) Eaton WW, Kalaydjian A, Scharfstein DO, Mezuk B, Ding Y. 2007.
Prevalence and incidence of depressive disorder: the Baltimore ECA
follow-up, 1981-2004. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 116(3):182-188.
Mark Hyman, M.D. practicing physician and founder of The UltraWellness
Center is a pioneer in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is now sharing
the 7 ways to tap into your body's natural ability to heal itself. You
can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his
videos onYoutube and become a fan on Facebook.
