DO-IT-YOURSELF TREATMENT

With the cost of insurance and medical care today, who couldn't use a few more self-help alternatives, so long as they are effective?

A research study, done at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, has shown this cost-effective approach to be just that.......effective! One website, Overcoming Depression on the InterNet (ODIN), based around Cognitive Behavioral techniques (CBT), is purely "self help" and is delivered without any person-to-person contact. The research showed that those participants who used the site showed improvement after just a few weeks. The only catch, you ask? Participants simply needed to be reminded to use the service!!

FDA approves Cymbalta for the treatment of depression

There is a new depression medication that will hit the pharmacy shelves soon. Cymbalta, which is manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company, falls in the SSNRI (serotonin and norepinephrine) class of antidepressants. In clinical studies, the most common side effects were nausea, dry mouth, constipation, decreased appetite, fatigue, sleepiness and increased sweating. However, the FDA warns against all pharmaceutical antidepressants, and requires that all antidepressants carry a "black box warning" to alert patients of the increased risk of suicide while taking antidepressants. There are alternatives to pharmaceutical antidepressants. You might want to look at Deprex, which is highly effective and safe in the treatment of depression.

Canada Reinstates Deadly Attention Deficit Drug

Adderall XR, which was forced off the Canadian market last February, is being reinstated. The reversal of the Canadian regulator's decision came after a panel of experts reviewed the drug's safety data.

Health Canada pulled Adderall XR off the market on Feb. 9 after learning of 20 cases of sudden death and 12 of stroke in people using the drug. Fourteen of the sudden deaths and two of the strokes were in children. A number of the cases involved children with structural heart defects.

The drug was put back on the market because "there was not enough evidence of an increased harm from Adderall compared to other therapies available."

Health officials expect to have the product back on pharmacy shelves within the next two to three weeks.

Fish Oil for ADHD - Another Study Proves its Benefits

Add another study to the pile that clearly shows the relationship between diet and ADHD. This one is from Austrailia researchers where they, like their American and European counterparts, found that a diet rich in fatty acids improve attention spans and help children with ADHD.

Researchers at the University of South Australia studied 145 ADHD children, Some of these ADHD children were given capsules containing fish oil high in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Children in the other group were given a placebo capsule.

After 15 weeks, parents of the children taking the fish oil capsules reported improved concentration, better behavior and increased reading skills.

Parents of the children in the placebo group reported no improvement in their children.

Scientists conducting the study surmised that the fish oil "oiled the brain," making for smoother transmission through neural membranes.

Attend contains every fatty acid and amino acid the body requires. Additionally, it contains herbal and homeopathic remedies so you get a broad range of treatment. Try fish oil, try Attend, try both together. Just try this approach before trying Ritalin or other drugs commonly used to treat ADHD.

30 Minutes of Classical Music or 10 mg of Valium?

If a recent study is correct, Mozart can calm you down as well as Valium. A Baltimore St. Agnes HealthCare cardiologist found that for his cardic patients, listening to classical music produced the same calming effects as a 10 mg dose of Valium. Taking into consideration the cost and potentially dangerous side effects of Valium, wouldn't you first want to give Bach, Beethoven or Chopin a try before heading for the drugs to reduce your stress?

I used to have classical music playing in the background when the kids were younger. I can tell you from personal experience that it truly does calm the wild beast!

8 Medical Lies and Why I Abandoned Medicine

This great article, written by Shane Ellison, M.Sc. (www.earlytorise.com) came across my desk this morning. I thought I would share...

"8 Medical Lies and Why I Abandoned Medicine"

By education and by trade, I was a drug chemist. My passion for
science motivated a successful career in drug design and synthesis -
in both academia and industry. As a scientist, I witnessed first-
hand the priorities of international pharmaceutical companies (Big
Pharma), which ranked wealth first and health a distant second.

In the pharmaceutical industry, making money supercedes science.
Science no longer prevails in medicine. Instead, modern medicine
has been democratized. Drug approval is a simple matter of 51%
telling the other 49% that a prescription drug is safe and
necessary. The outcome: deadly drugs are approved for use among
misinformed medical doctors and patients. Herein lies a story of
deceit and a chemist's abandonment of modern medicine.

My suspicion of modern medicine began while I was employed by Eli
Lilly to design a new generation of Hormone Replacement Therapy
(HRT) drugs. Such drugs include tamoxifen and raloxifene.
Initially, these drugs were thought to block estrogen receptors
(excess estrogen can initiate cancer growth) and thereby halt
cancer. As time progressed, though, it was learned that they were
also capable of activating estrogen receptors. The end result was a
biochemical environment favorable to cancer growth among users.[1]
The Journal of the American Medical Association recognized this
trend and stated "our data add to the growing body of evidence that
recent long-term use of HRT is associated with an increased risk of
breast cancer and that such use may be related particularly to
lobular tumors."

The risk of cancer associated with HRT drugs was obscured from
doctors by drug companies. This can be seen by the fact that
tamoxifen is the gold-standard used by medical doctors to fight
cancer among their patients, particularly breast cancer. This
explains why medical doctors might not notice its ability to cause
cancer - the patient already has it.

At any rate, my task was made clear: Design HRT "knock-offs" that
are effective without causing cancer.

My attempt to design safer alternatives was unsuccessful. And after
one year, the project was ended. However, access to HRT drugs like
tamoxifen was not. They remained on the market.

The fuel driving the continued use of HRT drugs was disinformation
via Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) advertising. Since 1962, monitoring DTC
advertising has been the sole responsibility of the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). But in a ghastly conflict of interests, the
FDA granted the duty of DTC advertising to the pharmaceutical
companies in 1997. Officially, this was done as a means
of "promoting health awareness to ensure health and safety."
Unofficially, it was done to sell more drugs. DTC advertising
dictated that all women over 50 should use HRT to remain healthy.
Women scurried to their doctors to ask if "HRT was right for them."
My suspicion grew into conflict.

The disinformation campaign behind HRT drugs was not an isolated
case. I learned that drug advertising and science are frequently in
direct opposition to each other. For example:

DTC advertising dictates that lowering cholesterol prevents heart
disease. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that an aspirin a day will keep heart
attack away. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that depression is a disease that must be
treated with prescription drugs. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that ADHD is a disease and that our
children must be treated with amphetamines. Science proves
otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that infants must be vaccinated to prevent
childhood illness. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that blood pressure must be controlled via
a lifetime of servitude to prescription drugs. Science proves
otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that chemotherapy is your first line of
defense against deadly cancer. Science proves otherwise.

DTC advertising dictates that Type II diabetes must be treated with
daily insulin use. Science proves otherwise.

By spreading the aforementioned health myths, DTC advertising forges
a belief among the general public which asserts that drugs - not
lifestyle habits and nutrition - confer health and longevity. And
although, in reality, medicine is only necessary for sick people in
times of emergency, DTC advertising has been wildly successful in
convincing people that being healthy requires a lifetime of
prescription drug use. While it's true that the advertising usually
mentions the potential side effects of drugs, doctors tend to
discount them. They simply regurgitate the pharmaceutical-company
line that "the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks." Don't believe
it.

Western Medicine's plague of deception is deadlier than any virus,
illicit drugs, and terrorism combined. Well-documented in scientific
journals and reported by media outlets nationwide, FDA approved
drugs are killing an estimated 106,000 people every year.[2] That
equates to one individual dying every five minutes from "approved"
drugs - 300 people dying every day. Which is twice as many deaths
in a single year from "approved drugs" as the total number of U.S.
deaths from the Vietnam War.[3] This does not count death by
hospital medical error, which adds 98,000 deaths to the atrocity.
[4] If not killed, an estimated 2 million people are victims of
drug-induced illnesses.[5] These may include drug-induced obesity,
cancer, kidney disease, autism, depression and heart failure.

Hypnotized by DTC advertising, people are oblivious to the ill
effects of prescription drug use. This is evidenced by their
willingness to swallow whatever "the doctor ordered." They drug
their children, hop the borders to smuggle inexpensive prescription
drugs back into the U.S., beg their congressman for discounts and
pay a lifetime of insurance fees in order to snatch up these silent
killers. The avalanche of DTC advertising has smothered common
sense.

For the general public and medical doctors to fully grasp the effect
of Modern Medicine's Deceit, they have to judge the situation by
what a drug is actually accomplishing, rather than what the drug
company ads and pharmaceutically-compliant politicians insist. The
health benefits of prescription drugs are illusory. Step away from
the hypnotic drug ads, close the ghost-written medical journals,
discard research studies dominated by statistical contortionists and
give yourself a prescription-drug reality check: Very few
prescription drugs have any value outside of emergency medicine and
those that do can usually be replaced with safer and less expensive
natural medicine. This was a troublesome lesson for me, as an
aspiring drug chemist, to learn. Unfortunately, it was not the only
one.

Humanitarianism among Big Pharma has been abandoned. The technical
skills of chemists are not being used for humanitarian purposes.
They are being used in a deadly game of profiteering. Those at risk
are not the misinformed, high-paid medical doctors but rather their
patients. Becoming aware of this ripple effect of DTC advertising
led to my abandonment of modern medicine.

I had to face the cold, hard facts: Western Medicine has become a
billion dollar empire not out of keen science, but rather deceit.
The end result has been one nation under drugs. This subjugation
has set a standard of health in America that, by definition, is sick
care disguised as health care.

Forward thinking chemists recognize the deadly trend. But few have
the luxury of speaking out or resigning. The majority of chemists in
the U.S. are foreigners. Their career secures them the right to live
and work in the U.S. This demands allegiance to their employer,
regardless of the end result of their labors. Admittedly, that this
is an intentional act of Big Pharma is speculative.

Individuals outside of the drug industry often question my conflict
with Big Pharma. How can a single person denounce a philosophy
adhered to by millions of medical doctors? That is simple: I ignore
the majority thinking that is steeped in disinformation. I stand
firm in science. Truth in science requires only one scientist to
verify reproducible results in the face of pharmaceutical tyranny.

Science proves that habits, not drugs, create and eradicate disease.
The current devastation of prescription drugs is a warning that
healthy lifestyle and nutrition habits must replace blind worship of
prescription drugs in the pursuit of life-extension. As people
obtain better health intelligence and heed this warning, drug use
will recede. A new model of health care based on common sense, not
profiteering, will emerge.

About the Author

Shane Ellison is dedicated to stopping prescription drug hype in its
tracks. To this end, he has made it his mission to introduce
healthy lifestyle habits as well as safe and effective nutritional
supplements to the public. With his keen ability to sift through
scientific literature and weed out fact from fiction, Shane has
empowered thousands to assert their health freedom by saying "no" to
prescription drugs. Learn more at www.healthmyths.net

References:

[1] Sally, A. et al. Estrogen Plus Progestin and the Incidence of
Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Postmenopausal Women.
Journal of the American Medical Association. 2003;289:2651-2662.
Chen CL, Weiss NS, Newcomb P, Barlow W, White E. Hormone replacement
therapy in relation to breast cancer. Journal of the American
Medical Association. 2002 Feb 13;287(6):734-41.
Spurgeon, D. Long Term use of HRT Doubles Cancer Risk. British
Medical Journal. 2003 Jul 5;327(7405):9

Yoneva T. Taniguchi K. Tsunenari T. Saito H. Kanbe Y, Morikaw K,
Yamada-Okabe H. Identification of a novel, orally bioavailable
estrogen receptor downregulator. Anticancer Drugs. 2005 Aug;16
(7):751-6.

Labrie, F. et al. EM-652 (SCH 57068), a third generation SERM acting
as pure antiestrogen in the mammary gland and endometrium. The
Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 1999 Apr-
Jun;69(1-6):51-84.

[2] Starfield, Barbara. Is US Health Really the Best in the World?
Journal of the American Chemical Society, July 26, 2000-Vol 284,
No.4.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7503122/

[3] There were an estimated 58,000 U.S casualties in the Vietnam War

[4] Moride Y, Haramburu F, Requejo AA, Begaud B. Under-reporting of
adverse drug reactions in general practice. British Journal of
Clinical Pharmacology, 1997 43: 177-181.

[5] Tejal K. Gandhi. et al. Adverse Drug Events in Ambulatory Care.
The New England Journal of Medicine. Volume 348:1556-1564. April 17,
2003. Number 16.

College Life: The Ritalin Advantage?

This is an excellent article compliments of the New York Times News Service, Aug. 1, 2005.

NEW YORK - It was finals week at Columbia University and Angela needed a miracle. Like many of her classmates, Angela, a bleary-eyed junior, had already pulled a pair of all-nighters to get through a paper on "Finnegans Wake," a French test and an exam for her music humanities class. All that remained was a Latin American literature final, but as midnight approached, her stamina was beginning to fade. "This week is killing me," she said, taking a cigarette break in front of the school library. "At this point, I could use a little help."

Thanks to a friend, the tiny orange pill in her purse would provide the needed miracle. Angela, who asked that her last name not be published for fear of alarming her family and angering university officials, popped a 30-milligram tablet of Adderall into her mouth, washed it down with coffee and headed back to the library for another night of cramming. The next morning, she sailed through the exam confidently and scored an A. "I don't think I could keep a 3.9 average without this stuff," she said afterward.

At many colleges across the country, the ingredients for academic success now include a steady flow of analeptics, the class of prescription amphetamines that is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. advertisement




Since Ritalin abuse first hit the radar screen several years ago, the reliance on prescription stimulants to enhance performance has risen, becoming almost as commonplace as No-Doz, Red Bull and maybe even caffeine. As many as 20 percent of college students have used Ritalin or Adderall to study, write papers and take exams, according to recent surveys focused on individual campuses. A study released this month by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia found that the number of teenagers who admit to abusing prescription medications tripled from 1992 to 2003, while in the general population such abuse had doubled.

Dr. Robert A. Winfield, director of University Health Service at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, sees a growing number of students who falsely claim to be ADHD sufferers so they can get a prescription. At least once a week, a jittery, frightened, sleep-deprived student who has taken too many tablets for too many days shows up at his office. "Things have really gotten out of hand in the last four to five years," he said. "Students have become convinced that this will help them achieve academic success."

On campus, the drugs are either sold or given away by people with prescriptions, or they are procured by students who have learned to navigate the psychiatric exams offered by campus health centers, which usually provide the drugs at a discount. Unlike Ritalin, two newer members of the family of analeptics - Adderall and Concerta - come in time-release forms and can keep a patient medicated an entire day.

Much like performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports, the spread of analeptics among college students is raising issues of competitiveness and fairness. But interviews and e-mail exchanges with two dozen Columbia students suggest that the prevailing ethos is that Adderall, the drug of choice these days, is a legitimate and even hip way to get through the rigors of a hectic academic and social life. "The culture here actually encourages people to use stimulants," said Barak Ben-Ezer, a computer science and economics major who prefers Red Bull, a caffeinated beverage and cigarettes over prescription drugs. But pure recreational use of the drugs, which sometimes includes crushing and snorting a tablet, is generally frowned on, he and others said.

Libby, a writing major at Columbia who received a diagnosis of ADHD in first grade, is a typical drug dealer. She often sells her 10-milligram tablets to strangers for $5 or barters them with friends for meals. The demand during exam week can get intense, said Libby, who, like most people interviewed for this article, asked that her last name be withheld. "I'm constantly being bombarded with requests," she said. "People can get desperate."

She said that the attitude toward stimulants has changed drastically since her days in elementary school, when she was forced by her parents to down a daily regimen of Ritalin. "As a kid, I was made to feel different for taking these drugs," she said. "Now it's almost cool to take them."

Many mental health counselors point out that the proliferation of analeptics on college campuses is partly a matter of demographics. The hundreds of thousands of children who were diagnosed with ADHD and attention deficit disorder in the early 1990s are now entering college, and bringing their drugs with them. Libby, for one, takes them only to pull through the occasional paper. "It really messes with my head," she said, adding that in the past the medication has intensified underlying obsessive-compulsive habits.

Some experts, while fretting about the use of analeptics without a prescription, see the advent and acceptance of the drugs as a great revolution that has helped a generation of children with learning disabilities achieve academic success. Dr. Robert Herman, a staff psychiatrist at the University of Maryland, College Park, says he regularly sees students whose grade point averages rise markedly after taking the medication. "Students tell me it's really changed their lives for the better, that they are so much more focused and organized," he said.

Sorting out those with legitimate diagnoses from the deceivers can be nearly impossible, he said, because "in psychiatry, there is no blood test." He said he always tells patients that it's illegal to share their medicine, but added, "I can't exactly go into their dorm room and count their pills."

Requests for comment by Columbia administrators were referred to Dr. Laurence Greenhill, a clinical psychiatrist at the university, who said that the idea that Adderall is a performance enhancer is a myth. "It won't increase your intelligence, it just increases your diligence," he said. "Essentially, the drugs delay the onset of sleep so you can stay up all night and cram."

Designer stimulants like Adderall are far less dangerous than cocaine or methamphetamines. According to the Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, which makes Adderall, medical research has found it has no potential for addiction. But Adderall, like many other medications, can interact with other drugs and create problems, particularly when taken in other-than-prescribed dosages, a spokesman said.

The main side effects of analeptics are increased heart rate, agitation and the kind of paranoia and disorientation that results from amphetamine-induced insomnia. In February, the Canadian government suspended sales of Adderall XR, the time-release version of the medication, noting "20 international reports" of sudden deaths, heart-related deaths and strokes in children and adults. (The standard Adderall is not sold in Canada.) In Washington, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took note of the Canadian ban but said it would take no action.

"These are very safe medications," said Timothy E. Wilens, author of "Straight Talk About Psychiatric Medications for Kids" and a child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. "They have been used for 70 years, and we haven't had terrible catastrophes."

For many college students, the issue about Adderall is not so much health as it is fairness. Among those who refuse to dabble in performance-enhancing substances, the disapproval and bitterness can be fierce. Angelica Gonzales, a civil engineering major at Columbia, said she resented that nearly all her friends have taken Adderall at some point in their academic careers. "It's cheating, and it really bothers me," she said, a bundle of notes in her lap. "I mean, everyone here is smart. They should be able to get by without the extra help."

The more popular sentiment about Adderall's role in academic success was explained by John, an economics major who was raised in a conservative Midwestern culture. He said he always believed that if you had trouble in school, you should just study harder. But since coming to Columbia three years ago, his opinion has changed. "The environment here is incredibly competitive," he said. "If you don't take them, you'll be at a disadvantage to everyone else." With that, he swallowed a 20-milligram tablet of Adderall and headed back into the library.

Ritalin May Be Linked to Cancer

Last year almost 30 million prescriptions were written for Ritalin and similar drugs used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Out of those 30 million prescriptions, 23 million of them were for children. While they are the most prescribed medicines in the world, they are also the most controversial. The Food and Drug Administration is currently looking closely at a small study that linked the use of Ritalin to an increased risk of cancer. The FDA says that even though the data was flawed, for example the size of the study and a lack of a comparison group of children not taking Ritalin, the initial results could not be dismissed. The initial study included 12 children that were on just one form of Ritalin. Out of those 12 children all of them experienced noticeable chromosome abnormalities that are associated with an increased risk of cancer and other serious health effects in just three months time. Everyone has chromosome abnormalities at a level of 1%. The children in this study had their levels rise to 2% to 3%. The FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health(NIH) suggest that the results of this study merit public concern and further study. This was the first study that looked at the chromosome-damaging effects associated Ritalin (methylphenidate - generic name). Ritalin is the most widely prescribed drug that treats Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. By far the doctors in the United States are the biggest distributers of this drug. Sales rose 500 % between 1991 and 1999. Dr. Randa El-Zein, a M.D. Anderson epidemiologist, said that the FDA, NIH and EPA are taking an interest because it is a sensitive matter and we do not want to alarm people but we do need answers on whether this is a safe drug or not. The FDA has called for a second study to be conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. This study will include roughly 400 children over 5 years. El-Zein also said that the new study would include children on Ritalin or its variants; children on Adderall, an ADHD drug that was recently pull from shelves in Canada because of possible adverse health effects; and a control group of children in behavior therapy. If the data from this second study is the same as the information from the initial study, it will suggest patients taking methylphenidate may be at increased risk of cancer. Which would also call for a study on the adverse reactions children taking Concerta, a long-acting form of Ritalin. The documented cases against Concerta include the child becoming psychotic and children who develop heart problems. Methylphenidates a class of drugs that is used to treat ADHD, which Ritalin belongs to also has other health issues that need to be addressed. The FDA is think about changing the labels on all methylphenidates because of potential cardiovascular side effects and psychiatric events.

ADHD and Diet

Studies show that diet can affect Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD. Since every child is different the key is to experiment and find out what foods aggravate your child’s ADHD. Studies show that the foods that most likely to cause aggravation are corn, eggs, citrus, dairy and wheat. Remember finding the right diet for your child can take time. It can take up to eight weeks to show any progress with diet change. Also if your child is deficient in certain nutrients such as fatty acids certain supplements can help in having a positive effect on your child’s Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Stress Busters

People have stress. It is a fact of life. However, there are a few ways that we can remove certain stresses from our lives. First, take a deep breath. This is something that can be done anywhere and not everyone needs to know what you are doing. Remember breath deep in through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth. Second, physical activity can work wonders for your stress. It doesn’t have to be a long mind-blowing workout, instead take a few minutes and walk around your block to let off some steam. Next, positive attitude can go a long way. If you can genuinely come across as a positive person then everyone around should follow suit. People love “positive” role models. Also, your diet plays a big part in how you feel so remember nutrition when you are trying to feel better. Good foods like fruits and veggies will help when you have the “stress munchies”. Next, there is meditation. Do you have a quiet place at home or at work that you can take five minutes to concentrate on your mantra( one particular word or phrase)? Remember to slowly repeat your mantra over and over while slowly breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Last but not least, if your find yourself losing site of your goals or just feel overwhelmed by what has to get done today. Visualize yourself getting these things done and over time you will be able to achieve your goals. Visualization is another type of meditation that can take some to master. So, remember to take deep breaths and you can conquer anything.

Vince Vaughn and ADHD

A fact that many people may not know is that Vince Vaughn, cinema funnyman, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. While going through school, he was diagnosed with chronic dyslexia and ADHD. Instead of giving into stereotypical views and opinions, Mr. Vaughn worked hard and attributes his success to his learning disabilities. Vince believes that having dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder taught him that anything is possible you just have to work a little harder.

Do You Want to Live Longer? Widen Your Circle of Friends.

A recent Australian study shows that friends are valuable to longevity.
Previous studies showed that strong social connections help older people
live longer but these studies did not differentiate between friends and
family. The new study does and the results are in favor of friends over
family.

The study of almost 1500 people over the age of 70 (when the study began)
showed that those with five or more friends were 22 percent less likely to
die in the following decade. The presence or absence of family had no impact
on survival.

Although researchers are unsure why friends - and not family - aid in the
survival rate, they postulate that friends might help in times of stress
while family members can be a source of stress.

And we all know stress kills.

Depression in Men

Men are from Mars, which explains why a men's depression symptoms are so
unlike women’s.

The symptoms of depression manifest themselves so differently in men that
the people that love them - and even themselves for that mater - often fail
to recognize the symptoms. The woman in depression will cry - and often. Men
just don’t go there. Society teaches boys that to cry or even to show
sadness is to show weakness. Men have become quite adept at bottling and
hiding their emotions.

Even if the man in your life does not open up and discuss their true
feelings, there are tell-tale signs of depression - if you know what to look
for.

Does the man in your life displays some of the symptoms below;
- Behaves violently
- Has a lost interest in sex
- Avoids friends, family and other previously enjoyable activities
- Takes serious risks such as reckless or extramarital affairs
- Has difficulty thinking clearly
- Has trouble sleeping or sleeps more than usual
- Has excessive feelings of failure and/or guilt

Men are less likely to see treatment for depression. Men are also four times
more likely to ill themselves. Finding effective treatment is essential.

Exercise alone is a highly effective depression treatment. Medical therapy
helps about 50 percent of people with depression. Counseling also helps
about 50 percent of the time. Combining all three, along with using
alternative depression treatments like Deprex, provides a well-rounded
treatment plan that approached healing from many angles.

Jut remember, depression is not a character flaw and it is nothing to be
ignored. The first step to healing is to recognize the presence of
depression, muster the courage to address depression and seek help in
finding the joy in life again.

Tetanus for Depression?

I often wonder how scientists come up with their discoveries. What on earth
compelled Louis Pastuer to inject people with toxic bacteria? Lucky for the
world, his germ theory that led to the concept of vaccinations cured instead
of killed.

I thought about Pasteur, the founder of the science of microbiology, this
morning when I read an article entitled “Docs Use Tetanus to Cure
Depression.” It appears that Spanish scientists in their labs at the
University of Barcelona found that sub-lethal doses of tetanus show promise
as a depression treatment. Fine if it works, but what on earth compelled
these scientists to inject their study subjects with tetanus?

There are two parts to the tetanus molecule. One part produces the toxic and
potentially deadly tetanus symptoms while the other part is harmless. The
experiments indicate that the harmless part of the tetanus molecule inhibits
serotonin from making its way to connecting with neurons. Scientists believe
depression - as well as some behavior disorders - can be curtailed by
inhibiting serotonin from reaching the neurons. Scientists also believe this
tetanus treatment can be used as protection against neuro-degenerative
disorders such as Parkinson’s.

It will be interesting to follow this development. It could add a whole new
value to getting your tetanus shot.

Simple Ways to Deal with Stress

Hey moms - are you STRESSED? Here are strategies for dealing with and reducing stress:

Exercise. Any kind of physical activity helps to reduce stress and provides a release for anger.

Eat well. Limit caffeine and alcohol; eat a balanced diet.

Deep breathing. Close your eyes and breathe in slowly. Let the breath out slowly.

Stretch. Practice simple stretches such as rolling your head in a half circle.

Get enough sleep. Establish a regular sleep pattern.

Laugh. See a funny movie, go to a comedy club, joke with friends.

Cry. Crying can be as good a release as laughing. Talk with a friend, mate or child. Express feelings you might be holding in.

Build a success file. Remind yourself of your accomplishments.

Visualize. Keep focused on the future. Visualize yourself happy.

Journal. Writing is a great way to order your thoughts and to see progress over time.

Limit negative influences. This may include limiting news watching or other television shows that are pessimistic.

Get out of the house. Be with friends or family. Don't isolate yourself.

Consider involvement in a social cause. Focusing on others can bring a sense of fulfillment.

Find a counselor or support group. If you need help untangling your feelings, call for help.

A Kennedy Fuels the Autism Debate

You will see posts that pertain to autism's connection to childhood vaccinations. It should be noted that many believe the damaging ingredient thimerosal (a mercury preservative which is a known neurotoxin) can also cause ADHD. You can follow the link to see the article or read it here. It's a good one.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/14/eveningnews/main709269.shtml

A Kennedy Fuels Autism Debate
July 14, 2005


Is there a link between autism and childhood vaccines?

Medical experts say no -- resoundingly -- but a few advocacy and parent groups refuse to believe them. As CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, those who believe there is such a link now have the forceful and highly controversial support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Advocates say that it's no coincidence that one new study indicates that when a mercury preservative was removed from most vaccines, autism rates in California went down. After growing for more than a decade, new cases of autism may be slowing down in California. That's according to data compiled by the state that has been on the leading edge of identifying and tracking the nation's autism epidemic. The trend is fueling a debate over vaccines and the autism epidemic--a debate that Kennedy has now entered.

Kennedy is lending the famous family name to a new cause: the idea that something in vaccines triggered the autism and ADD epidemics.

Attkisson asked Kennedy what he thought when he initially heard of the link between autism and childhood vaccines. (Video excerpts of interview)

"I was skeptical but sympathetic," says Kennedy. "These are people who have been through hell, literally."

After researching studies on both sides, Kennedy became a believer.

"The science connecting brain damage to thimerosal is absolutely overwhelming," he says.

What is thimerosal? It's a vaccine preservative containing mercury, which is a known neurotoxin. It was in lots of kids' vaccines thru the 90's, as the CDC kept adding new shots. At the same time, autism and ADD cases skyrocketed.

Not only that, but there's new word this week from the bellwether state of California: as mercury has been phased out of most childhood vaccines in recent years, new autism cases have declined. But that is just one study.

Health officials like Dr. Tanja Popovic insist the research definitively shows mercury in vaccines doesn't trigger autism.

"Based on what we know right now, we don't think there's an association," says Dr. Popovic.

Studies suggesting a link have been dismissed by virtually all mainstream medical organizations in America and Europe. And health officials are deeply concerned that high profile advocates like Kennedy could stop parents from vaccinating their children and deadly epidemics will return.

Despite all the attention he is getting, Kennedy tells Attkisson that there is resistance to putting the debate out in the public. He says he wrote an op-ed piece on the issue -- but no publication would print it, he says.

"I went to all the major newspapers and nobody would touch it," he says.

One publication did bite. Salon.com printed Kennedy's article in which he made a highly speculative and unproven claim of a full-fledged government cover-up.

Government officials, for example, held a private meeting when an early study did connect mercury in vaccines to autism, ADD and more. The public wasn't invited--but pharmaceutical companies were. One official at the meeting said "we are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits" without more research.

Kennedy insists there is a cover-up. Dr. Popovic refutes this claim.

"Quite to the contrary," she says. "We've always been open about all of our activities."

Meanwhile, public health officials struggle to end the whole vaccine-autism debate. But with the Kennedy name attached, it seems destined to survive in controversy for now.


© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Is It ADD or Sleep Deprivation?

Several years ago a University of Michigan study found that children who snore are two to four times more likely to have attention deficit and hyperactivity problems than there non-snoring peers. Children with the worst sleep problems were nine times as likely to develop hyperactivity than children of the same age who did not have sleep problems.

Now, four years later, researchers have the follow-up data. Children with daytime sleepiness in the original study were more likely to have developed hyperactivity four years later. The follow-up study is the first to show that sleep problems come before hyperactive behavior and that sleep problems predict hyperactivity.

Researchers in the late 1990s surveyed parents in pediatric clinic waiting rooms. The surveyed parents agreed to allow researchers to follow up on the survey four years later. Of the 866 parents originally surveyed, 229 returned the follow-up survey.

Researchers believe that snoring, sleep apnea and other sleep problems diminish the quality of sleep, reduce oxygen levels and affect daytime behavior.

STOP POISONING OUR CHILDREN

International Medical Veritas Association


The march/rally on Washington to protest the use of
thimerosal in vaccines is only the opening confrontation in what
will be a long campaign to free the world from the yoke of
pharmaceutical terrorism. There is nothing civilized about the fact
that all over the world the medical establishment is injecting
poison (thimerosal/mercury) into young children and getting away
with it by denying there is anything wrong with doing so. As long as
it continues and we allow it to continue we are card carrying
members of the human race that condones the poisoning of its young.
We might as well be a part of an African tribe that performs
Clitoridectomy (genital mutilation) of its young girls or those of
ancient times who would sacrifice their young to the gods. Today we
sacrifice our babies to the medical gods whose benefit vs. risk
philosophies justify the continued sacrifice. As long as our
children do not die of infectious diseases medical officials seem
content. They could care less, it seems, if they die from vaccines
or live a life of gross disability because of the toxins in
vaccines. Their hearts are closed and strapped in steel because they
will not even entertain the possibility that vaccines are dangerous
enough to maim and kill.



Until a "hard-core, pissed-off bunch of people"[i] get
together to force medical officials off their thrones medicine will
continue with the type of activities that were born in the thirties
in Nazi Germany, in their hospitals and later in their concentration
camps. Is it acceptable to allow them to continue a few days, months
or years longer with this human obscenity of injecting nerve poisons
into babies? Even the 'good' politicians think it is acceptable for
the laws being passed on the state level are not putting an absolute
stop to the madness. The New York State Legislature passed an act
that, beginning in mid-2008, would prohibit further sale or use of
the mercury compound thimerosal in vaccines for children younger
than 3, and for inoculating pregnant women. So until then the
barbaric process will continue even though the evidence is piling up
that children can and will get hurt tommorrow. Isn't this a little
like telling a rapist or child molester it is all right to continue?
As long as it is doctors doing the abusing our civilization deems it
acceptable.



Who would have extended the medical experiments in the
concentration camps a few months or years longer? Tragically we
discover that the former board of directors of several of today's
pharmaceutical companies would surely have had such experiments
continued, for they were the ones who built the place that brought
hell to earth in the first place.[ii] Actually it all started long
before Hitler was ever born, started with the toxic preservatives in
foods at the end of the 1800s. It started even before that with the
sugar slave trade. Vast amounts of money are made poisoning people.
It's an obscene way to make money. It is simply an abomination of
human nature. But it is a popular thing to do and has made certain
men and women fantastically wealthy. In 1816 Thomas Jefferson
wrote, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our
moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government
to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of their
country." The bane of corporate capitalism is the insane greed that
drives people to destroy human life and natural environments.
Corporate capitalism is already responsible for more death and
disease then all the communist madmen put together. Through the
centuries this greed and wealth has bred a group of men and women
who are true abominations, people who bring terror to earth tearing
the fabric of humanity, destroying what it means to be a caring
compassionate human being. These are the people we are trusting with
our children's lives. Are we insane?


When we buy into the paradigm that justifies the poisoning
of babies we defeat the nature of good by joining the dark side
giving it power to defeat us. We do this when accept the reasoning
behind childhood immunizations. Poki Stewart Mankung from the public
health department of Santa Cruz County says vaccines are crucial for
our children. "We, in the United States, have had the unprecedented
fortune to have lived these past 50 or so years in a period when
common, devastating childhood diseases essentially became extinct."
Mankung would like us to share his belief that this would not have
been the same case without the vaccines. And he would also like us
to forget that a new disaster is happening. Instead of kids falling
from infectious diseases they are falling from chronic diseases,
which are no less devastating than infectious ones. Mankung would
not like anyone to know that vaccines themselves are, in part,
responsible for much of the increase in chronic diseases and a tidal
wave of human misery. A careful study of the dangers of vaccines
would clearly lead one to think differently then Mankung. In reality
vaccines are crucial for your children to stay away from because
they contain neurotoxic poisons and because they were created and
are produced by the very people who built the Auschwitz
Concentration Camp.






Just fifteen years after they were convicted in the Nuremberg
War Crimes Tribunal,
Bayer, BASF and Hoechst (Aventis) were again the architects of
the next major human rights
offences. In 1962, they established the Codex Alimentarius
Commission. All these men
were quickly let out of prison only to join up with the
pharmaceutical companies again.



People who would have mercury injected into your baby's body
are not exactly the kind of people to trust with your baby's life.
Poisoning has a long tradition in the United States as in Germany.
And though the mercury story and the use of thimerosal in vaccines
is a terrible part of it, it is not the only issue when it comes to
chemical poisoning. For instance, American soldiers who entered POW
camps at the end of World War II found stockpiles of fluoride stored
near the water supply. When they asked what the fluoride was used
for, they were told that the Germans used the substance as an
additive to the prisoners' water, to make them docile.[iii] This is
the first known incidence of intentionally fluoridating drinking
water. Though most of the countries of the world have rejected
fluoridation not so the Americans, who seem to have a passion for
poisoning their own.



The American government seems to have a tendency to treat its
own people as if they were enemies of the state. The government
doesn't protect its citizens it poisons them on a massive scale with
aspartame and MSG and a line up of chemicals a mile long. Let's stop
pretending that they do not know what they are doing. The American
government made a huge mistake though, in the early 1990s when they
tripled the amount of mercury injected directly into baby's bodies
and now the cat is out of the bag and more and more people are
realizing that they cannot count on their doctors or their
government to protect the lives of their young.



Poison was normally chosen as a weapon to kill through the
ages because poison was not traceable like an arrow in the back. But
now the tracks are clear and scientists from all over the world
point to this vast increase in mercury that clearly exceeded FDA,
EPA and the World Health Organization's limit for what is tolerable
to human biosystems. So the FDA, the CDC, the entire medical
establishment as well as the pharmaceutical companies are caught
holding responsibility for poisoning a generation of children with
mercury. It is fifteen years later and we are just starting to roar,
just starting to say no, just starting to wake up from our drugged
stupor to realize we are being had by professionals who lie to the
public as well as themselves.



In the vaccine arena we are dealing with one of the most
carefully constructed money making machines ever put together.
After two hundred years of people battling about this the winning
side is not about to roll over and play dead, plead for mercy, or
concede that they were dead wrong. It will be very interesting to
see what manifests in Washington on the 20th but we must remember
real success will come when the very idea that anything justifies
the poisoning of one more child is thrown down. More children have
died from vaccines then there are medical officials in the world and
more children have been struck down with autistic spectrum disorders
then there are doctors in the world.



In a world where we think nothing of buying toothpaste for
our children with poison in it, with fluoride, what can we
expect?



Yes we have to understand that there are multiple causes of
autism spectrum disorders but in understanding those causes it
becomes clear what the primary cause is - mercury poisoning.
Everyone in the world is actually being poisoned with mercury when
you realize that about 10,000 or more tons are being released, one
way or another, into the human biosphere each year. We are being
terribly slow in stopping the poisoning and we are going to pay a
terrible price for this.



Vaccination is actually a key battleground in the fight
against the deliberate poisoning of humanity and if we allow mercury
in childhood vaccinations we really have no hope to stop it in
general. We have literally lost the war against the bad guys leaving
them in such power that they have no shame to poison children. They
have left us splintered and confused and divided in our objections,
thus weak and impotent. Instead of winning what needs to be won they
have us compromising on vaccine questions joining with the enemy in
celebrating the wonderfulness of their ghastly designs that have
everyone jumping up and down saying how wonderful childhood
immunizations are.



For so much less we have seen huge investigations. Watergate
and Contragate riveted the nation but for our children we have done
little. It is my guess that the marchers on Washington will be
ignored or ridiculed, as Robert Kennedy is now being, and the real
issues ignored as usual. I hope I am wrong but certain lessons only
come the very hard way and what I am saying is that when you play
around with vaccine issues, ignoring or denying any part of the
whole picture, weakness is displayed and everything is lost. Yes we
can focus on the mercury issue but too narrow a focus will defeat
the very purpose of protecting our children from being hurt by the
medical industrial complex.

It is encouraging to hear from Washington that there are
still humans who care about our children. That was made evident this
week when a new federal law was passed that bars states and schools
from keeping students out of class in cases when parents disagree
with a recommendation to medicate a child. There is reason to
celebrate that school officials will no longer have the upper hand
in deciding whether children should be given Ritalin or other
controlled substances. Yet that does not atone for the people and
organizations which have turned the government into the largest
terrorist organization on earth. Perhaps the government can begin to
redeem itself and cut the FDA and the CDC off from itself like one
would cut a gangrened arm or leg.

When I was a young boy, my father taught me that you kill a
snake
by cutting off its head -- not by grabbing hold of one scale on
its body or
grabbing its tail. To that end, I champion the death of all the
corrupt
and greed-driven entities, be they governments, corporations,
industries,
or individuals who, in the name of the "greater good,"
physically harm,
maim and/or destroy others to satisfy their greed and/or lust
for power.

Dr. Paul King



"There's tremendous profit in promoting the death-dealing
lifestyles that many of us lead. You may not believe it, but the
leading promoters of our destructive lifestyles are the United
States government, the food and drug industries, and the medical
community." wrote the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, in his
book "A Torchlight for America", in the section called "The
Merchants of Death."



Vaccines are at the center of all this because it takes the
massive poisoning down to the level of the newborn baby. The battle
has to be won for the babies first and then we can move on to saving
humanity from a side of itself that should never have come into
being. "This is a battle between 'We the People', and the free
world's biggest and worst enemy - ever - "Big Pharma," and we're
just getting started with the counter-attack," writes Tim Bolen. I
hope some people going to Washington make some signs saying STOP
POISONING OUR CHILDREN. Or STOP PHARMACEUTICAL TERRORISM. BRING THE
FDA TO TRIAL. COVER UP GOING ON AT THE CDC. I imagine though that
this first demonstration will be nice; people trying to be nice
though they do not feel nice and are not up against nice people at
all.



It is through the childhood immunization schedule that we
see the worst but it is only the tip of the iceberg. The government
poisons not only its citizens' young but its soldiers on the
battlefield, with enriched Uranium soon after threatening soldiers
with court marshals if they do not take enough vaccine shots to kill
a horse. And now the US government wants to get a few more million
kids on antidepressant drugs after it diagnoses them for mental
illness. Let us hope that a sleeping giant is just starting to awake
and human history will see a demonstration of indignation the world
has never seen before.



Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Director International Medical Veritas Association
http://www.detoxchelationclinic.com
http://www.imva.info
http://www.worldpsychology.net

Give Tom Cruise a Break

The mental health industry has completely slammed Tom Cruise for opposing
the use of mind-altering drugs like antidepressants and ADHD medications.
This same industry that receives untold billions of dollars from
pharmaceutical companies.

Tom Cruise did not state that depression and attention deficit disorder are
not real -- only that there are healthy and effective alternative therapies
to mind altering drugs. This is a great message to hear, especially as the
adverse side effects, deaths and suicides linked to antidepressants and ADHD
medications continue to mount.

The Case for Family Dinner

Do you want to reduce the risk of alcohol or drug use with your teen child? Have dinner with your child - and often.

A University of Michigan study points to the dinner table as a powerful predictor of a child's well-being. The time spent passing the potatoes better predicts a child's well-being than time sent in school and time spent studying. Time spent breaking bread with the family better predicts a child's well-being than time spent in church or in sports activities.

Often, dinner is the only time a family is together at the same time and place yet this practice has been on the decline for decades. Cooking dinner is a chore easily dropped when there is a fast-food restaurant minutes away from most Americans and the majority of American families are headed by either a single parent or two parents who both work. Yet, the benefits to the family and children are clear.

_ A National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse study showed that children between the ages of 12 and 17 are less likely to smoke marijuana or try alcohol if they share a family meal five or more times weekly.
_ A study published in the Archives of Family Medicine show that children who eat regular meals with their families have better dietary habits, consume more fruits and vegetables and consume less fried foods.

Keep in mind that the family meal does not need to be extravagant. It just needs to be shared. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is just fine.