Many prescribed meds cause dehydration

Many prescribed meds cause dehydration, and the sort of meds I'm thinking of are not the sort that cause increased urine output, such as diuretics. I'm thinking of the ones that increase thirst because they cause the body, principally in its  blood vessels, to retain too much salt/sodium, along with the water which sodium attracts to itself. Over time these meds impair the efficiency of the kidneys. Paradoxically, in fact, these meds reduce urine output, rather than increase it, and so, often, this problem may be misdiagnosed as urinary retention.

What are these meds? you may be wondering. - Well they are the drugs I frequently warn about on my website and in my blogs, namely most antidepressants, many prescribed steroids and HRT, anti-psychotics, anti-convulsants, NSAID painkillers and others.

By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. And you may unwittingly increase the problem by drinking, say, coffee, which is widely considered to have diuretic properties. Alcohol too is a diuretic. If you are thirsty, you would be much better slaking your thirst with plain water. Salty drinks are clearly inadvisable, and sugary drinks also tend to increase thirst. You are not in need of vague 'liquid'; you are specifically in need of PLAIN WATER.

So a major, rather strange, consequence of taking these dangerous, over-prescribed drugs, is that while taking them you tend to be chronically thirsty (particularly if taking a high dose), and chronically in a state of dehydration, yet carrying around with you a lot of excess water, mainly in your blood vessels, particularly in your poor, over-stretched, weakened, increasingly painful veins. See my website for helpful information and suggestions relating to these problems.

If you are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, do be aware that taking anti-depressants may harm the unborn baby.

If you are pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, do be aware that taking anti-depressants may harm the unborn baby. Read this BBC News report. You may like to read further about anti-depressants on my webpage here, and some further advice for pregnant mothers here.

Are you troubled by Brain Fog? Too 'foggy' and tired really even to think what to do?

Are you troubled by Brain Fog? Wish you could counter it but don't know what to do? Too 'foggy' and tired really even to try to think about what to do? Well I offer some simple  suggestions.

First off I'd recommend cutting down on salt and salty food. People who try this are commonly amazed at how much better they feel, and how much brighter, happier and more energetic. Even in just a few days.

Secondly, cut down on sugar and sugary food, and on bread/biscuits/wheat. These are notorious for causing fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which can lead on type 2 diabetes, with its attendant health problems of overweight, tiredness, vision damage/possible blindness, cognitive decline, impaired mobility, depression and many more, including premature death.

Improve your nutrition. - You're tired and you can't think straight and that makes processed ready meals/convenience foods a big temptation. Try hard to overcome this temptation because this sort of food is usually high in salt and sugar, the baddies I have already indicted, and very low in nutrients that your brain and body need. They are nutrient-poor and baddie-rich. Instead of taste, they offer addictive saltiness and sweetness, with the added harm of artificial colours, artificial toxic garbage like MSG (monosodium glutamate), synthetic transfats to lengthen 'shelf life', etc. (Note: if an ingredient lengthens the shelf life of a food product, it's a pound to a penny that it shortens the longevity of the person who eats the product!)

Vitamins that are especially helpful for brain fog are Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D. - If you click on the Vitamin D label beneath this blogpost you can read some of my earlier blogposts that go into more detail about this very important vitamin. See also this related page with more info about Vitamin D and other essential nutrients.) Similarly you can read further about Vitamin B12 by clicking on its label beneath this post.

Avoid taking anti-depressants, the ultimate in pharmaceutical junk! Tricyclics and any other drugs that have anticholinergic properties cause memory loss, cognitive impairment/decline and can lead eventually to dementia. You've only got one brain and one body. Don't damage them with pharmaceutical junk.

As you gradually improve your health in the ways - or at least some of the ways - I have mentioned - you will hopefully soon have the energy to do a bit more and take a bit more exercise than you can manage at present. Exercise will in turn add to the virtuous circle and reduce your brain fog and ill-health even further.

And here's a more authoritative and much more detailed webpage about clearing brain fog for when you can cope with reading more demanding reading material than my little effort.

If you are going to start taking prescribed steroids, e.g. prednisone, or prescribed antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline, you would be wise to avoid food containing added salt

If you are going to start taking prescribed HRT or steroids, e.g. prednisone, or prescribed antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline, you would be wise to avoid food containing added salt/sodium. See my webpages http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html. See also my webpage about salt/sodium in food.

A reminder about the high levels of salt in bacon

A few days ago the Guardian reported that CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) has again warned about the high salt content of bacon, and has described it as "now the second-biggest source of salt in the UK diet after bread." - Me, I sometimes describe it as laden with salt. One of the reasons the food manufacturers make it so salty is so that they can get away with adding more water to it, because salt helps to hold water in a product. This enables salt water to be sold at the same price as the bacon which holds it, and accounts for that off-putting feature, when frying bacon, of seeing water vapour rising from it as some of the water content is driven out by the heat. 

 

If you have high blood pressure, or if you are overweight - particularly if you are overweight as a result of taking anti-depressants or prescribed steroids or anti-epileptics or anti-psychotics - then cutting down on salt-laden food like bacon would benefit your health immensely and you would feel sooo much better. - Go on! - Give it a try!

Do you have a lot of unpleasant symptoms of ill-health and keep developing more? And keep getting more and more pills to deal with the new symptoms?

I sometimes look at forums on the internet and in particular those in which forum members write about symptoms or diagnoses they have, and invite other members to suggest a course of action. Mostly other forum members do indeed try to help the OP by suggesting a course of action or by sympathising with the OP because they think they themselves have, or have had, the same problem and know how difficult it is to cope with. 

 

There is usually a strong tendency to suggest what they feel will be acceptable to the OP. Thus if the OP is taking such and such drug for such and such problem, and a second drug for the second problem... and an nth drug for the nth problem, rounded off by an anti-depressant for feeling fed up about it all, then the response might well be to get the GP to send the OP for, say, an X-ray or a CT scan or MRI scan, for this or that or the other in the hope of sorting out the new symptom by giving it a medical name and another pack of pills to tackle it or to 'legitimatise' it.

 

 

My cast of mind would cause me to wonder whether some of the troubling symptoms are caused by the actual drugs themselves, or possibly by the fact that the drugs are adversely reacting with one another. Another thought I would have straight away is to consider ditching the anti-depressant (by gradually reducing the dose) since anti-depressants 'work' no better than dummy pills and have a multitude of serious adverse effects that cause harm both in the present and in the future, to both the body and the brain. Most importantly I'd be concentrating on what has caused all these nasty symptoms - 'cos they sure as Hell weren't caused by lack of pharmaceutical drugs in the body!

 

 

It is increasingly the case, surely, that the unnatural and unhealthy food that the food industry foists on its customers is responsible for a large proportion of the degenerative illnesses those customers suffer from. - "There is no compulsion to buy unhealthy food!" I hear you cry - and you are right. I agree with you. - But like the magic food of the wicked witches and goblins in some fairy stories, modern convenience foods are highly addictive. Junk foods create junk food junkies, enslaved by their food cravings.

 

 

If a daring forum member were to suggest a change of diet - cutting down on salt or sugar perhaps, eating fresh food, home-cooked, much more often than ready-cooked crap from the supermarket, drinking water rather than highly addictive fizzy drinks, one of which drinks can be used as a pretty effective toilet-cleaner! - I don't think that answer would go down too well. Gosh no. - Health is nothing to do with food and nutrition, you know...(o: - Ill-health is caused by magic and must be treated by magical drugs - even if they don't work and require another drug to remedy their side-effects!

When * come, they come not single spies but in battalions.

Yes, you recognised that, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies But in battalions," is a quotation from a speech by Claudius, in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is something most of us have experienced: something goes wrong, something else goes wrong, and so on. Or as the saying goes, It never rains but it pours.

I am particularly aware of the way that troubles seem almost to breed, when I think of the adverse side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Adverse effects of drugs are often spoken of as rare or infrequent. I do not believe this to be the case. They are unfortunately common. For example, consider the many drugs, including including prednisolone (also sold as Pediapred®), prednisone (also sold as Deltasone®, Meticorten, Orasone, SK-Prednisone and Sterapred®), methylprednisolone (Brand names Depo-Medrol, Solu-Medrol), cortisone, hydrocortisone, dexamethasone (Brand name Decadron), betamethasone, beclomethasone, fludrocortisone, triamsinolone, desonide, fluprednidene, clobetasone, alclomethasone, momethasone, desoxymethasone, fluosinonide, budesonide, fluosinolone, triamcinolone (trade names Kenalog, Aristocort, Nasacort, Tri-Nasal, Triderm, Azmacort, Trilone, Volon A, Tristoject, Fougera, Tricortone, Triesence) and other corticosteroids, Advair - a combination drug that contains Fluticasone, a corticosteroid, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen - like Premarin and Prempak, and like some birth control medication (contraceptives) - amitriptyline, doxepin and some other anti-depressants, some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably sodium valproate (trade name Epilim), that cause sodium retention.

In effect, sodium retention means that the blood vessels have become distended/swollen with extra sodium and water, and therefore the blood volume is greater than normal. That greater blood volume obviously means that the person's weight is increased by the weight of that extra fluid in the bloodstream. And because the walls of the blood vessels have become stretched, they must also be thinner and weaker, and so the blood volume may more easily fluctuate as the person ingests more, or less, salt/sodium and salty food. This in turn makes blood pressure more variable, and also adds to the variability of blood sugar concentration and increased variability of concentration of other components in the blood. Greater variability of blood sugar concentration is a factor in increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The weakening of the blood vessel walls increases the risk of stroke and of heart problems.

The weight gain will continue if the offending drugs continue to be taken without reducing sodium intake (and this is usually the case because physicians rarely warn their patients about the dangers and consequences of eating added salt when taking these drugs). So obesity, or even morbid obesity, is a very real possibility. The patients are then likely to be told to eat less and take more exercise in order to lose their excess weight. Taking this advice would cause them further harm because their excess weight is the result of the prescribed medication and their intake of added salt (even if it is only a modest intake of salt), and not because of over-eating or taking in too many calories and expending too few calories. If the person then tries to diet/eat less food than their body requires this will exacerbate the nutritional deficits they are already experiencing as a consequence of sodium retention depleting the body of essential minerals (principally calcium, but also magnesium and potassium). A host of health problems tend to develop because of this malnutrition. They may include nerve damage, excruciating cramps, osteoporosis or even osteomalacia, and therefore very weakened bones and much greater risk of fractures, weaker muscles and reduced mobility.

The swollen blood vessels/veins will proliferate, causing the skin to look redder because of the blood vessels close to the skin surface; the skin itself will be thinning and be becoming weakened and overstretched by the greater volume/mass of the person's swollen, heavier body with its increasing fluid retention. The kidneys become over-worked and their function impaired by the greatly increased blood volume and similarly the heart becomes enlarged. The enlarged heart takes up too much room in the thoracic cavity so that breathing becomes more laboured and the person begins to suffer from breathlessness.

And I haven't even mentioned yet the insults of the ignorant, who add to the emotional problems of the victims of drug-induced sodium/water/fluid retention and obesity, the social isolation, the constant misunderstandings, the fatigue, the pain from the over-stretched blood vessels and over-stretched skin and weakened bones. - Have I sketched out for you enough of the battalions of troubles/sorrows/degenerative health problems/adverse side-effects that can and do come from taking certain pharmaceutical drugs when they are too readily prescribed, by prescribers ill-informed about their side-effects and insufficiently informed about the many possible contributory factors involved in causing obesity? I feel sure that, following my lead, you will be able yourself to think of many more adverse consequences from taking these powerful and highly dangerous drugs, with their insidious cumulative damage. Best avoid them if you can!

See obesity and the salt connection, amitriptyline and sodium in foods.

Anti-depressants increase the risk of falls for elderly people with dementia

BBC News reports that anti-depressants increase the risk of falls for elderly people with dementia. "Many dementia patients also suffer from depression and drugs known as selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are frequently prescribed. But the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reports that the risk of injuries from falls was tripled."

Now that's a real shame, because anti-depressants should not be being prescribed at all, since research has shown that Anti-depressants are 'no better than dummy pills'. People who are suffering from dementia have enough to contend with, without having to cope with an increased risk of falling and all the other adverse effects of anti-depressants. - Rather than these unhelpful, harmful meds it would be better to try to improve the nutritional status of dementia sufferers. I suggest, for example, making sure they are not deficient in vitamin D. An adequate level of vitamin D would strengthen their muscles and bones (and immune system) and would render falls from any cause less likely to result in hip fractures and other broken bones. It's well past time that prescribers read the relevant research and acted on it, instead of carrying on in their own sweet uninformed way regardless.

The adverse effects of prescribed drugs often prove far worse than the health problem for which they have been prescribed

The adverse effects of prescribed drugs often prove far worse than the health problem for which they have been prescribed. This is particularly the case with prescribed steroids and prescribed antidepressants. This newspaper article gives details of a woman who is suffering the usual side-effects from prescribed steroid medication, and the Comments beneath the article illustrate how some sufferers would rather have continued with the original health problem than be having to endure the distressing side-effects. But their doctors did not warn them about the routine serious side-effects. Steroids are particularly damaging to children and teenagers, even when, as in Tara's case, the medication was really necessary.

Anyone considering taking antidepressants should realise that these drugs are no better than placebo (dummy) pills. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'. Nevertheless, despite being largely useless at alleviating depression, the many adverse side-effects are common and long-lasting - sometimes life-long. There are much safer therapies, e.g. MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression.

Are you on a diet? - Dieting/inadequate food intake is an often overlooked, but very significant, cause of depression. Good nutrition is an excellent way to improve your health. Obviously when you are not eating enough for the needs of your body and your brain you will experience both physical and mental harm. - It is not necessary (or desirable, or effective, or even safe) to diet to lose weight. The safe, natural way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoid ready meals and takeaways because these are usually highly salted and offer poor nutrition. They are likely to worsen your feelings of depression.

When taking prescription drugs that cause fluid retention/sodium retention/weight gain, including steroids, antidepressants, anti-convulsants, anti-epileptics, anti-psychotics and many other drugs, you need to keep your intake of salt and salty food as low as possible. This is the way to reduce the harm that the side-effects cause.

New Year Resolution Suggestions

If you've not yet decided on your New Year Resolution, here are some suggestions that will benefit the health of your body, the efficiency of your brain and the happiness of your spirit:

1) Give up dieting. It is a major cause of ill-health and depression. Dieting to try to lose excess weight is ineffective, unnecessary and harmful. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://www.bmj.com/content/327/7423/1085.full for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/jun/27/sciencenews.research for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

2) Seriously cut down on salt and salty food.

3) Avoid prescription drugs, especially antidepressants, steroids and painkillers, unless they really are necessary and you have checked out their side-effects. The adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs are often far more damaging than the problem for which they have been prescribed.

I wish you better health, success and happiness in this New Year of 2012!

If your medication causes sodium retention you will gain weight and may become obese

There are many medications that cause sodium retention/fluid retention/water retention/weight gain/obesity/edema/swelling. Here are some of them: steroids and HRT, most antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-epileptics, anticonvulsants, and more.

If you have become overweight/obese because of drug-induced sodium retention, you need to reduce your salt intake in order to lose weight. If you do not reduce your salt intake you will continue to gain weight, regardless of how many or how few calories you eat.

Dr LeFanu talks sense about the effects of advertising antidepressants

Read Dr LeFanu's article in the Telegraph. You will see that brand advertising techniques have been the main driver in increasing the prescribing of antidepressants. I remind you that antidepressants work no better than dummy pills but unlike dummy pills, antidepressants can and do cause many harmful side-effects, including weight gain and breast tenderness. It shocks me that bearing all these facts in mind doctors still prescribe this pharmaceutical junk and, indeed, that they are allowed still to prescribe antidepressants. The health service could save a lot of money by no longer prescribing these pills and by no longer having the consequent adverse side-effects on health to have to deal with. More importantly, if these harmful pills were no longer prescribed it would save a lot of avoidable illness and suffering.

MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression. I personally would also recommend avoiding salt and salty food and optimising nutrition. And very importantly, if you are dieting by eating less food than your body requires, I urge you to give it up! - Dieting is harmful to your health. It is a frequent cause of depression and does not reduce obesity.

Thinking of taking amitriptyline or other antidepressants? You may like to think again.

For a start, antidepressants don't work. - See Anti-depressants no better than dummy pills. For another thing, most antidepressants cause weight gain leading to overweight/obesity. And they have many other adverse common side-effects too. Have a read of my webpage about amitriptyline and other antidepressants. So, they don't work and they're harmful. It's a no brainer, isn't it? - A safe, drug-free way to feel less depressed is to cut down on salt and salty food. - Honestly. I'm not kidding. - Just try it! Go on!

Average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects!

MSNBC.com reports that the average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects/drug reactions! - “The greatest number of side effects was found in antidepressants, antiviral medications and newer treatments for restless leg syndrome and Parkinson's disease. In general, medications typically used by psychiatrists and neurologists had the most complex labels, while drugs used by dermatologists and ophthalmologists had the least.” Read what Dr Mercola has to say about this report.

And Dr Mercola tells us that "according to the latest statistics from the Kaiser Health Foundation, the average American aged 19 to 64 now takes more than 11 prescription drugs!" - And all of them have their side-effects! And side-effects are potentiated when more than one drug is being taken! - No wonder that prescription drugs occasion many thousands of visits to emergency services and are the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States!

Clearly this is a deplorable state of affairs. On my own website, more people visit with concerns about amitriptyline and other antidepressants, than about any other drug or family of drugs. And since antidepressants work no better than dummy pills and have lots of undesirable side-effects, most commonly weight gain/fluid retention/sodium retention, the massive prescribing of these particular harmful prescription drugs could and should be stopped ASAP, with great benefit to health and massive saving of money.

Taking Amitriptyline for oral/mouth pain is not a good idea

Taking Amitriptyline for oral/mouth pain is not a good idea in my opinion. Amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant that is sometimes prescribed as a painkiller, particularly when the pain is in the mouth. This is often because the prescribing doctor doesn't really believe that the patient actually is in pain, especially if the patient is female.

Doctors who prescribe amitriptyline for pain sometimes explain to the patient that amitriptyline is an antidepressant drug that can help with pain, but often these doctors deliberately deceive the patients into believing that amitriptyline actually is a painkiller and do not mention that it is an antidepressant, and that they are prescribing it because they have decided the patient is 'a depressive', not a person in pain. Doctors often confuse depression and pain, unfortunately.

Whatever the ins and outs of the matter, amitriptyline is not a good idea for mouth pain. - For one thing antidepressants work no better than dummy pills for depression. For another thing, they usually cause unhealthy weight gain and all its attendant health problems. And amitriptyline in particular causes 'dry mouth', which patients are told will stop when their body has got used to the drug, but which often does not stop however long they are unfortunate enough to be on the drug.

Now 'dry mouth'/lack of saliva obviously makes dental decay more likely, especially of the lower teeth, since normally many of these are bathed in saliva most of the time, and this inbuilt natural 'mouthwash', therefore, protects the teeth to some extent from food residue clinging to them. Furthermore, saliva is a buffer solution which chemically protects teeth from acid attack. So existing mouth pain is likely to be augmented by the development of dental caries, making matters worse, not better.

Is your body trying to tell you something? And are you taking its message seriously?

Is your body trying to tell you something? And are you taking its message seriously? I'll tell you about some of my own experiences of this.

As someone who gets migraines sometimes, I did what is sensibly advised: I thought about the food I had eaten before getting the migraines in case any particular foods were triggering the attacks. I found that if I ate more than just a few slices of cucumber that usually brought on a migraine, and I also found that another trigger was if I went more than about 5 waking hours without food at all. Non-food triggers for me turned out to be rapidly flashing lights in general or the bright, low-on-the-horizon winter sunshine. So I do what you too, no doubt, would do if you had those same messages from your body, namely, I avoid those triggers if I possibly can.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky about some other messages from my body. When I experienced a lot of health problems starting very roughly at the same time as each other and all getting worse pretty fast, it was rather a long time before I was able confidently and correctly to attribute all of them to the prescribed medication I was taking, and this was, I am sure, partly because I became so desperately tired and so very ill, but mainly because my GP and other health professionals I encountered so firmly assured me that I was wrong - absolutely wrong - and that I should continue with the medication.

Some of these body messages were weight gain and getting fatter, face becoming red and puffy, breasts becoming swollen and extremely painful, with visible veins, aching, swollen reddening agonisingly painful hands and feet, painful, distended veins in the legs that made bending the knees a particularly difficult and painful problem, excruciating headaches that no painkillers could extinguish, desperately painful genital area, increasing fatigue, tiredness and breathlessness, hair loss, and many more. I later discovered that all of these signs and symptoms had resulted from the prescription drugs I was taking - because these drugs had weakened my blood vessels and made me sensitive to salt/sodium. - Because of the web of lies, evasions, deliberate ambiguities, prejudiced viewpoints, false beliefs, ignorance and cover-ups of the health professionals to whom I turned or was directed, my proper understanding of what had been done to me was delayed by many anguished years. See story so far and my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.

If you are getting a cluster of body messages that may or may not appear to be connected except that they all have followed some time after starting to take prescribed medication, I urge you to give thought to whether the drug/s could be the cause of the symptoms you are experiencing. Check stuff up for yourself: your doctors may be as uninformed and unhelpful as mine were. Here's some drug information you may find helpful: HRT and Steroids, etc and Amitriptyline and Other Antidepressants.

Is there a link between antidepressants and breast and ovarian cancer?

Is there a link between antidepressants and breast and ovarian cancer? A new meta-analysis of 61 trials identified a connection in nearly 33 percent of the epidemiological and pre-clinical studies conducted between 1965 and 2010 found an association between cancer and antidepressants. And the link was stronger among women using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Moreover, the study found researchers with industry ties were significantly less likely than researchers without those affiliations to conclude antidepressants increase the risk of breast or ovarian cancer. The authors of the meta-analysis, which was published in PLoS Medicines, suggest the findings raise public health and policy issues, “because there is increasing evidence that financial ties among industry, investigators, and academic institutions can affect the research process.”
Read article at pharmalot.com And see antidepressants.

Doctors are prescribing more and more antidepressants

The depressing news that doctors are prescribing more and more antidepressants, e.g. Prozac, has been widely reported this week, and it has been suggested that debt and job worries have contributed to this situation. It has also been suggested by Dr Clare Gerada, head of the Royal College of GPs, in this BBC News report, that "some of the rise in prescribing was also likely to be due to increased awareness about the condition and doctors getting better at diagnosis."

Let's just have a think about this. - Yes, there will certainly be more people with money problems and worries, and worries about having lost their jobs or whether they will be losing their jobs. To feel depressed/upset/worried is normal in these circumstances. - How does it help at all to label this normal reaction a mental illness with a catchall name of Depression? And how can taking psychotropic drugs help with money problems or with holding onto a job or obtaining another job? - It can't.

Drugs cannot help with the practical problems of being short of money or being out of work. Nor do they help lift the spirits, despite their erroneously being referred to sometimes as 'happy pills'. Antidepressant drugs work no better than dummy pills , and they frequently cause great harm (adverse side-effects) to the people who take them.

I wonder whether Dr Gerada has considered getting a job as a comedian? The idea that doctors are 'getting better at diagnosis' of 'depression' has me in stitches...(o: - Every time we read a newspaper there is some spokesperson or other explaining that depression/mental illness is on the rise, and that 1 in ? of us (insert your own figures for the incidence of this putative illness) will experience it before we die. It would be a good idea if doctors were to give up 'diagnosing depression' and making their patients more ill by prescribing toxic antidepressants, and instead ordered tests for anaemia, vitamin D deficiency, etc. and concentrated on helping the patients by advocating dietary changes where necessary, and prescribing vitamin and mineral supplements to remedy nutritional problems. - This would undoubtedly make their patients feel a lot better and would make them physically and mentally much more efficient and so more likely to remain/become employed.

Study links antidepressant use with increased risk of heart disease and stroke

Study of 513 middle-aged male twins links antidepressant use with increased risk of heart disease and stroke, as reported by the Times of India.

It should be recognised that antidepressant drugs work no better than dummy pills in any case and should not be being prescribed. Most antidepressants make you fatter and damage your health in many other ways, including causing brain damage years later. It is best to avoid these harmful, useless drugs.

Steroid victims say GPs gave no warning: archived article from 1995

Very occasionally, I come across sad evidence of the long, long years prescribed steroids have been harming patients, and the comprehensive lack of any effective measures being taken to STOP doctors catastrophically harming their patients. I came across one yesterday.

In this archived article from The Herald, Scotland, we read:

"HUNDREDS of Scots suffering from the side-effects of steroids have claimed they were never warned by their GPs about the drug's dangers.

They claim steroids have caused them to endure crippling illnesses like the bone-crumbling disease osteoporosis, as well as angina, diabetes, cataracts, weight gains, and skin disorders."

In 2011, this is still the situation. The medical profession's ignorance/negligence in the matter of prescribing powerful, potentially harmful/dangerous drugs, including steroids, but many other classes of prescribed drugs too - antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-epileptics, and more - is staggering and scandalous.
If you are a steroid victim, or know someone who is a steroid victim, or victim of some other prescribed drug, there is helpful information on these pages:

• Steroids and HRT

• Amitriptyline and other antidepressants