Antidepressants Cause Your Arteries to Thicken 400% More Than Aging
Mike Barrett
NaturalSociety
January 6, 2012
Depression may be the worst emotional experience there is. The causes are many, and it often drives people to zig-zag past everything that matters and into a pill bottle of pharmaceutical ‘treatments’. But these solutions offered by the pharmaceutical industry are nothing but a sham, and their antidepressant products only make you more depressed and trigger suicidal thoughts. One study has also found that antidepressants cause your arteries to thicken 400% more than aging – a main factor in the thickening of the arteries.
Antidepressants Linked to Heart Disease and Stroke
A study conducted by the Emory University School of Medicine included over 500 middle-aged male twins, both who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. The researchers noted that among 59 pairs of twins where only one brother was on antidepressants, the one ingesting the drugs usually had higher carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) – the thickness of main arteries in the neck.
“One of the strongest and best-studied factors that thickens someone’s arteries is age, and that happens at around 10 microns per year…In our study, users of antidepressants see an average 40 micron increase in IMT, so their carotid arteries are in effect four years older,” says the first study author Amit Shah, MD.
The most commonly prescribed antidepressants are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac. Researchers found that participants who used SSRIs, which were 60 percent of those taking antidepressants, had higher carotid IMT. This may be due to the effects antidepressants have on serotonin levels, which is a chemical in your body that helps some brain cells communicate.
These findings are just one more thing to add to the long list of why people shouldn’t be taking many harmful pharmaceuticals. More than 1 in 10 Americans are on these suicide-linked antidepressants even though they do not work and only make the problem worse. Instead of resorting to these pharmaceuticals, try supplementing with vitamin D, as it has been shown to defeat depression naturally. It is also key to de-stress the brain, as depression is always cultivated from stress-related aspects of your life.
Explore More:
- More than 1 in 10 Americans on Suicide-Linked Antidepressants
- Antidepressants Prescribed Without Psychiatric Diagnosis
- Antidepressants Drastically Increase the Risk for Miscarriages
- Common Chemicals BPA and Phthalates May be Damaging Your Arteries
- Antidepressants Found to Worsen Depression
- Antidepressants Make You More Depressed and Trigger Suicidal Thoughts
Well, I take anticonvulsant medication. Does the same apply there? I’ve been on them for almost 60 years and when I stop taking them the seizures start. These medications all have side effects such as, production of excess mucous – hence I’m more prone to infections in the cold weather-overgrowth of gums or the opposite. One of the medications affects my libido, they make me feel drowsy, especially first thing in the morning (side effect of a tablet I take before going to bed). Another one (I was warned before taking it), has a side effect of making your hair fall out, mine did but it was my choice to take the medication. Other side effects are confusion, anxiety and depression. But these medications work for me, they stop my seizures and I am prepared to put up with the side effects so that I can live a better quality of life. I also take anti depressants as epilepsy in itself causes depression. The anti depressants work for me and take away my miserableness and help take away my suicidal thoughts. So for those of you who don’t suffer from depression or any medical condition, you don’t know what you’re talking about so stop pontificating.
Only sufferers understand.
“It’s important to take studies like this into account when assessing risks and benefits, particularly in cases where patients might not be experiencing much benefit from antidepressants,” said Shah. He stressed, however, the observational nature of the analysis, noting that these results do not imply causality. He added that antidepressants provide symptom relief of depression and that depression itself is a risk factor for heart disease.
Wow what an eyeopener….I was on Prozac 10 years 20mg 3 times a day..took myself off of it i couldnt even cry there was no feelings at all. then 4 years ago i had to get new arteries in my legs they were so clogged. After 4 stents only thing left was new arteries funny thing the dr never explained prozac could of been the cause.
All psychiatric medications work on priciples of toxicity and disabling! Rather than “fix” “chemical imbalances,” these medications CAUSE “chemical balances” which often become permanent Brain Damage!
First of all, vitamin D isn’t going to fix severe depression. Sure it may cause these problems, but is the alternative any better? Frustration, depression, higher suicide risk that if they were taking these ‘suicide’ prone drugs? Seriously, some people don’t have a choice, and since euthanasia isn’t an option for many of us in the US, there is no choice. Some people have it worse off than you.
I dealt with agitation and depression due to alzheimers. I was caregiver for both parents with AD. When they came to live with me, the first order of business was getting off the depression drugs and all drugs for that matter. Medical marijuana and nutrition was the script in our house. I am not going to pretend it was easy after that but in was a hell of lot better. We ate all organic fresh food and occasionally cannabis cookies. My mom was in late stage and has since died. My Dad is doing so well now that I will say this is easy. Right now the only thing my dad takes is Krill Oil and Vit D3. No cannabis even. The changes in him are more than unbelievable, they are miracle stuff. The doctors who prescribe these anti depressants are useless garbage.
Let’s see you suffer from clinical depression, bi polar disorder, anxiety and mood swings with only krill oil and vitamin d. Give me a break people. There are those who need these drugs. They were made for a reason and health nazi’s need to realize this. So you’re suggesting i should just stop taking meds? Fine, in a few days, i’ll end up killing myself and then you can read about that on yahoo. Then tell me if vitamin d3 and krill oil would have helped. Hateful ignorant people who don’t suffer from this and have unfounded opinions are useless garbage.
I agree with you. The problem as I see it is they pass antidepressants out to everybody these days. My depression does not come out of stress, or bad marriage, or problem children. My depression comes out of nowhere. My first bout of depression occured during one of the happiest and most fulfilling times of my life. It is not feeling blah about life, or life’s situations. True, clinical depression is HELL. People who have never experienced it really have no idea. I’m not saying that a good diet, exercise, and some good supplements won’t help at all, but in the midst of a clinical depression those things make no difference whatsoever. When you are suffering through depression you are truly in your own private hell that nobody else can understand, it’s really a dreadful, horrible place to be.
I read on Byron J Richards website that things like paracetomol limit the effect of antidepressants because antidepressants work over time by producung a substance called DBNF in the brain, which is caused in some instances by diet and excercise, but with antidepressants its caused in response to brain inflamation. And so mood may improve a time. But with all the while the ultimate consequnce of brain damage caused by the inflamation, over the long term. My experience with antidepressants is that you forget everything. Which can help some people who still remember things that said wrong 30 years ago.I also read by Byron J Richards that antidepressants increase breast cancer risk and high serotonin interferes with bone manufacture in the body. But I’m not a scientist that might know or be able to prove such things. Though I know people forget everything on antidepressants. And so many stories of side effects and the obvious impact on sexual performance put me off.
When I got off the last one of these drugs (Effexor XR) it was as though I’d had a gray tubesock pulled over my head for years. (And with Topamax as the cherry on the cake….I was bound and gagged.) Like someone here said, a coma. Inept doctors with big house payments. A caring neurologist (who later was fired from the practice for spending too much time with patients…..) finally diagnosed epilepsy (several concussions) and another endo found I had Vitamin D deficiency! Let alone hypothyroidism which was rarely adjusted. I believe “they” want us to sit down & shut up……kindof the nursing home syndrome where all the patients are drugged up and tied to the railing…..like my bumper sticker says: “If we do not act, we are acted upon.”
3 months ago I had my medicare drug plan (Anthem Blue Cross) cancelled. I started planning to cut down my medications until I could find an alternative. I had been taking 200mg Zoloft a day for twenty years. I remember my doctor warning me not to just quit cold. I had tried several times to cut down then out my anti depressant intake but I always felt that my depression came back, so I gave up.
I totally ran out about a month and a half ago after a slow withdrawal. I can now attest to a profound change. I feel like I have been in a coma, or maybe being drugged as in opiates is a better way of putting it. I can now think much more clearly and have much more energy. I used to be able to sit and stare out into space for hours. No more. I since have cut out any other drugs that are not “essential” and find myself repulsed by the thought of eating processed food. I am finally learning how to cook and love it. Of course the “scientists will say this simply anecdotal and they are absolutely right. It is first hand testimony as is used in our courts to convict criminals. Count up all similar testimonies and you have a conviction.
Anti-depressants are pure poison! Big pharma knows it & some doctors are waking up to the negative effects these toxins have on the body. Sadly tho, too many people are willing guinea pigs & are either too lazy or afraid to take the initiative to help themselves & instead submit themselves to pill popping in the hope of a quick fix.
Speaking from experience, my partner had been on anti-depressants for many years when we married & as his doctor increased his medications, we noticed a decline in his mental & his physical health. Researching the effects & causes of depression on the net, I found how diet & exercise play important roles in keeping the mind healthy, in addition to readjusting ones mind to stop the negative filtering.
When we began to insure my partner’s diet was whole foods instead of the pre-packaged rubbish so predominate in our society, we noticed a change in his behaviour, we also added supplements of Vit D, Omega 3,6 & 9, Vit, B complex & probiotics; which helped his over-all health too.
I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is worth the effort to change ones diet & lifestyle rather than accept modern medicine & take these toxic medications.
The choice is always with the person involved, but be assured, if you truly wish to dump these poison pills, you can thru commitment & perseverance! The results are worth every minute of the struggle; the victory of being free of these & other toxic medications is liberating!
Ditch the Zoloft & Try some Cannabis. It really works!
g o o g l e: Rick Simpson, Run from the Cure
Why didn’t you quote the rest of the study?
“Antidepressants have a clinical benefit that has been established, so nobody taking these medications should stop based only on these results. This isn’t the kind of study where we can know cause and effect, let alone mechanism, and we need to see whether this holds up in other population groups.”
The only value of the study lies in what they actually found on the study about harmful side effects of the drugs. The stated opinion that a “clinical benefit” has been established elsewhere and that people should not stop funding drug companies just because their drugs are found to be harmful is pretty much irrelevant.
Incidentally, alcohol and heroin have “clinical benefits”. Ask any addict. The drug allows them to function again for a short while. Then the shakes, pains, depressions, wife-beating, teeth falling out, etc begins anew. They have to take the drug again to get their “clinical benefit”. No psychiatric drug has any “clinical benefits” beyond this. The only real benefit is a financial one to the pusher who sold them the drugs.
Over consumption stimulates the brain too much. The mind delusion-ally grasps on to the idea that “pleasure equals happiness.” Little children believe this and eat sweets until they hurt themselves. Unfortunately adults in the West especially haven’t learned this and their minds develop disease. It’s addiction plain and simple only food or other pleasures act in the same way as hard drugs.
Good mental health requires discipline and effort and should be encouraged for children. Unfortunately in the West we have had a hundred years of , “if it feels good do it.” Behold the results of over consumption.
One study found that women on SSRI’s had a 32% increased rate of mortality from all kinds of causes of death, right across the board.
yes but you’ll be happy doing it! dieing, I mean.
read the works of Dr Peter Breggin on the evils of prozac and other such “anti” depressants, these medications are quite bad for everyone who takes them, they act on the brain the same way cocaine does and they are very hard to stop taking, they have terrible withdrawal symptoms much worse than nicotine or opiates and I would not wish these withdrawals on anyone. These are details that Eli Lily has worked very hard to keep out of the public domain – all in the interest of fast profits and a government for sale to the highest bidder. This is what will bring America down to 3rd world status, just like China in the ealry 1900′s, corruption was king and it made it all that much easier for the communistas like Nobama to take over. Sad but true
here’s the smoking gun:
http://ssristories.com/index.php?sort=date
amazing database! kinda makes you wonder how many folks in office are taking this big-pharma-junk…..
The pharmaceutical industry and their crimes are protected by a corrupt federal government. At the heart of the problem is the total disregard our government has for our health and the premium they put on lining their own pockets with corporate bribes. Scientific studies show that the consumption of meat is a major factor in contracting cancer. Perhaps eating meat is the tipping point. With all of the environmental pollutants, is the additional pollutants in meat that are pushing people over the edge physically? If you haven’t seen “Run from the Cure” you should. It is on YouTube, for now!
I agree, just another reason to avoid (boycott) fast food. I feel sorry for the kids who have mothers that can’t (won’t) cook and bring home fast food 6 or 7 days a week.
Great article! Thanks!
Why are they depressed! I’ll tell you why. Because they eat the wrong foods. There diet should consist of 60% fat and 35% protein and the rest can be carbohydrates. They can get their fat from oils like olive oil and safflower oil. By removing carbs from the diet blood sugar and seratonin levels will stabilize and overall energy will be up. 1800 calories a day are not enough. An adult needs to eat 3000 calories a day, 2000 calories from fat and 1000 calories from protein. It’s that simple, eating protein and fat in the absence of carbs will not make you fat. This isn’t Atkins or the paleo diet or any of that nonsense. You don’t have to be picky about it, just get off the carbs, it does alot more than just make you fat, it makes you crazy.
Artery thickening is life threatening….
if you don’t kill YOURSELF these will do it for you while on them.
Yet another reason to avoid this toxic waste!!