Posts Tagged “ depression ”

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Wednesday, 1 May 2013 07:17

The U.S. population makes up 5% of the world population, yet are prescribed 2/3rds of all psychiatric drugs used worldwide. If this is not a sign of looming mental health collapse, we don’t know what is!

As a doctor, I can tell you that stress has reached pandemic levels, though many still hold back from admitting it to themselves or their peers. Our normalcy bias prevents us from taking notice that tens of millions of people in Western countries are dropping like flies from illness, depression and self-destruction. I came across this article by David Kupelain on Americans’ health and agreed with some of the observations made about the dire state of affairs:

  • Fully one-third of U.S. employees suffer chronic debilitating stress, and more than half of all “millennials” (18 to 33 year olds) experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night, including large numbers diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder.
  • Shocking new research from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that one in five high-school-aged children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with ADHD, and likewise a large new study of New York City residents shows, sadly, that one in five preteens – children aged six to 12 – have been medically diagnosed with either ADHD, anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder.
  • New research concludes that stress renders people susceptible to serious illness, and a growing number of studies now confirm that chronic stress plays a major role in the progression of cancer, the nation’s second-biggest killer. The biggest killer of all, heart disease, which causes one in four deaths in the U.S., is also known to have a huge stress component.
  • Incredibly, 11 percent of all Americans aged 12 and older are currently taking SSRI antidepressants – those highly controversial, mood-altering psychiatric drugs with the FDA’s “suicidality” warning label and alarming correlation with school shooters. Women are especially prone to depression, with a stunning 23 percent of all American women in their 40s and 50s – almost one in four – now taking antidepressants, according to a major study by the CDC.
  • Add to that the tens of millions of users of all other types of psychiatric drugs, including (just to pick one) the 6.4 million American children between 4 and 17 diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin or similar psycho-stimulants. Throw in the 28 percent of American adults with a drinking problem, that’s more than 60 million, plus the 22 million using illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and inhalants, and pretty soon a picture emerges of a nation of drug-takers, with hundreds of millions dependent on one toxic substance or another – legal or illegal – to “help” them deal with the stresses and problems of life.

Likewise, the CDC has reported that antidepressant use in the U.S. has increased nearly 400 percent in the last two decades, making antidepressants the most frequently used class of medications by Americans aged 18-44. The U.S. population makes up 5% of the world population, yet are prescribed two-thirds of all psychiatric drugs used worldwide. If this is not a sign of looming mental health collapse, I don’t know what is!

With so many people on meds, I think we can basically say that the U.S. is a ‘zombie nation’. People are so out of touch with themselves and with reality that they think they have to use anti-depressants in order to ‘go back to normal’, not realizing that the reason why reality is shitty is because it is sending them a strong signal to sit up and take notice. Instead, taking mind-numbing drugs makes them even more ignorant of what is going on around them – the false-flag attacks, the fireballs raining down from the sky and Earth changes.

The pandemic is by no means confined to the U.S. One major study mentioned by Kupelain concluded almost 40 percent of Europeans are plagued by mental illness.

Consider this: Read more…

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Saturday, 23 February 2013 05:41
Statin drugs -Big Pharma's Queen of Deception - will make you chronically tired, ill and will make you lose your memory and head for that matter. This are only some of the "mildest" side effects of lowering cholesterol with these drugs.

Statin drugs -Big Pharma’s Queen of Deception – will make you chronically tired, ill and will make you lose your memory and head for that matter. This are only some of the “mildest” side effects of lowering cholesterol with these drugs.

The other day I received a message from a high school friend whom I remember to be brilliant, inspiring and creative. She was just a genius. Recently I learned that she also became a medical doctor and has worked in a public health care system treating elderly people ever since. She sent me a message over facebook frustrated because she found herself in the ridiculous situation of pointing out the obvious to Big Pharma reps and colleagues in a heated argument. Statin drugs – which are used to lower cholesterol – were killing old folks. The elderly are falling and getting some serious fractures at the very best and she was certain it was due to the statin drugs. Here is just SOME relevant information for what is worth, in addition to a 101 as to why cholesterol and its quality is so important for our health. May not doctor find him or herself in the situation of having to argue with a pharmaceutical rep or colleague about his or better judgement of eliminating statin drugs and/or advising high quality fat from animal products which saw us thrive for millennia.

The Stuff of Life

Cholesterol is the one unjustly vilified substance which our bodies can naturally make since it is absolutely essential to our functioning. Cholesterol is so crucial, the liver is careful to produce some 1000-1400 milligrams of it each day. We are told by the “Official Thought-Control Institutions” to eat up to 300 milligrams of cholesterol from our diets. But our liver production of cholesterol is controlled by feedback mechanisms depending on how much we eat. If we eat too much we produce less, leaving much needed liver energy for other important tasks such as detoxification from this most polluted modern world.

So when we eat more fat, our liver makes less, and vice-versa. But if we are hardly eating any cholesterol and we block its production with drugs, then we are literally screwed. That is the real meaning behind the most profitable drugs in the history of the world – statin medications to lower cholesterol blood.

Restricting or eliminating cholesterol overburdens the liver who now has to overproduce it through its enzyme – HMG-CoA reductase from carbohydrates in our diet to make up for the deficit. It is this enzyme the one that is blocked by statins drugs at the expense of depleting our bodies from the so much needed coenzyme CoQ10 – a key nutrient to our heart and overall health. Furthermore, producing cholesterol from carbs yields a bad quality cholesterol profile.

The Side Effects of Reducing a Vital Substance

People typically refer muscle cramps or leg muscle aching while on statins due to lack of energy. Keep in mind that your heart is a muscle as well. Incidentally, the rates of congestive heart failure has spiked during the time statins have been a top seller on the market. The “lucky” ones make it into the heart transplantation list. How about quitting statin drugs, changing your diet, do far infrared sauna and get healed while there is still time?

Coenzyme Q10 – AKA ubiquinone (“occurring everywhere”) – plays an important role in the production of ATP, the fuel which our cells use to everyday life processes and purposes. It is present in every cell of our bodies, especially in the very active cells of our hearts. Depriving the heart of CoQ10 is depriving it of a key thing to work. Low levels of CoQ10 are involved in practically all cardiovascular diseases including angina, hypertension, cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. It is the ultimate joke that statins, for “heart health”, blocks coenzymeQ10.

Some people have recalled falling sick only after they started statins, while it never happened to them before. Some are far more insightful health-wise than any physician. They point out how they don’t feel the same ever since they were put on statins, so they decide to stop them only to see their health come back again. Read more…

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Friday, 3 September 2010 03:26
© Marnie Burkhart

© Marnie Burkhart

Many of us suffer from a variety of symptoms that we disregard as part of our personality or karma. You might think that it is just how things are, so you may as well accept it and deal with it as best as you can. Or perhaps it gets so tough, that you just can’t deal with it!

For instance, do you often…

  • Have problems falling asleep or staying asleep?
  • Find yourself edgy, irritable or angry?
  • Lack motivation or feel depressed most of the time?
  • Prefer to be left alone?
  • Have ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) in your head?
  • Worry, get anxious and find it difficult to concentrate or make decisions?
  • Have feelings of low self-esteem and lack of confidence?
  • Feel self-critical and guilty?
  • Tend to be shy or fearful?
  • Tend to be obsessive, inflexible, a control freak, or a work addict?
  • Particularly dislike the dark weather?
  • Have PMS or menopausal moodiness?
  • Have a sweet tooth or crave carbs and starchy snacks or alcohol?
  • Are all achy and/or have jaw pain?
  • Find some relief of all of these symptoms when you exercise…if you happen to get around it?
  • Do you have a family history of fibromyalgia and/or treatment with SSRIs (serotonin boosting antidepressants)?

These are all manifestations of serotonin deficiency. If you felt identified with some or all of them, then 5-HTP—an over the counter and natural supplement—can change your life forever.

5-HTP stands for 5-hydroxytryptophan, a form of the amino acid tryptophan which is found in foods like red meat, turkey, fish, or seeds. 5-HTP comes from the seeds of the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia and when taken correctly, it turns into serotonin—a brain chemical which regulates our sleep, raises our pain threshold, and elevates our mood.

We all have a right to healthy levels of serotonin, but we live in a highly stressful world where we are exposed to all kinds of toxins and pollutants, where our modern foods are often nutritionally deficient and toxic, and where people often have to turn to stimulants or anti-depressants in order to cope with life’s demands and stressful situations. We live in a world where life can be quite hard and nothing is certain except death. All of this takes a high toll on our serotonin levels, and thus on our bodies and our psychological well-being. In addition, genetic predispositions might leave you vulnerable to low levels of serotonin.  Helping the body to top up the serotonin tank when you are faced with a stressful situation is exactly what you might need. Read more…

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Tuesday, 30 September 2008 17:34

depression Did you know that magnesium deficiency and yeast infection produce symptoms of anxiety or depression, including fatigue, insomnia, eye twitches, apprehension, nervous fits, light-headedness, hyperemotionality, palpitations, impaired breathing, confusion, anger, nervousness, rapid pulse, apathy, poor memory, etc? It has been documented that we could never get enough magnesium from diet alone, as the soil was depleted of that same mineral long ago. This makes magnesium deficiency quite an epidemic.

Yeast infection is also a modern worldwide epidemic. With so many highly-processed and junk foods feeding the candida – plus the fact that everybody takes a course of antibiotics at some point in their lives – our bodies are stripped of the good bacteria that can fight off yeast/candida.

When it comes to depression, serotonin is the brain chemical that makes us feel good. The problem is that serotonin production and function relies on the presence of enough magnesium in the body. Our bodies need magnesium to release and bind adequate amounts of serotonin in the brain. Also, our adrenal glands, which are overstressed by chronic stress, are also supported by the magnesium we so often lack. Worse yet, stress causes magnesium deficiency, and a lack of magnesium magnifies stress! If there is a deficiency in this key mineral, the muscles and arteries can’t relax, and thus the muscles cramp and blood pressure increase.

There are MILLIONS of people using psychiatric drugs and receiving psychological therapy for symptoms that can be explained by improper nutrition – that is, magnesium deficiency and an overgrowth of yeast in our bodies.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and depression go hand in hand with candida infection and magnesium deficiency. Candida releases over 90 toxins into the body, which then disrupt the balance of the natural cocktail of chemicals in the brain.

Why aren’t the people in the study below talking about this if it’s all scientifically documented?!

Read more…