Researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shared two major findings:

1. Antidepressant drugs were not developed for depression. Researchers used certain drugs to manipulate the behavior of stressed animals, and then concluded (erroneously) that the drugs would be “good antidepressants.” But chronic stress does not cause the same molecular changes that depression does, making the hypothesis incorrect.

So, antidepressants were actually designed to treat stress, rather than depression — which is one reason they are so ineffective.

2. An imbalance of neurotransmitters in your brain may not trigger depressive symptoms as has long been thought. Instead, the biochemical events that lead to depression appear to start in the development and functioning of neurons. This means antidepressants focus on the effect of depression and completely miss the cause… yet another reason why they are so ineffective for most people.

Unfortunately, the lead researcher is hoping the research will “open up new routes to develop new antidepressants,” when in reality a drug solution is not the answer.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/nu-wad102309.php

Those who study depression and the drugs that treat it are concluding that antidepressants are no different than a placebo or “sugar pill”.

Placebos are widely used when studying pharmaceuticals. E.g., in a controlled clinical trial, one group will be given the real medication while another group is given a placebo in order to observe if the effects of the drug are due to the medication or to the power of suggestion.

Research has found that patients do improve on SSRIs, tricyclics, and even MAO inhibitors. This conclusion is the basis for blindly prescribing antidepressants to anyone who complains of being depressed.
When researchers compare the improvement in patients taking medication, however, with the improvement in those taking a placebo, they find that the difference is minuscule.

The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. For patients with very severe depression, the benefit of medications over placebo is substantial.

JAMA 2010

These trials comprised 10030 depressed patients who participated in 52 antidepressant clinical trials evaluating 93 treatment arms of a new or established antidepressant. Fewer than half (48%, 45/93) of the antidepressant treatment arms showed superiority to placebo.

Int Jour of Neuropsychopharmacology

Despite the failure of prescription drugs when compared to a placebo for mild to moderate depression, the number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005. Is this increase due to an increase in the prevalence of severe depression? Of course not. Walk into a doctor’s office and complain about being depressed; most will prescribe an anti-depressant on the spot. This is mainly due to western medicines lack of a holistic approach to the body, and big pharma’s hold on our medical community and society in general.

Never doubt the power of the mind. In many cases, a person’s beliefs are as or more effective than drugs when it comes to achieving health.

Supermans

there is more and more evidence showing that if a healthy individual wants a strong core, instability exercises dont cut it. Core stabilizer training has become extremely popular in the past few years. I am starting to see a trend toward the core being the core of training programs. This shouldn’t be the case, and there is a tremendous amount of data showing the benefits of basic weight training exercise. In this newly published study, researchers used 16 physically active subjects. The purpose was to compare the activation of various trunk muscles with selected weight training exercises (squat and deadlift) and Swiss ball unstable callisthenic-type movements (superman’s and side bridging). The researchers concluded it is unnecessary to incorporate unstable callisthenic-type exercise if one is performing exercises like the squat and deadlift. Basic heavy exercise is the key to a strong healthy core. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2007, 21(4), 1108-1112.

As a follow-up to a previous article “Everything in moderation, right?“, I decided to educate my readers on substances so vital to there health daily consumption is essential. Below is a portion of “Daily Consumption“.

Coconut oil

Taken from the fruit portion of the seed off the coconut palm tree, coconut oil is one the most beneficial foods you can consume. In tropical regions where coconut oil or fat is a large portion of their caloric intake, people are much healthier and experience a much lower incidence of the modern diseases we do in the U.S. [17, 18]

There is an array of positive research published in the last few years showing the significance of coconut oil. [19] Coconut oil is classified as a “functional food” because of its health benefits that go far beyond its nutritional content. In fact, the coconut palm is so highly valued by Pacific Islanders as a source of food and medicine that it is called “The Tree of Life.” [20]

Coconut oil is the most saturated of all fats. Saturated fat has three subcategories: short chain, medium chain and long chain. Coconut oil contains approximately 65% medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Although recognized for its health benefits many centuries ago, it wasn’t until 40 years ago that modern medicine found the source to be MCFA. Remarkably, mother’s milk contains the same healing powers of coconut oil. [21]

The saturated medium chain lipid lauric acid, which comprises more than 50 percent of coconut oil, is the anti-bacterial, anti-viral fatty acid found in mother’s milk. [22] The body converts lauric acid into the fatty acid derivative monolaurin, which is the substance that protects adults as well as infants from viral, bacterial or protozoal infections. This was recognized and reported as early as 1966. [23]

Sources located here