the blog: tag= healthcare
Depression as a symptom and not a disease
- Date
- 7/09/2008 02:29:00 PM [permalink]
- Author
- yahooza
- Entry
- http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/
I think the article is a must-read for everyone. It details another theory / explanation as to how anti-depressants perform against the human body:The effectiveness of Prozac, these scientists say, has little to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. Rather, the drug works because it helps heal our neurons, allowing them to grow and thrive again.
So, it's not that the happy pills help release happy chemicals, but rather the happy pills assist to regenerate parts of your brain that have been abused by constant worry, anxiety and stress. Unforgiving boss, foreclosures, nagging wife, being too fat, having to little money, new kids in family: it all adds up.
It's no wonder that all the aforementioned symptoms are treated w/ same drugs. A pharmacist friend o' mine told me once that big pharma corps sell the exact same chemical as two different products, one for PMS and the other for smoking cessation.
M' grandmother, an old lady of over ninety years suffered from some mental disorder (I never heard exact diagnosys); quite the experience for m' relatives who care for her. The doctor prescribed Zoloft, an anti-depressant and shortly she regained focus and mental strength. Happy pills do more than make you happy, as the commercials would like you to believe.
What lead them to this conclusion, that happy drugs are more than Ecstacy lite?One of the first cracks in the chemical hypothesis of depression came from a phenomenon known as the "Prozac lag." Antidepressants increase the amount of serotonin in the brain within hours, but the beneficial effects are not usually felt for weeks.
The lag period is your brain, your body healing itself.In this sense, Prozac is simply a bottled version of other activities that have a similar effect, such as physical exercise. They aren't happy pills, but healing pills.
So constant physical exercise does the same for your body as Prozac and the other anti-depressants?
Interesting discoveries though I reckon the marketing for legal, instant happy drugs won't stop.Labels: healthcare, psychology
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Ambulance chasin'?
- Date
- 7/01/2007 07:27:00 PM [permalink]
- Author
- yahooza
- Entry
- http://google-health-ads.blogspot.com/2007/06/does-negative-press-.....
"Do no evil?"
I had the pleasure to watch Sicko. It's sad that our country operates in such a crude way: maximizing profits. That's just how capitalism works. You want a chance to catapult yourself above your peers and live in luxury? Then shut the hell up! Heh heh, which leads me to .....
I took offense to the big G's Health-related blog post:"We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message."
So the Google advertising platform can work the same way as the Swift Boat Veteran attack ads during the '04 Presidential elections? Ooooh, and I can't wait for those warm and fuzzy text ads from Philip Morris.
When a corporation tells you that "it cares," it doesn't mean (about) you. Heh heh.Labels: corporations, google, healthcare, michaelmoore, sicko
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- 2 +add yours