I'm very curious when people moved from preventing problems to masking symptoms. It seems like we've always been able to get "a pill for this or a cream for that." But not many any more bother to ask why they need said pill or cream. We have learned to just assume that whatever our bodies outward expression is, IS the problem. Thinking this way, we fail to see the true problems, therefore leaving them untreated, sometimes to the point of hospitilization or even death.
It has long been known that Prozac can alleviate depression. But how? Prozac selectively affects only serotonin which is why Prozac and other similar drugs are called selective serotonin
re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. After a while, receiving brain cells become more sensitive to serotonin allowing it to be absorbed more freely, therefore, elevating one's mood.+ This has been the approach for fighting depression for quite sometime now, doctors...ahem....pharmaceutical companies research the workings of the brain to find out what causes a good mood (i.e. serotonin) and subsequently make a pill that makes your brain absorb more of it. So there we have it right? Hormone and neurons and receivers and such, that's how the brain works right? While this is true, the biggest part of the brain has been conveniently overlooked....fat. Thats right, fat, about two-thirds for your brain is composed completely of fat.* Fat is required in your diet in order for your brain to function properly. Funny how something as simple as looking into adding god fats to your diet or supplement regime has been overlooked or overshadowed by the medical community until 1993. That was the year Stoll a psycho pharmacologist at Harvard's McLean Hospital, began looking into the effect of Omega - 3's on bi-polar disorder.# Ever since the idea was introduced, study after study has shown that it works. Despite the overwhelming evidence, pills remain to be the answer. Despite the fact that Omega - 3's have been shown to alleviate depression, anxiety, eczema, bi-polar, ADD and many other chronic conditions$, it continues to get pushed to the wayside by a medical community who has forgotten an important part of the oath they all took.... "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure," or, the original version "I will not
give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked."^ "Prozac, the only antidepressant certified as safe for children, may make kids more suicidal."@ Food for medication thought..... Why not treat the PROBLEM...not just the symptoms?
+ - http://www.brainphysics.com/howprozacworks.php
* - http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html#fatsbuild
# - http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/depfishoil
$ - http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm
^ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
@ - http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-09-13-USAToday-prozac-suicide.htm
