Your Antidepressants Could Be Killing You

Your Antidepressants Could Be Killing You. Use Cannabis Instead

cannabis for antidepressants

The opioid epidemic has been stealing the headlines for the past few years, but not enough people are talking about another silent killer: antidepressants.

The New York Times conducted an analysis of federal data, which revealed eye-opening results: in the United States, around 25 million adults have been taking antidepressants for a minimum of 2 years, which represents an alarming 60% increase since the 2010 data.

Another 15.5 million people have been taking antidepressants for at least 5 years, which is almost twice the figures since 2010. Although antidepressants can indeed help many people suffering from anxiety and depression, and there are also many people who can easily quit them without any issues, there are serious risks involved with taking antidepressants in the first place.

Increased Risk For Death Due To Heart Problems

Serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs are the most common category of antidepressants. They work because people with depression have less serotonin, also known as the neurotransmitter responsible for boosting feelings of happiness. SSRIs work by inhibiting its reuptake, allowing the medications to help patients mentally maximize their situation.

However, studies show that dependence on antidepressants can lead to fatal effects. One study conducted by researchers at McMaster University in Canada set out to study the link between mortality and antidepressant intake. They write that antidepressants “disrupt multiple adaptive processes regulated by evolutionary ancient biochemical, potentially increasing mortality.” This chemical is serotonin.

The researchers did a meta-analysis of 16 studies, and summarized the results of some 375,000 subjects. They not only looked at SSRIs but also tricyclic antidepressants and other forms. McMaster University’s Marta Maslej told Medical News Today: “We me made sure to only include studies that did a good enough job controlling for important variables (like depression and other illnesses, and so we have attempted to statistically rule out other factors that could contribute to mortality.”

Here’s what they found: in the general population of people taking antidepressants, they had a 33% risk of dying earlier than people who weren’t taking the medications. Furthermore, patients taking antidepressants were 14% more likely to suffer from a serious cardiovascular condition such as a heart attack or stroke.

“We are very concerned by these results. They suggest that we shouldn’t be taking antidepressant drugs without understanding precisely how they interact with the body,” says researcher Prof. Paul Andrews.

They go on to explain that disrupting the serotonin functioning can have adverse effects. “For example, serotonin affects growth, reproduction, digestion, immune function, and many other processes, and it is found in almost every major organ. Disrupting the functioning of serotonin can therefore have different adverse effects, which can contribute to a risk of death in many different ways,” explains Maslej.

On the other hand, cannabis use has been shown to be beneficial for the heart in many different ways. Studies show that cannabis use has been linked to improved survival rates among patients who have had heart attacks. Other studies show that low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was helpful in preventing atherosclerosis from progressing in patients.

The other ways that cannabis has been shown to help your heart is by protecting your arteries and preventing chronic heart failure. Click on this link to read up on cannabis use for the heart.

Antidepressants Are Addicting, But Withdrawals Are Dangerous

So you already know that antidepressants are bad for you. Now, don’t even go about quitting your prescriptions cold turkey because that’s dangerous.

This is particularly dangerous if you’ve been taking it for a long time because you have clinical depression. The reason why these meds are prescribed is for correcting a chemical imbalance in the brain though it does also come with side effects. Quitting cold turkey will throw your brain into a chaotic state of imbalance that can cause your depression to be even worse than before. What’s even worse is that the side effects of quitting cold turkey can manifest itself both physically and psychologically. These include, but are not limited, to agitation, anxiety, fatigue, dizziness, tingling, numbness, and malaise.

The same New York Times analysis mentioned earlier in this article was actually protested by more than 40 psychiatrists because it was an expose into the hazardous and fatal scam that is prescribing antidepressants. “Many who try to quit say they cannot because of withdrawal symptoms they were never warned about,” write the Times researchers. They go on to explain that in the United States, physicians are given “wide latitude” in recommending approved drugs as they please, and they didn’t care that there was no long-term data available on the safety or lack thereof, in “placing tens of millions of Americans on antidepressants indefinitely.”

They also quote professor and Dr. Allen Frances of Duke University: “Most people are put on these drugs in primary care, after a very brief visit and without clear symptoms of clinical depression. Usually there’s improvement, and often it’s based on the passage of time or placebo effect.”

Are you shocked yet?

For the millions of Americans who suffer from depression, this condition completely robs you of the joys of life. But with antidepressants, you seem to regain a sense of normalcy and learn how to feel happy again. But with a cost.

Cannabis is not addictive and is totally safe and proven effective for treating depression. In fact, the first recorded recommendation of cannabis for depression dates back to 1621 in a publication called, The Anatomy of Melancholy. It’s no surprise that people now refer to cannabis as the “green Prozac”.

Cannabis works so well for depression because the endocannabinoid system controls your moods. A study which looked at the connection between cannabis and certain conditions found that when people are stressed, depressed, or anxious, then they have a reduced endocannabinoid production in the brain. “Using compounds derived from cannabis – marijuana – to restore normal endocannabinoid function could potentially help stabilize moods and ease depression,” says Dr. Samir Haj-Dahmane, the study’s lead researcher.

Antidepressants Make You Suicidal

Oh, the irony.

Antidepressants have been linked to suicidal thoughts and behavior, even death. This has been known for a very long time. A Harvard study conducted in 1990 found that 6 patients started developing violent suicidal thoughts after taking Prozac, which was only approved for treating depression two years before.

Prozac is now the most famous of the SSRI class of antidepressants.

In 2016, a review conducted by researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found that even healthy adults who take antidepressants have a much higher risk of violent behavior and suicidal thoughts. Their findings suggest that certain selective serotonin as well as serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors can increase the chances of violent and suicidal behavior even if mental illness is not present.

“While it is now generally accepted that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide and violence in children and adolescents (although many psychiatrists still deny this), most people believe that these drugs are not dangerous for adults. This is a potentially lethal misconception,” says the researchers.

“We found that antidepressants double the risk of suicidality and violence, and it is particularly interesting that the volunteers in the studies we reviewed were healthy adults with no signs of a mental disorder.”

It’s also alarming that they found that the antidepressant and suicidal risk association was evident in people of all ages.

Another study from Sweden revealed that during a period wherein there was a steady rise of 1.4% to 5% in antidepressant prescriptions to young women, some 500 young women also committed suicide during the same time period. A toxicological analysis done postmortem told the researchers that more than half of the women who committed suicide were prescribed antidepressants less than a year before the incident.

However, cannabis can be the most effective antidote to suicidal behavior while helping treat depression. A study conducted by researchers in Spain found a link between the cannabinoid receptors in the body and suicide; they resorted to autopsy research which revealed “emerging evidence that other biomarkers and biological systems may be involved in SB (suicidal behavior) pathology.”

Additionally, cannabis legalization was found to be linked to a drop in suicide rates. In 2012, researchers from the Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany, together with American researchers from the Department of Economics in Colorado found that states with medical cannabis laws have observed a decline in suicide rates.

“Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20 through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30 through 39-year-old males,” they write.

They add that “opponents of legalizing medical marijuana point to the large number of studies showing that marijuana use is positively associated with depression, the onset of panic attacks, psychosis, schizophrenia, and suicidal ideation.”

“However, the association between marijuana use and outcomes such as these could be attributable to difficult-to-measure (extraneous variables), such as personality.”

There you have it. Antidepressants can harm and kill you in so many ways. Why do people continue to take them over cannabis?

Make that (gradual) switch today. Tell a friend, and save a life.