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How Anti Depressants Damage Arteries
Vascular health is of the utmost importance when it comes to chronic disease prevention. Protect your blood vessels and you lower or eliminate your risk for heart attacks, strokes and dementia. That means that anything that leads to good vascular health is important, while anything that destroys vascular health is a bad thing. There are several commonly used drugs that fall under this category.
The has been much controversy over the years in regards to the actual effectiveness of anti-depressant medications (mainly the SSRIs like Prosac) compared to placebo. Anytime you have a drug that shows very little effectiveness compared to a placebo it has a tendency to highlight the dangerous side effects. The list of side effects associated with anti depressants is a little too long, in my opinion, given their questionable effectiveness over placebo. Consider these:
- Anti depressants weaken bone health in the elderly population.
- Anti depressants accelerate bone loss at the hip.
- SSRIs have been associated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
- SSRIs greatly increase the risk of becoming diabetic.
- Anti depressants increase the overall risk of dying (not a good thing…).
As if this list wasn’t long enough, this particular study allows us to add vascular damage to this already-too-long list. Researchers found that those who were on anti depressants had smaller diameter arteries (the authors note that the arteries were, on average, about 40 microns smaller in diameter–or the equivalent of about 4 yrs worth of normal progression with aging).
So what is someone to do? No one can argue that exercise is THE most powerful weapon against depression. However, getting a severely depressed patient off the couch may be near impossible. In these cases, there are some natural approaches that can be instituted to get the brain in a better state, maybe allowing the patient some motivation to get out and exercise.
- Coffee has been shown to lower the risk of depression.
- A mere multivitamin given to elderly patients has been shown to improve depressive symptoms.
- St John’s wort has held up in multple studies for mild to moderate depression.
- Melatonin is being investigated as a potential treatment for severe depression.
And the list surely gets longer as we look harder, but by now you should get the idea…
RELATION OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS – (03-06-05)
Relation of depressive symptoms to CRP and pathogen burden (cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, Epstein-Barr virus) in patients w/ earlier acute coronary syndromes
This article has so many implications. And it is a perfect example of why so much research into “CAM therapies” or natural approaches bothers me. The finding of strong relationships between both being depressed and/or having a latent viral infection with elevated CRP levels adds yet another layer to the onion that is cardiovascular disease. Mainstream medicine has always tried to follow the “one cause, one cure” model but it fails miserably for chronic diseases.
Any natural approach to CVD addresses a multitude of lifestyle and nutritional interventions. And yes, addressing psychological health is a part of that approach. What I would love to see now is, do antidepressant medications lower CRP levels? Or do they mask the symptoms and allow underlying damaging physiological imbalances to continue…
WHAT IS A GOOD SOLID BIOMARKER FOR PARKINSON DISEASE? – (03-28-05)
Urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels as a biomarker for progression of Parkinson disease
Following up on the previous article, the base problem with using a mitochondrial dysfunction/oxidative stress model is that we have not yet identified a good, solid, commercially available marker.
This article helps in that regards in suggesting that 8-OHDG, a marker of oxidative damage to DNA, may be a viable option. Interestingly and, not surprisingly, the treatment of choice for Parkinson’s, l-dopa, did not affect 8-OHDG levels.
WHAT ARE THE FUTURE RISKS OF USING CELL PHONES? – (04-25-05)
Antidepressant-like effects of cranial stimulation w/in low-energy magnetic field in rats
This study raises some very interesting questions and concerns. First, there is the therapy aspect–might some form of electrical/magnetic stimulation positively affect our mood? Next, what about deleterious effects of cell phones, microwaves, headphones, diagnostic testing, etc…?
I personally think that, when all the chips fall, in 30 yrs or so we will find that cell phone use has increased the risk/rate of some conditions like ADD/ADHD, brain tumors, seizures, Alzheimer/Parkinson’s.
DAIRY INTAKE LEADS TO FUTURE RISK OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE – (04-25-05)
Consumption of milk and calcium in midlife and the future risk of Parkinson
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again (and again, and again…) that I think the idea that cow’s milk “does a body good” is one of the most successful marketing campaigns based on little to no evidence ever exposed to the American public. Good luck finding any articles not sponsored by the dairy industry that show a strong beneficial effect on dairy products for any condition.
Conversely, dairy intake has been linked to food allergy, ear infections, osteoporosis (or at least no protection from), Type 1 diabetes and now add Parkinson’s to the list. Ironically, although this showed a 2.3 fold increase (quite a large increase) and it was in a major neurology journal, not a PEEP from the media. Compare this to a 3-lb decrease in body weight over 6 months with dairy intake (and no-one just body fat–just weight) and you would think the Holy Grail for America’s weight problem was found.
WHAT IS THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF STRESS REDUCTION ON OUR HEALTH? – (05-16-05)
Glucocorticoids, depression, mood disorders: structural remodeling in the brain
While we’re on the subject of stress, it is well known that chronic stress shrinks certain regions of the brain.
This study adds that, in chronic stress we see atrophy of the hippocampus, but also an enlargement of the amygdala, resulting in increased anxiety and aggression. I know that stress reduction is important, but sometimes I forget just how much of a negative impact it has on our health.
Articles such as these two really slam home just how devastating chronic stress it. So, take a deep breath. Inhale slowly….
ALUMINIUM CAN INCREASE THE RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S – (05-23-05)
Zinc inhibition of gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter 4 (GAT4) reveals a link between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission
Sorry for the long title, but this one has some interesting implications. First, a bit on neurotransmitters. Glutamate is excitatory and stimulates the neuron to fire. Too much and you can ultimately burn out the neuron (this is one of the concerns with neuroexcitotoxins like MSG and aspartame).
GABA is inhibitory and counteracts the effects of glutamate. Many anti-seizure medications act by mimicking GABA. With this background, one of the long-time findings is that aluminum can increase risk of Alzheimer’s. Well, we know that aluminum knocks out zinc in the body, much like those perpetual motion ball thingies.
In this article, we see that synapses that release glutamate, which, in too high levels can damage a neuron, also release zinc at the same time to protect against overactive glutamate. It’s funny how we develop a theory or assumption, and years or even decades later we begin to elucidate exactly why the theory works.
WHAT’S THE WORST POSSIBLE COMBINATION FOR BONE HEALTH? – (09-17-07)
Effect of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors on the Risk of Fracture
What’s the worst possible combination for bone health? Poor bone mineral density coupled with an increased risk of falling. Now guess what? You can get all this in one easy pill!!
Even more fearful, this study was done on elderly subjects. What will happen to the bones of teens put on antidepressants for years? We probably won’t have specifics for decades. On the contrary, fish oils, exercise and vitamin D are all well known to help fight off depression as well as build bone mass. This seems like an easy decision to me.
VITAMIN D AND RISK OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS – (07-30-07)
Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis
We have known for some time now that Vit D and sun exposure was very protective against multiple sclerosis (not quite as effective for treatment, however).
What was surprising about this study, and maybe actually not so surprising given that most chronic diseases start long before onset of symptoms…was that higher levels of serum 25 hydroxyVit D were MOST protective prior to 20 years of age. How much will current recommendations to avoid sun exposure at all costs going to impact future rates of MS? Expect higher rates in the near future, as well as ever increasing rates of certain cancers, diabetes and hypertension (all of which Vit D is very protective for…). Of note is that the protective effect was noted only in whites.
HOW TO MANAGE AND PREVENT SCHIZOPHRENIA? – (07-30-07)
Why are immigrants at increased risk for psychosis? Vitamin D insufficiency, epigenetic mechanisms, or both?
Schizophrenia is somewhat of a hot topic with many therapists. There is little thought to physiological alterations and how we could impact this condition with functional medicine. To them, it’s a hard wired problem that requires meds to control. The research, on the other hand, disagrees with this attitude greatly. This is a thought process as to why we see some of the patterns of schizophrenia in immigrants and raises some very interesting questions as to how to manage/prevent schizophrenia.
We already know that Vit D plays a large role in neurologic function and is very important during pregnancy. The thought process is that immigrants may move from an area of heavy sunlight exposure and sufficient Vit D to an area of reduced sunlight exposure and deficient Vit D. Quite frankly, the research is strongly in support of functional medicine approaches to schizophrenia, and yet, disappointingly, this type of approach is shunned by the group of providers that treat it the most. Welcome to medicine.
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