YOUR HEART HEALTH IS GOING DOWNHILL, BUT YOU’LL FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT. Actually, according to some recent very large studies, only about 2% better over placebo… The bottom line is that anytime we alter physiology with a foreign compound there is a price to be paid. While a drug may focus on a single enzyme, because of our lack of understanding of the complexities of the human body, there may be other things that the blocked enzyme does that we’re not aware of until that drug hits the market in large numbers. Yes, you’ve heard it said that, in taking a new drug, you become part of a large clinical trial that has really bad reporting of outcomes. Look at Vioxx causing heart attacks and strokes (because of the unfamiliar effect of COX-2 enzyme effects on a compound called prostacyclin). We know know that SSRIs are associated with bone loss because of serotonin’s effect on bone. This study finds that SSRIs interfere with heart rate variability, a strong predictor of cardiovascular health. All this in the face of really very poor performance of SSRIs on depression (again…over placebo only 2% improvement long term).