Top Ten Reasons Not to Buy Antidepressants (Part 3 of 5)

For those who missed parts 1 and 2, the mandatory disclaimer: Reading an article, or even a book, is no substitute for consultation with a real psychiatrist. If you are taking medication or seeing a counsellor for depression, it's important to discuss these ideas before using them as part of your treatment plan. Changing medication without consulting your doctor can be dangerous.

Seeing how the headline of Part 1 came out on AC prompts me to add an additional warning. If you are depressed, or someone close to you is, it's extremely important to get a thorough physical check-up. My version of the headline was "Most people do not have depression-as-a-disease."

AC printed that as "Most people do not have a disease." In fact depression can be an early symptom of several diseases that primarily affect other parts of the body, from lactose intolerance to cancer. Many of these diseases can be cured or controlled if they are diagnosed in time--before they have produced other symptoms besides emotional depression.

Food Changes Mood...Today, or Tomorrow, or the Next Day

In the past twenty years, huge amounts of research have been done on the ways nutrition affects mental health. Probably the most common nutritional problem for North Americans would be sugar/alcohol sensitivity (check out www.radiantrecovery.com).

If you feel better immediately after ingesting sugar, white flour products, and/or alcohol, or if you crave any of these things daily, you can cure your depression in minutes by eating more natural, nutritious food. Some people with sugar/alcohol sensitivity can use these foods and drinks as part of a complete meal, and some need to abstain from sugar and white flour, from alcohol, or both to feel better.

In much of the Southern Hemisphere, genuine protein deficiency is still a wide­spread problem. In the United States and Canada, excessive, unbalanced, undigested protein is more likely to cause health problems. Meat of all kinds is so widely available that some of us fail to eat the grains and vegetables that provide the other nutrients our bodies need to digest all that meat.