The Antidepressant/Antibiotic Explosion versus Natural Health Care

                                  3 John 1:2 

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

For anyone first reading the Health and Nutrition Update, please read this first: Your Health.

Also, please go to God’s Health System and subscribe to receive the updates.

Always remember that you are in charge of your health and not the doctors (Babylonians). Please do not put your life in their hands without first seeking God and His health system.

Commentary

The goal of this blog now is to build up your health and especially the immune system to withstand the coming pestilences that are now rampant in America and the world. God gave the knowledge to prepare for pestilences, so take advantage of this information. The focus is posting articles with great information that can immediately help your health and quality of life.

God bless you.

Articles

Prescription Drugs/Antidepressants/ Babylonian Health System

How antidepressants ruin your natural serotonin so you can never be happy again … without your pills 

“The use of antidepressants has skyrocketed in recent years, despite a growing consensus that these drugs are dangerous and often ineffective in treating the conditions for which they are prescribed. Health experts in the US and the UK are concerned about the high rate of antidepressant use in both countries, and have warned that the trend could lead to a “public health disaster.”

Researchers have found that – contrary to pharmaceutical industry claims – commonly-prescribed antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are actually addictive, and can wreak havoc with the brain’s ability to produce serotonin.

From New Scientist:

“After stopping antidepressants, some people get withdrawal symptoms, which can include anxiety, difficulty sleeping, stomach upsets, vivid nightmares, and memory and attention problems. These can last for a few weeks or months. …

“Antidepressants like Prozac, which are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, raise levels of a brain-signalling molecule called serotonin, seemingly by blocking a compound that gets rid of serotonin. But after several weeks of taking the medicines, the brain responds by making less serotonin, which may be why when people stop taking them they can get long-term withdrawal symptoms.”

Drug companies and doctors interpret these psychological symptoms of withdrawal as evidence of the return of the original disorder, and so they routinely prescribe more drugs to address the problem.

However, the evidence shows that the brain may be unable to return to normal levels of serotonin production for months, or in some cases, even years after antidepressants have stopped being taken.

A team of researchers from the University of Liverpool conducted a study of 1,800 New Zealanders who were prescribed antidepressants – mostly of the Prozac type – and found that more than half of them suffered from psychological symptoms when they stopped taking them.

In theory, the use of these drugs can be gradually tapered off, but this can take months or years. Antidepressants may not only make an existing condition worse, but can also trigger other mental disorders…”

Antidepressants Not Just for Depression Any More 

“Doctors prescribe antidepressants for a wide range of medical problems other than depression, apparently fueling the boom in sales of these medications, researchers report. Depression accounts for only a little more than half the antidepressant prescriptions issued by Quebec physicians during the past decade, the Canadian study found.

Doctors also issued antidepressants to treat anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, panic disorders, fibromyalgia, migraine, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and a host of other “off-label” conditions for which the drugs are not approved, according to the report.

Two out of every three non-depression prescriptions for antidepressants were handed out under an off-label purpose, the findings showed.

 “The thing that’s of concern here is that when prescribing for conditions other than depression, often these are for indications such as fibromyalgia and migraine where it’s unknown whether the drug is going to be effective, because it’s never been studied,” said senior author Robyn Tamblyn. She is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal. “These doctors are prescribing in the dark,” she said.

Antidepressant use in the United States increased almost 400 percent between 1988-1994 and 2005-2008, with the most recent figures showing 11 percent of teens and adults take antidepressants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers have suspected part of this boom may be that doctors are prescribing antidepressants for off-label indications that haven’t been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Tamblyn said.”

Antidepressants in America are causing suicide rates to soar, especially among young women 

“New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a significant jump in the suicide rate in America in the years from 1999 to 2014. The rise has been particularly sharp among women and girls. Is it any coincidence that the percentage of Americans who take antidepressants nearly doubled during the same period?

Some parties with vested interests in Big Pharma are trying to blame this increase on the “black box” warning labels that were introduced by the FDA in 2004. These labels warn that the drugs increase the suicide risk in young adults and children, and some people are saying that these warnings are scaring people away from taking antidepressants and that is the real cause of the rise in suicide.

However, it’s important to take a look at exactly who is saying this. For example, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)’s Christine Moutier has not been shy about blaming the warnings for suicides. Her motivation is clear: Her organization, the AFSP, has financial and other connections to pharmaceutical companies, a fact that was not disclosed when CNN quoted her criticism of the labels in a recent piece.

Research simply does not support the theory that the warning labels are reducing antidepressant use. In fact, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that antidepressant use jumped from 6.8 percent to 13 percent from 1999 to 2012.”

Antibiotics/ Prescription Drugs

Many Prescribed Antibiotics Are Unnecessary and Cause Damage 

“Despite warnings that we’re quickly approaching a post-antibiotics era in which bacterial infections once easily cured by the drugs become resistant and life threatening, doctors are still prescribing too many antibiotics.

The finding comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which found 262 million people received prescriptions for antibiotics from their physicians from 2010 to 2011. Of these, about 30 percent were unnecessary.

The report, which was published in JAMA, assessed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) to estimate the current rate of U.S. antibiotic prescriptions.

A group of experts then determined whether the antibiotic prescriptions were appropriate based on national guidelines. There were an estimated 506 antibiotic prescriptions per 1,000 population annually, but only 353 of those were appropriately prescribed.”

1 in 3 antibiotics prescribed in U.S. are unnecessary, major study finds 

“Nearly a third of antibiotics prescribed in doctors’ offices, emergency rooms and hospital-based clinics in the United States are not needed, according to the most in-depth study yet to examine the use and misuse of these life-saving drugs.

The finding, which has implications for antibiotics’ diminished efficacy, translates to about 47 million unnecessary prescriptions given out each year across the country to children and adults. Most of these are for conditions that don’t respond to antibiotics, such as colds, sore throats, bronchitis, flu and other viral illnesses.

Although health officials have been warning for decades about the overuse of antibiotics and its contribution to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, the research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pew Charitable Trust is the first to quantify the depth of the problem.”

Depopulation test run? 75% of children who received vaccines in Mexican town now dead or hospitalized 

“Despite the insidious attempts of the corporate-controlled U.S. media to censor the stories about the deadly side effects of vaccines, the truth keeps surfacing. The latest vaccine tragedy to strike has killed two babies in La Pimienta, Mexico and sent 37 more to the hospital with serious reactions to toxic vaccine additives.

“…14 children are in serious condition, 22 are stable and one is in critical condition,” the Chiapas Health Secretariat said in a statement via Latino.

What’s especially alarming is that only 52 children were vaccinated in all, meaning that 75% of those receiving the vaccines are now either dead or hospitalized.

The vaccines were administered by the Mexican Social Security Institute, known as IMSS. The IMSS confirmed the deadly reactions occurred after children received injections of vaccines for tuberculosis, rotavirus and hepatitis B — the same viral strains targeted by vaccines routinely administered to children in the United States.”

Babylonian Health System versus natural healing

What The Amish Can Teach Us About Modern Medicine 

“In the 1980s, [John] Keim’s young son was scalded by a pot of boiling water, burning off his skin from collarbone to waist. Hospital care was out of the question. Previously, two of Keim’s cousins had been burned in a fire and spent three months in an Indiana hospital. Every week, relatives had sent letters describing how the children screamed as their wounds were cleaned and their bandages changed. Reflecting on that, Keim says, “I just felt it was so inhumane. I would not ever take a child to a burn unit.” He wanted to be autonomous of what he viewed as a brutal system.

Keim and his wife treated their son at home. Initially, they applied a salve of herbs and wrapped the wounds with gauze, but the gauze sunk into the boy’s flesh. They needed a dressing that wouldn’t stick.

In his book Comfort for the Burned and Wounded Keim writes, “I thought of how God created the Earth. I honestly felt He kept the poor in mind while Earth was being created.” He tried to think of things in nature that might help a poor person treat burns. Hitting upon waxy plantain leaves, he gathered a hatful from a nearby field, scalded them so they would be pliable, and used them to wrap his son’s wounds with a layer of herbal salve. Within five days, new skin covered the boy’s body. He had survived.”

Exercise

A senior man holding two dumbbells while flexing his muscles.

Doctors Should Prescribe Exercise Instead of Drugs for Many Chronic Diseases: Study 

“Doctors should be prescribing more exercise for common chronic problems, including knee osteoarthritis, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, says a review in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Journal Association), yet it’s often overlooked as a treatment.

Part of the reason doctors don’t prescribe exercise is that they simply don’t understand how effective exercise can be, and haven’t a clue how to advise patients.

“Many doctors and their patients aren’t aware that exercise is a treatment for these chronic conditions and can provide as much benefit as drugs or surgery, and typically with fewer harms,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Tammy Hoffmann of Bond University, Australia.

The study found that exercise is often under-prescribed in favor of pharmaceutical or surgical solutions, despite exercise having similar results. Both physicians and patients aren’t aware of how effective different types of exercise can be. In addition, poor descriptions of exercises in studies and a lack of training for healthcare workers are also factors affecting the lack of exercise “prescriptions.”

Health and Nutrition

Go Green: Best Foods for Weight Loss 

“When attempting to get that beach body for the summer, many people turn to fad diets, crazy exercise plans, and incredibly complicated calorie-cutting methods. What most people don’t know is that the key to weight loss is much less complex; if you want to lose weight, all you have to do is start eating “green.”

According to Dr. Charles T. Nguyen, co-author of The Thinsulin Program: The Breakthrough Solution to Help You Lose Weight And Stay Thin, the No.1 culprit in weight gain and obesity is your insulin levels. High insulin levels cause the body to store fat, whereas low insulin levels cause it to burn fat. So how can we keep our insulin levels low?

“If you eat green, leafy vegetables, the pancreas doesn’t need to produce insulin, so the insulin levels are lowered, because there’s no fat and no carbs, in these foods,” Nguyen told Newsmax Health.

Vegetables like asparagus, bok choy, spinach, kale, and arugula are prime examples of what Dr. Nguyen calls “green-light foods,” or foods that will lower a person’s insulin levels, and increase weight loss.

Of course, eating only vegetables would make for a pretty boring diet. Acknowledging this, Dr. Nguyen mentioned a few “yellow-light foods,” which could raise insulin levels if not portioned correctly. These foods include fruits and nuts.

“In some fad diets, like the Paleo diet, fruits are not allowed, said Nguyen. “This is wrong,” he continued, saying that “fruit will not spike insulin levels as long as you eat the right amount. The Thinsulin program recommends fruits like apples, oranges, grapes, and any kind of berries.” Proteins, too, are a good choice for keeping insulin levels low, especially those found in meats and egg whites.

On the flip side, one should avoid eating sweets and starchy vegetables, like potatoes, corn, carrots, and beets, as these foods will spike insulin levels. “Any type of grain will raise the insulin levels, causing weight gain, regardless of how ‘healthy’ they may be,” he said.

It is for that reason that Dr. Nguyen recommends people stay away from beer, because it is made from wheat, which spikes insulin levels. “Have you ever seen a wine belly? That’s because wine is made from grapes, a fruit that will keep insulin levels low,” he explained.

9 Reasons to “Eat Your Radishes”!

“While many vegetables have been pushed upon us at the dinner table as kids, you don’t often hear “eat your radishes honey.” Broccoli, spinach, green beans and asparagus are the more common culprits, but it might be worth adding radishes to the repertoire. As a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, radishes have a host of health benefits but are typically under-appreciated – pushed around on crudité platters until they’re all that’s left and then drowned in ranch dressing to wash them down.

However, for both their health benefits and amazing array of flavors radishes top our list of foods to start paying more attention to and eating on a daily basis. Especially in the spring and early summer when they grow locally and can be picked at their height of freshness and flavor, radishes should be a staple item in your kitchen.

Beyond the natural zing and satisfying crunch they provide, here are nine reasons to “eat your radishes!”

Memorial Day Leftovers: Edible or Garbage?  Although the Memorial Day holiday is over, summer is the time for family reunions and picnics. Often that means food will be left out for hours, usually in the heat. Here are some tips to know when you can save and reuse leftovers, and when they should be pitched out for safety. Recovering from a bout of food poisoning isn’t on anyone’s list of preferred summer activities!

To avoid sickness, here are some tips from Liz Weinandy, a dietician from Ohio State University, on what to do with your leftover food:

• One of the most common causes of food poisoning is leftovers that have been out in the sun for much too long. To guard against it, be sure to refrigerate those burgers and hot dogs within two hours of setting them out for guests to eat. If the temperature outside rises above 90 degrees, cut that time in half.
• Another way to prevent bacteria from growing on your food is to keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot. The ideal way to keep foods cold is to put them in shallow containers and kept on ice, holding the temperature below 40 degrees. For hot foods, make sure the temperature stays about 160 degrees.
• When checking to see if foods have been cooked all the way through, don’t guestimate. Use a thermometer to make sure that the temperatures of ground meats like hamburgers are cooked to at least 160 degrees, and that poultry like chicken is cooked to 165 degrees.
• Cross contamination is another problem to look out for, but it can be avoided by using separate cutting boards, tongs, utensils, and plates for all the raw and cooked foods. Also, any item that touches raw food must be sanitized before being used again.

To keep all of this information on hand while preparing for your BBQ, you can download the Home Food Safety app www.homefoodsafety.org/app on your phone for easy access at any time during the party.

Heart Health

Daily Cup of Tea Soothes Heart 

“Drinking as little as a cup of tea daily may be good for your heart health, new research suggests. The study found that people who drank a cup of tea each day were 35 percent less likely to have a heart attack or other major cardiovascular event, compared to nondrinkers.

The study also found that tea drinkers were less likely to have calcium buildup in the heart’s coronary arteries. Calcium deposits have been linked to serious conditions, such as heart disease and stroke, the researchers said.

“We found that moderate tea drinkers had a decreased progression of coronary artery calcium and a decreased incidence of cardiovascular events,” said Dr. Elliott Miller. He’s an internal medicine physician and instructor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.”

Cancer News/ Immune System

‘Appleseed’ Method: Fight Cancer by Boosting the Immune System 

“Tech billionaire Sean Parker made headlines earlier this year when he announced that he was sinking $250 million into an effort to “solve” cancer through immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight the deadly disease.

While Parker’s philanthropy is being hailed far and wide, cancer survivor and integrative therapy advocate Ann Fonfa finds all the hoopla about the “relatively new area of research” amusing. “The mainstream is always abuzz about the latest thing,” Fonfa tells Newsmax Health. “For a while it was genetics. Now it’s immunology, which actually came from the world of alternative medicine.” And it’s hardly a “relatively new” concept to her.

“I first heard about immunology in a hallway discussion about dendrite cells at a cancer conference in Philadelphia in the 1990s,” says Fonfa. “The research back then was being done in Mexico and other countries and was considered backroom by mainstream medical people.”

Ironically, when Fonfa was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993, she says, her doctor said her immune system was not a factor in her condition or her survival.

“My doctor told me my immune system had nothing to do with it, and neither did diet or exercise,” she recalls. “Now we know better.” In fact, diet, exercise and attitude are three pillars of Fonfa’s cancer-fighting protocol, which she preaches through the Annie Appleseed Project, her Delray Beach, Fla.-based non-profit.

“The first thing I tell cancer patients is to stop eating products with added sugar because cancer cells feed on it,” she says. “Avoid deep fried foods, and add more organic fruits and vegetables to your diet. Get moving because activity is good for the immune system, and learn how to reduce stress. You be surprised how much taking seven deep breaths will relax you.”

Horseradish May Be Potent Cancer Fighter 

“The common root vegetable horseradish contains enzymes that may help fight cancer, a new study shows. Horseradish, used most often a condiment, has been known to contain healthful properties, but this is the first time that researchers have demonstrated their cancer-fighting enzymes, University of Illinois researchers say.

The researchers had previously identified and quantified the compounds responsible for the cancer-fighting compounds, known as glucosinolates, in horseradish, noting that horseradish contains approximately 10 times more glucosinolates than its superfood cousin, broccoli.

In the new study, the team looked for the products of glucosinolate hydrolysis, which activate enzymes involved in detoxification of cancer-causing molecules. These are compounds that could help detoxify and eliminate cancer-causing free molecules in the body, says lead researcher Mosbah Kushad, who is a crop scientist.

They also found that the amount of these molecules differed according to strain, with the highest quality horseradish having the most. But even in the lower grades, the detection of the enzymes in horseradish is noteworthy, says Kushad of the study, which appears in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

“No one is going to eat a pound of horseradish,” Kushad points out, but adds that luckily, a teaspoon of the pungent condiment is sufficient to get the benefit.”

Conclusion

Your physical health is very important, but of even greater importance is your spiritual health. Man suffers from a fatal spiritual disease called sin, which always leads to death.
Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is why Jesus Christ said we need the Spirit of God who gives us eternal life with Him. We need to be “born again” with a new spirit that is not subject to sin and death.
John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Right now, through repentance of the spiritual disease called sin, you can come to Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, for healing and assurance of eternal life.
Mark 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

For those who love the Lord Jesus and are looking for His coming, the following is their future:
Revelation 21:4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.