FDA may restrict anti-depressant uses

Most of us (even in the holistic medicine field) know at least one person on anti-depressants. The FDA is exploring the option to limit the use of SSRI's on children:

Depression occurs in about 10 percent of youth and can lead to suicide, especially if untreated. Some 1,883 10- to 19-year-olds killed themselves in 2001, and specialists say there are 10 to 20 attempts for every suicide.

For adults, antidepressants clearly alleviate major depression, the FDA stresses.

But medicines can work differently in children.

No kidding. The article lists some very specific and horrific examples of just how differnetly. Life-ending examples, if you care to learn more. From the same article:

Preliminary data, however, suggest that suicidal behavior and attempts, while infrequent, might be at least twice as frequent among some antidepressant users.

Avena and Hypericum... much better options. But if that isn't enough to make you break out in hives:

... no one flinched when a child psychiatrist told a conference of parents and counselors last month that she had prescribed antidepressants to children as young as 3-1/2. Audience members at the San Diego conference, after all, were quite familiar with the concept of preschoolers on Prozac. Many of the parents in the audience have children who suffer from a debilitating form of shyness called selective mutism, one of a handful of mental disorders thought to strike children younger than 6. And several had put their kids on the drugs despite their misgivings and well-publicized concerns about the effects of antidepressants upon teenagers.

Keep reading if you like. I'm going to take a hot shower and try to block this for the rest of the day.

Thanks (again) to Bernie for the info!

You think herbs are dangerous...

Fasten your seatbelts on this one, faithful readers. Forget the dangers of Ephedra, Digitalis... even Tylenol! A new study released and reported on by The Scottsman Evening News finds more sinister agents where you might not expect them:

• 67,000 people are injured each year trying to peel the cellophane off a packet of sandwiches
  
• more than 150 people a day have accidentally stabbed themselves when trying to [pry] the top off a jar... with a knife
  
• Thirty-seven people were injured so seriously by [tea cozys] in 1999 that they were admitted to [the] hospital
  
• The number of injuries perpetrated by trousers... stood at 5310
  
• putting on socks, tights or stockings saw 11,788 people taken to hospital

I swear to gods I'm not making this up. We've got bigger fish to fry than protecting the public from herbal remedies... And this is just in the UK! Imagine the global pandemic trousers are causing!

Why am I drawn to crazy people?

I can't seem to pick out a "normal" holistic practitioner in my professional life. My chiropracter, Dr. Joseph Lipari, is without question completely out of touch with this version of reality. No slight to the mans ability to manipulate the body and nervous system alignment, but the man is off his rocker.

Then there is my dentist, Dr. Stephen Baer of Sedona, AZ. Once again, crazy as a coot with absolutely no sense of linear time, but an amazing dentist. It was in his office I found a Reiki and Healing Touch therapist Tarri Otterlee. You guessed it, wacko like the rest of them-- but again quite talented.

I suppose I should take a good hard look in the mirror. Perhaps a trim and shave might do me good...