This topic hit home for me and because of that I want to pass along a very important warning

Hello everyone,

Last night I attended a memorial service for a neighbor. A month ago she committed suicide, in a very violent fashion. Most of us were dumbfounded, as this neighbor, to all of us, was a healer, kind, loving, always smiling. What most of us did not know, until last night, as her daughter spoke, was that our friend struggled with bipolar disorder. She had been on many different medications, and apparently had a rotation going of different medications. The issue seemed to be that she would develop a tolerance to one regime, so she would rotate through different cocktails as one set lost its effect.

Apparently, on her own, she decided to wean herself off the medications. No supervision from her doctor.

I wonder if this is how she got herself into trouble.

I do my best in this blog to stay neutral, and let you, the readers, decide if medication is for you, or if you'd rather choose an alternative option. I still feel that way.

However, what I do want to insist on, after this personal experience, is that if you are on medications, that you do not manage the use of these medications, or even alternative options, on your own. Whether it's in a bottle or from a plant or a food, when you use chemicals to alter your brain chemistry, you alter your brain chemistry. Once the compound is in your body, regardless of its origin, you really don't have any control over where, when, and how this compound is going to work.

Please do not operate on the assumption that because you are "getting off meds", that what you are doing is safe. It can be, but only if done correctly. Please do not assume that because what you are taking is organic and/or was not sold to you by a pharmaceutical company, that you're in good hands. You may...or you may not be.

It can be very hard to reach out for help when the problem you have is a mental health issue. I lived just yards from this neighbor, she knew what I did for a living, and never once did she ask me for any information. But the important thing to remember about a mental health issue is that it affects how you think, reason, feel, and act. Even if you feel that you're in control, it's always important to have at least one human sounding board to depend on when making decisions affecting how your brain functions.

I don't want any of you to ever think I said anything to encourage you to endanger yourself. If I present new information that you think might be helpful, please download it and share it with your provider. Don't act on it alone. I want all of you to be around as long as I can come up with new and helpful information to post on this blog.

Asthma medication and suicide

You've probably seen by now, that the asthma medication Singulair may be linked to suicidal tendencies.

I have noticed, over the past few years, that medications used to treat imbalances potentially related to inflammation (which some asthma is), seem to be pulled off the market because of their side effects. I'm not sure what the reason is for this, it just seems to happen fairly frequently.

I'm wondering if part of the problem is how Western medicine defines and treats inflammation...as a symptom that can be treated with a medication.

I started this blog because I believe that a lot of the inflammatory process causing so much illness today, is more about lifestyle--what we eat, how active we are, how much and how well we sleep, and how we manage stress. There isn't a pill we can take that can outweigh the benefits of those simple choices.

It's a hard reality to accept, that the only person who can help us with most of our problems, is ourselves. It means saying no to things that may sound like fun, it means saying yes to things that may not be as fun as other options, but in the long run, making those choices can reduce the need for many medications and help us to feel better, much longer into life.

Epileptic medications and suicidal risk

This just in from the FDA....

...in placebo-controlled trials of 11 different medications used to treat epilepsy (and other disorders as detailed in previous posts), individuals using these medications experienced twice the risk of suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors. It didn't take long for some, only a week, to experience this very significant side effect. The risk WAS higher for those given these medications for epilepsy than those given the medications for other reasons.

This is the FDA's list of medications evaluated in this study:

Carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR)
Felbamate (Felbatol)
Gabapentin (Neurontin)
Lamotrigine (Lamictal)
Levetiracetam (Keppra)
Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal)
Pregabalin (Lyrica)
Tiagabine (Gabitril)
Topiramate (Topamax)
Valproate (Depakote, Depakote ER, Depakene, Depacon)
Zonisamide ()

Here is the FDA reference for more information:

http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2008/safety08.htm#Antiepileptic


MY SOURCE: http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852571020057CCF6852573E1007057A9

Just a note from a nutritionist...fish oil can help reduce seizure activity. I AM NOT, I repeat AM NOT, advising anyone reading this post to discontinue their medications and replace them with a nutritional supplement. However, I AM encouraging you to discuss the possibility of a blend of nutrition therapy AND medication for a potentially gentler approach to safely managing a very serious medical issue.

Serious side effect warning for Chantix

Pfizer just issued a press release warning about potential serious side effects for their smoking cessation medication, Chantix (varenicline). These side effects include agitation, depression, suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviors.

Here is a link to the original release:

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852571020057CCF6852573D40053B3FA

Apparently when this drug was in the testing phase, individuals with psychiatric diagnoses were not included in the test population. In the world of pure study design, that makes sense...but...sigh...if you've ever worked in the world of psychiatric diagnoses or have one, you know how prevalent smoking is within this demographic.

Chantix is not a medication I regularly review, or plan to, but since my intended audience may very well be the population most at risk for experiencing the reported problems, I wanted to be sure this information reached its potentially most relevant audience.