When I wrote my first book, Healing Depression: A Holistic Guide (New York: Marlowe and Co., 1997), I read all the research going over meta studies going over the fact that most antidepressants were, in fact, no better than placebo.
I also read the work of Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, author of numerous books about the dangers of psychiatric drugs and prominent vocal opponent of drug-based treatments, www.breggin.com.
But I also read Mother Theresa. She said, “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.”
I recognized that there is so much fear about depression and so much anxiety about wanting to follow what our doctors advise us, that I chose not to be a fighter.
Instead of pointing out that the emperor, in fact, had no clothes, I chose to use my book as a positive example of what can be accomplished through natural methods.
Just recently, I was watching a Ted Talk by Ben Goldacre. You can watch it at the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-goldacre/prescription-drugs_b_3018272.html?utm_hp_ref=tedweekends&ir=TED%20Weekends
In his Ted Talk, British physician Ben Goldacre, the author of Bad Pharma, takes the pharmaceutical industry to task for not publishing negative results.
He pointed out that in all FDA trials for 12 antidepressants over a 15-year period, there were 38 positive results and 36 negative results. He pointed out that this was not in fact all the studies ever done on antidepressants – just the ones that were done to get FDA approval for marketing purposes.
Of those 36 negative results, only 3 were actually published in the peer-reviewed academic literature. All but one of the positive results were published.
“We were misled,” Dr. Goldacre says. “Publication basis affects all fields of medicine. We know that positive findings are twice as likely to be published as negative findings.”
Dr. Goldacre says in his Ted Talk that the problem of missing negative results goes against the very core of evidence-based medicine.
In my humble opinion, here is my take away: even if you trust your medical doctor, you have to ask yourself whether your doctor has AL the information about the drugs he or she is prescribing for you. AND you have to ask yourself whether or not the drugs that have been prescribed for you actually agree with your body.
Year ago, I became a kinesiologist because I had experienced for myself biochemical individuality.
In plain English, your body is unique to you. Your body chemistry is unique to you. Your brain chemistry is unique to you.
What works for somebody else may or may not work for you.
What using kinesiology for nearly 20 years has taught me is that you have to ask the body. Your body knows best. Your body knows what will heal you and your body also what will know what will make you sick, what will exacerbate all your symptoms and make you physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually worse.
Even if a drug or a supplement makes 100 other people better, that does not necessarily mean it will actually work for you.
What is healing? True healing happens when you ask your mind, body and soul what will actually work.
