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Antidepressant drugs found to cause birth complications
Added: (Wed Sep 07 2005)
Posted Aug 19, 2004 PT by the Health Ranger (Mike Adams)
A new warning is being issued about pregnant women taking antidepressant drugs. It turns out that taking such drugs during late pregnancy puts the health of their babies at risk and leads to birth complications that may require prolonged hospitalization, breathing support, and tube feeding. This warning applies to all SSRI drugs, or what's called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, which include drugs like Prozac and other popular antidepressants. The warning comes from Health Canada, and is a latest in a series of warnings being publicized about the dangers of taking prescription drugs.
Of course, informed readers already know that prescription drugs pose significant health hazards to human beings, but when they are taken by pregnant women, they pose an even greater hazard because they effect the health of two human beings. The health of an unborn baby is significantly impaired by the consumption of both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, not to mention alcohol, smoking, and the consumption of processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, or refined sugar.
The untold part of all of this is the rather shocking realization that doctors are actually prescribing antidepressant drugs to pregnant women. That's because there is no FDA warning about antidepressants and pregnant women in the United States. It's not surprising, since the FDA is typically very slow to issue warnings about prescription drugs, even as Canada, the UK, and other countries are quick to publicize such warnings in order to protect the health of the public.
Interestingly, one of the common defenses about this link between antidepressant drugs and birth complications is that there is also a risk to the fetus if a pregnant woman remains depressed. Some people are saying that it's worth giving depressed expectant mothers antidepressant drugs because it's a greater health danger for the pregnant mother to remain depressed. This is absurd, since antidepressant drugs don't actually improve the mental health of anyone in the first place. Even the clinical trials involving antidepressants have been distorted and selectively chosen to shed good light on SSRIs, but as we are now learning, these drugs actually promote violent behavior and can cause people to commit suicide.
(One of the little-known facts about antidepressant drugs is that those students who committed the Columbine school massacre several years ago were taking SSRI antidepressant drugs, and it may have been one of the factors that caused them to pick up automatic weapons and murder their classmates.)
Are these the kinds of drugs we want to be giving pregnant women? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to help educate women about why they might be feeling down in the first place, due to their dietary imbalances and their nutritional deficiencies, and then help them alleviate those at the core? Wouldn't it make more sense to use natural methods that actually support and enhance the health of unborn children as well as the health of their mothers?
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News Real