Antidepressants and suicide riskBack in 1995, Peter and Ginger Breggin's book Talking Back to Prozac made bestseller lists by challenging the widespread notion that any deviation from perfect happiness could be successfully medicated. Their well-referenced work challenged Eli Lilly's mega-selling Prozac, and cited many cases of suicidal and homicidal attempts, some successful, some not, following use of the drug. Although almost a decade has passed since the Breggins' warnings, the FDA only this past fall issued an affirmation of the link between antidepressants and suicidal "ideation" in adolescents. Now all antidepressants, including the SSRIs - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa and Luvox, must carry a "black box warning." This is the FDA's strongest warning label, in this case explicitly linking the drugs to suicide risk. Although the drug makers had claimed that suicide only occurred because the anti-depressants made patients active enough to be able to carry out such an act of violence, it has been shown that antidepressants' high rate of suicide attempts go beyond this phenomenon. Why are we only getting resolution on this problem many years after it was first established? Painkillers Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra are finally being phased out after many die of heart disease and stroke. Previously hormone replacement therapy was pulled back after many cases of women's cancer. Do we really have to put up with drugs that kill a lot of us before the rest of us see that they should not be used? How to choose a naturopathic physicianWith only about 3,000 naturopathic physicians in the U.S., it may be hard to find one at all, let alone to be picky. Part of the difficulty is the name: in Arizona, they are Naturopathic Medical Doctors (NMDs) or Naturopathic Doctors (NDs). In twelve other states where naturopathic physicians are licensed, they are Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) [1]. In the unlicensed states, you may think you have found a naturopathic physician, but because there is no license and no regulation, you may have simply encountered a correspondence school customer, who bought a diploma saying "ND", but has never done the necessary academic and clinical work to train as a physician. In other words, the mail-order NDs may have never set foot inside a medical school and may have never treated a patient before you. In the interest of your own health, it is best to not entrust it to such a person any more than you would entrust your health to a manicurist or a roofer. For whatever good intentions such individuals may have, they simply don't have the necessary training. Worse, their lack of training and lack of medical education from time to time produce fatal outcomes in patients. Then what the media report to the public is that a naturopath allegedly killed someone. The mail order schools usurping of our name and our diploma "Naturopathic Doctor" gives the real naturopaths a bad name and deceives and endangers the public. For that reason, licensing efforts for naturopathic medicine are underway in most states, and state legislatures are waking up to the problem. In order to avoid such an encounter yourself, make sure your ND graduated from one of the six accredited North American naturopathic medical schools:
These are the only six naturopathic medical schools accredited by CNME - the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education. A copy of the doctor's diploma from one of these six schools should be hanging in his or her office. Before making the appointment, find out what school the ND graduated from, and don't let anybody tell you about other naturopathic schools. There are currently no other accredited schools in the U.S. or Canada, and no other on-site naturopathic medical curricula with clinical training programs apart from these six. Period. Naturopathic Doctors from these six medical schools complete more hours of in-class and laboratory medical training than any other type of physician, including MDs and DOs, and our total hours of academic plus clinical training are comparable to such medical schools as Yale School of Medicine and the osteopathic schools [2]. This data is also kept by the U.S. Department of Education. |
Choosing a Naturopathic Physician... Another part of the problem in finding a ND is inconsistent listings from city to city in the yellow pages. In one phonebook, you may see "Physicians, naturopathic." In another, you may see "Holistic practitioners." In yet another, you may see "Alternative medicine." Check the various listing possibilities in your area. Another problem once you have found an accredited ND is that there are some who are afraid to practice naturopathic medicine, and feel as if they need to conform to their conventional medical colleagues by practicing conventional medicine. Here are two questions to weed out such individuals:
Have you ever sought a physician who learned the following in medical school:
Look no further: the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians www.naturopathic.org Junk food in schoolTexas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs caused a stir recently at Texas public schools with new rules banning junk food. No sodas or candy bars for gradeschooolers. French fries will be banned in one year. And bake sale items may not be consumed during school hours. The $104 million that cash-strapped Texas school districts make from junk food sales has corrupted many an administrator. But now, stepping boldly past decades of disgraceful cowardice in the public schools, strewn with the obese, damaged bodies of children, Susan Combs actually has the guts to chase out the junk food dealers. The former prosecutor has little patience with her critics who complain of lost revenue from vending machines and bake sales. "Are we going to sell marijuana to build gyms?" she asks. Yet there are signs of cooperation. When the Donuts for Dads events were cancelled at Haggar Elementary School in Plano, the parents bought $800 worth of books for the school instead of donuts and other sweets. Snack and soda companies are now falling over themselves trying to devise synthetic "healthy" foods acceptable under the new rules. As in the rest of the U.S., Texas children have been growing laterally. Over a third are overweight or obese, worse by far than the national rate of 10% to 15% obesity in children. In Texas alone, the estimated cost for treating these kids when they become obese adults is $40 billion. Compounding the problem in Texas, as elsewhere, is the state's inadequate physical education programs and cancelling of recess. "We cram them full of unhealthy food and don't let them expend it. It's a recipe for disaster," says Combs. As for her next project, she plans to address the physical education vacuum. |