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The medications that change who we are
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Effects of ordinary medication
There’s emerging evidence that ordinary medications - from paracetamol to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications, and antidepressants - can change our brains. They can make us impulsive...
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The crisis of over-medication
- The US buys an equivalent of 298 paracetamol tablets per person every year.
- The average American consumes $1,200 worth of prescription medications over the same period.
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Statins and personality changes
- People with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths.
- If you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. Lowering animals’ cholesterol s...
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Side-effect of paracetamol
Paracetamol blunts physical pain by reducing activity in certain brain areas, such as the insular cortex, which plays an important role in our emotions. Paracetamol can blunt our social pain...
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"When you give somebody a drug, you don’t just give it to a person – you give it to a social system. And we really don’t understand the effects of these medications in the broader context.”
Dominik Mischkowski
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Medications that influence us
- Asthma medications are thought to bring on ADHD symptoms by altering levels of serotonin or inflammatory chemicals, which are thought to be involved in the development of both conditions.
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Being informed
No one is arguing that people should stop taking their medication. However, it is important for people to be informed about how the treatment might potentially change their personalities.
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The general Keto diet
The Keto diet is one of the biggest diet phenomenons today. It is the most Googled diet of 2018 and has surpassed Weight Watchers and other low-carb regimens, Atkins and Paleo.
There is a considerable variation in how humans respond to nutritional and dietary tweaks in this overhyped craze, but not without merit. There is a growing body of science exploring keto as a potential thwart for Type 2 diabetes and other illnesses.
Keto is a no-carb diet
Carbohydrates account for about half the calories on average in the American diet. Rice, maize, and wheat provide 60 percent of the world's food energy intake, even though there are more than 50,000 edible plants.
Keto is practically no-carb, forbidding processed junk foods and severely limits grains, including whole grains, fruits, and legumes such as brown rice, apples, and lentils. Keto adherents think conventional nutritional wisdom is harmful.
Keto is a cultural identity
Keto is more than just a diet. It is a cultural identity.
The Keto diet changes how adherents think about medicine and nutrition. With the fake news that dominates the news cycle, it's not surprising that keto went viral. It's anti-establishment.
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Research Findings On Supplements
- Pharmaceuticals undergo extensive testing to prove they're effective and safe before they can be sold, but dietary supplements can be sold without proof of claims, effectiveness or safety.
- Daily multivitamin consumption does not lower heart disease risk.
- The FDA has found more than 500 supplements adulterated with pharmaceuticals or closely related compounds. Those can cause unwanted side effects and may be especially risky when taken with heart drugs or other prescription medications.
Supplements And Doctor Prescriptions
Because of the potential risks and unclear benefits of supplements, most doctors advise against them. However, doctors often recommend specific vitamin and mineral supplements to their patients, such as calcium and vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis and iron for people with iron deficiency.
When Buying Supplements
- Consider only single-ingredient supplements. Multi-ingredient supplements make it hard to identify which substance is having an effect and they are more likely to be adulterated with banned drugs.
- Tell your doctor about any supplement you take, so they can check it will interact with any of the medicines you're on.
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Depression and medication
Doctors for long treated depression as something inside your brain, which can be treated with meds, with no outside influence.
Certain exceptions (like losing a loved one and this leading to extreme depression) raised suspicion that this orthodox and old treatment of depression has always been wrong.
Isolated diagnosis
To treat someone who seemingly has depression, while isolating this from any other situation, event or circumstance that might have triggered it is a flawed way to diagnose a potential mental illness.
The root cause of the problem of depression is not addressed in this way.
Happy pills
Antidepressant prescription and eventually their doses have doubled over the past decade, yet depression and anxiety are spiraling out of control.
The real cause of depression does not seem to be completely inside our heads, and pill-popping is just a stop-gap measure, which may even be harmful.