Dr. Candace Pert, Research Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and past head of the brain chemistry department at the National Institute of Health, a position she served in for 13 years, and author of the book, "Molecules of Emotion", sounded the alarm about serotonergic medications on page 8 of Time Magazine, October 20, 1997 where she wrote:
“I am alarmed at the monster that Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon Snyder and I created when we discovered the simple binding assay for drug receptors 25 years ago. Prozac and other antidepressant serotonin-receptor-active compounds may also cause cardiovascular problems in some susceptible people after long-term use, which has become common practice despite the lack of safety studies.
“The public is being misinformed about the precision of these selective serotonin-uptake inhibitors when the medical profession oversimplifies their action in the brain and ignores the body as if it exists merely to carry the head around! In short, these molecules of emotion regulate every aspect of our physiology. A new paradigm has evolved, with implications that life-style changes such as diet and exercise can offer profound, safe and natural mood elevation.”
Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? is a 424-page, thoroughly documented book written by Ann Blake Tracy, PhD. The book is promoted as telling “the rest of the story” on the new class of SSRI antidepressants (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lovan, Luvox, and more.)
Dr. Tracy, who wrote Prozac: Panacea or Pandora, is a friend of mine, and we have been corresponding for many years. I first learned of Dr. Tracy and her work when she sent me a copy of the above book. Then in 2001, she sent me an updated version, and then just a few years ago stopped by Hallelujah Acres and I had the opportunity to meet her in person. Dr. Tracy is excited about what we are doing here at Hallelujah Acres, and I am very appreciative and supportive of her work and ministry
Dr. Tracy has spent over 20 years of her life trying to warn people of the potentially disastrous consequences of taking SSRI antidepressant drugs.
In order to introduce Dr. Tracy to the subscribers of this Hallelujah Acres Health Tip, I am going to share a few letters she has written to the FDA, which will help our readers understand why she is so concerned about these SSRI antidepressant drugs and has dedicated her life to trying to inform the public of their dangers:
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy's September 13, 2004 letter to the FDA:
“I am Ann Blake Tracy, PhD, and head of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness. I am the author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare, and have testified in court cases involving antidepressants for 12-½ years. The last 15 years of my life have been devoted full time to researching and writing about SSRI antidepressants.
Research on serotonin has been clear from the beginning that the most damaging thing that could be done to the serotonin system
would be to impair one’s ability to metabolize serotonin. Yet that is how SSRI antidepressants exert their effect. For decades, research has shown that impairing serotonin metabolism will produce migraines, hot flashes, pains around the heart, difficulty breathing, a worsening of bronchial complaints, tension and anxiety which appear from out of nowhere, depression, suicide – especially very violent suicide, hostility, violent crime, arson, substance abuse, psychosis, mania, organic brain disease, autism, anorexia, reckless driving, Alzheimer’s, impulsive behavior with no concern for punishment, and argumentative behavior.
How anyone ever thought it would be “therapeutic” to chemically induce these reactions is beyond me. Yet, these reactions are exactly what we have witnessed in our society over the past decade and a half as a result of the widespread use of these drugs.
In fact, we even have a whole new vocabulary as a result with terms such as “road rage, suicide by cop, murder/suicide, going postal, false memory syndrome, school shooting, bi-polar” – every third person you meet anymore – along with the skyrocketing rates of antidepressant induced diabetes and hypoglycemia.
Can you remember two decades ago when depressed people used to slip away quietly to kill themselves rather than killing everyone around them and then themselves as they do while taking SSRI antidepressants?
A study out of the University of Southern California in 1996 looked at a group of mutant mice in an experiment that had gone terribly wrong. These genetically engineered mice were the most violent creatures they had ever witnessed. They were born lacking the MAO-A enzyme, which metabolizes serotonin. As a result their brains were awash in serotonin. This excess serotonin is what the researchers determined was the cause for this extreme violence. Antidepressants produce the same end result as they inhibit the metabolism of serotonin.
These are extremely dangerous drugs that should be banned as similar drugs have been banned in the past.
As a society we once thought LSD and PCP to be miracle medications with large margins of safety in humans. We have never seen drugs so similar to LSD and PCP as these SSRI antidepressants. All of these drugs produce dreaming during periods of wakefulness. It is believed that the high serotonin levels over stimulate the brain stem leading to a lack of muscle paralysis during sleep thus allowing the patient to act out the dreams or nightmares they are having. The world witnessed that clearly in the Zoloft-induced murder-suicide of comedian Phil Hartman and his wife, Brynn.
Connecticut witnessed the Prozac-induced case of Kelly Silk several years ago. This young mother attacked her family with a knife, and then set the house on fire killing all but her 8-year-old daughter who ran to the neighbor's. As she stood bleeding and screaming for help she explained, “Help! My mommy is having a nightmare!”
Out of the mouths of babes we will understand these nightmares for what they are. She understood that this was something her mother would do ONLY in a nightmare, never in reality.This is known as a REM Sleep Behavior Disorder. In the past it was known mainly as a drug withdrawal state, but the largest sleep facility in the country has reported that 86% of the cases they are diagnosing are patients on antidepressants.
Because this was known in the past as a condition manifesting mainly in drug withdrawal you should see how dangerous the withdrawal state from these drugs will prove to be. That is why it is so critical to make sure patients are weaned extremely slowly so as to avoid ANY chance of going into a withdrawal state.”
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy's December 13, 2006 letter to the FDA:
“For the past 15 years I have testified in court cases involving antidepressants. The last 17 years of my life have been devoted to researching, writing, and lecturing about these drugs.
Two of my nieces in their early 20’s, a decade apart, attempted suicide on antidepressants, the first on Prozac, and the second a month ago on Wellbutrin.
Due to time constraints I refer you to my September 2004 testimony on the damaging effects of inhibiting serotonin metabolism – the very mode of action of antidepressants. Impairing serotonin metabolism results in a multitude of symptoms including suicide, violent crime, mania and psychosis. Suicide ideation is, without question, associated with these drugs.
Rosie Meysenburg, Sara Bostock and I have collected and posted over 1,200 news articles documenting many exaggerated acts of violence against self or others at www.drugawareness.org
Beyond suicidal ideation we have mania/bipolar increasing dramatically. Antidepressants have always been known to trigger both. According to the Pharmaceutical Business Review in the last 11 years alone, the number of people in the U.S. with “bipolar” disorder has increased by 4.8 million.
Mr. Malcolm Bowers of Yale, found in the late 90’s over 200,000 people yearly are hospitalized with antidepressant-induced manic psychosis. They also point out that most go unrecognized as medication-induced, remain un-hospitalized, and are a threat to themselves and others.
What are the other types of threats from manias?
- PYROMANIA: Compulsion to start fires.
- KLEPTOMANIA: Compulsion to embezzle, shoplift, & commit robberies.
- DIPSOMANIA: An uncontrollable urge to drink alcohol.
- NYMPHOMANIA & EROTOMANIA: Sexual compulsions – a pathologic preoccupation with sexual fantasies or activities.
Child sex abuse has increased dramatically with even female teachers going manic on these drugs and seducing students. The head of the sex abuse treatment program for Utah estimated 80% of sex crime perpetrators were on antidepressants at the time of the crime. While Karl Von Kleist, an ex-LAPD officer and leading polygraph expert estimates 90% - strong evidence of manic sexual compulsions that demand attention . . . .
Clearly, far too many lives are being destroyed in various ways, by these drugs!”
Editor's Note: In a phone conversation with Dr. Tracy, she informed me that almost every school shooting – from Columbine to Virginia Tech – the perpetrator was on these SSRI antidepressants.
Were these drugs also the cause of the recent deaths of four soldiers at Fort Hood?
Are these drugs causing other military deaths?
In early 2013, the official website of the United States Department of Defense announced the startling statistic that the number of military suicides in 2012 had far exceeded the total of those killed in battle – an average of nearly one a day.
A month later came an even more sobering statistic from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: veteran suicide was running at 22 a day – about 8,000 a year.
At the beginning of this article I shared the words of Dr. Candace Pert, Research Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and past head of the brain chemistry department at the National Institute of Health. In that article, she concluded with these words:“A new paradigm has evolved, with implications that lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise can offer profound, safe and natural mood elevation.”
Here at Hallelujah Acres, we have found those words by Dr. Pert, to be oh-so-true, as many have written to tell me how a simple change in diet and lifestyle corrected their depressions, emotional and psychological and even bipolar disorder problems.
Friends, will you help me share the good news with others that we don’t have to be physically or even mentally afflicted?
God had it right from the very beginning when he gave us a diet in Genesis 1:29 that would keep the body healthy both physically and mentally, but man sure has messed up God’s Way by the administering of drugs!
If you are not already on The Hallelujah Diet, may I encourage you to give it a try! Hallelujah Acres is trying to help the Christian community (as well as anyone else who will listen) realize that God's ORIGINAL diet, as given by God in the Bible, in Genesis 1:29, was God's perfect plan for the proper nourishment of His human creation. Multitudes have made this diet change that we teach here at Hallelujah Acres, and experienced normalization of weight, as well as the elimination of almost all their physical and psychological problems. For more information, visit our website or call (704) 481-1700.
