tagged w/ Prozac
-
Your sunscreen and birth control pills may be affecting the size and efficacy of alligator penises, among other things. On a positive note, your Prozac makes mussels happy.
From the article:
"Most people don't see a stockpile of environmental contaminants when they look in their bathroom cabinets, but pharmaceuticals and personal care products contain thousands of chemicals that could impact aquatic life. ...
Unlike agricultural and industrial pollutants, chemicals in PPCPs [pharmaceuticals and personal care products] enter the environment at low but often continual levels by thousands or millions of people in towns and cities around the world.
Some of these chemical compounds are endocrine disruptors that act like hormones and can interfere with reproduction.
Perhaps the most widely publicized study of the impact of endocrine disruptors came in the 1990s when researchers reported male alligators with abnormally small penises and high blood levels of female hormones in a Florida lake with a declining alligator population.
Mitra said scientists have discovered that fish stopped reproducing within a few weeks after low levels of the active ingredient in birth control pills was added to experimental lakes.
Endocrine disruptors aren't found only in oral contraceptives and therapeutic hormones though.
Preservatives called parabens, found in many shampoos and sunscreens, are endocrine disruptors also.
And, at North Carolina State University, scientists found that adding a small amount of a common antidepressant to the water altered the reproductive behavior of freshwater mussels.
Other research is looking at whether low levels of prescription antibiotics could promote pathogen resistance in aquatic species."Your sunscreen and birth control pills may be affecting the size and efficacy of... more
-
-
sajh
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
The Scotsman reports that the anti-depressant may cure a type of visual impairment.
Amblyopia, known as "lazy eye", causes one eye to be weaker than the other because it was not used enough in early childhood.
The Scotsman reports that the anti-depressant may cure a type of visual impairment.... more
-
-
A new law being considered in the U.S. Congress would attempt to prevent postpartum depression in new moms by allowing doctors to prescribe SSRI antidepressant drugs while they're still pregnant.
SSRI drugs have never been approved for use on newborns, yet this new MOTHERS Act will effectively drug unborn babies and newborns with drugs like Prozac. This will certainly have an impact on their developing brains, and the bulk of the research available today shows that the impact will be negative. Will these children be more prone to violent thoughts and behavior? Will they contemplate suicide at younger ages? And what will be the impact of the drugs on the mother?
This legislation is being aggressively pushed by pro-pharma front groups in an effort to expand the customer base for SSRI drugs by targeting pregnant women as new "customers" for the chemicals.A new law being considered in the U.S. Congress would attempt to prevent postpartum... more
-
-
Bad news for the 40 million people who take Prozac. It and similar drugs are no better for treating depression than placebos, according to a major review of the antidepressants available today. "The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill. When all the data was pulled together, it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs."
Not surprisingly, the drug companies who make a number of the drugs targeted in this study are standing behind their claims that the drugs do work, with "very positive" benefits.
So once again it's scientists versus drug companies, with a multi-billion dollar industry and people's well being in the balance. Do you think that these pills work? Or is it a case of power of the mind? Bad news for the 40 million people who take Prozac. It and similar drugs are no better... more
-
