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General Depression – Post-Partum Depression Anxiety – Alzheimer’s Disease
What do general depression, post-partum depression, anxiety disorders and Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) all have to do with birth control pills (BCP’s)?
Plenty!
BCP’s have long been associated with harmful effects on the brain. Beginning with mood changes and loss of libido that’s found in PMS, and ending with full blown clinical depression, BCP’s have a long history of causing or provoking deep, disturbing mental changes.
The effects of “mood changes, including depression and irritability, changes in sexual desire or response” caused by BCP’s are fully acknowledged by mainstream medical journals - including a recent review article entitled, “An Overview of Oral Contraceptives” by Cheryl Frye, PhD, published in the March, 2006, issue of Neurology.
56% Develop Psychological Problems on BCP’s
Another article published in the July, 2006 journal, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, discusses reports beginning in the 1970’s of emotional changes, irritability, depression and PMS symptoms that occur in up to 56% of women who take BCP’s.
The authors note that nearly 30% of women have to discontinue BCP’s due to psychological side effects, often within the first three months of use.
Chemically Altered Hormone Causes Dangerous Effects
What’s interesting is that this same article discusses the anxiety reducing and calming effects of natural progesterone. This is the substance drug companies try to mimic, using synthetic, chemically altered progesterone-like hormones found in oral contraceptives and hormone replacement pills. However, these false hormones are the very chemicals implicated in the treacherous neuroactive (or brain causing) effects just discussed.
Hormones, whether naturally produced in your body, or those that are chemically altered in a laboratory, affect every single cell in the body. For example, not only ovary cells have an estrogen hormone receptor, but also the lungs, liver, pancreas, bones, skin, retina and especially the brain.
Hormone Levels in the Brain
Hormones in the brain can be measured. Researchers have noted people with depression have a decreased amount of neuroactive hormones. Serotonin, one of the main hormones responsible for proper brain functioning, is a prime target of drug companies looking to manufacture anti-depressant medications.
Likewise, allopregnenolone, a metabolite or by-product of natural progesterone, is normally found in very high concentrations in the brain. People with depression have lower concentrations of this substance. BCP’s lower the amount of natural progesterone - resulting in lowering the amount of available allopregnenolone.
Chemically Altered Hormones Cause Cognitive Decline
Chemically altered, synthetic hormones have been shown to impair overall cognitive function – or thinking ability - in post menopausal women. This was part of the results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial released in 2003.
Women who took chemically altered hormones as part of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were exposed to a small increased risk of significantly impairing their ability to think.
The HRT drug treatment is very similar to the chemically altered hormones found in oral contraceptives. Up to now, cognitive decline has not been discussed in younger women, probably because the younger a person is, the longer it takes for these symptoms to show up.
Increased Dementia and Alzheimer’s Dementia from Chemically Altered Hormones
The same WHI trial also showed a significantly increased risk for dementia as well. This was tested on women who were 65 years and older. No one knows to what extent the protective effect that youth is having on these brain damaging effects of BCP’s. Time will indeed tell. |
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