“You can get the same benefit without drugs [if you are mildly or moderately depressed],” said Dr. Irving Kirsch on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (13-minutes into the video).<

Dr. Kirsch is a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, who says that for mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are no better than placebo.

Physical exercise is another treatment prescribed for the mildly depressed in Great Britain noted 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl, on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (12-minutes into the video).

“By the end of 10 weeks, you get just as good a change in their depression scores as you do at the end of 10 or 12 weeks with an antidepressant,” noted Dr. Tim Kendall, a practicing psychiatrist and Joint Director of the National Collaboration Centre for Mental Health who reviewed both published and unpublished studies of antidepressants for Great Britain’s National Health Service.

“The FDA would say that some of these unpublished studies [of antidepressants] were unpublished because there were flaws in the way that the trials were conducted,” 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl said on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (11.5-minutes into the video) to Dr. Tim Kendall, a practicing psychiatrist and Joint Director of the National Collaboration Centre for Mental Health who reviewed both published and unpublished studies of antidepressants for Great Britain’s National Health Service.

“This is a multi-billion-dollar industry. I doubt that they are spending $10 million per trial to come up with a poor methodology. What characterizes the unpublished [trials] is that they are negative. Now, I don’t think it’s that their method is somehow wrong, it’s that their outcome is not suitable from the company’s point of view,” Dr. Kendall stated.

“Because of the review, new public health guidelines were issued,” Lesley Stahl noted.

“Now, drugs are only given to the severely depressed as first-line treatment.”

“For those with mild to moderate depression,  the British government is spending nearly half-a-billion dollars training an army of talk therapists.”

“We came to the conclusion, that for mild to moderate depression, these drugs probably weren’t worth having,” noted Dr Tim Kendall, a practicing psychiatrist and Joint Director of the National Collaboration Centre for Mental Health who reviewed both published and unpublished studies of antidepressants.

“Like [Dr.] Irving Kirsch, they were surprised by what they found in the drug companies unpublished data,” Stahl noted.

“With the published evidence, it’s significantly overestimated the effectiveness of these drugs, and it underestimated the side effects,” noted Dr. Kendall.

Great Britain’s National Health Service decided to dramatically revamp the way that antidepressants are prescribed 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl noted on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (10-minutes into the video).

It did so after doing it’s own review of clinical trials, Stahl noted.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will approve an antidepressant or any other drug if only two trials show positive results, regardless of whether there are numerous other studies showing that the drugs are no more effective than a placebo. This fact was noted on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (8.5-minutes into the video).

“To approve any drug, the [US] Food and Drug Administration merely requires that companies show their pill is more effective than a placebo in two clinical trials even if many other drug trials failed,” 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl noted.

“The FDA for antidepressants has a fairly low bar. A new drug can be no better than placebo in ten trials, but if two trials show its better, it gets approved,” noted Walter Brown, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University’s School of Medicine.

“That’s not the way I would do it if I were King,” Dr. Brown noted.

Walter Brown, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University’s School of Medicine, questions the theory that depression is caused by a deficiency of serotonin as was noted in an interview he did on “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (8-minutes into the video).

“The experts in the field now believe that that theory [of serotonin deficiency as the cause of depression] is a gross oversimplification, and is probably not correct,” Dr. Brown said.

For mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are no better than a placebo, Dr. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, said in an interview on Sunday, February 19, 2012 on the television show “60 MInutes”.

“The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people”, Dr. Kirsch said.

“Whatever difference there would be, would be clinically insignificant.”

“If they were mildly or moderately depressed, you don’t see any real difference at all,” Dr. Kirsch notes 4.5-miuntes into the video.

“The only place you get a real difference is at the extreme levels of depression.” (4.5-minutes into the video).

“The difference between drug [antidepressants] and placebo is very, very small, and in half the studies, [the difference] is nonexistant” said Dr. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, in an interview on the television show “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (5-minutes into the video).

“[Walter Brown, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University’s School of Medicine] says that [people with mild depression] are getting virtually no benefit from the chemical in [antidepressants],” noted 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl, in an interview she did on “60 MInutes” on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (8-minutes into the video).

Dr. Brown has coauthored two studies of antidepressants that largely corroborate Dr. Irving Kirsch’s findings, that antidepressants are not much more effective than placebo for people with mild to moderate depression.

“The number of antidepressant prescriptions over the last decade has increase, and most troublesome, the biggest increase is in those who are mildly depressed who are the one’s who are least likely to benefit from them,” Dr. Brown noted (7.5-minutes into the video).

Seventeen (17) million Americans are taking antidepressants according to a story on Sunday, February 19, 2012 on the television show “60 MInutes” which interviewed Dr. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, who says that for mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are no better than placebo.

Sales of antidepressants total $11.3 billion per year according to a story on Sunday, February 19, 2012 on the television show “60 MInutes” which interviewed Irving Kirsch, a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, who says that for mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are no better than placebo.

Too much vitamin D—possibly at levels just above the recommended 400 IU’s per day—may increase heart attacks, arthritis and degenerative joint disease according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Too much vitamin D—possibly at levels just above the recommended 400 IU’s per day—may increase arthritis and degenerative joint disease as well as heart attacks and other problems according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Too much vitamin D causes a magnesium deficiency in the heart which may be responsible for an increase in heart attacks caused by excessive vitamin D according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Excess vitamin D causes hardening of the arteries and heart attacks in experimental animals according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Vitamin D irritates the lining of blood vessels according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Excess Vitamin D given to pregnant women can cause “severe mental retardation in their offspring” according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Excess Vitamin D given to pregnant women can cause kidney calcification in their offspring according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Excess Vitamin D given to pregnant women can cause a “type of congenital heart disease called supravalvular aortic stenosis” in their offspring according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Excess Vitamin D given to pregnant women can cause their offspring to have abnormally shaped faces that physicians call ‘elfin faces’ according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

“Milk also has the peculiar property of enhancing the potency of vitamin D,” according to a wonderful book published in 1980 called “Sunlight Could Save Your Life” by Zane Kime, MD.

Adding 90 IU’s of vitamin D to milk had a greater effect than adding 10X this much to cod liver oil. Many experts in the past have recommended that vitamin D should NOT be added to milk and other foods.

Obese patients given “weight-loss support remotely—through the telephone, a study-specific Web site, and e-mail” lost an average of 10.1 lbs during a two-year study versus an average weight loss of 11.2 lbs for those provided in-person support during group sessions and individual sessions, along with the three remote means of support (telephone, a study-specific Web site, and e-mail support) according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

A third group of obese people whose weight loss was self-directed lost an average of only 1.8 lbs.

Eating a high-dairy diet versus a low-dairy diet increases weight loss by 2-3 lbs if you restricting calories according to data from 10 studies.

Eating a high-dairy diet does NOT cause weight loss if you are not restricting calories according to data from 6 studies. When comparing the body weight of those on a high-dairy diet versus those on a low-dairy diet, those on a high-dairy diet GAINED 0.7 pounds.

The one-third of men consuming the most dietary calcium—roughly 2000 mg per day—were 25% less likely to die over the next 10 years compared to the one-third of men consuming the least dietary calcium—roughly 1000 mg per day—according to a study that followed 23,366 Swedish men, aged 45–79 years, who were NOT taking dietary supplements.