Here’s some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don’t work.

What’s even more depressing?

The pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they DO work.

As a physician, this is frightening to me. Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.

The study I’m talking about was published in a recent issue of “The New England Journal of Medicine.”

It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit -- but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective. (1)

That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.

And it’s even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place.

For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.

That leaves us with a big problem -- millions of depressed people with no effective treatments.

Let’s take a closer look at depression.

Can you reverse prostate cancer and aging by changing your diet?

Well, yes!

These were among the findings from Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues, which he recounts in his groundbreaking new book, “The Spectrum.”

As I mentioned last week, 30 years ago, Dr. Ornish showed us that we can actually reverse heart disease by eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet, exercising, meditating, practicing yoga, and being part of a supportive group.

Now he shows us that even cancer and aging can be reversed using the same principles of healthy living and whole foods -- and he shows us WHY this can happen.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish came up with a radical but simple idea that threatened the very foundation of our whole conception of disease.

He believed that heart disease, cancer, and any chronic illness could actually be reversed with diet and lifestyle changes.

Medication and surgery can slow and treat disease. But Dr. Ornish’s lifestyle program could actually reverse and undo the damage.

This was medical heresy.

But he had the...

Something extraordinary happened while I was flying back from Seattle to Philadelphia recently.

I was there teaching other doctors about Functional Medicine at The Institute for Functional Medicine (www.functionalmedicine.org). The course was called Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice -- a course that every doctor in America should attend. 

On that flight, I read a powerful book with the potential to alter the course of western medicine. 

It was Jenny McCarthy's new book about her autistic son called "Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism."

Her insightful words spoke to the biggest problem in medicine today. It is a secret that needs to be told, and Jenny McCarthy is determined to do just that.

What's the secret?

==> There IS a "biomedical" treatment for autism.

But what she DIDN'T say was that this biomedical treatment is actually the scientific principles and methods that form the basis of Functional Medicine and the 7 Keys to UltraWellness.

Wow, from the responses to my last blog, it seems like healthcare is second only to religion in inciting active debate!  One of you even told me to save the commentary and stick to practicing medicine!

Thanks to all who contributed to the conversation.

Some said I didn't value Michaels Moore's attempt to highlight the problems with our health care system.  And some may have misinterpreted my criticism of a country and an economy that thrives like a parasite on the sickness and obesity of it citizens as a cynical call to profit from helping people create health.

What really I believe is that there should be an economy of products and services (healthy food, activities, etc.) that promote rather than destroy health.

So let me clarify.