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Quotes about Amphetamines from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"They also cause palpitations and central-nervous-system effects. Like amphetamines, they have the potential for abuse and dependence. These risks have led to their ban in Europe. Other similar amphetamines include benzphetamine (Di-drex) and phendimetrazine (Bontril). ORLISTAT Orlistat (Xenical), another drug approved for the treatment of obesity, prevents the digestion and absorption of some fats by inhibiting the lipase enzyme. Orlistat treatment results in a six-pound weight loss that persists for as long as treatment continues." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"Despite this, amphetamines have a slew of side effects, starting with addiction and the other side effects we've already discussed, sometimes even producing agitation. However, some people who cannot tolerate Provigil or Ritalin do just fine on an amphetamine. With this drug, I use as little as is necessary to produce a noticeable reduction in the patient's fatigue. To my amazement, some insurance companies insist that patients try methylphenidate or amphetamines before they will pay for modafinil, even though these drugs can have much more serious side effects." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"Many ADHD adults and adolescents turn to stimulating drugs, such as cocaine, crack, amphetamines, and methamphetamines. These dopamine-enhancing drugs can temporarily soothe not only the symptoms of the inattentive subtype of ADHD, but also those of the hyperactive-impulsive subtype. Ritalin, of course, can also be abused, and is often the abusive drug of choice among many adults and adolescents with ADHD. Ritalin is a popular street drug, and in some cities it's sold for a price that is approximately equivalent to that of heroin." - Kenneth Bock, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders (Get the book.)

"They call Prozac a "selective serotonin enhancer," but it also stimulates the androgen systems, like amphetamines and cocaine do. It also depresses the dopamine receptive centers, which are connected to the pleasure centers. "These drugs affect the brain in ways that people do not understand. They affect the frontal lobes, which means impaired reason and impulse control, lack of ability to make future plans and for empathy. It is really important because the lack of empathy is partly connected to all the violence that Prozac seems to stimulate." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"Instead, as treatment for his mistaken diagnosis of ADHD, Vernon's doctor put him on Adderall, a mixture of old-fashioned amphetamines. Thus, he subjected his patient to increased overstimulation. Soon the dose was raised to 60 mg per day, about double the usual maximum amount. The man who had become manic on large doses of a very mild stimulant, pseudoephedrine, was now being prescribed very large doses of an exceptionally strong stimulant, amphetamine. Meanwhile, Vernon remained on the Klonopin he'd been taking for years." - Peter Breggin, Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Get the book.) "By contrast, when Ritalin and the amphetamines are taken orally, and especially when they are prescribed in recommended doses, the addictive process is usually slower with many warning signs along the way.1 That's what happened in Willow's case. WILLOW IN HER TEENS WHEN WILLOW REACHED HER TEENS, she ran into increasing emotional difficulties. Like many children, she needed more attention and more skilled approaches than her public school was offering, and she grew to hate school. To improve her daughter's learning environment for a few months a year, Mrs." - Peter Breggin, Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Get the book.) "PARTICULAR ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID TO THE POSSIBILITY OF SUBJECTS OBTAINING amphetamines FOR NONTHERAPEUTIC USE OR DISTRIBUTION TO OTHERS, AND THE DRUGS SHOULD BE PRESCRIBED OR DISPENSED SPARINGLY. The more recently updated labels for Dexedrine and Adderall contain a stronger black-box warning written in caps and placed at the very top of the label, plus additional warnings in the text of the label. Here is the Adderall label's black-box warning: There is no valid reason why the Ritalin label contains a much weaker addiction warning than the Adderall label." - Peter Breggin, Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Get the book.)

"Thomas More, a psychiatrist who used to be a visionary scientist but now considers himself just an old-fashioned "psyche-iatrist"—a "physician of the soul, one of the last survivors in a horde of Texas brain mechanics, MIT neurone [sic] circuitrists"—is released from federal prison after two years of incarceration for selling prescription amphetamines at a truck stop." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.)

"And sudden weight loss can be a reaction to some drugs—both prescribed and illicit—including antidepressants and amphetamines. If an older adult loses weight suddenly, it may be a forewarning of dementia. While it's common for the elderly to lose weight as they age—usually less than a pound a year—losing more than that appears to signal the imminent onset of this neurological disorder. We've probably all experienced putting on a few extra pounds, especially around the holidays. This is usually a benign sign of lack of restraint around the buffet table." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.) "Some tremors are drug-induced and can be a tip-off to the overuse or abuse of caffeine, nicotine, tranquilizers, amphetamines, and cocaine. And morning tremors are a dead giveaway for alcohol abuse. Tremors are also a common reaction to antipsychotic drugs, theophylline (for asthma), Dilantin (for epilepsy), and Compazine (a tranquilizer and antinausea medicine), as well as the herbal stimulants ephedra, ginkgo biloba, and ginseng. Tremors sometimes signal alkalosis, a pH imbalance (too little acid in body fluids)." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.) "Feeling hot a lot can be a reaction to excess caffeine, amphetamines, certain antidepressants, and thyroid medication. And sensitivity to heat may even signal such serious conditions as multiple sclerosis (MS). Indeed, exposure to heat and hot water can temporarily worsen MS symptoms, which include tremors, blurred vision, and memory problems. Heat intolerance can also be a red flag for anhidrosis, the inability to sweat. This can be a life-threatening condition. (See Chapter 8.) People who don't sweat can get so overheated, they're at increased risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.)

"To my amazement, some insurance companies insist that patients try methylphenidate or amphetamines before they will pay for modafinil, even though these drugs can have much more serious side effects. Modafinil is not yet on the list of drugs the FDA has approved for use in chronic fatigue syndrome or idiopathic chronic fatigue (ICF), although it's approved for other purposes. Not allowing a person to take this drug is clearly backward thinking, but insurers also don't cooperate because modafinil is more expensive than stimulants that have been on the market for many decades." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"Methylphenidate and the amphetamines are very similar in their pharmacological effects to cocaine, but because cocaine is shorter acting and more potent, it produces a more dramatic impact and more quickly causes addiction. All the classic stimulants can cause addiction, violence toward self and others, depression, mania, and a broad array of bizarre mental reactions and behaviors.9 All but one of the currently prescribed stimulants for the treatment of ADHD are classified as Schedule II narcotics by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)." - Peter Breggin, Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Get the book.)

"After amphetamines, the tricyclic antidepressants were introduced. Dr. Goldwag explains, "They're called tricyclic because of their chemical structure, which is a triple cycle. There are a whole bunch of them now on the market. The newer group of medications are those that inhibit the enzymes that break down serotonin. They are designed to try to raise the serotonin level in the brain. In that way they counteract depression. "They are all to varying degrees effective, but they all have side effects. Some of the side effects are severe; some are mild." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"Light sensitivity can also be a dead giveaway that a person has been abusing alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, or other drugs. Sometimes photophobia signals some serious but treatable conditions—such as measles, hypertension, and Graves' disease (see Bulging Eyes, above)—as well as such potentially life-threatening diseases as meningitis, encephalitis, botulism, rabies, and mercury poisoning. However, you'd have other, much more serious signs in addition to light sensitivity if you suffered from any of these potentially deadly disorders." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.)

"Animal studies show that when you give amphetamines to animals in the same dose that you give to kids, after only a few times, you get brain cell loss and permanent changes in the brain. That is how these drugs become addictive. "We have studies showing that if you take Ritalin as a child, you are more likely to abuse cocaine as a young adult. These stimulant drugs are considered so addictive that they are in a more addictive class than Valium and Xanax, which everybody knows are addictive sedative tranquilizers. It's astonishing to think that we are willing to do this to our kids." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.) "They usually take days or weeks before they are effective, and in this way they are different than the amphetamines, because those would work in a matter of minutes or hours." As mentioned in Chapter 2, the dangers and abuses of these drugs have provoked well-deserved outcry in recent years. This has come in the form of research studies, newspaper articles, legal actions, and congressional investigations. There is increasing concern about the repression of information on the side effects of commonly prescribed drugs." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"In the 1950s and 1960s amphetamines such as Dexedrine were marketed as a remedy for exhausted long-haul truck drivers, overweight persons of every sort, and even bored housewives who troubled their husbands with too many complaints. The U.S. military has long given Dexedrine to pilots on long-range bombing missions. The pilots refer to the drug as their "go pills." Young Peter hated taking the orange-colored tablets that had a triangular shape. "I found pills shoved into furniture and down into plants," Sandy recalled." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.) "The Convention on Psychotropic Substances was signed by dozens of countries in 1971 to limit the abuse of addictive psychoactive drugs like barbiturates, amphetamines, and LSD. Some of the most frequent violators of the treaty have been companies selling prescription stimulants to American children with attention deficit disorders. In 2001, a company called Celltech was the first to use consumer advertisements to promote a prescription drug that had been classified as a Schedule II substance by drug enforcement officials." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.) "Daily they swallowed their proton pump inhibitors and COX-2 inhibitors, tricyclics and analgesics, benzodiazepines and amphetamines, anticoagulants and antihypertensives, as well as their lipid reducers, serotonin escalators, and mood stabilizers. On average, each Iowan now picked up fourteen prescriptions a year from the pharmacy. Some of the highest users needed that many medicines every day. Local newspapers were the first to document the predicaments of those prescribed ever more pills." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"Adderall has some serious side effects, however. amphetamines are also used as diet pills, and as a consequence Adderall often has serious appetitesuppression effects: Remember that Jack lost ten pounds when he was taking the drug, a substantial loss for a young boy. Like Ritalin, Adderall probably has some long-term growth-suppression effects, either directly or through its effects on appetite suppression and consequent decreased food intake. Other side effects are palpitations, nervousness, rapid heart rate, and upset stomach. Adderall has also been linked to rare cases of sudden death." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.) "Medications (including bronchodilators, caffeine, theophylline, and stimulants such as Ritalin, amphetamines, steroids, antihypertensive drugs, and antidepressants) Snoring or restless bed partner Stress and anxiety Excessive alcohol or other drug use Sleep apnea, often seen in overweight individuals, where the airways become obstructed and cause the individual to wake up frequently. Sleep apnea can be accurately diagnosed and treated by a doctor using a machine called Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which delivers air into the airways through a mask that is worn at night." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.) "Other similar amphetamines include benzphetamine (Di-drex) and phendimetrazine (Bontril). ORLISTAT Orlistat (Xenical), another drug approved for the treatment of obesity, prevents the digestion and absorption of some fats by inhibiting the lipase enzyme. Orlistat treatment results in a six-pound weight loss that persists for as long as treatment continues.3 Gastrointestinal side effects are experienced by 91% of patients vs. 65% on placebo. Diarrhea is very common; flatulence, bloating, and dyspepsia are less so." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"The era of Starbucks has been surpassed by prescription stimulants to keep people awake and functioning, like dexadrine and Ritalin, otherwise known as "speed" or amphetamines. Surprisingly, I see an increasing number of patients prescribed these uppers by their psychiatrist because coffee is not enough. If we can't do ten things at once, then something must be wrong with us, right? Wrong! Our bodies and biological rhythms, which keep us healthy, produce cyclic pulses of healing and repair hormones, including melatonin" and growth hormone." - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.)

"Somebody else would see one of my patients and lecture her about not gaining weight and put her on a low-salt lowcalorie diet and give her amphetamines to promote weight loss. Honest to God, they were giving amphetamines to pregnant mothers! I nearly went mad and told myself, "I can't stay here another year. I have to go somewhere and do this on my own! So the next year I went across the Bay to the Contra Costa County Health Services, and I started my program in Richmond. I talked to every woman who came in thete about good nutrition on her first visit." - Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Natural Medicine, Optimal Wellness: The Patient's Guide to Health and Healing (Get the book.)

"This insulin appears to be involved in the release of dopamine, which is the pleasure-stimulating neurotransmitter that is also activated by the opiates, nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines, and dairy (as pointed out earlier, dairy has a particular casomor-phin that is one-tenth the strength of pure morphine). When researchers from Edinburgh, Scotland, blocked meat's opiate effect, it cut the appetite for ham by 10 percent, salami by 25 percent, and tuna by a whopping 50 percent." - Gabriel Cousens, There Is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program (Get the book.)

"When dopamine is released the parts of the brain called the reward centers are activated and you feel really good. amphetamines and cocaine also have a dopamine effect in these same reward centers. Caffeine is a drug which affects these same places. Since caffeine is a drug, you develop tolerance to it. You need more of it to continue feeling good over time, and you don't feel good if you don't have it. The need to feel better can move you from a relatively moderate and comfortable use of caffeine to a serious addiction. Like other drugs, caffeine can create a powerful physical dependence." - Kathleen DesMaisons, Potatoes Not Prozac: Solutions for Sugar Sensitivity (Get the book.)

"Her research indicated that the use of epidurals had several negative effects, including an increased likelihood of the baby's becoming hooked on amphetamines as an adult. She became convinced that birthing was not the "emergency" that hospitals viewed it to be and that it could in fact be a sensual, wondrous experience. She proceeded to have a pain-free delivery lasting six hours and gave birth to a very healthy, beautiful baby boy weighing seven pounds seven ounces." - Susan E. Schenck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Get the book.)

"In the Fifties and Sixties, amphetamines joined the club. The side effects of these were trembling, heart-rhythm problems and heart attacks, aggressiveness and psychological problems. 277 Linda Skidmore-Rath, Mosby s Handbook of Herbs and Natural Supplements, 2nd Edition, (St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby Inc, 2004,) pp. 325 - 326 In the Seventies and Eighties, steroids and cortisone were used for muscle building. Steroids caused impotence, damage to the liver, possible heart attacks, skin problems, and explosive emotions. Cortisone is bad for the skin as well." - Kenneth W Thomas, Ron Gilbert, Gerd Schaller, Side Effects: The Hidden Agenda of the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel (Get the book.) "Use of amphetamines can cause a wide array of symptoms including euphoria, restlessness, anxiety, tension, anger, fighting, impaired judgment as well as chest pain, seizures, and coma. Even Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil have long lists of side effects as listed in No More ADHD. Parents need to know this before considering putting their child on these drugs." "How do you educate the parents? " Dr. Arlen J. Lieberman: "We give the parents facts and true data about drugs. We let them know how ADD/ADHD suddenly came to be. It was voted on. The psychiatrists raised hands at a conference." - Kenneth W Thomas, Ron Gilbert, Gerd Schaller, Side Effects: The Hidden Agenda of the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel (Get the book.)

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