If you tell your doctor you’re having trouble sleeping, the first thing he’ll do is reach for his prescription pad — especially if you’re a woman going through menopause.

Feel free to visit the drugstore — but don’t head for the pharmacy, and don’t fill that prescription.

Make a beeline for the supplements aisle instead, and reach for an inexpensive remedy that’s been used for centuries by men and women alike to help ease anxiety and get better rest.

It’s valerian root — and a new clinical trial finds that it can help beat the sleep problems that often accompany menopause.

Iranian researchers randomly assigned 100 women to either 530 milligrams of valerian root twice a day, or a placebo, for a month and found that 30 percent of the women who got the supplement had better sleep.

Thirty percent may not sound impressive — but it’s a dramatic improvement compared to the 4 percent of women on the placebo who reported relief.

What’s more, the women who took the supplement reported no side effects — unlike the sleep meds that can not only leave you groggy in the morning, but can also cause addiction as well as bizarre and often dangerous behavior.

If valerian doesn’t work for you, there’s still no reason to fill that prescription: Other studies have found that yoga, tai chi, acupressure, and cognitive behavioral therapy can all help men and women alike overcome sleep problems.

In some cases, you may need to experiment a little until you find a natural treatment that works best for you. In others, you may need to combine two or more.

For more tips on how to get better sleep – whether you’re a man or woman of any age – explore the Web site of the Health Sciences Institute. Enter “sleep” into the “find a cure” box and then find a comfortable spot to finally get the rest you need.

Veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder are routinely pumped full of antipsychotic drugs. And as most of them will tell you (in language I can’t use here), those drugs aren’t doing a darn thing for them.

And now there’s research to back them up — and it’s not all in their head.

Researchers randomly assigned 247 combat vets who were suffering from PTSD to either the antipsychotic medication Risperdal (aka risperidone), or a placebo, for six months.

In both groups, only 5 percent of veterans had a complete recovery. In both groups, between 10 percent and 20 percent showed some modest improvement. And in both groups, the vets reported similar scores for depression, anxiety, and quality of life.

In other words, the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that this “powerful” drug has all the power of a sugar pill.

But while the vets who took the drug didn’t get any relief, they did get a few other things: side effects such as weight gain and fatigue, including an extreme level of fatigue known as somnolence.

While the study only involved Risperdal, the researchers say they believe similar antipsychotic drugs — including Seroquel, Geodon, and Abilify — will prove to be every bit as useless.

Fortunately, our soldiers don’t have to wait for Big Pharma to answer the call when it comes to PTSD. The U.S. military itself has been quietly investigating some of the best alternative treatments, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, fish oil, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and acupuncture.

And the early word from many veterans who’ve tried these treatments has been encouraging (and printable).

Some of the most promising research involves acupuncture, with medics in the field even using the needles to treat the traumatic brain injuries.

Back on the homefront, research on the technique for PTSD itself is under way right now.

In one small recent study, veterans suffering from PTSD who were given either acupuncture or group cognitive-behavioral therapy for 12 weeks had significant improvements when compared to a control group. The benefits lasted for full three months after treatment.

Obviously, we need more studies to ensure these treatments really do work — but since we now know for sure that drugs don’t, let’s stop wasting time and give veterans the real thanks they deserve.

Let’s get them healed.

Nearly 10 percent of the nation is on some kind of antidepressant, which just shouldn’t be the case – not when there are real, safe alternatives.

I’ve had tremendous success in treating depression by focusing on – and correcting – nutritional and hormonal imbalances. But another good alternative is cognitive behavioral therapy – and now there’s a new and easier way to get it: online.

You might remember that study I mentioned back in June, the one which showed just how effective this therapy is for many teens battling depression. (Click here to read, “Saving teens from depression.”)  I can point to a number of studies that show this is also true for adults, even in cases of long-term and severe depression.

The problem for many people has been getting the treatment – but new research shows that online cognitive behavioral therapy is just as effective at treating depression as in-person sessions.

Now, when I read about this in August in the special “Global Mental Health” issue of The Lancet, I knew it wouldn’t be quite as simple as that – and it’s not. The online therapy needs to be delivered in real-time by a real, live therapist at a computer of his own.

But it’s still terrific news. Adults who don’t have time or don’t live near a therapist can now get the help they need. Kids can get appointments without needing a ride to or from the clinic. Everyone wins – everyone, that is, except the makers of those meds that might get tossed out.

Many patients either forget or are never told how powerful and dangerous most of these drugs can be, so let me lay out two things right off the top that’s as true for kids as it is adults.

First, many of these drugs contain fluorine, the most powerful oxidizing agent on the planet. It also has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Once in the brain, fluorine can cause brain damage and degeneration.

You simply don’t want to fool with this stuff.

Second, these meds do nothing for your depression. They mask symptoms, and that’s it. In the rare instances where I need to prescribe an antidepressant, it’s a temporary measure while we work on correcting the real issue – often that nutritional or hormonal deficiency I mentioned.

But for so many doctors, meds are the only answer. They prescribe a drug and send the patient on his or her way, where apparently they’re sharing these meds with their friends.

Instead of looking for drugs, look for treatments that provide real solutions. After all, you can’t share a drug if it was never given to you in the first place.

June 2008 PDF Wean off of antidepressants and still feel better—every single day I’m against the overuse of drugs, and antidepressants are especially overused in the treatment of low mood and depression. There’s mounting evidence that they don’t work for anyone but the most severely depressed patients. Yet if you tell your doctor you’ve been [...]