Not everyone is on an antidepressant these days – but it sure seems like it.

A shocking new study finds that some 10 percent of us take these meds now – more than 27 million Americans.

The study, published in August in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that while 13 million Americans took these drugs in 1995, that number doubled in just a decade. By last year, a stunning 164 million prescriptions were written for these meds, worth $10 billion.

It’s frightening.

Part of the problem is the off-label use of these drugs. Big Pharma tries to get as many people as possible on these meds, and for reasons far beyond their approved use. In fact, a University of Georgia study in 2006 found that some 75 percent of people on antidepressants were given these meds for off-label uses.

So while it’s bad enough that depressed people are taking these drugs unnecessarily, it’s far worse when they take these meds for completely different conditions, such as insomnia or pain.

Making matters worse, most docs have proven to be particularly poor at spotting depression. As I mentioned just last week, doctors miss the key signs at least half the time and incorrectly diagnose it in healthy people 20 percent of the time.

Not only that, but these meds are some of the worst of the lot, with nasty side effects that I’ve warned you about before.

But there’s a much larger problem here, and it’s about how doctors treat patients today. Or maybe I should say how they don’t treat patients. They treat symptoms.

I’d like to say it’s lazy medicine, but there’s more to it than that. Most doctors simply don’t know better, and it’s because of how they’re taught.

This is what happens when the medical schools and professors are bought and paid for by Big Pharma, and its army of drug reps is allowed to wander the once-sacred halls of academia.

Now, the entire nation is paying for it, with millions upon millions of us being given these dangerous and powerful antidepressants, whether we need them or not. Many of these drugs contain fluorine, a powerful oxidizing agent that’s been linked to brain damage and degeneration.

There are right ways to get yourself healthy and win that battle with depression. It’s often as simple as getting more trypophan, essential fatty acids, vitamin B6, or vitamin B12.

Too bad most doctors don’t know this – because they never learned it in the first place.

As much as I can’t stomach the Big Pharma marketing machine, I will say this: It’s brutally effective.

Who else could get doctors across the nation to prescribe a med for an off-label use, despite evidence that it’s completely ineffective – and then get the media to write a positive story about it?

Yet that’s exactly what you’ll find on the Web site of Time magazine, which recently featured a glowing report about a muscle spasm med, with some nasty side effects of its own, being used to treat alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts.

The article begins with several hundred words of uninterrupted praise before it gets to the kicker: There is no scientific evidence that this drug works for addicts.

No one can even say why people are taking this drug for addiction, beyond anecdotal evidence and a book someone wrote about how this drug helped him.

The closest they can come to real evidence is a study where smokers taking this drug were able to cut down from 20.5 cigarettes per day to 8, while the placebo group was only able to cut back to 12.

Call me unimpressed.

You don’t treat addiction with a pill or gimmick. You treat addiction by treating the addict, and the specific conditions in his or her body (or life) that have led to the addiction.

Sure, it can be hard – it wouldn’t be an addiction if you could break away from it easily. But addictions can be overcome naturally, safely and effectively, and doctors should work with their patients to make sure they do it right, not under the influence of a med with dangers of its own.

In fact, this drug has side effects that include drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, headaches, nausea, constipation and impaired thinking.

Can you think of anything else that can cause those reactions?

And when people stop taking this drug, they face withdrawal symptoms including hallucinations and seizures.

In other words, this med is just about as bad as many of the substances that cause addiction.

Not only that, but this replacement addiction becomes a permanent one – the Time article suggests that addicts who have had success using this off-label med to control their cravings have to keep taking it, forever, or the urges return.

Let’s stop fooling around with this stuff. Big Pharma wants us to have a med for every condition, but replacing one addiction with another is not the right move.

Instead, treat yourself naturally and safely – and you’ll avoid a lifetime of addiction and a lifetime of meds, too.

Our friends at Big Pharma must be real worried about the economy. Why else would they be pushing so hard for so many off-label uses for statins?

Statins have become one of Big Pharma’s biggest cash cows, needlessly prescribed to millions of people who never really tried diet and exercise to lower their cholesterol.

But that’s still not enough for Big Pharma. Now they want asthmatics and stroke victims to take these cholesterol-lowering drugs.

And, of course, the researchers they are funding are more than happy to help make the argument.

Take a look at the recent study in Neurology, which found that elderly patients who suffered a stroke can reduce the risk of additional strokes by 10 percent by taking high doses of the Pfizer statin Lipitor.

The study was funded by Pfizer, and many of the key people involved in it also received Pfizer money. Draw your own conclusions, but I tend to think that if you plant corn seed, you’ll grow corn.

Another study on statins was presented at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. It found that asthmatics who take statins along with their regular meds make 33 percent fewer trips to the hospital.

The researchers say the results show that the anti-inflammatory properties of statins extend to the airways, allowing asthma patients to breathe better. The study’s authors reported they received no drug company funding. But somehow, the results are just as misguided.

This new push for statins comes after a study tried to convince us that statins can lower the risk of heart attack, a failed attempt to show that statins can help prevent some cancers and even a push to get some kids on these drugs.

All this for a drug that doesn’t cure anything! All statins do – all they can do – is manage symptoms.

So once Big Pharma gets someone on statins, they usually have a customer for life. And that means a lifetime of side effects, too, which include muscle pain, liver damage, nausea, diarrhea, constipation and rashes.

If you’re looking to get the benefits of a statin – such as the heart-friendly lower cholesterol levels – you can do that through your diet and lifestyle. It’s not hard.

Just stay off the low-fat, high-carb Torture Chamber Diet. Eat sensibly – that means healthy fats, including fatty fish, and fewer carbs, such as the processed foods and “low- fat” snacks and instant meals that line store shelves.

In some cases, high cholesterol and blood pressure may also be caused by metabolic syndrome – a disease many people don’t even realize they have. I’ll be telling you all about it in the June issue of Health Revelations.

If you’re an asthmatic, you can reduce or eliminate your symptoms by learning what triggers them, and eliminating those things from your life. That means more thorough allergy testing than what your doctor is probably willing to give you, but insist on it.

It may be easier for your doc to just write a prescription – and that’s certainly what Big Pharma has trained him to do. But true healing can only happen after a thorough diagnosis – and you should make certain your doctor is willing to put in the time.