Bill Maher: Ask your doctor if getting off your (bleep) is right for you

"Diet and exercise don’t fail, a fact brought home last week by a new Duke University study that showed diet and exercise is just an effective a cure for depression as Paxil and Zoloft. So ask your doctor if getting off your --- is right for you."

Hat tip to eDrugSearch, ClinPsych, PharmaGossip and Pharmalot.

Comments

[Heather C]

We all know this is true, yet no one can present it quite like Bill Maher!

[StealthyDrinker]

While I don't doubt the Duke study one bit, there's a difference between feeling "blue" and going for a jog to lighten your mood (exercising releases endorphins, which make you happy) and having severe clinical depression that makes you want to die for no reason. For the latter, you need meds. Bill Maher is a great comedian and an intelligent man, but I don't think it's as black and white as he's making it seem.

[Derrick]

It is known that exercise releases endorphins as rightly pointed out by StealthyDrinker. But I agree that it isn't that simple to treat clinical depression.

[Jack]

For severe cases of depression, due to whatever it is that causes it, it's probably going to be true that medication might help. Maher does have a point with the 'diet and exercise' routine. It's not a cure all but eating healthy and exercising regularly are definitely a good thing. If the disease can be prevented no drugs are needed to fight it.

That's where Maher is dead on: the healthy and the dead are no use to the pill pushers. Long live chronic ailments. The fact that politicians can be bought to say the direct opposite of what's good for their constituents, the people actually voting for them, is deeply saddening.

[brendan maze]

To Mhom it May Concern:

In the text box describing the author, the wrong tense is used. The description should read:

"Peter Rost, M.D. has been writing for BrandweekNRX since August 1, 2007."

Thanks in advance for fixing this error.

Nice web log, by the way!

Sincerely,

Brendan

[Marcia Thelemaque]

I think Bill Maher is right on about preventative medicine. I sure would like to know what kind of diet he's on because he sure looks healthy. Is he a vegan? Come on Bill...Share!