Oh, Why Bother?
How depressing to learn the other day from the Journal of the American Medical Assn. that St. John’s wort actually does nothing to combat depression. In the most rigorous clinical study yet of the widely promoted anti-depression pill, the herbal remedy was found ineffective in 200 seriously depressed adults. This isn’t likely to end the controversy over the efficacy of self-prescribed herbal remedies, which millions pay millions to swear by and feel better about even without clinical proof. The quest for natural panaceas--from echinacea to ginseng to even chicken soup--is a long one in human history, predating even the search for a youth elixir by Ponce de Leon, who died anyway.
But it would have been nice to have a friendly legal herb to help us through a single week that produced some, well, depressing news.
It seems, according to the National Institute for Health Care Management, that Americans’ retail spending on prescription drugs last year jumped $21 billion, or 19%, to $132 billion. That’s more than twice what we spend on computers. More than half the drug spending increase came on treatments for arthritis, ulcers, cholesterol and, well, depression. Then came the perhaps not altogether unbiased word from the Texas Transportation Institute that Los Angeles and San Francisco are the reigning U.S. champions of traffic congestion. According to the Texas numbers, the average Los Angeles resident spends an extra week and a half of his working life each year sitting in traffic. That’s a long time deciphering weathered bumper stickers and personalized plates.
Spending so much time parked on jammed roads may help explain why Californians have the nation’s lowest per capita electric power use: They’re not at home using appliances. Unfortunately, however, we now also have the nation’s largest reputation for rolling electricity blackouts. The involuntary power outages returned this week with warnings that they will stay through the summer as politicians in Sacramento feud over funding.
Then comes the realization that sitting in cars stalled in traffic worsened by stoplights darkened by blackouts may also add to the rising cost of gasoline. The price could approach $3.50 a gallon this summer, according to doomsayers. There’s the weird fungus ravaging the Brazilian cocoa crop, so there go chocolate bar prices. Meanwhile, foot and mouth disease has boosted the cost of leather, so even walking costs more. Maybe more people will stay home and watch television programs, which won’t be affected by the writers strike averted last week. But future movies could be in jeopardy if actors and studios can’t agree next month on a new contract.
Next thing you know, the American Academy of Pediatrics will issue a stern warning that America’s well-intentioned parents are actually giving kids too much of presumably healthy fruit juice drinks, thereby encouraging tooth decay, high-calorie consumption, potential obesity and diarrhea. Now, wouldn’t that be, well, depressing?
