Singing Is For The Birds

They are known for their powerful voices and mating songs. But a recent English study has found that when exposed to common antidepressants, unfortunately, found in their natural environment, Songbirds lost that loving feeling.  Female songbirds who ate tiny amounts of Prozac when feeding on maggots or worms at sewage treatment plants were less attracted to male songbirds.   Males sang less and were aggressive toward females.

I don’t know about you, but I’m left with only one thought after reading this study and it has nothing to do with songbirds; in a 2004 Great Britain study, it was discovered that low levels of Prozac existed in the groundwater supply that is used for drinking water in that country.  These, and hundreds of other prescriptive drugs, surface in sewage treatment plants because we urinate trace amounts of drugs that we take and millions of people in England take Prozac. Can you even imagine the amount of Prozac, or statin drugs, or blood pressure medication that exists in America’s drinking water?  It strikes me as odd that this issue never seems to come up in America.  Other countries that take far fewer pharmaceutical drugs than we Americans do, thankfully do report these problems.

American medicine relies heavily on hushing a symptom or symptoms a few hours at a time while stating that the cause of these symptoms remains unknown. Drug companies love this!  It might not be working for us, but it seems to have them smiling all the way to the bank.

What is the moral of this story?  As long as we males aren’t singing mating songs and females find us less attractive and hide from us, we will both end up in psychiatrists offices wondering why the opposite sex doesn’t love us anymore us.  Their answer is swift and simple.  We exit with a six-month supply of Prozac, begin urinating…and the cycle is complete!