Reasons #47 and #48 to avoid antidepressants: They increase your risk of stroke and death.

If your immediate reaction is to toss them in the trash or dump them down the toilet, wait just a second. The researchers would like you to know that it's a "relatively small" risk -- so there's no cause for alarm, and, of course, there's no reason to stop taking your meds.

Of course that's what they said. No matter how great the risk, or how small the benefit, the best line these scientists can come up with is that you need to weigh a drug's risks against its benefits. I could be wrong here, but isn't that what this study just did?

Out of the 136,293 women in the Women's Health Initiative, the ones taking SSRIs like Prozac and Zoloft were 45 percent more likely to have a stroke and 32 percent more likely to die, compared to those not taking the drugs.

Those are odds I'd rather not take my chances with, especially when the drugs aren't that effective to begin with -- and when there are plenty of other safer ways to beat the blues.

In study after study, placebos routinely outperform antidepressants. In fact, these meds are consistently beaten by just about anything researchers put them up against. I wouldn't be surprised if a study proved that you could beat depression by going fishing. After all, staying active is one of the best ways to pull yourself out of the dumps.

So if you're battling the blues, skip the meds and take a vacation... go out to dinner with friends... take up a hobby.

Or, as one new study suggested, have some green tea. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that seniors who had four or more cups of green tea per day were 44 percent less likely to suffer from depression.

And if you STILL feel like you need to pop a pill to feel better, try some St. John's wort. It's cheaper, safer, and more effective than most commonly prescribed antidepressants.

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