Author: Matthew

A recent study provides new evidence that magic mushrooms have health benefits. Researchers found that a single take on the drug could help improve mindfulness and openness even for months.

The new study, published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, shows that people become more curious and open to new experiences after just one psychedelic experience. Researchers said such positive effect of magic mushrooms could last for months after the first intake, IFL Science reported.

Health Benefits Of Magic Mushrooms

The researchers gathered 10 healthy individuals to test the effects of magic mushrooms. All participants never used psychedelic drugs prior to the study.

The participants reported that they continued to experience the same positive effects of magic mushrooms three months after the test. Researchers then collected PET brain scans to see how the drug caused changes in the brain.

They found changes in the serotonin receptor 5-HT2AR in the brain, which potentially contributed to the long-term feel-good effects of the drug. The receptor appeared binding even one week after exposure to psilocybin.

Read the full article at Medical Daily

“It wasn’t all that long ago that legal pot in the good ol’ “Just Say No” USA seemed like a fantasy. While it seemed rather absurd that you could go to jail for a drug that arguably caused minimal social harm, common sense didn’t seem to make a dent in our drug policies. And then, slowly, things changed.

I know what you’re thinking, but the idea is actually not as crazy as it sounds. In the past year alone, Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz have each voted to decriminalize natural psychedelics, including mushrooms. Washington D.C. this week took a major step toward a ballot question that would do the same.

The fact is, we’re at a cultural and scientific inflection point, rapidly and radically reconsidering what we thought we knew about drugs such as psilocybin (the chemical that makes magic mushrooms magic), LSD, and even MDMA and Ketamine.

The fact is, we’re at a cultural and scientific inflection point, rapidly and radically reconsidering what we thought we knew about drugs such as psilocybin (the chemical that makes magic mushrooms magic), LSD, and even MDMA and Ketamine. While mainstream society over the past half-century has often dismissed them as the stuff of burnt-out hippies and party kids or condemned them as downright dangerous, both the medical establishment and Silicon Valley have begun to loudly advocate for their untapped and possibly revolutionary therapeutic potential.

Researchers at Harvard are already dipping their toes in the water, studying potential psychedelic treatments, specifically MDMA. These studies are already operating with approval from and under the watchful eye of the feds, but legalization would allow experts to do things like, say, put their findings to use in therapeutic settings.

Read more at Boston

“Scientists ain’t trippin’.

It’s already known that small amounts of magic mushrooms can benefit the mind. However, groundbreaking research shows that only a single dose of the psychedelic fungi can reduce cancer-related mental health issues in the long term, according to a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology on Jan. 28.

The landmark research was a followup of a 2016 John Hopkins trial — using 51 subjects — studying whether magic mushrooms could relieve death anxiety and depression in cancer patients. The participants at that time were administered either high or low doses of synthetic psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in mushrooms. Researchers then gave their subjects the opposite doses five weeks later, per the findings published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

However, he had vastly underestimated how long the benefits of a single psilocybin dose could last. When scientists conducted a follow-up about four years later with 15 members of the original 2016 trials, they found that up to 80% experienced “positive life changes” from the treatment.

“The drug seems to facilitate a deep, meaningful experience that stays with a person and can fundamentally change his or her mindset and outlook,” said Gabby Agin-Liebes, lead author of the long-term follow-up study and co-author of the 2016 study.

Nonetheless, the landmark results could help pave the way for more clinical trials involving psilocybin, and perhaps even help accelerate mushroom legalization. Last year, Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, became the first US cities to decriminalize the trippy truffles.

NEW YORK POST

“In a new series for Netflix, staffers for Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop dove head-first into the increasingly popular practice of “wellness travel.” But this isn’t just your typical day at the spa. Instead, staffers flew eight hours to test out the healing properties of psychedelic mushrooms.

For the first episode of the all-new series “The Goop Lab,” premiering on Netflix on Jan. 24, four Goopers, as the staffers are called, traveled to Jamaica, where the use of psychedelic mushrooms is legal. In the U.S. the possession and cultivation of magic mushrooms are illegal because they contain the chemical compound psilocybin, which is listed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The mission, according to Loehnen, was to “explore psychedelics in a therapeutic setting.” The staffers nominated themselves, and all were seeking slightly different outcomes, ranging from self-exploratory to improving mental health. One staffer simply wanted to feel more creative, two Goopers wanted to work on processing some personal trauma and Loehnen, who also went on the retreat, wanted to have a “psycho-spiritual experience.”

Viewers watch several staffers break down in tears at different points after drinking the mushroom tea, talking out loud to the on-site therapists. Meanwhile, Loehnen experiences uncontrollable giggling, saying “I feel like such a cliche.” Yet in the end, several of the staffers note how healing they felt the experience was.

The practice of taking magic mushrooms remains controversial. It’s worth noting, for example, that a 2016 survey fielded by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that of the people who had bad experiences after taking psilocybin mushrooms, 10% felt their “bad trip” put themselves or others in danger. Yet many who experienced the negative side effects of ’shrooms — which can include hallucinations, dizziness, drowsiness, vomiting, and paranoia — still said the experience was “meaningful” and “worthwhile.”

Read the full article at CNBC

In a new series for Netflix, staffers for Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop dove head-first into the increasingly popular practice of “wellness travel.” But this isn’t just your typical day at the spa. Instead, staffers flew eight hours to test out the healing properties of psychedelic mushrooms.

For the first episode of the all-new series “The Goop Lab,” premiering on Netflix on Jan. 24, four Goopers, as the staffers are called, traveled to Jamaica, where the use of psychedelic mushrooms is legal. In the U.S. the possession and cultivation of magic mushrooms are illegal because they contain the chemical compound psilocybin, which is listed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The mission, according to Loehnen, was to “explore psychedelics in a therapeutic setting.” The staffers nominated themselves, and all were seeking slightly different outcomes, ranging from self-exploratory to improving mental health. One staffer simply wanted to feel more creative, two Goopers wanted to work on processing some personal trauma and Loehnen, who also went on the retreat, wanted to have a “psycho-spiritual experience.”

Viewers watch several staffers break down in tears at different points after drinking the mushroom tea, talking out loud to the on-site therapists. Meanwhile, Loehnen experiences uncontrollable giggling, saying “I feel like such a cliche.” Yet in the end, several of the staffers note how healing they felt the experience was.

The practice of taking magic mushrooms remains controversial. It’s worth noting, for example, that a 2016 survey fielded by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that of the people who had bad experiences after taking psilocybin mushrooms, 10% felt their “bad trip” put themselves or others in danger. Yet many who experienced the negative side effects of ’shrooms — which can include hallucinations, dizziness, drowsiness, vomiting, and paranoia — still said the experience was “meaningful” and “worthwhile.”

Read More at CNBC

“Just a few years ago, if you wanted to hear about the benefits of psychedelic drugs, your best bet was to head over to the parking lot outside the local jam band concert and flag down the guy in the tie-dye selling “magic mushrooms.” Today there are better options. You could, for instance, fly down to the Waldorf Astoria’s gated beachside resort in Boca Raton, Fla., and—between spa appointments and rounds of golf—take in the keynote address at the CNS Summit, an annual Big Pharma conference.

This plan might sound like swirling colors to anyone who lived through President Richard Nixon’s crusade against Harvard professor Timothy Leary, the high priest of acid trips. In the decades since Nixon branded Leary and hallucinogens, public enemies, as part of his “war on drugs,” all but a few psychiatrists have avoided publicly testing psychedelics’ medical benefits for fear of excommunication from their field. Now, though, attitudes are changing fast.

The advisers’ bona fides are at least as important as the eight-figure funding. For the FDA to say yes to shroom therapy, “you’re going to have to be more rigorous, and more risk-averse, and more Catholic than the pope,” says Insel, who’s also an investor. “You’re going to have to do this in a way that is very carefully scientific, with the best scientists, the best clinical trials, the most conservative and rigorous design, and the most careful data analysis.”

If psilocybin proves effective against treatment-resistant depression, patients may be content to leave some whys unanswered. Today’s go-to treatments, psycho­therapy, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors work for only about 70% of patients, leaving as many as 90 million still struggling around the globe, according to the World Health Organization.

Read the full article at Bloomberg Businessweek