Recent Episodes
Magic Mushroom Resurgence
Magic mushrooms are having a resurgence for their potential to help cancer patients. People who take it describe 'trips' or hallucinations that can be both wonderful and disturbing.
Its active ingredient is psilocybin, listed as a schedule one drug in the same category as cocaine. Psilocybin activates proteins called serotonin receptors in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain controls mood, cognition and perception.
The new studies look at how the drug can treat depression and anxiety in cancer patients who become distressed, hopeless and isolated when they're facing death. The study used a single dose of psilocybin and control patients got vitamin B until week seven when they also received psilocybin. When researchers checked at seven weeks and then at six months, patients felt less anxiety about death and weren't as hopeless.
What's surprising is at two and four years, long after psilocybin had left their bodies, up to eighty percent of the surviving patients continued to have significantly less depression symptoms and anxiety. The results are remarkable given that these patients had just a single dose of the drug. Nearly all describe positive lifestyle changes and rated the experience among the 'most personally meaningful and spiritual experiences of their lives'. Even though modern medicine continues to amaze us, this ancient remedy could be the balm that helps millions facing terminal disease.
More Information
Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psychiatric and existential distress in patients with life-threatening cancer
A recently published randomized controlled trial compared single-dose psilocybin with single-dose niacin in conjunction with psychotherapy in participants with cancer-related psychiatric distress. Results suggested that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy facilitated improvements in psychiatric and existential distress, quality of life, and spiritual well-being up to seven weeks prior to the crossover...
Psilocybin Benefits in Cancer Sustained Nearly 5 Years Later
Cancer patients who were treated with a one-time, single dose of the psychedelic drug psilocybin, combined with psychotherapy, showed significant benefits on measures of emotional and existential distress nearly 5 years after receiving the therapy, new research indicates...
Drugs.com: Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms)
Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and psilocin are chemical compounds obtained from certain types of dried or fresh hallucinogenic mushrooms found in Mexico, South America and the southern and northwest regions of the United States...
