Vol 027–The Promise of Psilocybin Therapy, or Just Overhyped?

1 oz of water to garden your health

2 Tools for growth

1 Cool Product

Random Musings

Reading Time: 4 minutes and 46 seconds.

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by psilocybin: aka magic mushrooms, shrooms, mushrooms.

I’ve heard people use the terms psilocybin, hallucinogens, and psychedelics but had no clue what that really meant or if there was any science behind it.

What can it treat? Is it legal? What is the research behind it? It is going to just fry my brain? Why does anyone care about this?

My curiosity leads me to look beyond the superficial and uncover enough information to be useful to you no matter what your stance is on the subject.

Action to water your health

Psilocybin. Some say it dates as far back other 9000 B.C. in North African indigenous cultures, based on representations in rock paintings. The Aztecs used a substance called teonanácatl, which means "flesh of the gods," which many believe was magic mushrooms.

Along with peyote and other naturally occurring psychotropics, the mushrooms were used to induce a trance, produce visions, and communicate with the gods.

During the 1950s, the CIA considered using psilocybin in their mind control experiments, and in the '60s and '70s, it became a symbol of the counterculture movement.

Now, psilocybin is being studied for its potential therapeutic effects. Microdosing of psilocybin has become a popular way to self-medicate for mood and focus enhancement.

So what is psilocybin?

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic substance produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms, collectively known as psilocybin mushrooms.

You might hear them called hallucinogens as they can cause auditory, visual, and tactile distortions, gustatory (sense of taste) and olfactory (sense of smell) alterations may also be present.

But these compounds differ from most other psychoactive drugs since don't cause dependence or addiction. They do not mess up the mesolimbic rewarding system (aka the dopaminergic pathway in the brain).

How does psilocybin work?

Apologies in advance for the amount of scientific information here. If you read this, I promise you will be the 0.005% of people who understand how psilocybin works (at least to some degree).

Psilocybin works by binding to the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2A), which is a subtype of the serotonin receptor. 5-HT2A is found in high densities in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus—areas of the brain associated with cognition, emotion, and sensory perception.

Psilocybin also binds to the dopamine D2 and sigma-1 receptors. The binding of psilocybin to the 5-HT2A receptor results in the activation of phospholipase A.

This hydrolyzes arachidonic acid to produce eicosanoids that modulate neurotransmission, cell proliferation, and inflammation. Eicosanoids are signaling molecules that affect the function of almost every organ system in the human body.

In other words, psilocybin does a whole bunch of different things in the brain that we don’t really understand (but read this if you want to delve deeper).

Is Microdosing Psilocybin helpful?

Psilocybin has been shown to be effective in treating a number of psychiatric disorders, including:

Treatment-Resistant Depression: In a recent study, involving participants with treatment-resistant depression, psilocybin at a single dose of 25 mg, but not 10 mg, reduced depression.

They did have several adverse events. Worth looking at if you’re interested.

This is treatment-resistant. Not the first line of therapy.

Anxiety: In a study of cancer patients with anxiety, 79% of patients showed a reduction in anxiety after receiving psilocybin.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): In a study of 12 patients with OCD, all patients showed a reduction in OCD symptoms after receiving psilocybin.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): In a study of 12 patients with PTSD, all patients showed a reduction in PTSD symptoms after receiving psilocybin.

John Hopkins: The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Research has demonstrated that this stuff works on:

• Addiction (smoking, alcohol, other drugs of abuse).

• Existential distress caused by a life-threatening disease.

• Treatment-resistant depression.

They are currently working on a new therapy for:

• Opioid addiction.

• Alzheimer's disease.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.

• Others.

Final verdict.

Academic Research Centers. Have and are currently researching psilocybin with promising results.

They appear to be important as the “last line of therapy” when nothing else works.

Of course, this is not a silver bullet. Just like with any other therapy, it will not work for everyone.

Also as with any other therapy, there are potential risks and side effects that should be considered.

There is a long way to go.

• The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research | Johns Hopkins

• Centre for Psychedelic Research | Imperial College London

• Center for Psychedelic Medicine | NYU Langone Health

• Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics | UC Berkeley

Tools for growth

Decision Game: I don't know about you, but after work, I have so much decision fatigue. Making little decisions seems like a herculean task. This website makes it into a game. Try it out.

Acreom: I have tried a crazy amount of "task" apps. But this is my new favorite. I could talk about how intuitive it is. It has natural language processing for tasks. Bidirectional linking but you have to try it yourself.

Completely different than ROAM, notion, and other notetaking apps. I now use this with reflect and notion.

Cool Product

Wander light: Went into a random store and saw this little light. Simple, minimal, and beautiful. Feels like it would bring a sorts of calmness to wherever it placed.

Random Musings

1. Tried out these 3D printed multivitamins from Nourished. So far big fan. LMK if you would like an in depth review.

2. Why are people not happy about other people's wins? I'm not talking about that random person, I'm talking about your friends and family. Be happy for their wins.

3. Why has someone not invented a way to stop people from losing their matching socks? I feel like there is some kinda business here.

4. I did a peloton ride recorded in India, and the person recording this ride came awfully close to hitting this car.

5. I started keeping a journal for the 1% of foods I love to eat and can cook. Funny how often we forget about that awesome dishes we had that one time.

You're an awesome human

Martin, CEO of braincrumbss

Stuff I created, that you might find helpful.

1. I created a sleep 💤 course after 6+ months of reading books, research studies, blogs, and podcasts. I wrote a post that includes a sneak preview of the content too 💤💤

2. This product is free. It is the most comprehensive tool for digital nomads who end up with diarrhea 💩. How to treat it, when to worry, and what to pack. Everything. I spend an embarrassing amount of time writing this.