They’re finally talking MY kind of magic! So-called Magic Mushrooms contain compounds that could delay cell aging as much as 50 percent. And a nallucinogen metabolite of the psychedelic ingredient appears amazingly effective!
How much better life would be for all concerned, if we could extend well being,
physical health and healthy cognition for perhaps a few decades
past the current apparent practical limit of around 100?
When did you first hear the term psycho-active? or psychedelic? Probably back in the 1970s, if you’re as ancient as I and some of my contemporaries are…
Reading the headline on the source story for today’s headline FFB post, I had an immediate impish thought:
50th Reunion of the class of 1975:
Barb says to Joanne: “Wow! Is that Kathy? She honestly doesn’t look a day older than her grad photo!”
Joanne snifs and says: “She must have done a lot Mushroom back in the day…”
Okay. Enough of that…
It’s big news… And deserves appropriate respect!
You never know where researchers at any given university will look next, for whatever. And how often it turns out to be what looks like sheer coincidence when do find something…
The latest unsuspected find – by a team from an alliance of universities, conducted at Emory – dis-covered that the metabolite of the active ingredient of Magic Mushroom – the religious hallucinogen treasured by the Hopi people – is also as close to a secret anti-aging ingredient as humans are likely to find.’
What they did
The Emory team first noted a few years back, that the anti-aging market – both cosmetic and cog-nitive – is worth around(US)d $500 billion per year. hat got interested enough to delve deeply into the study of all kinds of substances that might be useful in that area.
They’ve already completed an early series of studies on the hallucinogen psilocybin in the roll of an an-aging drug. Now they’re ready o move on to later in vivo studies of live mice.
The mice were given small doses of the hallucinogen and monitored for signs of both psycholgical and physiological aging.
What they found…
Mice that received an initial low dose of psilocybin of 5 mg, followed by a monthly high dose of 15 mg for 10 months, had a 30 percent increase in survival compared to mice that did not receive any. These mice also displayed healthier physical features, such as improved fur quality, fewer white hairs and hair regrowth.
“While traditionally researched for its mental health benefits,” says an abstract of the study report. “This study suggests that psilocybin impacts multiple hallmarks of aging by reducing oxidative stress, improving DNA repair responses, and preserving telomere length.”
Telomeres are the structured ends of a chromosome, protecting it from damage that could lead to the formation of age-related diseases, such as cancer, neurodegeneration, or cardiovascular disease. These foundational processes influence human aging and the onset of these chronic diseases.”
The takeaway
“This study opens a new frontier for how psilocybin could influence systemic aging processes, par-ticularly when administered later in life,” says Louise Hecker, PhD, Senior Author on the study, and a former associate professor at Emory University, where the research was initiated and funded. She is currently an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine.
The future
“Emory is actively involved in Phase II and III clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted therapy for depres-sion,” notes DR Ali John Zarrabis, Director of Psychedelic Research at Emory University’s Department of Psychiatry. “These results suggest we also need to understand psilocybin’s systemic effects in aging populations.”
Zarrabi adds: “[I also hope that] that, if psilocybin-assisted therapy is approved as an intervention for depression by the FDA in 2027, then having a better quality of life would also translate into a longer, healthier life.”
My take
Yes… It certainly sounds amazing, doesn’t it? But the good DRs insist, there’s still a lot of additional research to be done. My first concern is how different folks will react to psilocybin treatments – regardless of how controlled the procedures are.
I casually wonder whether, if the anti-aging results of the new drug candidate – described as a metabolite of the hallucinogenic – might work out if the the original active ingredient is denatured outside the human body and only the metabolite is used in anti-aging tests…
~ Maggie J.