Women's Health | +70 articles

[mr peabody]

Extinction Rebellion co-founder inspired to begin the movement by psychedelics*

by Harry Howard | Mailonline | 1 Sep 2019

One of the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion has revealed she began the movement after taking 'psychedelic medicines' - just days after the shutdown of central Manchester by climate protesters.

Gail Bradbrook, 47, a molecular biologist, said she 'prayed in a deep way' while taking the substances on a retreat.

She told a BBC documentary that her prayer was answered within a month, when Extinction Rebellion was formed last year.

Since then, protests in London and around the country have caused chaos, with a week of protests in July causing widespread disruption in the capital and the latest protest in Manchester on Friday bringing misery to drivers.

Gail Bradbrook

'I've always been interested in how things change, in social change,' she told the documentary.

'I was involved in the animal rights movement as a young woman, I've been involved in thinking about gender and issues around racism and so on.'

'I'd been focused on trying to start civil disobedience since 2010 and I've tried many things and they didn't work, so I went on a retreat and prayed in a deep way with some psychedelic medicines.'

'It was a really intense experience and I actually prayed for what I called the codes for social change, I thought there must be something I don't understand, and within a month my prayer was literally answered.'

Extinction Rebellion began in Stroud, Gloucestershire, with large protests spreading quickly across the UK.

Dr Bradbrook described how it started with around 12 people in her house but went global within a year.

'We know we've got about 100,000 people on the database in the UK and we reach about a million people with the social media,' she said.

'We've got 130 groups across the UK. We're in 59 countries and it's growing all the time.'

The movement has three demands for the UK Government: to declare a climate and ecological emergency; to act to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025; and to create and be led by the decisions of a citizens' assembly on climate and ecological justice.

During the documentary, cameras were allowed into an Extinction Rebellion meeting in Stroud.

A number of those taking part in the meeting are seen holding each other and crying.

'People are starting to feel the grief and the fear of what's happening and the meetings are a great way for people to admit this to one another.'

'In that vulnerability there is also a great strength and great cohesion, and great community, which is something else that a lot of people are missing in this day and age.'

*From the article here:

Extinction Rebellion founder inspired by 'psychedelic medicines'

Gail Bradbrook, 47, a biologist, said she 'prayed in a deep way' while taking the substances on a retreat. She told a BBC Inside Out documentary her prayer was answered within a month.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[mr peabody]

MDMA saved my 25 year marriage

by Melissa Shedden | Whimn.com.au | Oct 2 2018

As advocates push for the drug to be available over the counter, Ayelet Waldman says MDMA is better than any couples therapy.

The 53-year-old California based writer is the author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made A Mega Difference In My Mood, My Marriage, And My Life, a book about microdosing LSD to save her mind and marriage of 25 years to husband and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon, who she loves intensely, which she documented in her New York Times essay.

It went viral, because Waldman admitted the unthinkable in a society which mythologises motherhood and worships the child/parent bond – she in fact, loves her husband, more than her four children, infuriating mums over a decade ago. In other words, she’s experienced in igniting a firestorm of controversy, which is why she’s came to Australia in October 2018 to present at Sydney’s Festival Of Dangerous Ideas.

When we speak on the phone about her experiment, Waldman is generous with her time and openness about two intersecting taboos – drug use and mental ill health. At the time she turned to LSD, she says she was in “an active depression”.

“I was in this moment when my meds stopped working, and my mood just started to sink. It just kept sinking, sinking, sinking. Before in my life I’ve had periods of depression and sadness, but I’d always been able to recover from it. This time I couldn’t get my head above it,” Waldman tells whimn.com.au.

Waldman, whose family has a history of mood disorders, explains how desperation led to dropping acid, with the unconditional support of her husband.

“It was about a year of this, with six months very bad. It’s miserable to be with someone who’s so depressed. I was feeling suicidal and in a constant state of despair. My husband couldn’t lift my spirits and together we thought, what can we do to relieve this pain and save my life?” she explains.

It was 2012, when she heard about microdosing, where you take one tenth of the amount of the psychedelic or 10 micrograms, needed for a “trip”.

“He was much more sanguine about psychedelics. In that moment, he would have been fine with anything – it’s terrible to see someone you love in pain."

“In every way really my mood disorder had affected my marriage. It’s the defining thing of my family life. The entire family cycles with those moods, which I knew from growing up. I wish that it wasn’t the case. I’m lucky that my husband is devoted and my children as loving as they are.”

Her 2017 book describes people’s attitudes to the experiment – from the spiritual to the shocked. She too wasn’t immune to preconceived ideas about acid.

“I had so much anxiety and fear about psychedelics. I had no experience with them that I’d had with other drugs,” explains Waldman.

Despite having a liberal journalist’s cynicism and having spent years studying drug use, Waldman still found herself swayed by the bad publicity, LSD got in the 1970s.

“I had accepted this idea that if you use LSD eight times you’ll go crazy. Then I thought wait a moment. The forces against an accurate and honest portrayal of drugs on the human mind are very compelling,” she explains, citing the Imperial College London’s promising studies into the effects of LSD on the brain.

With the support of her husband, she found a dealer, who delivered an envelope with strict instruction for use. The first time she microdosed, Waldman says it didn’t feel like anything at first, and her initial reaction was to think, it hasn’t worked. She went to work and sat down at her computer like any other day.

“There was a tree burst into bloom out the window, I noticed it, and thought to myself that’s so pretty. It wasn’t shimmering with psychedelic colours like you’d imagine. But when I’d been depressed for so long, I wasn’t even capable of seeing beauty. That really blew my mind,” she says.

Waldman continued with the experiment for a month and more routinely and regularly reached a state of happiness and flow, something she’d said had happen before, but “never so reliably.”

Unlike tales of Silicon Valley tech nerds intent on inventing the next Apple or Uber, what Waldman wanted was a treatment for her mood disorders from microdosing. Over her lifetime, she’s tried prescription medicine, talk therapy and lifestyle changes to regulate, but is unequivocal in her praise for microdosing.

“As far as treatments go it’s the best thing I’ve ever taken. It worked more noticeably than anything else. It’s not to say it was perfect, I still experienced irritability and stomach upset, but there were fewer side effects than usual to deal with,” she says.

Waldman believes there’s a misconception about psychedelics, yet we routinely take drugs like SSRIs.

“If a doctor said to you, we found this amazing drug, it’s designed to make you fat, eliminate your sex drive, and the side effect is that it may make you less mildly depressed, that’s as good a description of SSRIs,” she quips.

In the United States, one in six Americans are prescribed the category of antidepressants, while in Australia nearly one in 10 take anti-depressants. Waldman’s own experience with them was problematic. She doesn’t want doctors writing scripts for acid, but instead a serious rational hysteria-free study of them as a legitimate treatment.

“We know about the short-term effects on the brain, but not about the long terms affects. There may be some long term problems like heart issues, but this needs more investigation.”

Earlier this year it was reported that the UK-based think tank The Beckley Foundation and the Imperial College London will launch what is being described as the first ever placebo-controlled trial of microdosing. The long-term effects and the fact that buying LSD is illegal, is what stopped Waldman from continuing.

Trump introduced a war-on-drugs advocate, which meant Waldman can’t explicitly detail the dates of her experiment, for fear of being charged. You see, there is a three-year statute of limitations on drug charges.

The scholar wants to see LSD go the way of marijuana and be decriminalised for medical use.

While the title of her book says How Microdosing Made A Mega Difference In My Mood, My Marriage, And My Life, when I ask her if LSD could be more useful than couples therapy, Waldman says no, explaining that MDMA in her experience, certainly is.

“In its initial use, it was used adjunct with couples counselling. When Sasha Shulgin first biassayed the drug, his wife and close friend began using it in couples counselling. It’s the secret to my marriage in many ways,” explains Waldman.

This October 10, the couple will celebrate 25 years of wedlock, and routinely take MDMA to continue and deepen their bond, says Waldman.

“I really do believe that the secret is periodically doing MDMA. We’ve had had incredibly intense conversations and worked out very serious issues in a positive way. MDMA when taken safely helps break down barriers.”

Waldman and her husband will pre-book a hotel room, and leave their children with another caretaker to use the drug.

“It’s amazing the age of people who do it. There are 60 and 70-year-olds who do MDMA, but not necessarily 40-year-olds,” she says, explaining that for these couples drug use was almost a component of the air they breathed in an earlier era.

Waldman tells me MDMA has been used to help treat PTSD from sexual assault, war, first responders, citing journal articles and international studies, with the psychoactive drug piquing the interest of psychologists, who are investigating whether it could be beneficial in treating mental health problems and relationship problems, thanks to the “MDMA bubble” where couples feel free to express their deepest emotions.

“It’s pretty revolutionary,” she says.

Speaking with Waldman made me question my staunch zero drug policy, but she’s not all glowsticks, rainbows and lollipops. Waldman’s still got that motherly concern about the toxicity of the drug when not in its pure form.

“Every time my kids walk out the door, I tell them ‘use a condom and test your molly’,” she says.

We’ve reached peak cool.

Goodbye | body+soul

www.whimn.com.au

 

[mr peabody]

Women are microdosing to control Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)

Psychedelic Times | 25 Jan 2017

PMDD is a form of extreme PMS which causes both psychological symptoms—such as depression, anxiety, and intense irritability—as well as physical symptoms like fatigue, bloating, muscle cramps, and headaches. PMDD can be difficult to diagnose because it relies on reported symptoms that many gynecologists brush off as the exaggeration of patients. Often, by the time a woman receives a diagnosis of PMDD, she may be desperate for an effective treatment. To further complicate things, the current treatments involve traditional SSRIs for psychological symptoms and pain relievers for physical symptoms, both of which may not be efficient treatments and have many negative side effects. Microdosing with psilocybin is an alternative treatment option that may give provide women relief from PMDD symptoms and greater control over the disorder.

Treating the psychological symptoms of PMDD

The main psychological symptoms of PMDD—anxiety, depression, and extreme irritability—all suggest a problem with the serotonin system, which regulates both mood and energy levels. This is why PMDD is generally treated with SSRIs designed to increase the effectiveness of serotonin within an individual’s brain. SSRIs are either taken on a daily basis throughout the month or 1-2 weeks before a woman’s period when PMDD symptoms are strongest. The problem with taking SSRIs daily is that they can cause negative side effects like decreased libido or serotonin syndrome, but taking them only during the peak of PMDD requires a woman’s menstrual cycle to be highly predictable—and many women with PMDD do not have regular cycles.

Psilocybin activates the serotonin system but works slightly differently than SSRIs. It binds to serotonin receptors in the brain, making the brain think there is more serotonin in your system than there actually is. But it does not increase the actual amount of serotonin, so you will not be at risk of serotonin syndrome when taking psilocybin. This action produces the effects of serotonin, including more stable energy levels, better sleep, and fewer symptoms of depression. At the same time, psilocybin reduces the functioning of the area of your brain that causes anxiety and fear responses, which can help control sensations of irritability, anger, and anxiety.

But the biggest reason psilocybin is a better treatment option than current SSRIs is that its effects are more immediate and last longer. With SSRIs, you may have to take them for several months before you can tell whether they are working for you, but people who microdose with psilocybin have noticed a difference within their initial dosing cycle. This could allow you to take psilocybin when you feel PMDD symptoms beginning as opposed to treating constantly throughout the month.

And why microdosing specifically? At larger doses, changes in mood and brain function have been seen to last for a year or longer when treating static depression. But these doses, which can cause non-ordinary states of consciousness lasting half a day, may not be realistic for a monthly treatment option when your mood naturally cycles and needs more nuanced regulation. Microdosing gives the user greater control over how often they take the substance and allows them to specifically target the beginning of a PMDD cycle. Additionally, with regular microdosing over an extended period of time, permanent changes may be possible. However, more research needs to be done in this area before concrete dosage amounts and length of microdosing cycles can be determined to be effective in creating permanent changes.

Treating the physical effects of PMDD

Common physical symptoms of PMDD include cramps, muscle pain, and headaches. While these can be treated with current pain relievers, the intensity of these symptoms may require high doses of pain relievers, or they may be treatment resistant. In these cases, psilocybin may be a better treatment method. At low doses, psilocybin acts as a vasoconstrictor, which means it constricts your blood vessels and reduces blood flow to certain areas of your body. This can relieve headaches and reduce inflammation that may be causing cramps or muscle soreness.

Because of the vasoconstriction caused by psilocybin, you may experience slightly increased blood pressure after taking a dose. For PMDD sufferers who experience low blood pressure, this can help regulate your blood pressure by disrupting symptoms of lightheadedness, nausea, fainting, or other PMDD symptoms associated with hypotension.

Treating the root causes of PMDD

It is still unclear exactly what causes some women to suffer from PMDD while other women have less troublesome menstrual cycles. Some researchers theorize it is due to a sensitivity to sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Others believe it is due to regulation issues around hormones such as prolactin and cortisol. If it is the latter, then regular microdosing with psilocybin may actually treat the root cause of PMDD because psilocybin has been shown to slightly increase prolactin and cortisol levels. This may lead to better regulation or give researchers a starting point to better understand how to control these hormones in women with PMDD.

If you suffer from PMDD, then you already know the importance of finding effective treatment options. If you do not suffer from PMDD but have experienced PMS, imagine the symptoms of PMS increased to the point that, for a whole week per month, you are unable to work effectively, maintain your relationships, and or possibly even get out of bed. Imagine feeling fury at your toddler for no reason or experiencing an extreme, unfounded fear that your partner will leave you. At the same time, imagine you have a headache that will not go away, extreme fatigue, and muscle cramping that makes the recommended exercise impossible. That is what women with PMDD are dealing with, and this why it is important to look into treatment options that give these women control over their bodies and minds. Based on personal stories and small trials, psilocybin is a promising option. It is time that microdosing and PMDD are researched further and prioritized by the psychedelic community.

https://psychedelictimes.com/psiloc...-premenstrual-dysphoric-disorder-pmdd-at-bay/​

 

[mr peabody]

What psilocybin mushrooms taught me about self-love and acceptance

by Elizabeth Graves | reset.me | Jul 9 2019

Shortly before I integrated psychedelics into my spiritual healing, I started thinking about a card I received in the mail many years ago. I was thirteen and had just severed all communication with an abusive relative whose monthly outreach I could no longer stomach. He sent the card anyway, a greeting card of all things. I suppose I understand why. Cards, after all, are easy. They minimize the bad and magnify the bland intervals between abuse and Something Else. They undermine complex histories in simple language and elegant fonts. No one expects a greeting card to make them tremble.

Ten years after crushing this card in my hands, I ingested about five grams of highly potent psilocybin mushrooms. It wasn’t my first experience with psychedelics, but this dose rendered new possibilities in my long search of twin mysteries Love and Self-Acceptance. Like most people who brave psychedelics, I have been well acquainted with temporal violence. It’s written on me. My body shelves the stories I don’t want to live. Incest, Southern Baptists, divorce, a mother confined to her bed, friends blown to bits by their own aloneness. A writer’s life. A human girl’s life. Who would ask for it? In the absence of questions answers find us. There is no why. We tear in the inexplicable Because.

At twenty-three, I sat on my bed with the plastic bag containing five grams of psilocybin mushrooms. I ate the shrooms raw, the taste so dry and sickly. During the first hour of my trip, my world was infused with generous visitations. Euphoria and smooth distortions had begun to buttress my whole experience. The cracks in the walls, lit up and entwined, morphed into Mesoamerican iconography I’d studied in school. Incense smoke formed silky plumes with a bulbous center I likened to O’Keeffe flowers. My ceiling lifted and swayed like the trap door of a ship. It lifted at the corners allowing cascades of orange and blue to trickle down the walls. My perimeters, once clearly defined, stretched in vertical and horizontal directions as if the room and myself had taken a collective intake of breath.

About two hours in I found myself in an airy, colored terrain unlike anything I’d encountered on previous trips. My roommates’ voices in the living room vanished. Pinned to my bed, I’d become transfixed on an object I can only describe as a magical eraser. It wiped away the wall and all of its electric green hieroglyphs. This was the only wall separating myself and the rest of the house. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to be transported into a bold, strange realm that would completely rewire what I then knew as consciousness.

During my first experience with mushrooms, I’d taken a small but effective dose that guided me to a small husk of inner luminosity. I cannot fully describe this inner luminosity. Nothing can truly be replicated. Especially if it exists outside of language. All I know is that the husk is taut and bell shaped. It’s made of the colors of the great bells I see before I fall asleep. There are enough of these bells to fill a sanctuary and each one hangs translucent, congealed. They chime as I enter the thrust of a dream.

On previous trips, this glowing husk had given a few honest thumps. My eyes had welled in gratitude and my blood hummed. Two hours after eating five grams of shrooms, the husk broke through. It was as if the light bulb of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story had shattered inside me and light like water flooded every passageway. I couldn’t say where I was or how I’d gotten there. All I know is that I had entered a realm where I could love without the fear of never being loved in return.

In this realm I was the giver and receiver. I’d finally understood what self-love looks and feels like. I now know what it tastes like too. Turns out self-love can seep out of us which I’d discovered in my own tears, saliva, and discharge, my tongue lapping away at wounds that refused to heal. Before this trip, self-love was like the shadow of a distant ship drifting across the ocean floor. Under the influence of psilocybin it was as if I had dived head first to meet it.

This self-healing process soon ventured off into the most wondrous direction. It was the same process but focused on other people. It involved every person I ever cared for in my adult life. Friends, co-workers, roommates. Men and women I’ve chosen to love. They appeared before me one at a time. I touched their foreheads like a Bishop at the start of Lent but instead of ash, my fingers were smudged with personalized sensations that would heal the hurt beneath the skin. My taste buds left my mouth and arranged themselves all over my body like tiny suckers. With each person there was an embrace and in that deep pause, I tasted essence. Each person had a story I devoured. I tasted their pain and resolution. I told them I know. I told them I’m sorry. I seemed to have one message for them and nothing else: Remember you are love and to love you shall return.

In Philip K. Dick’s cerebral, bleakly funny novel “Valis”, a schizophrenic man named Horselover Fat undergoes rare neurotic forays bordering on spiritual enlightenment. During one of his experiences, Fat encounters a sentient and volitional void that delights in him. Dick writes, “The void had been waiting to be reunited with Horselover Fat, of all the human beings who had ever existed. Like its extension into space, the love in the void lay boundless; it and its love floated forever.”

During my trip I witnessed the otherwise invisible process of people reaching their fullest potential. I’d been erased of my bastion of solitude then grounded in the beautiful transformation of others. I saw everything. I healed them then let them go. It was one of the most visceral feelings of selflessness I’ve ever experienced, and I was completely alone. I was even shown how to incorporate what I learned into my day to day life. Mostly I was loved by whatever had broken free from this husk. I was loved by it. “It and its love floated forever.”

Art/Writing is important to me and I like to think about its many places in the world. When I think of the relationship between making art and taking psychedelics, I’m tempted to cower from the differences and similarities. Over time I’ve come to see the two as separate but related endeavors. While writing is a way to venture in the time of intense bleeding, psychedelic use, like various methods of therapy, is a tool to help rediscover what tore through the gauze.

It’s my belief that somewhere deep inside us there is a place that hovers. The place the husk is made. And inside there are scores of brilliant things untouched by culture, madness, or trauma. Perhaps it’s the True Self or the inherent bliss of Nothing. Whatever it is, I would have never found it without the assistance of psilocybin. The ego holds this place captive for a number of reasons. Even on five grams of mushrooms, I held onto it hubristically. Fortunately, nothing lasts and the death of my ego was as compassionate as its rebirth.

If our hurt creates a labyrinth within our own psyche, then the source of this hurt, the oldest wound, enters at our exit. We know how to leave but the hurt knows better how to stay, and our repeated departure from the self is an illusory, finite compromise. What we must do is exist and engage in the sadness. We must learn to chase greater storms. As Len in Robert Frost’s “A Servant to Servants” tells us, “The best way out is always through.”

Psilocybin took me through. It took me through. Oh, it took me.

What Psilocybin Mushrooms Taught Me About Self-Love And Acceptance

Shortly before I integrated psychedelics into my spiritual healing, I started thinking about a card I received in the mail many years ago. I was thirteen and had just severed all communication with an abusive relative whose monthly outreach I could no longer stomach. He sent the card anyway, a...

reset.me

 

[mr peabody]

'It makes me enjoy playing with the kids.' Is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?*

by Hattie Garlick | The Guardian | 3 May 2019

Rosie has just returned from the school run. She drops a bag of groceries on her kitchen table, and reaches for a clear plastic cup, covered by a white hanky and sealed with a hairband. Inside is a grey powder; her finely ground homegrown magic mushrooms.

“I’ll take a very small dose, every three or four days,” she says, weighing out a thumbnail of powder on digital jewellery scales, purchased for their precision. “People take well over a gram recreationally. I weigh out about 0.12g and then just swallow it, like any food. It gives me an alertness, an assurance. I move from a place of anxiety to a normal state of confidence, not overconfidence.”

Over the last 12 months, I have been hearing the same story from a small but increasing number of women. At parties and even at the school gates, they have told me about a new secret weapon that is boosting their productivity at work, improving their parenting and enhancing their relationships. Not clean-eating or mindfulness but microdosing – taking doses of psychedelic drugs so tiny they are considered to be “sub-perceptual.” In other words, says Rosie: “You don’t feel high, just… better.”

The latest study, published in February in the open- access journal Plos One and led by cognitive scientist Vince Polito, tracked the experience of 98 microdosers who were already using psychedelics – a class of drugs including LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms).

There is, the study noted, “a perception of microdosing as a general panacea that is able to improve virtually all aspects of an individual’s life.” All 98 participants expected its benefits to be “large and wide-ranging”. Yet while some clear changes were noted – decreased mind-wandering, for example – the study found no evidence of increased creativity or life satisfaction. In fact, after six weeks of microdosing, a small increase in neuroticism was noted.

The study’s participants did, however, report lower levels of stress and depression. It was this that drew Rosie to try it. “I’ve done the traditional treatments,” she tells me. “Therapy helped hugely – it got me out of a seriously bad place and to a functioning one. And for many years, I was functioning very well, outwardly. No one would have known. But inside, I was a mess.”

Antidepressants failed to work, so she stopped taking them after the birth of her second child, comforting herself with alcohol instead. “I wasn’t getting blind drunk and peeling myself off pavements,” she says. “But if I felt bad, my mind would immediately travel to the next drink I could have. It was the only thing that helped block out the sadness.”

That changed about a year ago, when friends began talking about microdosing. Rosie wondered whether it might have a positive effect on her mental health. She gave up booze, went online and found a company in Holland selling kits for growing your own magic mushrooms.

In the very early days, she got the dosage slightly wrong and found herself, “not tripping at all, but staring at a tree for slightly longer than passersby would find normal.” Otherwise, she says, the only down side is, “I can’t take it after 5pm or I can’t sleep.”

She is scrupulously careful to keep her mushrooms far out of the reach of her pre-teen children. “But it definitely doesn’t impair my ability to parent,” she says. “If anything, my awareness is sharpened.”

There is, however, one major danger in Rosie’s mind – its illegality. She has agreed to meet me on the proviso that I keep her identity a secret. “I have two kids. I’ve got responsibilities. And although I believe completely in what I’m doing, these are still class A drugs.” Growing kits are illegal to possess in the UK and she says: “The thought that the company now has my name and address in their records makes me nervous, as did the fact that they mailed the kit to me through the post.”

Once her kit arrived, there were more concerns. It came with strict instructions to wash her hands up to her elbows and keep her mushrooms as sterile as possible, to prevent bacteria growing. “Blue streaks appeared on their stems,” she says. “As a novice, that was really scary. I didn’t want to kill myself with contaminated mushrooms. I went on lots of forums to check, and it turned out it’s just a normal, safe form of bruising."

“It would be much safer if it was legal, so you could openly seek expert advice,” she concedes, but adds, “I’ve taken antidepressants with lists of side-effects as long as my arm. Now I’m taking something with no known side-effects and it’s working. In life, you make risk calculations every day. Is it safe to cross the road? Should I have one more glass of wine? This is just another of those. And I’m significantly happier as a consequence.”

The impact of microdosing is currently being explored at Imperial College London, in the world’s first placebo-controlled study of the practice. People who have already decided to microdose are volunteering to take capsules, some of which contain their usual dose of their own drugs, others a placebo. Thus blinded, they answer questionnaires and solve online tasks designed to measure their cognitive abilities and wellbeing.

“If we do brain imaging when a full dose of psychedelics is in the brain, a lot of the functional networks that we can measure start to fuse into each other,” says Dr David Erritzoe, the study’s lead. “There’s broader communication between the networks. That could be the biology behind this ‘more-free’ state of mind or perception that people typically report.”

It could be that the same is also happening, to a lesser extent, when a microdose is taken, he explains. “Collaborators of ours in Copenhagen have recently done some interesting research, conducting brain imaging with different doses of psilocybin. It looks like the amount that the psychedelic community call a microdose actually hits quite a lot of receptors. Enough, in fact, that it could be having a valid effect.”

On the other hand: “We’re looking to see if the mean effect [of microdosing] exceeds that of the placebo effect,” says Balázs Szigeti, Erritzoe’s partner in the study. “It’s a big if. If I had to guess, I’d be torn. I’m not questioning the fact that microdosers experience a positive effect,” clarifies Szigeti. “I’m questioning whether that’s down to psychological reasons or a pharmacological effect.”

Chloe is 40, lives in Yorkshire and runs a business in the hospitality sector. Like Rosie, she began microdosing as a means of addressing mental health problems, after suffering “quite a serious breakdown”. Unlike her, however, she uses LSD, cutting a tab into 16 tiny triangles – a process she acknowledges is “inexact” – and taking one of these on each microdosing day.

“You can get acid delivered from the dark web, if you have a techy friend,” she says. “Otherwise you have to get it through dealers, unfortunately.” A 200mcg tab, costs her about £5, making each microdose come in at 30p. Given the irregularity with which she microdoses, she estimates that she is spending about £2 a month.

“If the impact on my life is finally finding a way out of depression, then I’m comfortable making that choice,” she says. “The first day I microdosed was the best day I’d had in five years. For so long, I’d felt like I’d been sedated. It’s so miserable when you know you used to be excitable and enthusiastic. But that day, it felt like a lightbulb had been turned on in my mind. I felt giddy, just really glad to be alive. I’d not had those feelings for so, so long.”

It hasn’t been totally straightforward; the first time her partner tried microdosing, “he had a massive panic attack. It really amplified his anxiety,” she says. “He’s done it loads since, mainly because he saw what a difference it had made to my mental health, and he has had some amazing days. But it’s not to be taken lightly, especially if you have a mental health condition. He still finds that if he’s feeling really anxious, it’s best to stay away.”

Nor does she feel microdosing helps with every task. “I’ll take some this Wednesday, because my business is expanding and I’m designing that day. Microdosing will help with the creative side. I’ll take some on Thursday, because I’m trying to upskill one of my managers and it helps with my human interaction and empathy."

“But if I knew I was going to be sitting at home doing the bookkeeping and looking at spreadsheets for hours, I wouldn’t microdose – I’d get distracted.” All the women I speak to stress that they use microdosing in conjunction with other strategies such as psychotherapy, regular exercise and a better diet.

Back in her flat, her microdose taking effect, Jordan says that the drugs shouldn’t be mistaken for a magic cure. “It’s not a linear path – it’s not as simple as, ‘Do this one thing, and everything will be fixed.’ But I’m ridiculously happy.” After I leave, she’s planning to write a seminar and catch up with some admin. “Microdosing changed my life. For me, it was a catalyst for profound and wide-reaching changes.” So much so, that she rarely feels the need to do it now. “I think that’s a good sign – it means you’re integrating what you’ve learned into your everyday life. These days, it’s a treat.”

*From the article here :

'It makes me enjoy playing with the kids': is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?

Before the school run, or commuting to work, increasing numbers are taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs in the UK. Why?

www.theguardian.com

 

[mr peabody]

Moms are microdosing magic mushrooms

by Kristin Houser | May 3rd 2019

Silicon Valley has been singing the praises of microdosing for years — and it seems the mainstream is now catching on to the trend.

In a fascinating new story by The Guardian, a number of women in the United Kingdom are making the same claims as those tech execs—that taking small amounts of psychedelic drugs—is improving their concentration and creativity, as well as helping them address the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

“You don’t feel high, just… better,” Rosie, a mother of two, told The Guardian.

Enjoying life

The women interviewed by The Guardian each discovered microdosing in their own way — Rosie tried it after hearing about a study in which it helped lower participants’ stress and depression levels, while 40-year-old university lecturer Lindsay Jordan started after reading a book about the practice.

The women say they draw different types of benefits from microdosing. Rosie says it helps her cope with her depression and life as a mother, telling The Guardian that “it definitely doesn’t impair my ability to parent. If anything, my awareness is sharpened.”

Jordan, meanwhile, sees microdosing paying off in her professional life.

“My job used to be a struggle,” she told The Guardian. “I used to not enjoy teaching, and my students did not enjoy learning. Now I can teach in a hot stuffy room for hours and look out across a sea of smiling faces.”

Going mainstream

Just like microdosing is apparently starting to make the transition to the mainstream, so too is the formal study of psychedelics, which were relegated to the realm of fringe science for nearly 80 years after chemist Albert Hoffman first discovered LSD’s psychoactive properties.

In April, Imperial College London launched the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research, the world’s first center for the study of psychedelics, and scientists have undertaken a number of studies on microdosing in recent years, many with promising results.

Amidst all this news of their growing health benefits, some jurisdictions are even considering laws to decriminalize psychedelics, which would eliminate what Rosie sees as the major danger involved in her microdosing.

“It would be much safer if it was legal, so you could openly seek expert advice,” she told The Guardian, before adding, “I’ve taken antidepressants with lists of side-effects as long as my arm. Now I’m taking something with no known side-effects and it’s working.”

Moms are joining tech execs in microdosing magic mushrooms

The practice is starting to reach the mainstream.

futurism.com

 

[mr peabody]

I used psychedelic mushrooms to treat my postpartum depression*

by Maria Brus Pedersen | Jan 25 2019

Project Baby—My First Year As a Less Than Perfect Mother author Julie Ugleholdt says that microdosing mushrooms helped her mental health.

Nothing was going like Julie Ugleholdt had envisioned. Despite enduring 24 hours of labor pains, there was still no sign that her unborn daughter was on the way. Every time Ugleholdt had contractions, the baby’s heart rate fell to 50 beats per minute. Finally, after having been at the hospital for a day and a night, Ugleholdt's daughter Charlie was born via acute C-section. It turned out that Charlie had had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck—and with every contraction, she was being strangled.

“I was scared that she was already dead, that I’d lost her before she even came into the world,” Ugleholdt recalled as Broadly sat down with her and her husband at their house in northwest Copenhagen.

She described how the experience of childbirth had lodged itself in her body and psyche after leaving the hospital. She kept thinking, 'what if my daughter is dead?', watching the operating table and the green piece of fabric that had shielded her from seeing the doctors sticking their hands inside her sliced-open stomach.

“I think the postpartum depression hit me right away, but I wasn’t diagnosed until 20 weeks later,” she told Broadly.

Ugleholdt recently published a book sharing these experiences in her native Denmark. In Project Baby—My First Year As a Less Than Perfect Mother, she writes about giving birth, postpartum depression, and resorting to self-medicating with illegal psychedelic mushrooms because she was afraid she wasn’t going to make it out of depression alive.

Ugleholdt never imagined she would be microdosing mushrooms as a new mom. She had never taken psychedelic substances before and didn’t have any desire to do so. She also hadn’t planned to get postpartum depression, have suicidal thoughts, or stay holed up in her house for weeks at a time. Before her pregnancy, her life had revolved around her career, her husband, and her friends. To her, depression was something other people got.

But in the weeks following childbirth, it became increasingly difficult for her to settle into her new role of being a mother.

“I just felt wrong. I didn’t have the feelings I thought I would have, and I couldn’t give myself emotionally to my daughter," she recalled. "I had expected that I’d be completely enamored with her and want to show her off to everyone, but the reality was that I didn’t.”

About 11 percent of mothers and four percent of fathers struggle with their mental health after bringing a child into the world. Symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) can include feelings of hopelessness, loss of interest in everyday activities, irritability, the inability to feel joy, insomnia, fatigue, thoughts of self-harm, memory issues, and difficulty concentrating. This experience can be all the more distressing, of course, when you have a baby to take care of.

Ugleholdt's experience with PPD was marked by sudden feelings of meaninglessness. She couldn’t stop thinking back on her old life, where she had a great career and enough free time to eat and sleep. Now all of those things had been taken away from her. Charlie had colic and cried five hours a day; all of Ugleholdt's waking hours were devoted to nursing her, comforting her, or tucking her in.

“I felt like it had consumed me. I had become a service robot, a sort of comfort zombie. You hear about all these mothers for whom life takes on a whole new meaning, and that just wasn’t how I felt. My life had never felt more hollow,” she explained.

As we spoke, Ugleholdt paused for a moment. Aside from some faint street noise and car horns in the distance, the apartment was quiet. The only noise inside was the faint buzzing of the refrigerator. The kitchen had an open, industrial look with steel and natural wood finishes; the counters were tidy, save for a couple stray baby bottles by the sink and a half-eaten rice pudding. It was hard to imagine that, a few months earlier, this peaceful home was occupied by a screaming Charlie and an increasingly suicidal Ugleholdt.

“It’s rare to hear a parent express anger toward their child with colic, but sometimes I just felt like throwing her out the window or giving her away. I was angry at her for crying so much. I was angry at her for coming into my life, because it felt like she had destroyed it,” she said.

Ugleholdt felt so drained from the constant demands of her screaming child and lack of sleep that even the smallest tasks felt insurmountable. Why empty the dryer if we’re all going to die anyway and life isn’t worth living? Some days she would lie in bed crying, telling her husband that she wanted to go buy a gun and shoot herself, or that she wanted a truck to run her over so she could stay at the hospital for a few days.

Even though she was seeing a therapist and under the supervision of a nurse, both Ugleholdt and her husband decided that it was time to see a local psychiatrist.

“At that point, I was so ill that I was having trouble reading. My husband had to explain things to me and help me fill out paperwork, showing me where to sign.”

The psychiatrist recommended that she start antidepressants, but Ugleholdt didn’t want to. She worried about the possibility that antidepressants could make her symptoms worse before they made things better, and she was afraid that her suicidal thoughts would worsen and that she’d act on them. Her impression from friends and family who had taken antidepressants was that they usually took them for an extended period of time, and the idea of potentially taking pills for the next few years or so did not appeal. Her therapist had also told her they sometimes took the edge off the good feelings as well as the bad ones. So Ugleholdt declined the antidepressants.

Instead, her husband suggested that she start microdosing mushrooms.

“My husband was the one who dosed them for me and mixed them in with my coffee, because at this point, I wasn’t really capable of doing much myself. I definitely noticed a change when I started drinking them—that I started to feel warm and happy inside. That very first day, I sang songs for my daughter. We played together and she smiled at me. I was overjoyed that I was even able to take the experience in,” she says.

Microdosing is a method that involves taking a very small dose of a psychedelic substance, usually psilocybin mushrooms or LSD. Because the dose is so small—often a tenth of a normal dose—you don’t get high from it, but many people believe it puts them in closer touch with their emotions, and in a better state of mind to concentrate and think creatively.

Microdosing has gained the reputation of being the next big thing among career-oriented professionals in the US who use it to optimize their workflow. There are also many blog posts and articles about people who claim to have had success with managing depression and anxiety with microdoses of LSD or mushrooms.

Thus far, the positive effects of microdosing mostly have been backed by word of mouth about people’s positive experiences, but research into its effects have grown as the trend increases in popularity. In 2017, two researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga began studying the effects of microdosing via a survey conducted on about 900 users of various online forums. The survey’s respondents reported experiencing fewer migraines, improved productivity, and an improved ability to connect with others. They also claimed that microdosing seemed to lessen the intensity of negative emotions.

The practice of microdosing mushrooms and LSD is not without its risks. It’s illegal, so production and sale are unregulated, which means you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. Taking high doses of psychedelics can lead to hallucinations and paranoia, and there have been some reports of psychosis-like symptoms in vulnerable users. Though there has been some promising initial research into the use of psychedelics to treat depression, there have been no studies into its specific effect on those with postpartum depression. As with all drugs, people with mental health conditions must exercise caution when using psychedelics.

Ugleholdt took mushrooms with her morning coffee every three days, and she says she noticed a difference on day one. Things that had felt completely unmanageable suddenly felt possible. When Charlie threw her food on the floor, she was able to laugh at it. She could barely muster up the energy to feed her before that.

“Taking mushrooms made it easier for me to access positive thoughts and feelings, which I really wasn’t having any of at this point. I had no positive thoughts about myself, my life, or my child. I could suddenly feel joy again, or at least glimpses of it,” she said.

Most of all, she says, the mushrooms helped her to be more present in her body.

“I was very much in my head, and they helped me shut that off a bit. It was the illness speaking when I had those thoughts about my life being over and wanting to die,” she told Broadly.

She took the mushrooms for three months, always in the morning while her husband was there. When she started doing it, she stopped nursing Charlie. "Drinking a beer in the evening with my husband made me more intoxicated than the mushrooms ever did," she said, regarding potential criticism from those who might read her book and think it's irresponsible for a new mother to be taking drugs around her newborn child.

"Because it’s illegal, people are very judgmental about it. But just because something is legal, like alcohol, doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. It’s one of the most harmful substances we have, and we still consume it. The law applied to me of course, but I chose to ignore it save my own life. I wanted to be a mother to my daughter. I wanted to survive. So I did something illegal to get myself through it," she said.

Ugleholdt always looked forward to “mushroom day,” as she called it, because the effect was strongest on the days she took them. After two months she started forgetting to take them. After three months, she stopped taking them completely. She thought that since she was feeling so good that she was starting to forget her doses, then she probably didn’t need them anymore. “I don’t miss them, because I feel like a different person now,” she said. In July of this year, when the worst of her depression was over, Ugleholdt decided to quit her management consultant job and started to write her first book.

Although she’s no longer depressed, some remnants of the illness are still with her. She still has trouble tucking her daughter in for afternoon naps on the weekends. On weekdays, she takes Charlie to daycare, and she’s so tired at night that tucking her in is easy. But on the weekends, she has feelings of panic when tucking her in because it’s one of the things that made her the most stressed out and sad when she was ill.

Postpartum depression forced Ugleholdt to reorganize her life. When she started microdosing, the fog of negative thoughts lifted enough that she gained the energy to do good things for herself. She started meditating and doing yoga.

“The mushrooms weren’t a miracle cure, but they did dampen the big, looming negative thoughts enough for me to experience moments of happiness in my everyday life. It gave me so much hope, and made it possible for me to help myself and start doing things that were good for me,” she said.

She emphasized that she’s not advocating for people to break the law. She simply hopes that her book can help shed light on the positive effects of microdosing so that more research can be done on the subject.

“I hope it can become an option that’s taken seriously in psychiatry as an alternative to antidepressants. That way, people won’t have to buy it in secret from a dealer, and they’d be able to get some guidance and support with the process."

*From the article here :

I Ate Psychedelic Mushrooms to Treat My Postpartum Depression

"Project Baby—My First Year As a Less Than Perfect Mother" author Julie Ugleholdt says that microdosing shrooms helped her mental health.

www.vice.com

 

[mr peabody]

Why one mom started microdosing LSD—and how it saved her life

by Ashley Peterson | HuffPost | Feb 16 2017

Well, Ayelet Waldman couldn’t a few months ago. That is, before she started microdosing LSD.

As a lawyer, mother of four and someone terrified of drugs, Waldman is not your typical “übersmart twentysomething” working in tech—the stereotype of who microdosing usually attracts. The trend, which has recently gained popularity among professionals trying to increase their productivity, consists of taking a low dose of a hallucinogen (typically LSD or psilocybin), much lower than what would be needed to experience a trip.

For Waldman, however, enhanced productivity wasn’t her goal. Sure, it would be a nice side effect, but the novelist sought out this “illicit, chemical form of yoga” as an alternative to antidepressants in an effort to save her marriage — and her life. “When I went in to the experiment, I had really one goal,” Waldman told LinkedIn. “I just wanted to stop feeling so bad. I was profoundly depressed.”

Waldman has suffered from premenstrual dysphoric disorder (a severe form of premenstrual syndrome), frozen shoulder, irritability, mood swings and insomnia. She has tried dozens of medications and substances in an attempt to treat her symptoms—from Prozac and Zoloft to Ambien and marijuana. The list fills an entire half-page in her new book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. She’s also talked to psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists and social workers. Yet, she still hadn’t found a treatment that works for her, and she was desperate for a solution.

“I am the mother of four children. I am, to my children’s gibe, ‘totally basic.’ I wear yoga pants all day, I post photos of particularly indulgent desserts on Instagram. I am the mom surreptitiously checking her phone at Back to School Night, the woman standing behind you in Starbucks ordering the skinny vanilla latte, the one getting a mammogram in the room next to yours, the one digging through her too-full purse looking for her keys while you wait impatiently for her parking spot. I am a former attorney and law professor, a law-abiding citizen. A nerd. If a cashier hands me incorrect change, I return the excess. I don’t cheat on my taxes, don’t jump the turnstile in the subway, don’t park in handicap spots. I write and lecture on the criminal justice system; I don’t regularly commit crimes. But I was suffering.”

When she realized that she was picking fights not only with her husband but also her dry cleaner, she decided to embark upon a 30-day experiment self-administering LSD in micro doses.

Waldman said she didn’t set out to write a drug memoir. She wanted to use her book to send a message on both mental health treatment and the decriminalization of drugs (which is different than legalization or de-regulation).

“I’ve been doing drug policy reform for a long time, and I have been talking about the legal and social ramifications of the war on drugs for a long time,” Waldman told us. “I saw this book as an opportunity to do that kind of advocacy — to both talk about my experience, my personal experience, but also talk about the larger issues.”

As she points out in her book, at least 20 million Americans have used LSD, and yet there have been no definitive documented human deaths from an LSD overdose. (The same is true of marijuana, though these stats are overdose-related only. They don’t take into account injuries or deaths that can happen when someone loses inhibitions.) In comparison, more than 300 people die in the U.S. every year from taking acetaminophen, and 44,000 end up in the emergency room, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar reality is true of opioids. They are addictive and dangerous—also fatal at high doses—and yet physicians prescribe them regularly. Furthermore, one neuroscientist she talked to said that microdosing psychedelics is absolutely as safe as, or even safer, than conventional antidepressants.

Waldman says, "There have always been drugs and there will always be drugs." Yet, stigmas abound and the research isn’t adequate. Instead of prescribing medications that are known to compromise patients’ abilities while criminalizing drugs that could help them, she urges the medical and legal communities to further research these substances and reform current policies.

“I can’t say with authority that what I experienced was not a placebo effect because we haven’t had the research,” Ayelet said. “My argument is not I want to take LSD because it made me feel better. My argument is I want LSD to be studied because I think this is the drug that worked best for me.”

When it comes to people microdosing as a productivity hack, Waldman has mixed feelings. Although she didn’t go into her experiment looking for increased productivity, she does acknowledge that she felt more in “flow” while writing and was able to make more connections among the topics she was writing about.

“It’s no accident that I wrote the first draft of this book in that month,” she told us. “This book is, it’s a memoir of mental illness, it’s a story of a marriage, it’s the history of psychedelic drugs, the neuroscience behind microdosing, the neurochemistry behind psychedelics. It’s about mass incarceration and de-criminalization. All those things don’t necessarily seem like they would work well together, but I think they really do. The unusual creative parallels that the psychedelic allowed my brain to experience are reflected in the book.”

However, she hopes the people following this trend as an alternative to Adderall don’t overshadow the benefits that she, like others, have found through microdosing: finding relief from debilitating depression.

“As someone who came to this experience from a place of suffering, who has sought and failed to get help using established treatment models, and who, moreover, has little interest in the recreational use of drugs or even their performance-enhancing qualities,” wrote Waldman. “I hope that the therapeutic value of microdosing doesn’t get muffled beneath the braying of tech dudes trying to work better, stronger, faster.”

HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media

www.huffpost.com

 

[mr peabody]

CBD suppository for menstrual cramps

A company that makes marijuana products for women, including suppositories designed to target menstrual cramps, is about to see how well they work in treating the symptoms associated with periods. A new study conducted by Staci Gruber, a Harvard professor, will look at responses from 400 women about menstrual symptoms while using the suppository.

While various compounds in cannabis have long been thought to alleviate symptoms associated with pain and stress from menstruation, there hasn't been a lot of research to back it up. A startup in Venice Beach, California, is seeking to change that. It has released a line of products including lotions, sprays, vaporizer pens, and marijuana suppositories. While the new product has been nicknamed a "weed tampon," it's not exactly that. Rather, it is a suppository pill that when inserted into the body, quickly gets absorbed. The suppositories are forming the basis of an observational study of 400 women to see how marijuana-based products affect the symptoms associated with periods.

So far, they've raised $2 million in venture capital funding. The company's THC-containing products are available in Colorado and California, where cannabis is legal for adult use, and will be available in Canada once legalization goes into effect later this month.

The new CBD products, like its new vaporizer pen, are available online and can be shipped worldwide. CBD is a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis that has been linked to a range of health benefits but cannot get you high.

Though the legality of CBD is something of a gray area, products containing it are widely available in most states, as long as they don't contain THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana responsible for a high. the company says the products are effective because of what's known as the "entourage effect" of the active compounds in marijuana.

"We now know the minute you break this plant apart into its component parts, you lose some of the magic," a spokesperson said. "This is proven out again and again, in study after study, that the entourage effect as we understand it is real."

Putting it to the test

Staci Gruber, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core and the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery program at the McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, is using the marijuana suppository as part of the observational study.

The study will be funded in part by Flow Kana, a marijuana grower and distributor that will provide the products to participants.

"What we're looking to do is take anecdotal information and turn it into data," Gruber told Business Insider. The observational study will survey participating women over a few months, asking them to record what their symptoms are like while using the suppository.

The study is viewed as a first step, with the "holy grail" being a clinical trial that determines how such products compare with a placebo group in relieving menstrual symptoms. Running a clinical trial, however, can be an expensive and difficult endeavor, especially because marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 drug.

First, researchers must go through a lengthy application process, which can take years, to obtain a permit to conduct a study. And all cannabis used for research must be purchased through the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Many researchers have said the institute's supply is of poor quality, with low concentrations of THC.

"What actually made this market was empathy," the spokesperson said. "We serve the plant, we serve our clients. And as a result, our investment community, and the people that support our brand, benefit from that."

https://www.businessinsider.com/for...ffects-womens-health-menstrual-cramps-2018-10​

 

[mr peabody]

Menopause and CBD*

by Genevieve Moore PhD | Dec 01, 2018

“Use it or lose it.” This piece of time-worn wisdom is said about everything from your brain to your muscles. But did you know that it also applies to your most intimate of body parts?

It’s true! Although many people don’t think of their genitals in terms of exercise & fitness, research shows that regular sexual activity helps to keep the vagina healthy, flexible, and strong. And — just like exercise — it becomes even more important to “use it” as we get older.

If you’re approaching menopause, you might be hearing this sort of thing from a variety of sources — friends, social media, TV doctors, or your own doctor. And since sexual pleasure for its own sake is so often shamed in our culture, the “use it or lose it” folks often explain that an active sex life has important health benefits: cardiovascular health, stress relief, boosted immunity, better sleep, pain reduction, pelvic floor strength and reduced incontinence...

But if you’ve lost touch with your sexual desire — whether due to lack of a partner, life stress, sexual pain or other challenges — it can be tricky to relight the fire without a little extra help.

Which is where CBD could help. Many peri- and post-menopausal women report that CBD has revolutionized their sex lives — with or without a partner.

Menopause and estrogen

Remember your old frenemy, the menstrual cycle? During our reproductive years, our ovaries pump out estrogen every menstrual cycle right before they ovulate. As women’s periods become less frequent, so do these estrogen boosts.

What was estrogen doing?

- Keeping up the blood flow. Estrogen dilates your blood vessels, and increased blood flow to your vagina helps it stay healthy and lubricated.

- Raising your libido. Many reproductive-age women have an increased interest in sex right around the time they ovulate — when their estrogen levels are highest.

- Keeping the pH low. Estrogen tells your vagina to secrete glycogen, which feeds beneficial bacteria. These lactobacillus bacteria make lactic acid, which keeps the pH low and protects the vagina from malicious microbes. (Note: These aren’t the same lactobacillus you find in yogurt, but they are very closely related.)

- Protecting the urinary tract. Estrogen receptors are spread throughout the vagina, bladder, urethra and pelvic floor. Up to 70% of women with urinary incontinence experience its onset at menopause. Estrogen also helps protect women from urinary tract infections.

How menopause affects your sex life

Unfortunately, without regular bursts of estrogen, your sex life can become a little bit more complicated.

Peri- and postmenopausal women often discover that their libidos take a nose-dive. Sex might not feel as good when the skin lining your vagina gets thinner and produces less lubrication. Also, with fewer acid-producing lactobacilli, postmenopausal women are more susceptible to infections. To make matters worse, without estrogen, vaginas become densely innervated with pain-perceiving nerves and other nerves that further cut off the blood flow.

Sexual pleasure is just one of many things a woman can lose when her vagina atrophies. Genitourinary syndrome of menopause — a condition where the vaginal tissue becomes thinner, drier and more inflamed — affects more than half of postmenopausal women. As it gets worse, it can become painful to sit, walk, or urinate. It also ups your risk for incontinence.

How to address this problem

Menopause is not a disease or disorder — it’s a natural condition. When estrogen exits stage left, the transition period will be easier if you can bring in new supporting characters, stage right.

For your vagina, that means finding new ways to keep your blood flowing and your skin healthy. That’s why the first thing a doctor will typically suggest is to stock up on moisturizers and lubricants. Most women find that moisturizers applied three times a week will help their vaginal skin stay moist, while lubricants help keep up regular sexual activity.

Why is regular sexual activity so important? It triggers your vulva and vaginal tissues to swell with blood — delivering oxygen and carrying away toxins. Sex keeps vaginal skin healthy and improves its elasticity and natural lubrication, and can even boost levels of androgens and other hormones.

The evidence agrees: Women who are sexually active experience less vaginal atrophy — and those benefits come whether or not a partner is involved.

So… once you purchase a good moisturizer and lubricant (pH balanced, of course), where do you go from there? Moisturizers and lubricants might make it more possible for you to have sex, but what if you’re having trouble getting turned on? What if sex is starting to feel less pleasurable... or even painful? What extra tools are available?

Get your blood pumping: CBD and other methods

Best-case scenario: Even if you have a well-lubricated sex life nearly as active your pre-menopausal years, your vagina probably receives less oxygenated blood than it used to. Without estrogen, you should find new ways to get the blood pumping through your pelvis.

Menstruation, sex, and menopause are the top three reasons that women use CBD for self-care. In addition to treating other symptoms of menopause, more and more postmenopausal women are loving the juice CBD adds to their sex lives.

Why is CBD so effective at spicing things up in the bedroom? The natural compounds in CBD are potent vasodilators — they relax blood vessels, increasing blood flow.

When plant-derived CBD is applied directly to your vulva, they encourage blood to flow into the tissues.

This increased blood flow can do amazing things in the bedroom. Many women who use CBD on their vulvas report stronger, more pleasurable orgasms, while others experience an overall boost in their sexual sensations. If you want to hear more about the personal experiences of women who have tried topical CBD, start here.

What else increases blood flow to your vagina? It turns out that clitoral stimulation and sexual fantasy can increase blood flow to the vagina in ways that pelvic floor contractions and exercise cannot.

If you haven’t already, experiment with sensual materials that can wake up your fantasies — vibrators, romance novels, or whatever form of pornography inspires your imagination. If you have a partner, explain to them that this is for your future health, and see if they want to get involved.

Partnered or not, experiment with extending your foreplay into full-body sensual massage and gentle oral and manual stimulation. If you want some hard evidence that these activities are pumping restorative blood through your vagina, feel around — your clitoris will get perky and your inner labia may expand, especially with extended lubricated massage and suction.

Extra perks CBD brings to the bedroom

CBD and THC do much more for your vagina than just increase the blood flow and your ability to feel pleasure. They can soothe inflammation and feelings of pain — both of which might increase as estrogen decreases. CBD also encourages your muscles to relax, which can further alleviate penetration-related pain. How?

- Fights inflammation: Both CBD and THC have proven anti-inflammatory properties — and inflammation levels increase for women with genitourinary syndrome. CBD acts on the same target as NSAIDs, decreasing your body’s production of inflammatory prostaglandins. Meanwhile, THC helps prevent your immune system from releasing the inflammatory proteins called cytokines.

- Reduces pain: Some of the increased pain postmenopausal women experience during penetration comes from an increased density of pain-perceiving nerves. CBD fights back by desensitizing these nerves. Both CBD and THC target nerve receptors that help decrease the sensation of pain.

- Relaxes muscles: Another source of pain in the bedroom could come from overly-tight pelvic muscles. CBD helps relax muscles in two ways. First, when they desensitize pain receptors, they prevent nerves from triggering muscle contractions. Second, CBD and THC have been shown to reduce maximum level of contraction in muscles.

Similar to localized estrogen creams and suppositories, localized application of CBD delivers the compounds exactly where they are needed, while keeping their bloodstream levels low.

Rebooting your sexuality

Sexual activity is most effective against genitourinary syndrome before the symptoms of vaginal atrophy get severe. However, it’s never too late to start showering your lady parts with personal attention and increased blood flow.

If you’re waking up your vagina after a period of hibernation, start slow. Don’t jump into penetration if you’re experiencing pain or inflammation. Instead, try to increase blood flow to your sensual zone — with vibration, fantasy and/or topical CBD — and just focus on the pleasant sensations you might experience.

This exercise doesn’t need to lead anywhere — you can get the benefits of increased oxygenation to your vagina without intercourse, orgasm, or a partner. However, you might find that allowing some extra time to become sexually aroused can make masturbation and intercourse more enjoyable.

For further support, consult with a doctor, physical therapist, or sexological bodyworker to develop a pelvic rehabilitation plan. They can suggest pelvic floor exercises and vaginal dilator techniques after they determine which muscles need to be strengthened or relaxed.

Many women find that the benefits of reviving their sexual organs extend beyond the pleasure zone: Incontinence and other urinary issues might improve with proper rehabilitation.

Estrogen therapy

Although regular use of moisturizers and sexual lubricants are often just as effective, many doctors will prescribe hormonal therapy for women with moderate or severe symptoms of genitourinary syndrome.

Topical estrogen is most frequently prescribed, since it helps keep the overall levels of this hormone low in your body. Hormone replacement therapy can be very effective for treating the symptoms of genitourinary syndrome, but they are generally only prescribed for short-term use — and many women cannot take them for medical reasons.

Whether or not you are on hormone therapy, we encourage you to talk with your doctor about incorporating CBD into your sexual health routine. (Feel free to share this article with your doctor, as well as our other articles on CBD and sexual health.)

Quality counts

We want to be clear about one last thing… What your body needs most right now is for you to have the patience and freedom to feel AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE.

Don't just grab that bottle of lube and rush through your sexercises. Numerous studies show that it's the quality of the sex that confers many of sex’s health benefits. Now is the time for you to experiment and learn how to maximize pleasure.

You might find that the blood-pumping, pleasure-promoting and pain-relieving properties of CBD are perfect for improving the quality of your sexual life. Or you might discover other ways to increase your stimulation before and during sex. Either way, you won’t know until you try.

*From the article here :

Menopause: Cannabinoids & Sexual Health

Written by: Genevieve R. Moore PhD“Use it or lose it.” This piece of time-worn wisdom is said about everything from your brain to your muscles. But did you know that it also applies to your most intimate of body parts? It’s true! Although many people don’t think of their genitals in terms of...

www.foriawellness.com

 

[mr peabody]

Can CBD boost fertility?*

Erin Hiatt - Jan 4, 2019

Female infertility, though not uncommon, is something many women do not feel comfortable talking about, or sharing with others, even close family and loved ones. Whether from a sense of personal failure for not being able to have children, a lack of health or financial resources, feelings of shame, or societal expectations around women's roles and motherhood, many women who have been diagnosed as infertile, or who even have difficulty getting pregnant, often suffer in silence from this emotionally and financially demanding circumstance.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama reignited the conversation around female infertility in her book Becoming when she opened up about undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive her daughters, Sasha and Malia. It is estimated that about 10 percent of women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 44 have difficulty getting or staying pregnant. And the average age of the first time mother is older than ever, 26.3 years old, as of 2016.

Pregnancy-focused websites are replete with headlines discussing how to get pregnant fast, sex positions that are thought to improve the chance of conception, and what special foods a hopeful mother should eat. Trying to conceive (TTC) message boards, where women anonymously share advice on everything from their common hopes and dreams to the disappointment of a negative pregnancy test, are also discussing which supplements to take in order to boost their chances of getting pregnant.

Herbal medicines like chasteberry, false unicorn, raspberry leaf, red clover, and maca have been used traditionally to enhance or correct the hormonal balance needed for a healthy pregnancy. However, among notable herbs, cannabis has long been a topic of conversation specifically in regard to its role in infertility, especially in men.

The process of getting pregnant, in general, is such an exquisitely-timed dance that it seems practically miraculous that anyone gets pregnant at all. But what if cannabis, especially non-intoxicating cannabidiol (CBD), could help women achieve the delicate balance needed to achieve a successful and healthy pregnancy?

A woman's ability to have a child really boils down to whether or not ovulation occurs each month. This critical time, when eggs are released from the ovaries, is the only time of month a woman can get pregnant. This process can be disrupted by ailments like polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, uterine fibroids, and other conditions.

But the primary disruptor of ovulation is age. As a woman grows older, eggs may not be as healthy or plentiful. Additionally, the ovaries become less able to release eggs, and the woman is more likely to have other health conditions that may cause problems with fertility. Nonetheless, many women, especially those in more urban areas like New York City and San Francisco, are choosing to have children later, after completing educational pursuits and starting their careers.

Fertility treatments such as IVF, intrauterine insemination (IUI), and egg storage can be prohibitively expensive, especially for those who live in states that don't mandate some type of infertility coverage for insurance plans, thus leaving many scrambling to pay out-of-pocket for fertility medicines and treatments.

According to Dr. Michele Ross, Ph.D - a neuroscientist and CEO of Infused Health - "the actions of one endocannabinoid in particular, anandamide, may help women achieve a healthy pregnancy. Anandamide is a neurotransmitter that is part of the body's endocannabinoid system (ECS), and plays a key role in the body's physiological systems to create homeostasis, to keep the body stable. Often called the "bliss molecule" because of its etymology from the Sanskrit word for joy, bliss, or happiness, anandamide binds to the body's own cannabinoid receptors."

"In women, rapidly changing levels of anandamide are necessary for a successful pregnancy," Ross told Civilized. "High levels of anandamide occur at ovulation and are clinically associated with a successful pregnancy. Low levels of anandamide, or endocannabinoid deficiency, may interfere with ovulation or the ability to get pregnant."

Clinical endocannabinoid deficiency, first proposed by cannabinoid researcher Dr. Ethan Russo, is a theory positing that when the ECS is out of balance, conditions, especially related to the immune system and inflammation (think fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, or migraines) can take hold in the body and disrupt other bodily systems.

Ross believes that CBD can help boost anandamide levels to support successful ovulation, and help with other factors related to infertility, like stress and anxiety. "Stress has a negative impact on fertility in both men and women, due to lower levels necessary for egg and sperm production and other steps in the fertility cycle," she said. "By relieving stress, CBD may have a positive impact on fertility."

Hillary Wright, MEd - the director of nutrition counseling for the Domar Center Mind/Body Health at Boston IVF - says that she sees potential benefits to using CBD to enhance fertility, but there just is not any research to support it. "What people like to see when they look at health interventions is whether it helps facilitate live birth," she explained. "I personally don't have a lot of concern around THC-free CBD oil, but I'm honest with people and say, 'in theory, this is what I think, but lacking even basic clinical trials on this, we can't say for sure what the pros and cons are.' "

Even so, she offers that CBD could support fertility by reducing oxidation or inflammation, enhancing hormone balance or egg quality, and acting as an adjunct to diet and lifestyle changes. "Taking CBD is not going to compensate for a lifestyle that's not otherwise healthy," she said. "There are no do-overs when it comes to conception and growing a baby. It's important to acknowledge that we're lacking clinical knowledge."

Studies frequently indicate that women who are pregnant or are trying to become pregnant should stay away from THC, which has, in some studies, been correlated to low birth weight, neuro-developmental disabilities, and preterm delivery. Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, M.D. - assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the George Washington University School of Medicine - acknowledges that the studies on cannabis and pregnancy are mixed, but he believes that the risks outweigh potential benefits. "We discourage the use of marijuana while trying to get pregnant, as we do with alcohol and tobacco," he said.

DeNicola would like to see the effects of CBD studied separately from THC when it comes to cannabis and fertility, in order to more accurately know whether or not there are any risks, since many women consume cannabis both before and during pregnancy. "Five percent of survey groups use cannabis [in non-legal states], and surveys in legal states are as high as 30 percent," he said.

Even though the 2018 Farm Bill was recently passed, legalizing hemp (which is from where most CBD products are derived), does not necessarily mean that the research to ascertain whether CBD could be beneficial for fertility will take place. DeNicola explains that pregnant women, and women trying to become pregnant, are held to the precautionary principle, which states that the introduction of a new product, in this case CBD, whose ultimate effects are unknown, should be resisted. But DeNicola believes that if research moved forward, patients could try CBD at their own discretion, as they do with other supplements that may play a role in achieving pregnancy.

While CBD's ability to enhance fertility remains a mystery, Wright says that there is evidence behind the benefits of a healthy Mediterranean dietary pattern in supporting fertility, as well as evidence showing that physical activity and stress-reduction activities like yoga and meditation can smooth other obstacles to pregnancy.

"There are support groups for women who are doing fertility treatments and working through the stress of conception," Wright said. "There's a lot at risk both psychologically and financially, and women struggle to feel adequately supported around that," she added. "Absolutely, I could see that there are potential benefits in using CBD."

*From the article here:

https://www.civilized.life/articles/can-cbd-support-fertility/​

 

[mr peabody]

Simple blood test for early detection of breast cancer

by National Cancer Research Institute

Breast cancer could be detected up to five years before there are any clinical signs of it, using a blood test that identifies the body's immune response to substances produced by tumour cells, according to new research presented at the 2019 NCRI Cancer Conference.

Cancer cells produce proteins called antigens that trigger the body to make antibodies against them—autoantibodies. Researchers at the University of Nottingham (UK) have found that these tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) are good indicators of cancer, and now they have developed panels of TAAs that are known already to be associated with breast cancer to detect whether or not there are autoantibodies against them in blood samples taken from patients.

In a pilot study the researchers, who are part of the Centre of Excellence for Autoimmunity in Cancer (CEAC) group at the School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, took blood samples from 90 breast cancer patients at the time they were diagnosed with breast cancer and matched them with samples taken from 90 patients without breast cancer (the control group).

They used screening technology (protein microarray) that allowed them to screen the blood samples rapidly for the presence of autoantibodies against 40 TAAs associated with breast cancer, and also 27 TAAs that were not known to be linked with the disease.

Presenting the research at the NCRI Conference, Ms Daniyah Alfattani, a Ph.D. student in the group, said: "The results of our study showed that breast cancer does induce autoantibodies against panels of specific tumour-associated antigens. We were able to detect cancer with reasonable accuracy by identifying these autoantibodies in the blood."

The researchers identified three panels of TAAs against which to test for autoantibodies. The accuracy of the test improved in the panels that contained more TAAs. The panel of five TAAs correctly detected breast cancer in 29% of the samples from the cancer patients and correctly identified 84% of the control samples as being cancer-free. The panel of seven TAAs correctly identified cancer in 35% of cancer samples and no cancer in 79% of control samples. The panel of nine antigens correctly identified cancer in 37% of cancer samples and no cancer in 79% of the controls.

"We need to develop and further validate this test," said Ms Alfattani. "However, these results are encouraging and indicate that it's possible to detect a signal for early breast cancer. Once we have improved the accuracy of the test, then it opens the possibility of using a simple blood test to improve early detection of the disease."

The researchers are now testing samples from 800 patients against a panel of nine TAAs, and they expect the accuracy of the test to improve with these larger numbers.

"A blood test for early breast cancer detection would be cost effective, which would be of particular value in low and middle income countries. It would also be an easier screening method to implement compared to current methods, such as mammography," said Ms Alfattani.

The researchers estimate that, with a fully-funded development programme, the test might become available in the clinic in about four to five years.

A similar test for lung cancer is currently being tested in a randomised controlled trial in Scotland, involving 12,000 people at high risk of developing lung cancer because they smoke. They have been randomised to have (or not) an autoantibody blood test called ELISA (Early CDT-Lung). Participants who test positive for the autoantibodies are then followed up with a CT scan every two years in order to detect lung cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat.

The CEAC group is also working on similar tests for pancreatic, colorectal and liver cancers. Solid tumours like these, as well as lung and breast cancer, represent around 70% of all cancers.

"A blood test capable of detecting any of these cancers at an early stage is the over-riding objective of our work," concluded Ms Alfattani.

Dr. Iain Frame, CEO of NCRI said: "Early diagnosis using simple, non-invasive ways of detecting the first signs of cancer is a key strategic priority for NCRI and something we'd all like to see working in practice. The results from this pilot study for a blood test to detect early breast cancer are promising and build on this research group's expertise in other cancers, such as lung cancer. It's obviously early days but we look forward to seeing the results from the larger group of patients that are now being investigated."

Simple blood test for early detection of breast cancer

Breast cancer could be detected up to five years before there are any clinical signs of it, using a blood test that identifies the body's immune response to substances produced by tumour cells, according to new research presented at the 2019 NCRI Cancer Conference today (Sunday).

medicalxpress.com

 

[mr peabody]

Does cannabis increase sexual desire?

by Ian Kerner | CNN

Researchers are beginning to study the link between cannabis and sexual desire, with some interesting results. In one recent study, for example, investigators found that men and women who used cannabis daily had about 20% more sex during the previous four weeks than their peers who did not.

Although this research didn't show cause and effect, it raises an interesting question: What's the connection between sex and cannabis? I posed this and other questions about sexual desire and pleasure as related to cannabis to some of my colleagues.

It's still unclear exactly how cannabis boosts sex drive, but theories abound. "People who use cannabis may have more sex because they put less pressure on themselves when they are high, so they don't have the same performance anxiety as those who are sober," suggested sex therapist Amanda Pasciucco, who practices in Connecticut, where medical use is legal. "A small amount of cannabis may also help increase your ability to communicate your preferences to your partner."

Sex therapist Lawrence Siegel noted that in particular, THC appears to target a part of our brain associated with sexual arousal, at least in females.

"Our body's natural endocannabinoid system is key in regulating things like pleasure, pain, relaxation and homeostasis. When it is activated by the cannabinoids in cannabis, it can leave users feeling relaxed with increased pleasure and decreased pain," explained Peter Barsoom, founder of a company called 1906, which aims to bring cannabis back to the mainstream. "This can lead to increased arousal and make sex even more enjoyable. For others, the reason is the increased pleasurable sensations that can arise with cannabis. This effect can make sex feel even more enjoyable."

Though some people experience increased anxiety when using cannabis, others find that it has the opposite effect. "Every person has a unique makeup both psychologically and physically, and for cannabis to help improve sexuality, you must find the type that works for you," explained sexologist Nick Karras, author of The Passionate High: A Guide to Using Cannabis For Better Sex and Creativity. "I recommend experimenting with a small amount of indica strains, sativa strains and a hybrid of both to see what works best."

Delivery and dose matter

Almost all of the experts I spoke with recommended starting out with a small amount of cannabis and using a specific delivery method. "I definitely recommend smoking or vaping as you're learning how to use cannabis, because you can overshoot with edibles and have an uncomfortable experience," Karras said.

That said, a growing number of edible products contain carefully dosed amounts of cannabis. One such product, High Love, contains a low dose of cannabis, along with certain herbs, in a chocolate base. "Interestingly, the aphrodisiac qualities of cannabis seem to only occur in low-to-moderate doses," pointed out its creator, Barsoom. "In high doses, cannabis can have an opposite effect."

THC vs. CBD

The cannabis plant contains roughly 100 cannabinoids, which are its active components. The best-known of these is THC, which is believed to be mainly responsible for cannabis' psychotropic effects, including cannabis's high. But another cannabinoid, CBD, doesn't contribute to euphoria and is legal when used recreationally if it's derived from hemp. CBD derived from either hemp or cannabis is legal in 46 states when used medicinally.

Some products aimed at improving your sex life contain CBD but not THC. These are topical creams, ointments or lubricants that capitalize CBD's apparent anti-inflammatory effects.

For example, a line of CBD-based lubricants called Privy Peach is meant to quell inflammation and increase circulation, which may in turn improve sexual function and arousal in women with problems such as endometriosis and other types of chronic pelvic pain, said its inventor, Kimberly Koehler. Another topical CBD product called Foria Awaken is targeted for women who experience pain during intercourse. Because some women find that the THC in cannabis seems to cause vaginal dryness, CBD-based lubes could also be a way to counteract that side effect.

Conclusion

Of course, cannabis isn't a cure-all, and it can't fix many of the root causes of sexual dysfunction or relationship problems. But if you want to experiment legally to see whether it enhances libido and gives your sex life a boost, you may find that cannabis is one more way to spice things up.

"Cannabis has been used as an aphrodisiac in many cultures for centuries. In India, it was used as far back as the seventh century. Its use for sexual health was documented in Chinese texts, amongst Germanic tribes and by many African cultures," Barsoom said. Maybe it's high time to add the American bedroom to the list.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/health/cannabis-sex-kerner/index.html

 

[mr peabody]

Psilocybin therapy is mushrooming

The Third Wave | Jul 31 2019

Thanks to pioneering research and decriminalization efforts from cities like Denver and Oakland, psilocybin therapy is becoming a valid treatment for certain mental disorders. For those who are looking for alternative and effective treatments, psilocybin may be a revolutionary new option.

What is psilocybin therapy?

Psilocybin therapy, or psilocybin-assisted therapy, refers to any type of professional treatment by a therapist who uses psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) in their treatment. The approaches for therapy can differ depending on the therapist, but are mostly structured the same.

After a preliminary assessment phase to determine a patient’s fit with the treatment, psilocybin is administered and the patient will be guided by the therapist as the psilocybin takes effect. During the assessment stage, the therapist will discuss the patient’s issues, intentions, and goals, in an effort to frame the experience and prepare the patient for their session.

Once the actual session begins the therapist mostly steps back, letting the patient and the psilocybin do the work. These sessions are usually conducted in a comfortable, relaxed setting, with the patient sitting or lying down.

The idea is to create an environment with just enough stimulus to encourage free thought, without being too overbearing to a person in an altered state.

Does psilocybin therapy work?

For the most part, psilocybin therapy studies have relied on self-reports from patients. However, in a study published in 2017, a group of researchers probed deeper into the mechanisms behind psilocybin and how it affects patients with treatment-resistant depression.

The researchers used MRI technology to scan cerebral blood flow and brain activity before and after taking psilocybin. Following the treatment, all patientssaw a decrease in their depressive symptoms after one week, and nearly half of them experienced the decrease last for at least five weeks.

Combining these impressive results with the patient brain scans, the researchers found a correlation—blood flow had been reduced in areas that handle emotional responses, stress, and fear.

These findings are consistent with other psychedelic brain scans, and the changes they have shown in the default mode network. The researchers proposed a “reset therapeutic mechanism” that allowed patients to disassociate from their depression or anxiety.

There isn’t a wealth of research to support psilocybin’s efficacy in therapy. However, even the few studies that have examined psilocybin all led to promising findings.

What can psilocybin therapy treat?

Most of the research into psilocybin therapy has examined depression and anxiety, but psilocybin has also demonstrated the potential to treat other mental disorders like addiction, PTSD, and cluster headaches.

If we follow the “reset” mechanism hypothesis, we can paint a better picture of how psilocybin therapy may work. By taking psilocybin in a therapeutic setting, we can detach from our default state, which is often corrupted or oppressive. Unlike many existing treatments, psilocybin therapy occurs in a single session or series of sessions, and may not need continued use. From a single powerful experience, psilocybin can deliver lasting results.

Even for those without severe anxiety, depression, or other treatment resistant mental disorders, psilocybin therapy may be useful as an occasional refresh for general wellbeing.

Where can I find psilocybin therapy?

In most areas of the world psilocybin is illegal, so finding a reputable place for psilocybin therapy is challenging. However, there are places where psilocybin is decriminalized and psilocybin retreat centers are available.

In the Netherlands, psilocybin truffles remain legal to consume. Just outside of Amsterdam, Synthesis offers a selection of retreats, including private retreats and women-only sessions. They also offer nicotine-cessation coaching help to pair with their psilocybin therapy.

Another therapy center is in Mexico, where psilocybin remains legal if used in a traditional or sacramental context.The Buena Vida is a psilocybin retreat center that works with a local shaman to provide a legal, safe psilocybin therapy session.

Depending on your availability, there are several other established centers for psychedelic therapy.

Can I try psilocybin therapy on my own?

If you are interested in trying psilocybin therapy on your own, there are several things that you should consider—legality, safety, and efficacy.

It is highly advised to find a sitter, or someone to help facilitate your experience and keep you safe. Using psilocybin alone, especially if you are attempting to treat some mental disorder, can result in distress and even danger if you are improperly prepared.

Finally, it may be difficult to match the efficacy of a dedicated psilocybin retreat center on your own—these centers usually employ several staff members and experts who are all trained to maximize the therapeutic potential of your psilocybin experience.

While the ultimate goal is to let psilocybin do the work, psilocybin therapy will be most effective when set up and facilitated by experienced people.

The future of psilocybin therapy

There has never been a better time for psilocybin therapy. Retreat centers are growing in popularity, more cities are decriminalizing psilocybin, and the FDA recently approved clinical trials for psilocybin.

A lot more research is needed before we can make any definitive claims about the power of psilocybin therapy, but there are already a few studies and plenty of anecdotal evidence that can attest to psilocybin’s potential to treat anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders.

As governments and people open their mind to psilocybin and psychedelics in general, we may soon usher in a revolution in mental health and wellbeing.

Psilocybin Therapy: Magic Mushrooms vs Mental Illness

Psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms, is being studied as a therapy for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more. Early results are very promising.

thethirdwave.co

 

[mr peabody]

Is it safe to use CBD while breastfeeding?

by Cory Stieg

Between your interrupted sleep schedule, increased levels of stress, and the newfound bodily pains that you might encounter while breastfeeding, it makes total sense why a you'd want to introduce CBD products into your routine at this time. Cannabidiol or CBD, as you've probably heard, is a non-psychoactive compound that's naturally found in cannabis and hemp plants. People claim CBD can help with anxiety, plus soothe aches and pains. But the question is, can breastfeeding people safely use CBD?

This is a tough question to answer at the moment, because CBD hasn't been studied extensively, and the products on the market are hardly regulated, explains Philip Anderson, PharmD, clinical professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, who has researched cannabis use and breastfeeding. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists discourages cannabis use for lactating people, because there's not enough data to determine the effects the substance would have on an infant's health. Of course, not all CBD is derived from cannabis, which is where this gets tricky.

The appeal of many CBD products is that they're supposedly devoid of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound in cannabis that makes you high. But, save for the one pure CBD pharmaceutical product that's been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, "all others from hemp or cannabis have the potential to be a mixture of CBD and THC," Anderson says. "There are no standards that are followed in analysis or labelling that I would trust." In other words, there's always a risk that a CBD product could contain traces of THC in it, and get passed to an infant through breastmilk.

Unlike alcohol, which we know can clear out of a person's breastmilk in a few hours, it's not clear how long either of these cannabis compounds would stay in a person's system and breastmilk. "The studies on the length of time that these compounds stay in milk is conflicting," Anderson says. For example, one study estimated it takes six days to get THC out of breastmilk, while other show it takes six weeks. This pretty major discrepancy is probably due to the fact that the amount and frequency that people use cannabis products varies a lot.

So, for all of these various reasons and unknowns, it's probably best to just save the CBD oil for after you've finished weaning. It's up to you and your doctor to determine what's safest for you and your baby. And if you are struggling with insomnia, anxiety, or just want some help for your painful clogged duct, it's always worth it to talk to your doc, healthcare provider, or a lactation consultant. They might be able to recommend more reliable methods that will help your breastfeeding journey feel more chill — sans CBD.

Is It Safe To Use CBD While Breastfeeding?

Here's what we know about the safety of CBD products while breastfeeding.

www.refinery29.com

 

[mr peabody]

The women using ketamine to treat depression

by Clare Wiley | Cosmopolitan | May 15 2019

More and more women are turning to ketamine when antidepressants fail them — and it’s changing their lives.

Last November, on her 29th birthday, Amanda Fulkerson went to a dark room in Los Angeles to get high. She lay back in a chair, the drug entered her bloodstream and music pounded in her ears. She started to hallucinate, imagining she was seeing wild animals. But this wasn’t a club or house party: Fulkerson was in a plush doctor’s office, taking ketamine for depression.

Fulkerson is one of a growing number of Americans who are receiving ketamine intravenously to treat depression, with clinics springing up across the US. The restaurant manager has struggled with depression since she was nine. "I was at the end of my wits," she tells me. "I was like, I’m done, I don’t want to live anymore." Then a friend told her about the LA clinic. She’d never tried hallucinogens before, but her antidepressants weren’t helping anymore and she was desperate. She made an appointment.

"You’re in a comfy chair, they give you music and blankets. They hook you up to an IV and administer ketamine for 50 minutes. The first time I was nervous as hell. It’s like you’re getting on a ride at Disneyland and you have no idea what the hell's gonna happen. It’s definitely like you’re on a psychedelic, like acid or LSD. You feel high as a kite."

Fulkerson had six treatments, and felt better almost instantly. "For somebody who’s suffered from depression for so long, it’s a feeling I never knew was possible. My energy and willingness to do things is 100% different."

It’s estimated that 3 million people in the UK have depression, but scientific research suggests up to 20% of sufferers don’t respond to standard treatments. It’s thought that this 'treatment-resistant' group could especially benefit from ketamine. Many know the hallucinogen as a club drug. 'Ket' or 'special k' makes you feel dreamy and detached. But it’s also one of the world’s most common general anaesthetics, used by doctors and surgeons for decades.

Ketamine is a Schedule III drug in America, meaning it has a low to moderate potential for dependence. It’s illegal to use recreationally, but can be used medically by a licensed professional. In the UK ketamine is Class B: illegal to possess but licensed as an anaesthetic. Doctors in both countries use it 'off-label', for something other than what it was originally approved for (a widespread, legal practice).

Scientists have been researching ketamine and depression since the ‘90s. What they’re finding is that ketamine has powerful antidepressant effects — and works much faster than traditional medication. In March the US' Food and Drug Administration approved a nasal spray derived from ketamine, esketamine. It’s been called a game-changer, the biggest advance in depression treatment for decades.

"Most people find the IV treatments to be really life-changing," says Sam Mandel, the COO of Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles, one of the first in the US. He co-founded the service five years ago with his father, anaesthesiologist Dr. Steven L Mandel. "We’ve had patients going three months on average without return of their symptoms. People actually feel happy. They don’t feel numbed out, where the lows aren’t as low but the highs aren’t there — and I mean the highs of life."

Patients are usually given between 0.5mg and 0.6mg of ketamine per kilogram of bodyweight, over the course of almost an hour. This is the big difference between the medical treatments and ketamine taken recreationally. People snorting the drug in powder form usually take much more (100-250mg is a heavy dose) in a much shorter space of time.

Therapist Katherine Hartley, 35, has had depression since high school. "I’ve tried every medication under the sun," she says. "Nothing was helping. I was always functioning, but my depression got a lot worse about two years ago. It got so debilitating that even going to see friends or family was impossible. I felt like I was constantly having to pretend I was happy but on the inside everything just felt completely grey."

Hartley decided to try ketamine. "I was pretty scared initially. I’ve smoked a little pot, but never mind-altering drugs. My first treatment was so unbelievably… beautiful, is the only word I can use. I felt this intense sense of peace and calm."

Did she hallucinate? "Yes. I lost my mother to cancer in 2010, and my grandmother a year later. They were with me and all three of us were holding hands. My grandmother said, 'you’re going to be ok'. It was like a beautiful dream state. I had tears streaming down my face. It was such a comforting feeling."

Hartley says the ketamine worked for her in a way nothing else has. "What I noticed within about the first three treatments was that things started to feel brighter. I noticed a sense of hope. I felt more motivated to do things, socialise with friends, go out to dinner. My sleep got much better. I felt a lot less flat. I was smiling and making jokes again."

How exactly does ketamine help? Most antidepressants increase our serotonin levels, basically, the happy chemical. Ketamine works in a totally different way. It increases production of a neurotransmitter called glutamate, which prompts the brain to make new connections. Researchers think this makes our minds more adaptable, potentially allowing patients to develop more positive thoughts.

"Nobody knows exactly how ketamine is producing the rapid antidepressant effects," says Dr. Gerard Sanacora, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, which is one of the research pioneers in this area. "But we believe it involves the drug’s action on the glutamate chemical messenger system that alters the physical connections between brain cells, and ultimately allows for different brain circuits to be strengthened or weakened."

Sanacora stresses that ketamine should be one part of a patient’s overall treatment, including more standard antidepressants and therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy, which encourages you to reframe negative thought patterns as positive ones. "If the drug is increasing the brain’s ability to form new connections, it may provide an opportune time to teach patients CBT skills to enhance resiliency and prevent future depression episodes."

So what’s the situation in the UK, could we follow the same path as the US?

Psychiatrist Dr. Rupert McShane runs a private ketamine clinic in Oxford, which has treated 170 patients so far. And in October 2018, Janssen, the company that makes the esketamine nasal spray in the US, applied to market the product in Europe. McShane believes "it’s very likely" to get the license, but points out that the restrictions here could be different, and it must also be approved by the UK regulator.

Of course, ketamine isn’t without downsides. One is the price: at Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles, the total cost for their recommended course of six infusions is $3,900, and most health insurance doesn’t cover it.

There are physical side-effects too. Sanacora says it can affect blood pressure, heart rate and ability to think clearly. "There is also some evidence that longer-term, frequent use can be toxic to the brain and bladder."

Hartley had bad nausea and headaches after her infusions, but tells me she didn’t care — she was already feeling awful from depression. "The ketamine I believe in my heart turned things around for me."

The women using ketamine to treat depression

More and more women are turning to ketamine when antidepressants fail them — and it’s changing their lives.

www.cosmopolitan.com

 

[mr peabody]

Is MDMA the key to treating women with PTSD?

by Kelley McMillan

Some say yes—and that the prescription could come as early as 2021.

On a bright, sunny morning in June 2012, 36-year-old massage therapist Roxxann Murphy and her husband, David, 34, were driving to Oklahoma City's Myriad Botanical Gardens with their 18-month-old daughter, Romy. Almost as soon as David—blond and handsome, with light-blue eyes—turned their Honda Fit onto the highway, they saw a man waving wildly for assistance on the right side of the road. Eager to help, David slowed down and parked the car. It turned out to be a domestic disturbance between the man and his female companion; after making sure the couple was OK, David began walking back toward Murphy, the flat plains framing his athletic build.

Suddenly, a car swerved from the highway at 70 miles per hour, striking David and another man who had stopped to help. Murphy recalls watching the stranger fly through the air upside down. He's not going to survive, she thought. Then she saw David's body roll to a stop in the grass that lined the highway. "David! David!" she screamed, before grabbing Romy from her car seat and running to his side. He was unconscious by the time she reached him, with blood seeping from a deep gash in his forehead and nose. She knelt beside him, gently stroking his head and body with one arm while breast-feeding Romy in the other, the only thing that would soothe her crying daughter. Sunlight streamed down and small crickets hopped over David's body as Murphy begged him not to leave her. An hour later, they were still waiting for an ambulance to arrive. "I felt him dying," Murphy says. Soon, he was gone.

Immediately after the accident, Murphy began having flashbacks. She jumped at noises. She hallucinated that shadowy, hulking men stood by her bed. She lost 25 pounds and rarely slept; when she did, she dreamed of blood, gore, and body parts. Her waking hours were spent in a zombie-like state. Mostly, she fantasized about bashing her brain with a hammer; but she had to stick around for Romy, which made her resentful.

So a few weeks after David's death, she began seeing a cognitive behavioral therapist at the University of Oklahoma. He diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a condition characterized by flashbacks, feelings of hopelessness, and emotional numbing that affects 8 million U.S. adults (81 percent of them women) and can occur when someone experiences a traumatic event like military combat or sexual assault. But even with weekly therapy, Murphy was still suicidal two years after the accident. Desperate for something that would keep her alive for her daughter, she sought out alternative PTSD treatments online, and finally, as a last-ditch effort, took a weeklong trip to Boulder, Colorado, to join a progressive clinical trial that would eventually save her life: a psychotherapy session catalyzed by the hallucinogen MDMA.

Better known by its street names, Molly or Ecstasy, and long viewed as a party drug, 3,4-methylenedioxy- methamphetamine, or MDMA, is currently being studied as a treatment for chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD in four FDA-approved, phase-two clinical studies: in Boulder; Charleston, South Carolina; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Beer Yaakov, Israel (international studies can be used in the FDA-approval process). Over the course of about five months, the trials' 98 subjects, including 54 women, ingest between 75 and 188 milligrams of MDMA during three- to five-day psychotherapy sessions (comparable to a street dose), supplemented by about 20 hours of non-drug-enhanced talk therapy with mental-health professionals. Lauded for its ability to break down emotional barriers, enhance communication skills, and promote deep introspection, the drug acts not as a medication, but as a catalyst to psychotherapy, many times achieving in a few sessions what might take years in traditional therapeutic settings.

Results from an earlier phase-two study in Charleston completed in 2008 (there are three stages for a medication to get FDA approval) showed great promise: After just two sessions of MDMA- assisted psychotherapy, 83 percent of participants no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis, compared with only 25 percent who were cured from talk therapy alone. If these current trials are successful, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may become a prescription treatment for PTSD and radically change how we treat a wide range of psychiatric illnesses, like autism, anxiety, and anorexia.

Though it's frequently associated with war veterans, PTSD is common in civilian women; one in 10 women will experience it in their lifetime, owing, in part, to the fact that women are more likely to suffer sexual trauma, the type of incident that most frequently leads to the disorder. Standard treatments for PTSD include antidepressants and talk therapy, but their efficacy is mediocre at best: In clinical trials, these therapies were ineffective for about 25 to 50 percent of patients.

About two years after David's death, Murphy sat in the bright, airy office of therapist Marcela Ot'alora, the Boulder study's lead investigator, preparing to embark on her first MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session. She was nervous to take the hallucinogen in front of a therapist, especially one she didn't know. Rhythmic drumming played on the stereo in the background. Lit candles adorned a table where Murphy placed a photo of her and David kissing in a field of goldenrod.

Twenty minutes after Murphy swallowed her capsule of MDMA, the drug took hold. Murphy envisioned herself rocketing through the earth's atmosphere toward space, where she came upon David, illuminated like a zodiac drawing among the stars. They spoke about the mundane—her travel hiccups getting from Oklahoma to Boulder—and the profound. She updated him on his family, shared her worries about Romy's future, and expressed anger with him for leaving her to raise their daughter alone. He nodded knowingly and assured her with his big Aw, shucks smile. Then Murphy asked him a question: "How big are you?" David threw open his arms, which unfurled into wings that stretched across the entirety of the universe. After two years of terror and grief, Murphy finally felt peace.

MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may seem like a novel treatment born of the medical-marijuana age. But this new round of research is, in fact, revisiting old ground. Before it was co-opted by club-goers, MDMA was used by therapists during similar intensive, daylong therapy sessions in the late 1970s and early '80s. California therapist and pioneer of the psychedelic psychotherapy movement Leo Zeff coined it "penicillin for the soul." In 1985, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classified it as a schedule I substance, along with heroin and LSD—a designation given to "drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."

That kicked off years of bad publicity for MDMA, including inaccurate claims that MDMA causes Parkinson's disease and holes in the brain, and permanently damages serotonin reserves. In reality, no studies have shown that clinical usage—that is, taking pure MDMA in moderate doses under medical supervision a limited number of times—leads to long- term cognitive damage, according to Matthew Johnson, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine. MDMA has been administered in various studies to more than 1,113 subjects, with only one report of a serious, drug-related adverse event, which ended once the drug wore off. (A subject was admitted to the hospital with an irregular heartbeat and was released the next day.)

Recreational and pharmaceutical MDMA barely resemble each other, however. While the terms MDMA, Ecstasy, and Molly are used interchangeably, Molly or Ecstasy bought on the street is often misrepresented or cut with dangerous adulterants, like methamphetamine, and rarely contains actual MDMA. (Only 9 percent of the Molly the DEA collected in New York state in 2013 contained the pure form of the drug.) And using even pure MDMA in a nonmedical setting, like a club, can be risky: The drug increases blood pressure and heart rate and can cause hyperthermia, or overheating, which can lead to liver, kidney, muscle, and heart failure.

Ranging in age from 23 to 66, the 54 women in the six phase-two studies are mothers, teachers, professional athletes, military veterans, police officers, psychotherapists, and office managers. They have survived combat, rape, physical and sexual torture, and more. Each has taken the DSM-IV Clinician- Administered PTSD scale, or CAPS test, the standard for diagnosing the disorder. (The maximum score is 136; anything above 60 is considered severe PTSD. The average score among the studies' participants is 82.) For these women, participation is oftentimes their final attempt to reclaim their lives.

Rachel Hope, a 43-year-old writer from Los Angeles, endured a troubled childhood: At 4 years old, she was physically and sexually abused, then hit by a truck at age 11, which left her partially paralyzed for a year and requiring four surgeries and years of physical therapy. As a result of the various traumas, Hope suffered from debilitating, treatment-resistant PTSD, which manifested as extreme irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), acute anxiety, night terrors, panic attacks, and insomnia, among other symptoms, and left her malnourished and unable to maintain romantic relationships or to work outside the home. "It was a monstrous existence," she says. At one point, she was on 15 medications before enrolling in the Charleston study in 2005. "I was dying," she says of her choice to join the study. "I had nothing to lose."

Brenda, a 38-year-old teacher from the Denver area, who was physically and sexually tortured by her father from ages 3 to 12, was so clinically depressed from PTSD that she was left suicidal and unable to teach her elementary school classes. She tried 11 medications and was in weekly therapy for 15 years before enrolling in a study. "I entered the Boulder study with a CAPS score of 87, on meds," she says. "That's bullshit. That's me doing everything I'm supposed to do, everything that these therapists are taught to do in school, and it's not helping." She was wary of using a so-called party drug to treat her condition, but she was was desperate. "I was really in a fight for my life," Brenda says. "The fear of the stigma associated with using MDMA was far less than the fear of continuing to feel the PTSD symptoms for the rest of my life."

The sessions are not high-flying, blissed-out psychedelic drug trips, but intense feelings of "connection," or love for oneself and others, do pervade the experience. "My husband and I have been married 17 years, and it was the first time I understood how much he must love me and how I deserve that love," explains Brenda, who says MDMA opened up a world of new emotions for her. "I was able to feel. I think that's the biggest takeaway. While on the MDMA, I had access to feelings that I hadn't ever had access to before." The drug, which lasts three to six hours, produces an objective state in which one is able to revisit difficult emotions and experiences, and able to do so without being overwhelmed by them. "I was terrified a lot of the time. I was reliving it," says Murphy, who regularly went back to the scene of the trauma. "I actually saw all of the accident, but it didn't overwhelm me because I was outside of it somehow."

This sense of peace is typical of the MDMA sessions. "Instead of feeling hyperaroused or overstimulated, I felt a tremendous calm and had reduced anxiety," says Hope. Despite the enhanced sensory perception that is a hallmark of the psychedelic experience (things like light appearing more crystalline, the sensation of air currents wafting over skin), participants are extremely focused on the task at hand: healing. "Even though MDMA is a psychedelic, I didn't feel like I was tripping," says Hope. "I didn't feel fucked up. I felt really empowered, like I could direct my mind where I needed to."

There's a chemical explanation for all of this. MDMA triggers a massive release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter critical to mood regulation; dopamine, which modulates emotional response; and oxytocin, the hormone of bonding, trust, and intimacy. "Patients are awake, alert, connected. They want to talk. They want to explore. They feel calm enough and their fear is extinguished enough that they can actually process the trauma," says psychiatrist Dr. Julie Holland, author of Ecstasy: The Complete Guide: A Comprehensive Look at the Risks and Benefits of MDMA. "You basically couldn't design a molecule that is better for therapy than MDMA."

MRI brain scans suggest that one way MDMA works is by decreasing activity in the amygdala, the brain's fear center, while increasing activity in the prefrontal cortex, regions associated with memory and higher functioning. In the PTSD brain, activities in these areas are out of balance. Researchers believe MDMA's effects on the amygdala and prefrontal cortex allow people to understand a trauma without being overwhelmed by negative emotions. "It's almost like anesthesia for surgery," says Holland. "It allows you to dig and get to the malignant thing that needs to be pulled out and examined. It takes years in psychotherapy to dig around the trauma and start to get to it. This is a way for people to process the core issue in order to move forward."

Accessing traumatic memories allows patients to re-remember them, a process called memory reconsolidation, in which memories can be changed if they are reactivated and updated with new information. "You're actually manipulating that memory, and when it gets stored again, what's stored again is a little different than what you pulled out," says Johnson. This is key for people with PTSD, whose brains haven't properly worked through trauma. "I felt as if I was literally reprogramming my brain and confronting all of the fixed thought patterns and belief structures that were keeping the PTSD in place, that were making me relive the past over and over again. I was able to file those memories in the past," says Hope.

From June through October 2014, Murphy underwent three 8-hour MDMA treatments. After her first session, her sleep improved. After her second, she stopped wanting to kill herself; her flashbacks began to subside. "It felt like burdens were lifted off my shoulders," Murphy says. By the end of her participation in the study, her CAPS score had fallen from 114 to 37, meaning she no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis. "It saved me," she says of the treatment. "It delivered me back to my good life and delivered my daughter her mother."

Brenda also credits MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with saving her life. "I spent 35 years suicidal, and I'm not anymore, because of the MDMA and two really skilled therapists," she says. She is now off all her medications and teaching full-time again for the first time in seven years. "I'm the healthiest I've ever been, because I have so much clarity." And more than 10 years after enrolling in the first study in Charleston, Hope says she is still cured of PTSD and has not suffered IBS, flashbacks, or night terrors since her first MDMA session.

Whereas psychiatric medications such as Zoloft try to address so-called biological imbalances, they act as a temporary Band-Aid to suffering, say researchers. MDMA may heal it altogether. And MDMA may be safer than psychiatric medications, in part because you don't have to take it every day. "If used carefully, it could be safer simply because your side effects are time-limited," says Johnson. Zoloft and Paxil, traditional treatments for PTSD, can cause weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and suicidal thoughts, whereas a single dose of medical-grade MDMA may only cause increases in heart rate and blood pressure during the session, and fatigue, loss of appetite, and low mood for a day or so afterward. For people like Murphy, Brenda, and Hope, the insights and emotional shifts gleaned from their MDMA sessions have profoundly changed their lives. Brenda says, "It's really like stepping outside into a whole new world and breathing fresh air."

MDMA research has helped pave the way for psychiatry's current psychedelic resurgence. Scientists at Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, and the University of New Mexico are studying LSD and psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, as antidotes to addiction, anxiety, depression, and more. In the future, MDMA researchers hope to see the no-longer-experimental treatment administered by specially trained and licensed therapists in mental health clinics around the globe.

But Bertha Madras, Ph.D., a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School, fears that legalizing MDMA for medical use is just the first step in decriminalizing serious drugs in the United States. "The illicit hallucinogens MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin are the next wave of drugs being promoted as 'medicines,' with the long-term view of normalizing their use for psychoactive purposes," she says. "At present, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of MDMA for therapeutic purposes." Dr. Joseph Lee, medical director of Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Youth Continuum, a rehab facility in Minnesota, believes MDMA may have therapeutic properties but worries about the greater ramifications of legalizing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. "My concern is that somehow this conversation about researching MDMA for PTSD will bleed into people justifying recreational use or minimizing misuse. We've seen that happen with prescription drugs," says Lee. He also cautions against overuse of MDMA. "We routinely see kids every year who used too much MDMA or for whatever reason had a side effect from the MDMA and needed to be psychiatrically hospitalized before coming to treatment," he says, touching on another concern of MDMA— that it may trigger latent psychiatric issues. (Prospective participants for the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials are screened for any psychological issues—like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia—that may be of concern.)

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of developing MDMA into an FDA-approved medication is funding. The process is a $20 million endeavor and one that relies completely on the fundraising efforts of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit research and educational organization that studies and develops therapeutic applications for psychedelic drugs—partly because pharmaceutical companies have little interest in developing a drug administered only a few times. In 2016, MAPS will move MDMA-assisted psychotherapy one step closer to legalization when it begins phase-three clinical trials, which will involve more than 400 participants and last five years. If those trials are successful, psychiatrists may be prescribing the treatment by 2021.

In the meantime, MDMA has caught the attention of those at the highest levels of the military; 22 veterans per day commit suicide. The National Center for PTSD, in the Department of Veterans Affairs, has been consulting with MAPS concerning an upcoming study, which will look at MDMA-assisted couples therapy involving veterans and top VA-affiliated psychologists, and will begin at the end of this year. Based on the results, Rick Doblin, MAPS founder and executive director, is hopeful the Department of Defense may fund further studies and allow MAPS to work with active-duty soldiers.

Today, Murphy lives with Romy on a quiet street in Norman, Oklahoma, and is thriving. In June, she traveled to Northern California, where she lived with David for two years, to scatter his ashes at Muir Woods, a stretch of lush redwood forest near the Pacific that they frequented and loved. She brought along her new boyfriend, who, coincidentally, is also named David; they met after Murphy's second MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session. They are talking about a life together, something she never could have imagined before the experimental treatment. For the first time in years, she is hopeful about what lies ahead. "I'm able to make a life for us now, and he's right here with me," she says of her late husband. "I feel blessed that I ever got to be with him in the first place." Some days, when she's out in her yard with Romy, a bird will fly by and Murphy will reach up to the sky and say, "Daddy's birds." Her daughter smiles, knowing her father is close by, and, at long last, so does Murphy. "It's still sad," she says. "But I can access those memories, and see him in my daughter, and I rejoice in it."

https://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/news/a15553/mdma-ecstasy-drug-ptsd-treatment/​

 

[mr peabody]

Sophia University

People who microdose psychedelic drugs for a month say it increases positive emotions and productivity

by Eric Dolan | PsyPost | Apr 3 2019

Preliminary research published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs sheds light on the growing popularity of microdosing — or taking small doses of psychedelic drugs to improve mood and attention.

“About 9 years ago, I heard about microdosing, and followed up since the information I was told was so different from higher dose reports. I have been involved in psychedelic research on and off for 50 years,” said study author James Fadiman of Sofia University.

The researchers recruited more than a thousand volunteers from 59 countries via their website, microdosingpsychedelics.com. The volunteers agreed to microdose once every three days for a month. They also completed daily evaluations of their emotional states and submitted journals of their experiences.

The volunteers commonly reported an increase in positive emotions, finding social interactions easier, and having fewer headaches. Many also said that microdosing improved their productivity and helped them focus. As one participant wrote: “Feeling productive, able to focus on what I choose, enjoying relationships, good energy, and not recalling that I took anything.”

"The findings indicate that microdosing has none of the classic exciting effects of psychedelics, is safer, and many people all over the world report taking these low doses to be beneficial,” Fadiman said.

The results are similar to another study that measured the psychological changes produced by microdosing. That study found that microdosing was associated with heightened levels of connectedness, contemplation, creativity, focus, happiness, productiveness, and wellbeing. However, it was also associated with an increase in neuroticism.

Other research has found that microdosing can improve creative thinking.

But research on microdosing is still in its infancy. Long-term, placebo-controlled studies are needed to validate the negative and positive effects.

“People whose major symptom is anxiety should not microdose. Although there are thousands of years of recorded use, there are no contemporary double-blind studies. Inform yourself,” Fadiman told PsyPost.

The research is ongoing and still accepting new volunteers — and the researchers plan to conduct several follow-up studies.

“Because several hundred thousand people have or are already microdosing, a number of university-based studies are underway. The science is starting to catch up with the users,” Fadiman said.

The study, “Might Microdosing Psychedelics Be Safe and Beneficial? An Initial Exploration“, was authored by James Fadiman and Sophia Korb.

People who 'microdose' psychedelic drugs for a month say it increases positive emotions and productivity

Preliminary research published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs sheds light on the growing popularity of microdosing -- or taking small doses of ...

www.psypost.org

 

[mr peabody]

How Jennifer Huse beat a cancer diagnosis with Rick Simpson Oil

by Cory Hughes

In 2016, Jennifer Huse was diagnosed with endometrial hyperplasia, a thickening of the uterine lining that, in many cases, leads to cancer.

Jennifer had been seeing early symptoms as far back as 2009, however, a proper diagnosis didn’t materialize until 2015. In the years leading up to her diagnosis, doctors had been recommending a complete hysterectomy.

By the time the diagnosis came in, doctors had detected the presence of advanced pre-cancerous cells. The only treatment recommended to her was hysterectomy, to prevent any possibility of cancer.

Finding this unacceptable, Jennifer made the decision to pack up and head to Colorado to give cannabis treatments a chance. The experience took Jennifer from being debilitated and hospitalized to feeling the best she has in years.

“Cannabis took me from knowing I was dying to feeling the best I have ever felt physically. I went from sickness to health in three months,” she says.

Jennifer is an active woman. She works with an organization known as The Venus Project, a group that advocates for a resource-based economy. She is constantly traveling back and forth between her home in New Jersey and The Venus Project headquarters in Florida.

Add to that trips to Denver for treatments and it’s amazing she had any energy left at all. When Jennifer first started showing symptoms, like a menstruation period that lasted for four months, she and her doctors were puzzled. Doctor after doctor tried to determine the problem, but none could. This went on for years with doctors pushing for a hysterectomy.

Jennifer made the decision to skip surgery and try cannabis. But before heading west, she wanted to reach out to women who were in similar circumstances, and she hoped she could pass on what she had learned to save other women from unnecessary procedures.

She got involved with Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS), a group that specializes in offering health and education services to women in hopes of providing alternatives to invasive surgeries, particularly hysterectomies. Besides working with HERS, Jennifer released a heartfelt video online in which she tells her story, hoping women around the world will learn from her experience.

“Having to leave my kids, my businesses, and pay the expense of living in another state just to get non-toxic treatment was not only emotionally and physically draining but made me fully aware what little freedom we actually have,” she says.

When Jennifer arrived in Colorado in June 2016, she had just been married. At her wedding, she was worried that she was too sick to make it through the reception. When she advised her cannabis medical professional of her diagnosis and voiced her concern that the pre-cancerous cells could advance, the doctor knew just what to prescribe.

Jennifer started a regimen of the world-famous Rick Simpson oil (RSO). According to Simpson, his whole-plant cannabis oil has cured more than 5,000 people of cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. She was recommended to a dispensary that specializes in whole-plant cannabis oil treatments. The recommendation was 60 milligrams of RSO per day for 60 days.

Less than a month later, Jennifer’s head was clear, like a fog had lifted. She felt better daily, constantly seeing improvement in her appetite and ability to get around. She went back in for evaluation and after 90 days, it was found that there was no unhealthy tissue present and that the advanced pre-cancerous cells were gone.

Cannabis helped Jennifer get back on her feet and avoid the traditional surgical route that doctors are so quick to suggest. Jennifer spent years trying to find out what was going on with her body at tremendous cost, both physical and financial. Three months earlier she was barely able to get out of bed. Now, she was on top of the world.

Jennifer believes that to deny people medical cannabis treatments is to sentence them to a life of sickness and possibly even death. She wants to demonstrate there are more than pharmaceutical options available.

Jennifer is back to work with The Venus Project and still bouncing around the country helping to create a better future for all of us. She plans to continue her cannabis treatments when she returns to Colorado.

“My advice to anyone considering treatment would be if at all possible to try cannabis, especially before any non-reversible or highly toxic measures are taken,” she says.

How Jennifer Huse Beat a Cancer Diagnosis Using Rick Simpson Oil

In 2016, Jennifer Huse became one of many marijuana refugees in the United States. Jennife

www.maximumyield.com

 

[mr peabody]

One woman's story about how psilocybin helped her quit smoking

Kathleen Conneally had smoked since she was 12, but one day in the spring of 2013, that changed. Conneally arrived at a lab in Baltimore that looked more like a cozy living room, with a cream-colored couch and paintings of mountains on the walls. She took a pill from a golden goblet and popped it in her mouth. In the care of trained guides, she began to see wild colors, shapes, and ideas.

Conneally was a participant in an addiction study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who wanted to determine whether the relentless pull of nicotine could be weakened by psilocybin.

Conneally’s trip, the second in a series of three such “sessions,” was probably the best outcome the researchers could have hoped for. She saw herself as purple flower rising high above her earthly problems, which looked small and stupid by comparison. Even more measly and insignificant was an image of herself, huddled and puffing on a cigarette.

“Just breathe, and there’s no smoke, and no chemicals, and no problems,” she recalled herself thinking.

Leaving the lab 5 hours later, she was sure she would never smoke again. Before, the stresses of her life would stir an overwhelming desire for cigarettes. But now, she said, “I can just cross that off my list. I don’t have to do it anymore.”

She hasn’t had a cigarette in more than three years.

There were 15 people in Conneally’s study, and 12 of them quit smoking—a much higher success rate than the 35 percent or so who quit through other methods. A much larger study is now underway to verify the results.

Matthew Johnson, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and the lead author of the study, was interested in psilocybin because of the success researchers had in using LSD to treat alcoholics in the 1960s. He liked that psilocybin was shorter-acting than LSD and had less societal stigma. It also has few side effects or addictive properties of its own.

According to Johnson, depression and addiction both involve a narrowing of vision—a tunnel that it takes a profound experience to suck someone out of. "Psilocybin," he says, "can foster something called cross-talk between regions of the brain that don’t normally communicate. Cross-talk, in turn, is associated with novel ways of looking at problems."

They’re “dealing with stuff they haven’t dealt with in years or decades,” Johnson said. While tripping, “people reflect on their childhood, their parents, their siblings, all their relationships, their love life, their current relationships.” Meanwhile, their minds become a kaleidoscope: “Colors are brighter. The walls might be waving. There might be a halo around things,” he said.

Addiction to cigarettes consists of much more than physical cravings. It’s social. At best, it’s a ritual, and at worst, a crutch. Psychedelics appear to help people go beyond physical cigarette cravings and examine what’s really making them smoke. “People will recognize this profound self-worth that they’ve dismissed,” he said. “They look at their life and see themselves as a miracle.”

Though she began smoking during as a child, Conneally quit cold-turkey when she was 27. But she picked it up again in 2008, when her life was “pretty much falling apart,” as she describes it.

That year, she turned 40, and the economy crashed. Conneally’s partner, Whitney, was laid off. Finances grew tight and difficult to manage, which felt cruelly ironic to Conneally, a certified public accountant.

“Happy 40th birthday,” she thought. She reached, as she always had in pressure-cooker moments, for her cigarettes.

This time, she figured she was never going to quit. She'd tried everything from gum to hypnosis. She white-knuckled through a few cold-turkey attempts and scared herself with how it made her scream at the kids.

But when she heard about Johnson’s study, she thought, “why not?” A Dead-head back in the day, she was no stranger to trippy experiences. At least it would be fun, she thought.

The first session was assuredly not. “I started to panic and have anxiety thinking that I wasn’t doing it right,” she said. She worried the trip wouldn't work, and as a study participant, she wouldn't be allowed to smoke when it was over.

Johnson said some people don’t seem to enjoy their time on the drug. “Many times people say, ‘People do this for fun?! I don’t get that at all.’” The guides tell them to “just go with it.”

Conneally sunk into a depression after the first trip. A few weeks later, she cried on her way to the second session.

But this time, something was different. The music was better; she felt freer. “My spirit soared,” she said. “I had this great vision of rising above and being a goddess.” She saw her worries like ants in the distance: Her abusive father; the air-conditioning unit where she would hide from her family and smoke. The participants in Johnson’s study had weeks of talk therapy before they tripped. Now everything she had talked about with her counselors was coming together. “I just am,” she thought, “and I need to let go of this stuff.”

A sense of mysticism seems central to the trip treatment. Eleven of Johnson’s 12 study subjects rated the psilocybin trip among the five most spiritually significant experiences in their lives. Some considered it a crash-course in mindfulness, or years of therapy crammed into a single day.

Johnson cautions that his study doesn’t mean people should take mushrooms on their own to cure various ailments, or at all. People don’t necessarily need to take psychedelics to break free of their destructive brain patterns. It can happen with any mystical life experience—the kind that changes everything that comes afterward. Living in a foreign country, giving birth to a child, and even falling in love—all of these approach the brain-rearranging power of psychedelics, at least for some people.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...hrooms/487286/​