Health & Fitness

 

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While irritable bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have similar names, they are two different conditions with a few similar symptoms. IBD is an umbrella term, under which are several gastrointestinal diseases including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

The severity of IBD can depend on genetic markers and the effect of microbes on your immune system.¹ The most common symptom of both IBS and IBD is diarrhea. Those suffering with IBD may also experience anemia, fever, extreme weight loss and bloody stool.

IBS can cause constipation, diarrhea or both. Some have complained of being gassy or bloated and 70% diagnosed with IBS report having suffered severe food poisoning.

The intensity and severity can vary and is often induced by specific foods, the size of a meal or even stress. Currently, treatment methodologies are focused on diet, lifestyle and stress reduction as the symptoms frequently disrupt life and social interactions.

Each year IBS accounts for up to 12% of the total number of primary care visits and the financial burden is estimated to start at $21 billion, including direct and indirect medical costs as well as loss of productivity and work performance.²

An Elimination Diet May Reduce Your Symptoms

Symptoms of IBS include depression and anxiety.³ Many find these symptoms are reduced or avoided through eliminating specific foods from their diet. Discovering which foods should be excluded is most easily done using an elimination diet.

The premise of an elimination diet is to exclude foods that negatively affect the gastrointestinal system. Once your symptoms have subsided, it’s safe to begin adding foods back slowly, one group at a time. If symptoms recur, then eliminate the food group that was just added. Try adding just one new group a week so it will be clear what’s causing the problem.

It’s best to start with foods that are known suspects, such as dairy and gluten. However, it turns out there are several foods you may not be aware of that trigger symptoms.⁴ Each of the culprits have carbohydrates that are difficult to digest and that ferment rapidly in the gut, producing CO2.

The four groups of carbohydrates that meet these criteria are fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, more commonly known as FODMAPs.

These foods don’t cause issues in everyone but they do create problems in those who have an intolerance that may be related to a different microbial environment in their gut. The list of short-chain FODMAPs foods you may not have considered include:⁵

• Oligosaccharides — This group contains galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) and fructans. Foods containing GOS include lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas and soy, while fructans are in broccoli, asparagus, garlic and onions as well as wheat and rye.
• Disaccharides — Lactose containing foods such as those made with cow's milk are part of this group; these include cheese (including mascarpone), yogurt, ice cream and custard to name a few.
• Monosaccharides — These are fructose-containing foods such as fruit, honey and high fructose corn syrup.
• Polyols — Apples, apricots, pears, peaches and blackberries contain polyols, as well as products made with sweeteners found in gum, cough drops and mints. These are sometimes listed as xylitol, isomalt, sorbitol and mannitol.

Not all foods high in FODMAPs will trigger symptoms. Adding some back to the diet will be less restrictive and add a greater range of nutrients from whole foods as you watch for recurring symptoms. Many who have tried the diet end up sticking with it since it improves their quality of life. According to Harvard Publishing, some of the foods known to trigger symptoms of IBS are on the FODMAP list, including:⁶

Apples	Broccoli	Cauliflower
Cabbage	Beans	Fatty foods
Caffeine	Chocolate	Nuts
Wheat and rye products	Dairy products	Margarine
Carbonated beverages	Orange and Grapefruit Juices	Products sweetened with fructose or sorbitol

Gut Dysfunction and System-Wide Inflammation

Researchers have found a correlation between gut inflammation and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, especially in those with IBS. The authors of one study found a high prevalence of anxiety and depression in those with IBS;⁷ as noted in another, researchers theorized alterations in the gut-brain axis may be involved in the association between IBS and depression.⁸

Results from a meta-analysis demonstrated “depression and anxiety levels to be higher in IBS patients than in healthy controls, regardless of the IBS-subtype.”⁹ Gut dysfunction is also associated with system-wide inflammation, affecting more than just mental health.

An increased number of inflammatory cytokines released throughout the body with gut inflammation may affect numerous aspects of your health. They are involved in a spectrum of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis.¹⁰ Cells involved in the process and development of atherosclerosis are activated by cytokines.¹¹

In my article, "Healthy Gut, Healthy You: A Personalized Plan to Transform Your Health," Dr. Michael Ruscio, author and clinical investigator who focuses on gastrointestinal (GI) health, explains development of the connection between the gut and system-wide inflammation.

Think of your gut as a tube running through the inside of your body that starts at your mouth. This may help you may visualize how the gastrointestinal system is central to supporting the entire body.

Since the largest density of immune cells in your body are living in your small intestines and the small intestines are a selective barrier between the outside world and the inside of your body, when this barrier malfunctions you may experience symptoms of inflammation.

You may have "neurological, rheumatological or even dermatological reactions from foods that don't agree with your gut, because of this very broad-acting inflammatory impact," according to Ruscio.

Histamine Food Intolerance May Trigger Symptoms

Another trigger for gut dysfunction is histamine-rich foods. Histamine is a neurotransmitter like serotonin, epinephrine and dopamine.¹² There is always a small amount circulating throughout your body helping to regulate sleep and physiological functions in the gut.

Your body balances ingested histamine by using diamine oxidase (DAO), an enzyme in the gut that breaks it down.¹³ If you have a DAO deficiency it can allow histamine to build up in the body. Histamine also plays a role in the secretion of acid in the stomach. Excess levels can result in dizziness, headaches, sleep dysfunction, high blood pressure and fatigue.

Researchers believe the wide variety of symptoms may mask the extent of histamine intolerance in the general population. Foods rich in histamine and those that liberate it include:

Alcohol	Sauerkraut	Spinach
Tomatoes	Eggplant	Ketchup
Citrus fruit	Salami	Champagne
Red wine vinegar	Frozen or smoked fish	Fermented foods such as aged cheese, cured meat and yeast products

Personalize a Plan to Heal Your Gut

Your first step to a personalized plan is to eliminate all FODMAP foods for two to six weeks, or at least until most of your symptoms have resolved.¹⁴ Since it’s not likely all FODMAP foods are triggering symptoms, it’s now time to add one group of FODMAPs to your diet.

By the end of testing you should be able to identify the groups that trigger the most severe symptoms and those you might be able to eat in small amounts. Your goal is to test slowly and in increments to learn your limits and then test more strategies to reduce symptoms of IBS. The process of eliminating foods from your diet may be overwhelming but there are a few things you may consider to make the journey a little easier:

• Keep a food diary and log your symptoms as you go through the process, so you aren’t relying on memory.
• Gather recipes before starting the elimination diet so you have some go-to meals and won’t have to expend energy after work trying to think of something to make.
• Keep FODMAP friendly foods in the homes of people you spend a lot of time with, such as your parents or your partner. Include snacks and ingredients for a meal or two. Pack healthy snacks you can bring with you or keep at work.
• Remember, while it may be next to impossible to eat out in the beginning, the process will get easier and you’ll start to feel better, which is a powerful motivator.

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Quercetin¹ is an antioxidant flavonol found naturally in foods such as apples, plums, red grapes, green tea, elder flower and onions, just to name a few.² According to a 2019 Market Watch report,³ the quercetin market is growing rapidly as its health benefits are becoming more widely known.

Quercetin has been shown to combat inflammation and acts as a natural antihistamine. In fact, its antiviral capacity appears to be the primary focus of many studies looking at quercetin's benefits, and a number of studies have highlighted quercetin's ability to prevent and treat both the common cold and influenza.^4,5,6,7

But there are also other, less known benefits and uses for this supplement, including the prevention and/or treatment of:⁸

High blood pressure9	Cardiovascular disease10
Metabolic syndrome11	Certain kinds of cancer12
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)13	Gout14
Arthritis15	Mood disorders16
Longevity, thanks to its senolytic benefits (clearing out damaged and worn-out cells)17,18

Additionally, quercetin is also helpful for aluminum-induced neurodegenerative changes, such as those seen in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As noted in a 2016 study:¹⁹

"Administration of quercetin (10 mg/kg body wt/day) reduced aluminum (10 mg/kg body wt/day)-induced oxidative stress (decreased ROS production, increased mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) activity).

In addition, quercetin also prevents aluminum-induced translocation of cyt-c, and up-regulates Bcl-2, down-regulates Bax, p53, caspase-3 activation and reduces DNA fragmentation …

Further electron microscopic studies revealed that quercetin attenuates aluminum-induced mitochondrial swelling, loss of cristae and chromatin condensation. These results indicate that treatment with quercetin may represent a therapeutic strategy to attenuate the neuronal death against aluminum-induced neurodegeneration."

Quercetin Improves Metabolic Syndrome Traits

Among the most recent papers on this powerful antioxidant is a review²⁰ published in the March 2019 issue of Phytotherapy Research, which looked at nine randomized controlled trials investigating quercetin's effect on metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of conditions (including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglyceride levels and fat accumulation around the waist) that raise your risk for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

While pooled findings found no effect on fasting plasma glucose, insulin resistance or hemoglobin A1c levels, further subgroup analyses revealed quercetin supplementation "significantly reduced" fasting plasma glucose in studies lasting at least eight weeks and in which dosages of at least 500 milligrams (mg) per day were used.

In studies that included people over the age of 45, "significant" reductions in insulin were also found when using a dosage of 500 mg per day or more. An earlier study,²¹ published in 2011, looked at quercetin's effects on certain traits of metabolic syndrome.

This study focused specifically atherosclerosis and inflammation in men with the APOE genotype 3/3, 3/4 and 4/4, and found quercetin significantly decreased waist circumference, postprandial systolic blood pressure, postprandial triacylglycerol, and increased HDL-cholesterol compared to placebo. Here, participants were given 150 mg of quercetin per day for eight weeks.

Research²² on obese rats published in 2008 also found that quercetin supplementation at doses of 2 mg per kilo or 10 mg/kg of body weight for 10 weeks improved systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, total cholesterol and free fatty acid levels. The 10 mg/kg dose also improved the animals' inflammation status. As noted by the authors:

"In conclusion, both doses of quercetin improved dyslipidemia, hypertension, and hyperinsulinemia in obese Zucker rats, but only the high dose produced antiinflammatory effects in VAT together with a reduction in body weight gain."

One of the first studies²³ to demonstrate quercetin's beneficial effects on blood pressure was published in 2007. As reported by the authors:

"Epidemiological studies report that quercetin … is associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease and stroke … Men and women with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study to test the efficacy of 730 mg quercetin/d for 28 d[ays] vs. placebo.

Blood pressure at enrollment was ... 148 +/- 2/96 +/- 1 in stage 1 hypertensive subjects … Reductions in systolic (-7 +/- 2 mm Hg), diastolic (-5 +/- 2 mm Hg), and mean arterial pressures (-5 +/- 2 mm Hg) were observed in stage 1 hypertensive patients after quercetin treatment … These data are the first to our knowledge to show that quercetin supplementation reduces blood pressure in hypertensive subjects."

Similarly, a January 2020 systematic review²⁴ of 17 studies concluded quercetin "significantly decreased" blood pressure in human subjects. Those who took it for eight weeks or more also had "significantly" improved high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides.

Quercetin Improves Diabetes-Induced NAFLD

Other recent research²⁵ published in the August 2019 issue of Phytotherapy Research concluded quercetin has a beneficial impact on NAFLD "by ameliorating inflammation, oxidative stress and lipid metabolism."

Diabetes can play a role in NAFLD as well, showing just how influential insulin resistance is in the development of chronic diseases of all kinds. As explained in the abstract:

"Multiphase pathological processes involve in Type 2 diabetes (T2DM)‐induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the therapies are quite limited. In the present study, the hepatoprotective effects and underlying mechanisms of quercetin in T2DM‐induced NAFLD were investigated …

The results revealed that quercetin alleviated serum transaminase levels and markedly reduced T2DM‐induced histological alterations of livers. Additionally, quercetin restored superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione content in livers.

Not only that, quercetin markedly attenuated T2DM‐induced production of interleukin 1 beta, interleukin 6, and TNF‐α. Accompanied by the restoration of the increased serum total bile acid and the decreased liver total bile acid, quercetin could reduce lipid accumulation in the liver … These findings suggested that quercetin might be a potentially effective drug for the treatment of T2DM‐induced NAFLD."

Quercetin Helps Modulate Gene Expression

According to research²⁶ published in 2016, quercetin even has the ability to trigger tumor regression by interacting with your DNA and activating the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis (the programmed cell death of damaged cells).

Quercetin was found to induce cytotoxicity in leukemic cells, and the effect was dose-dependent. Limited cytotoxic effects were also found in breast cancer cells. Overall, quercetin increased the life span in cancer-ridden mice fivefold compared to untreated controls.

The authors attributed these effects to quercetin's direct interaction with DNA and its activation of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis, and suggested quercetin's potential use as a cancer therapy adjunct deserves further exploration.

More recent research²⁷ in the journal Molecules also highlights quercetin's epigenetic influence and ability to:

• Interact with cell-signaling pathways
• Modulate gene expression
• Influence the activity of transcription factors
• Modulate microRNAs

MicroRNAs used to be considered "junk" DNA. Far from being useless, research has now revealed that "junk" DNA is actually microRNA and plays a crucial role in regulating genes that make the proteins that build your body.

The microRNA function as "on/off" switches for the genes. Depending on the microRNA input, a single gene can code for any of more than 200 protein products. Quercetin's ability to module microRNA may also help explain its cytotoxic effects, and why it appears to improve cancer survival (at least in mice).

Quercetin Is a Powerful Antiviral

As mentioned, one of the most well-studied attributes of quercetin is its antiviral capacity, which have been attributed to three main mechanisms of action:

1. Inhibiting the virus' ability to infect cells
2. Inhibiting replication of already infected cells
3. Reducing infected cells' resistance to treatment with antiviral medication

For example, research²⁸ funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, published in 2007, found it lowers your risk of viral illness and boosts mental performance following extreme physical stress, which might otherwise undermine your immune function and render you more susceptible to infections.

Here, cyclists who received a daily dose of 1,000 mg of quercetin in combination with vitamin C (which enhances plasma quercetin levels^29,30) and niacin (to improve absorption) for five weeks were significantly less likely to contract a viral illness after bicycling three hours a day for three consecutive days, compared to untreated controls. While 45% of the placebo group got sick, only 5% of the treatment group did.

In another study³¹ funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), published in 2008, animals treated with quercetin were challenged with a highly pathogenic H1N1 influenza virus. Again, the treatment group had significantly lower morbidity and mortality than the placebo group. A number of other studies have also confirmed quercetin's effectiveness against a variety of viruses, including the following:

A 1985 study found quercetin inhibits infectivity and replication of herpes simplex virus type 1, polio-virus type 1, parainfluenza virus type 3 and respiratory syncytial virus.32

A 2010 animal study found that quercetin inhibits both influenza A and B viruses. Two other important discoveries were made. Firstly, the viruses were unable to develop resistance to quercetin, and secondly, when used concomitant with antiviral drugs (amantadine or oseltamivir), the effect was significantly amplified — and it prevented drug-resistance from developing.33

A 2004 animal study investigating quercetin's effect on influenza used a strain of the H3N2 virus. According to the authors:34 "During influenza virus infection, there is 'oxidative stress.' Because quercetin restored the concentrations of many antioxidants, it is proposed that it may be useful as a drug in protecting the lung from the deleterious effects of oxygen derived free radicals released during influenza virus infection."

Another 2016 study found quercetin offered protection against influenza A virus H1N1 by modulating protein expression. More specifically, the regulation of heat shock proteins, fibronectin 1 and prohibitin was instrumental in reducing viral replication.35

A third study published in 2016 found quercetin inhibited a wide spectrum of influenza strains, including H1N1, H3N2 and H5N1. According to the authors, "This study indicates that quercetin showing inhibitory activity in the early stage of influenza infection provides a future therapeutic option to develop effective, safe and affordable natural products for the treatment and prophylaxis of [influenza A viruses] infections."36

In 2014, researchers noted that quercetin appears to be "a promising treatment for the common cold," caused by the rhinovirus, adding that "Quercetin has been shown to reduce viral internalization and replication in vitro, and viral load, lung inflammation and airways hyper-responsiveness in vivo."37 By attenuating oxidative damage, it also lowers your risk of secondary bacterial infections, which is actually the primary cause of influenza-related deaths. Importantly, quercetin increases mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle, which suggests part of its antiviral effects are due to enhanced mitochondrial antiviral signaling.

A 2016 animal study38 found quercetin inhibited mouse dengue virus and hepatitis virus. Other studies have confirmed quercetin's power to inhibit both hepatitis B39 and C40 infection.

Most recently, a March 2020 study41 in the Microbial Pathogenesis journal found quercetin "provides comprehensive protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae infection," both in vitro and in vivo, primarily by neutralizing pneumolysin (PLY),42 one of the toxins released from pneumococci that encourages S. pneumoniae infection to blossom in the first place. As reported by the authors in Microbial Pathogenesis: "The results indicated that quercetin significantly reduced PLY-induced hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity via repressing the formation of oligomers. In addition, treatment with quercetin can reduce PLY-mediated cell injury, improve the survival rate of mice infected with a lethal dose of S. pneumoniae, alleviate the pathological damage of lung tissue and inhibit the release of cytokines (IL-1β and TNF-α) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Considering the importance of these events in antimicrobial resistant S. pneumoniae pathogenesis, our results indicated that quercetin may be a novel potential drug candidate for the treatment of clinical pneumococcal infections."

Quercetin Combats Inflammation and Boosts Immunity

Aside from its antiviral activity, quercetin is also known for boosting immunity and combating inflammation. As noted in a 2016 study⁴³ in the journal Nutrients, mechanisms of action include (but is not limited to) the inhibition of:⁴⁴

According to this paper, quercetin also stabilizes mast cells, has cytoprotective activity in the gastrointestinal tract, and "a direct regulatory effect on basic functional properties of immune cells," which allows it to inhibit "a huge panoply of molecular targets in the micromolar concentration range, either by down-regulating or suppressing many inflammatory pathways and functions."⁴⁶

Quercetin May Be a Useful Supplement for Many

Considering its wide-ranging benefits, quercetin may be a useful supplement for many, either acutely or more long-term. It's one of the supplements I recommend keeping in your medicine chest for times when you feel you're "coming down" with something, be it the common cold or influenza.

If you're prone to colds and flu, you could consider taking it for a couple of months before cold and flu season hits to boost your immune system. More long-term, it appears useful for those with metabolic syndrome, although it would be foolish to rely on any given supplement without also addressing more fundamental strategies such as diet and exercise.

As explained in my 2015 interview with Dr. Robert Lustig, sugar has been shown to be a causative factor in insulin resistance, which is a hallmark of metabolic syndrome and a risk factor for virtually all chronic disease.

If you have one or more of the conditions that make up metabolic syndrome, you'd be wise to limit your total sugar consumption to 15 grams per day. If you're healthy, and want to stay that way, your daily sugar limit would be around 25 grams. You can learn more about this and related treatment strategies in "Vitamin D Can Significantly Lower Your Risk of Metabolic Syndrome."

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There have been rapid changes when it comes to the embracing of psychedelic and hallucinogenic substances by mainstream medicine and municipalities. Marijuana, despite its longtime federal classification as a Schedule I drug, the FDA's most restricted class, is now legal in many U.S. states for medical purposes.¹ States are also increasingly legalizing marijuana for recreational use, as Illinois did in 2020.²

Ketamine, a rapid acting anesthetic and established street drug sometimes called "Special K," was approved by the FDA for treating depression last year.³ And now there are signs that psilocybin, the ingredient in so-called "magic" mushrooms and also classified as a Schedule I drug,⁴ may soon be used medically for depression.

Psilocybin has already been decriminalized in Denver,⁵ Oakland⁶ and Chicago,⁷ perhaps paving the way for its consideration in medical uses. Now, in the largest controlled study of psilocybin to date, conducted at Kings College London, the "magic mushroom" substance was found safe for human consumption.⁸

The Largest Controlled Study of Psilocybin

In 2018, the FDA authorized Compass Pathways, a life sciences firm founded in London, England, to conduct initial clinical trials with psilocybin for possible use in treatment-resistant depression.⁹ The Phase I trials, as they are called, were designed to test the safety of Compass Pathways' psilocybin preparation, COMP360, not its effectiveness.¹⁰

Eighty-nine healthy volunteers who did not suffer from depression were given a 10- or 25-milligram (mg) dose of psilocybin or a placebo and followed up with therapy sessions to assess for adverse effects for up to 12 weeks.¹¹

While some minor adverse effects of a psychedelic nature occurred,¹² the effects resolved swiftly within hours,¹³ and the participants did not suffer residual cognitive or emotional effects or hallucinatory flashbacks in the weeks after taking psilocybin, said the researchers.¹⁴

The King's College London researchers and Compass Pathways representatives announced the results at the annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in December 2019. The results establish the feasibility of using psilocybin to treat chronic depression, said the researchers.

The Next Step in Psilocybin Trials

Having established COMP360 to be well tolerated, Compass is now running a Phase II b clinical trial with 216 patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression to determine clinical efficacy of COMP360 and the correct therapeutic dose range.¹⁵

If the Phase II b clinical trial proves successful, Phase III studies will follow, which will compare the psilocybin preparation with conventional treatments, such as antidepressants.¹⁶

In 2018, the FDA designated Compass' psilocybin treatment as a "breakthrough therapy," a vote of confidence label that can fast track a drug's review and approval and usually means the drug is thought to have benefits over existing treatments.¹⁷ In January 2020, Compass announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted it a patent for its synthesized investigational psilocybin formulation.¹⁸

"Too many people are suffering with treatment resistant depression," said CEO and co-founder of Compass George Goldsmith.¹⁹ "We are committed to developing innovations, such as psilocybin therapy, to address this rapidly growing problem."

More Psilocybin Clinical Trials Are in Progress

The Compass trials are not the only studies to look at the possible effects of psilocybin on human conditions. A Phase II clinical trial with 80 participants at seven different U.S. sites is also planned by the Usona Institute, a Madison, Wisconsin-based nonprofit medical research organization.²⁰

The group says it is "dedicated to supporting and conducting preclinical and clinical research to further the understanding of the therapeutic effects of psilocybin and other consciousness-expanding medicines."²¹

Like the drug used in the Compass trials, the Usona psilocybin compound has been granted "breakthrough therapy" status by the FDA.²² Unlike the Compass trials, however, which address treatment-resistant depression, the Usona trial will examine psilocybin's use in major depressive disorder (MDD).²³

Usona's director of clinical and translational research Charles Raison said that MDD represents a much larger group of sufferers with an "unmet medical need" and that "psilocybin may offer a substantial clinical improvement over existing therapies."

While it is certainly true that many people suffer from sad and depressed moods, antidepressants including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and antipsychotics like Seroquel are not always the best option. Simple, healthy lifestyle practices can often lift depression.

Antidepressant drugs may not work at all and can cause serious and paradoxical side effects. If a natural substance such as psilocybin could help people avoid these strong psychiatric drugs, it is certainly a good a thing. Here is how the British paper, Independent, casts the issue:²⁴

"UK is undergoing a burgeoning mental health crisis, which has created an urgent unmet need for the development of new treatments. Prescriptions for antidepressants more than doubled between 2006-2016 … and distressingly, suicide is now the leading cause of death among the young (with psychedelic usage linked to lower suicide risk).

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy can provide … a new approach to treating mental illness. Rather than putting the patient on a daily drip of SSRIs, which like a plaster hopefully suppresses the symptoms but leaves the root-causes unaddressed, psychedelics can increase neuroplasticity and reset the brain, so that maladaptive thought … patterns can be unlearned."

A Psilocybin Clinical Trial at a Psychedelic Research Center

Before the Compass trial, there have been several studies that support psilocybin benefits, some at Imperial College London, which launched the first formal center for psychedelic research in the world — the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research — in 2019.²⁵

Imperial was the first research center to investigate the effects of psilocybin on severe depression and, using modern brain imaging, the effects of LSD on the brain.²⁶

In a psilocybin study led by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial, 20 participants who were suffering from severe depression were treated with the compound. After three months, they experienced greater antidepressant effects than from typical antidepressants and therapy, said reports.^27,28

"Patients said they went from feeling 'totally disconnected' with themselves and the world to 'connected', and from repressing and avoiding emotions and memories to accepting them."²⁹

The new connectedness sensations are thought to come from deactivation of the default mode network (DMN) of the brain that is active when not focused on the outside world. Here is how Carhart-Harris' study, published in Scientific Reports, explains the DMN phenomenon apparently induced by psilocybin:³⁰

"Much recent research has focused on the involvement of the default-mode network in psychiatric disorders, and particularly depression. We previously observed decreased DMN functional integrity under psilocybin and LSD, and others have with ayahuasca.

Here however, increased DMN integrity was observed one-day post treatment with psilocybin, both via seed and network-based approaches. Previous work has suggested that increased DMN integrity may be a marker of depressed mood and specifically, depressive rumination.

On this basis, increased DMN integrity post psilocybin may be surprising. The post-treatment increases in within-DMN RSFC and sgACC-PCC RSFC did not relate to symptom improvements but vmPFC-ilPC RSFC did. This apparent divergence from previous findings is intriguing, and deserves further discussion."

Putting the research in laypeople's terms, Carhart-Harris says, "If you ask people who are taking SSRIs chronically, they often say 'I feel blunted.' With psilocybin therapy they say the opposite, they talk about an emotional release, a reconnection, and this key emotional center being more responsive."³¹

More Theories About Psilocybin Effects

The actions behind the apparent benefits of psilocybin may involve the same neurotransmitters that traditional SSRIs are said to affect, but possibly in different ways. Says Newsweek:³²

"Psilocybin is known to bind to a receptor normally used by serotonin, one of the brain's most important neurotransmitters, which is involved in everything from mood to perception to sleep.

MRI studies done at Imperial College London show that this activity changes the activity of neurons throughout the brain, allowing different regions to communicate that aren't usually connected. This is thought to help facilitate breakthroughs that people report while under its spell."

Research published in Biological Psychiatry further analyzes the apparent ability of psilocybin to dramatically change behavior:³³

"Psilocybin reduced associative, but concurrently increased sensory brain-wide connectivity. This pattern emerged over time from administration to peak-effects. Furthermore, we show that baseline connectivity is associated with the extent of Psilocybin-induced changes in functional connectivity …

These results suggest that the integration of functional connectivity in sensory and the disintegration in associative regions may underlie the psychedelic state and pinpoint the critical role of the serotonin 2A and 1A receptor systems.

Furthermore, baseline connectivity may represent a predictive marker of the magnitude of changes induced by psilocybin and may therefore contribute to a personalized medicine approach within the potential framework of psychedelic treatment."

More Encouraging Psilocybin Studies

Smaller studies than the large Compass study have also yielded encouraging results. A 2006 study at the University of Arizona found that psilocybin helped temporarily reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in nine subjects.³⁴

A 2016 study by New York University and Johns Hopkins University researchers published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found a single dose of psilocybin decreased symptoms of anxiety in cancer patients for eight months when compared to a placebo.³⁵ Testing psilocybin on those with eating disorders is also being planned at London's Imperial College.³⁶

A kind of "psychedelic renaissance"³⁷ is occurring in which hallucinogenic compounds like psilocybin are viewed as potential therapeutic agents to treat serious mental illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and eating disorders as well as depression and anxiety.

Hopefully, psilocybin will continue to prove its safety and become more widely accepted and available for relieving the symptoms with which many suffer and freeing them from harsh medications.

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Identification of a protein complex that attracts or repels nerve cells during development.

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To mitigate climate change and safeguard ecosystems, we need to make drastic changes in our consumption and transport behaviors. A new study shows how even minor changes to available infrastructure can trigger tipping points in the collective adoption of sustainable behaviors.

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Researchers found that myelin, the sheath around neurons, creates a coaxial cable producing multiple waves of electrical potentials traveling in a more complicated manner than was envisioned earlier. These findings allow us to create better theories and tools to understand demyelinating diseases, including the most common neurological disorder, multiple sclerosis.

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