Health
Parkinson's patients who take 'magic mushrooms' see key benefits, study finds
As Parkinson’s cases continue to rise, the race is on for therapies to combat the effects of the disease — and researchers have pinpointed an unlikely source of relief.
Psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in some mushrooms, has been found to improve mood, cognition and motor symptoms in Parkinson’s patients, according to a new study from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
The substance, often referred to as “magic mushrooms,” has previously been shown to alleviate depression and anxiety, which prompted the researchers to explore its potential for Parkinson’s.
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People with the neurological movement disorder often suffer from “debilitating mood dysfunction” and don’t tend to respond well to traditional antidepressants, according to a UCSF press release.
Psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in some mushrooms, has been found to improve mood, cognition and motor symptoms in Parkinson’s patients. (iStock)
“Many people don’t realize this, but mood symptoms in Parkinson’s are linked to a faster physical decline,” said lead study author Ellen Bradley, M.D., assistant professor and associate director of UCSF’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program, in the release.
“And they are actually a stronger predictor of patients’ quality of life with Parkinson’s than their motor symptoms.”
The small study included 12 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease. They ranged in age from 40 to 75. All had depression and/or anxiety.
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They all received a 10 mg-dose of psilocybin, then a 25 mg-dose two weeks later. To measure the effects, the participants met with a licensed therapist before and after receiving the medication.
At the one-week and one-month follow-ups, the patients reported “clinically significant improvements” not only in mood and cognition, but also motor function.
“Many people don’t realize this, but mood symptoms in Parkinson’s are linked to a faster physical decline.”
“These results are really encouraging,” Bradley told Fox News Digital. “Depression and anxiety, which debilitate so many people with Parkinson’s, improved significantly — and those improvements lasted for at least three months after patients took the drug.”
Amir Inamdar, a pharmaceutical physician in the U.K. and chief medical officer at Cybin, noted that the improvement in motor symptoms was somewhat surprising.
“As the authors note, this could be because of the modulation of dopamine via psilocybin’s effect on several serotonin receptor types.” (Inamdar was not involved in the study.)
The most common side effects of psilocybin were anxiety, nausea, headache and elevated blood pressure, but none were serious enough to require medical care, according to the researchers.
People with the neurological movement disorder often suffer from “debilitating mood dysfunction” and don’t tend to respond well to traditional antidepressants. (iStock)
“Despite the reports of challenging experiences in a couple of participants, psilocybin seemed to be well-tolerated,” Inamdar noted. “The side effects were consistent with what has been seen in other studies, with no precipitation/ exacerbation of psychotic symptoms.”
The study, which was published in Neuropsychopharmacology, a Nature publication, was funded by an anonymous donor.
Limitations and further research
This was the first study to measure the effects of a psychedelic substance on patients with a neurodegenerative disease, according to USCF.
While this study was an “important first step,” Bradley noted that the researchers can’t draw conclusions from it, as it was a small pilot without a control group.
“We’ve now started a much larger trial designed to rigorously test if psilocybin is effective in Parkison’s,” she told Fox News Digital.
“We’re also collecting multimodal biological data to understand how psilocybin works. That’s critical not just for optimizing psilocybin treatments, but also for guiding development of next-generation psychedelics that are in the pipeline now and could be promising for people with Parkinson’s.”
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Bradley still recommends that Parkinson’s patients approach psilocybin and other psychedelics with “a lot of caution.”
“I wouldn’t recommend to my patients with Parkinson’s that they start using psilocybin,” she clarified. “We’re very, very early in this research, and we don’t think these drugs will be safe for everyone with the illness.”
This was the first study to measure the effects of a psychedelic substance on patients with a neurodegenerative disease, according to USCF. (iStock)
“I hope that people continue to advocate for research so we can speed this process of identifying the right psychedelic treatment for the right patient at the right time.”
Inamadar agreed that while the results are encouraging, the study was based on a small and limited sample.
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“The study was also open-label, which lends itself to higher expectancy effects, though the improvements in mood and anxiety symptoms were still seen at three months,” he added.
“Overall, [the] quite encouraging results warrant further investigation, certainly in trying to understand the mechanism behind improvement in motor symptoms.”
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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