Obesity is a global problem. According to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight, 650 million of them obese, in 2016. A study by Imperial College London and WHO revealed a tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in four decades.
Many public health programs have been launched, and all have failed miserably. The problem is just getting worse. Contributing factors are the constant availability of high-energy foods and high levels of physical inactivity. So far, no effective medication has been developed.
Could the psilocybin in magic mushrooms bring a halt to the obesity epidemic?
The people at Vancouver-based psychedelic bioscience company NeonMind think it’s a possibility. The company is on a mission to leverage the psilocybin in magic mushrooms canada to curb obesity. The chemical compound has already shown that it can treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depression by changing thinking and behavior patterns.
Preclinical trials
The company has conducted a preclinical trial on rats that indicated positive effects of psilocybin in reducing weight gain. The rat models had unlimited amounts of Nutella to eat for seven days. Then they were divided into two groups, one receiving either a microdose of psilocybin or a macrodose and a control group that didn’t get any psilocybin. The rats that received the drug put on less weight as a result of their Nutella habit compared to those that didn’t receive the psychedelic. The company’s website states that the psilocybin reduced weight gain by 31% in those that received the low dose and 28% for the high dose receivers.
Collaboration with scientists at the University of British Columbia
NeonMind is collaborating with scientists from the University of British Columbia to design a study that will examine whether the drug could help people to lose weight and maintain their weight loss.
NeonMind has engaged Dr. C. Laird Birmingham, a psychiatry professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert in eating disorders, to help with its Phase 2 clinical trials. He has widespread experience designing clinical trials to investigate treatments for a range of eating disorders, and has been appointed to NeonMind’s Board of Advisors.
In a press release, Dr. Birmingham says, ‘’The tricky with the treatment of stoutness is primarily that of weight upkeep. Most people lose weight, but they infrequently maintain. Psilocybin has the likely to serve as a fresh and different tool to assistance people misplace weight and preserve their weight loss by changing neural pathways. Improved habits and cognitions can growth caloric expenditure connected to non-exercise and exercise energy expenditure and reset the behaviors and cognitions that link life stress and trauma to eating behavior.’’
NeonMind is busy with a preclinical trial at the University of British Columbia investigating psilocybin’s potential to help people lose weight. The company is also developing a Phase 2 Human Clinical Trial, slated to start in 2022.
The potential of daddy long legs mushrooms Canada to treat disorders that have traditionally been resistant to treatment lies in its ability to change how people think and behave. Both microdosing and macrodosing seem to have this effect.
Obesity causes many diseases and health problems and the WHO has formally recognized it as a global epidemic.
Final thoughts
Eating disorders, in general, have been one of those intractable health conditions that have resisted effective treatment. Excessive weight is the cause behind many serious health problems that could be alleviated if scientists can understand how magic mushrooms works and can succeed in translating that knowledge into effective psilocybin-based medications.
