Psilocybin Update- Big Pharma On the Attack

Well it’s happened! Just as I predicted, big Pharma is on the attack. PSILOCYBIN being a NATURAL treatment for DEPRESSION is coming under fire and now the “research” hounds are on the hunt to prove that psilocybin doesn’t work for depression.

In today’s episode, we’ll discuss this new… but SEVERELY FLAWED study… as well as a lot of other news updates this week that you’ll find extremely interesting related to our favorite virus of the decade and other great information.

SHOW NOTES

2:17    SIMPLE REMEDY for symptoms of THE pervasive virus 

2:50    INFLAMMATION synonymous with IMMUNITY

3:44   Could Covid have a genetic PREDISPOSITION?

7:26    Detailed Immune Profiling reveals connection between covid and family history of              inflammatory related diseases

8:15    Decrease effects of aging through MINDFULNESS

14:50 The gold standard of tests for DEPRESSION

16:48 Poorly designed study on PSILOCYBIN attempts to refute effectiveness

If you are interested in getting your own comprehensive genetic profile done, please visit https://drbriangbrown.com

Dr Brown also offers a FREE training on what you need to know about genetics and their effects on your overall health and performance. You can access and register herehttps://drbriangbrown.com/genehack/bootcamp 

 You can connect with Dr Brian on all the social media platformshttps://www.facebook.com/drbriangbrownIG - Dr Brian G BrownLinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dr-brian-g-brown/

Transcript

 EP62_Psilocybin Update- Big Pharma on the Attack

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

psilocybin, inflammation, study, depression, cortisol, cupid, big pharma, research, genes, genetic profile, dosing, mindfulness, inflammatory, thought, anecdotal, antihistamines, segment

The mission is simple: to help high achievers naturally eliminate emotional and physical obstacles, so they can optimize their life for higher achievement. Welcome, you just entered the Genesis zone

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Genesis Zone show. It's happened. Just as I predicted, Big Pharma is on the attack with psilocybin. Psilocybin, being a natural treatment for depression is coming under fire now. And the research hounds are now on the hunt to prove that psilocybin doesn't work for depression. 

In today's episode, we're going to be discussing this new research. This actually severely flawed study, as well as a lot of other news updates that are going to be really, really interesting. I do think you'll find there's actually a theme that kind of runs through here today, and I'm gonna be talking about one study in particular that talks about our favorite virus of the decade and bring out some really great information about that. 

So, let's go ahead and get started. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, which is just four days away, I'd like to propose a name modification for the special virus bug that has become the object of our attention, I'll say, over the past two years. So, for this segment, I'm going to be referring to a long Cupid syndrome. Okay. Pardon the pun, okay, I couldn't help myself. Four days away from Valentine's Day, we're going to be talking about long Cupid syndrome. 

This one is a bit anecdotal, I will admit it right off the bat. But I think it's noteworthy and it has some teeth to it, because of some previous research. And I'm going to bring that out here in just a second. 

Health professionals who are treating people with long Cupid syndrome have discovered in their day-to-day practice, that antihistamines seem to help alleviate the symptoms of long Cupid syndrome. Now, this is not surprising considering that histamine is part of our immune response, a large part of our immune response system, and it's notorious for causing inflammation. Now, if you recall, 

my personal mantra in episodes past where I've talked about inflammation is that immunity and inflammation are synonymous. You can't have one without the other. And in fact, inflammation and immune dysfunction are the root of all disease, chronic or otherwise. So, when we decrease inflammation, it's well known that symptoms of illnesses will decrease as well, and in many cases disappear altogether.

Now, the cool thing, when we check inflammation genes and know whether you have a predisposition for high inflammation, we're able to see that when we check those inflammatory genes now, I debated whether or not to share this with you. 

But I have a personal theory, that long Cupid syndrome, as well as the negative outcomes of active Cupid are genetic in nature. In fact, unfortunately, I had a client that I did not get to work with, we had actually checked this person's genetics, and unfortunately, they had a detrimental effect from Cupid, and this again, this is anecdotal.

It's a story of one, but I went back and looked at this person's genetic profile, and their genetic profile was significant for very, very, very high inflammation. There are some other issues, detoxification issues, methylation issues as well, and all kind of comes into play. But I think this is a theory that will hold water in time. 

So, in other words, what I'm trying to say is those who have the worst outcomes, the most severe illness or even death are likely genetically predisposed to high inflammation. This is just my theory, but I think it will be proven true in the years to come. It's been well established that our favorite virus that's Cupid significantly increases histamine levels.

Histamine Storm

They're discovering this histamine storm that occurs is really a phenomenon that we need to be addressing. And it's thought that this histamine storm type of reaction is one of the major causes of the negative consequences of this particular bug. 

From a safety standpoint, I'd like to add this. Since this information is anecdotal, I won't make any kind of recommendations yet or claims. But I suspect that most people who have long Cupid syndrome may take it upon themselves to experiment on their own. Because antihistamines are readily available over the counter, the only thing that I ask that you do if you choose to do that, is please consult your health professional to make certain that it's okay that you take these over-the-counter antihistamines. 

Alright, so moving on to the next segment. Here's an update from the world of genetics. And I laughed when I saw this headline. The headline from Nature Journal, and Nature, by the way, it doesn't sound like it, but it is the hardest medical journal to get published in. And this is what the headline says “New Detailed Immune Profiling Method Used O DNA From Blood”. 

Now, what's new about detailed immune profiling? I mean, really, I don't think so. And in functional and integrated medicine realms, we've been doing detailed “immune profiling” for years. So, I'm a bit confused as to why the authors of this particular article and it was an article was not a study, they were just pointing out some new technology. 

I'm a bit confused as to why the authors thought it pertinent to say that it was new, because it's been around for a long time. As I just said in the last segment immune checking your immune genetics is very, very important. And it's very possible these days, to check those inflammation, genetics, and also very beneficial. 

In fact, if you have a family history of chronic illness, cancer being one of those chronic illnesses, but high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, you name it, if you have autoimmune conditions, it is my professional opinion that you owe it to yourself to get a comprehensive genetic profile done, like the ones that I do in my practice. This way, you can know exactly where you stand, and can develop a plan to take care of the proverbial potholes in the road so that you're less likely to struggle with the effects of high inflammation. 

Another Example of the Positive Effects of Mindfulness

Alright, next up, is a study that was published in the journal Stress and Health. And I've never run across this journal before, but I thought it was a pretty fitting name. So, in Stress and Health Journal, less than two weeks ago, researchers published their results on this study, I'll get into the results here in just a second. But as you can recall, and you've heard me say repeatedly, 

“Our thoughts can literally change our genetic expression”

And research backs this up, that mindfulness actually modifies the inflammatory gene expression in a positive manner. So, it decreases inflammation. So, in this particular study, mindfulness seems to decrease output of cortisol as we age. Now, this study was conducted with persons 65 years of age and older. And this was actually a pretty long study spanning over 30 years and including 12 different cortisol measurements over that 30-year period. 

I wonder if decreasing inflammation had anything, through this mindfulness practice, to do with a decrease in cortisol? Well, since chronic illness is mediated by inflammation, as we've previously established in multiple episodes, and chronic illness can actually tax or stress out the adrenals and lead to abnormally high levels of cortisol. 

I think it's safe to draw the conclusion that mindfulness, and its effect of decreasing inflammation has some form of positive impact on the adrenal function and cortisol output. Now, I know that more research needs to be done to prove this point, but based on our current knowledge of human physiology, I think it's very safe to say that this would be a great working hypothesis to answer. 

Why did this happen from an epigenetic standpoint? And I do think this cortisol decrease was yet another indication that is an epigenetic modification of the entire human physiology to decrease this cortisol. 

And I think it has to do with decreasing inflammation, and which subsequently is due to mindfulness in this particular study. So, I thought that was interesting, I wanted to bring that out, and kind of pull that forward and keep us reminded that the way we think actually can affect our genes both positively and negatively. 

Flawed Research

Now, here we are, to the main topic of today's  episode. This is a flawed study that shows psilocybin does not help with depression. Now, when I first saw the title of this study, I was kind of taken aback I was like, whoa, wait a minute, and then I'm like, no, no, no, we've got to dig into it. So, I knew it was gonna happen as soon as… if you remember from back before Christmas, brought in some psilocybin data about head-to-head studies that prove that psilocybin was more effective than current antidepressants. And I knew when that information was released to the public, and the studies came out, that the hounds of research would be released. 

1)    Now, this study was just published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology and the researchers were saying that previous studies have not been placebo controlled. Now, this is a false statement, we have head-to-head placebo-controlled studies against antidepressants. In their particular study, I'm going to show you how else it's flawed. That's one flaw. 

2)    But the next major flaw is they did not reveal the doses of the micro dosing that they used in the study. This was a huge mistake. You have to be able to compare apples to apples. And if I'm a researcher, or I'm a clinician, that reads research, I want to know, are we comparing two studies equally? They didn't put what dose they were using in their micro dosing, I thought that was a huge flaw, huge mistake. 

3)     The next mistake they made is they measured depression, one and a half hours after giving the micro dose of psilocybin to participants only on three occasions. But they measured it one and a half hours later. I don't understand why they did that. 

When I've brought out in previous episodes that previous studies show that even after the last dose of micro dosing, the effects can last up to 28 days, up to a month almost. So why do we feel the need to measure one and a half hours after dose? If typically, and this is typical of any medication, I'm not just talking about psilocybin, but any medication if it has a very long effect. 

In some cases, it may be related to the time it takes for that that particular medication to metabolize out of your system. But if it has a very long effect, typically, it's very slow on the uptake. So why would I want to measure the effectiveness of a medication one and a half hours later, if it has a 30-day effectiveness? You wouldn't want to because it's going to be a very slow on the uptake in the very beginning. And I think that was a major flaw of this particular study. 

4)     The next and last flaw that I'll go over and it's a huge one, is they used an atypical measuring tool: The Multi-Dimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire. That is a bizarre questionnaire guys, I'm telling you, it's very rarely ever used in studies. And in any depression medication study that's ever been put out even the ones where they compared antidepressants to psilocybin, tools like this are only used as secondary or tertiary measurement tools. They don't use them as primary measurement tools. And the reason is, is because they are not proven to be accurate as a so low measurement of depression ever, so they never use them as primary measurement tools. But in this study, they did. 

Now that being said, the gold standard for depression measurement tools in studies that compare antidepressants against placebo or one out of the present against another, or an antidepressant against psilocybin is they use the Beck Depression Inventory. It's been around for decades, or the Hamilton Depression Inventory, which has been around for decades and has a plethora of data that prove they are very effective at determining whether or not a person has clinical depression, or they don't have clinical depression. 

So those are the gold standard tools that we see use. And in this particular study, they didn't use it. I don't know why other than the fact that they were trying to prove a point. And my hunch is, this is just a hunch. But my hunch is they used the Beck Depression inventory, and or the Hamilton Depression Inventory as their primary sources of measurement. And they didn't like the results. So, they only publish the results from the tool that they like the results of.

That happens more than you can imagine. It happens all the time. So, if again, it's just a hunch, I don't know that to be a fact, I'm not calling anybody out or anything. But it's sneaky protocol. In the industry of research that we perform multiple tests, and we only report the ones that backup what we want to prove. So again, take it for what it's worth. 

What's the lesson here? Never, never take the title of a study at face value. You've heard me say that before, and never take the abstract of a study at face value, you have to dig deeper. The moral of the story here is this. We do not let one study I'm talking about numerically; we don't let one study negate the total body of research data that's out there. 

So as it stands right now, with the psilocybin research studies that we have that have been published, even the head to head study against antidepressants, psilocybin is still very effective in treating depression. 

Okay, so you have to take the totality of all the research studies, and you have to compare them, there are always going to be some in there that say it didn't work, and there are always going to be some in there that say it does work. But then you have to put it on the scale and say, okay, which one of these studies were more powerful, and which ones carried the most weight?

So, when you do that, and you put it on the scales at this point, psilocybin appears to be very effective at treating depression. Also, I've got to say… I never do this on the show…but shame on Big Pharma and their minions, who put out poorly designed studies to sway the opinions of the public, especially related to depression. 

 $400 Billion Spent on Depression

I was looking at the statistics on this the other day. Did you realize that $400 billion is spent on depression in this country, every single year, that's just in the United States alone, that's not worldwide? $400 billion, whether it be lost time from work, direct costs for inpatient stays, or outpatient treatment or medications, or lost time from work as an employee, versus what it costs businesses to have an employee out. All of that stuff adds up to about $400 billion. Depression is expensive. Why wouldn't we want something on the market, even if it's natural, that Big pharma can't control? Why wouldn't we want that information out there? But yet we have the hounds of research that are coming in against us. And I say against us because it is an attack on us. It's attack against our ability to access things that aren't controlled by big pharma, and it is an attack on us. I hate to say that, but it is. That's all I've got for today. 

I promise you that truth will prevail, just hang in there. That's why I'm here. I want to keep us informed. Keep us on top of things and just keep moving the ball forward in this conversation. 

If you're curious about your inflammation status, I know inflammation was a theme throughout today's episode, even with depression, I didn't bring that out in this last segment about big pharma dissing psilocybin, but depression is an inflammatory illness. When I check inflammatory genes, I want to look systemically at the body. I want to look at how we're responding to external sources, and I want to look at neuro inflammation. It's critically important if we're treating anything related to depression, anxiety, attention, concentration, focus, brain fog, a mental fatigue, all of those things. 

We have to look at inflammation and in the process, follow that I do the basic profile that I do, which covers close to 100 different gene snips. It looks at inflammation in great, great detail. So, if you're curious about what your inflammatory status is, you've got more questions about it. 

Please reach out to me on Facebook: Dr. Brian G. Brown. 

Instagram @Dr. Brian G. Brown. 

I'll be glad to answer any questions that you've got and see how we can help you. Tune in next Thursday at noon eastern standard time for our next in the zone segment, where I'll be sharing the latest research and my insights about that research as it relates to optimizing your genes, optimizing your physical and emotional performance. Most informed most trust and again most grateful you spent this time with us today. 

Until next time, stay in the zone. I'm Dr. Brian Brown.