The Genesis Zone with Dr Brian Brown

Naturally Dealing With Depression, Anxiety, & Stress

December 02, 2021 Dr. Brian Brown Season 2 Episode 57
The Genesis Zone with Dr Brian Brown
Naturally Dealing With Depression, Anxiety, & Stress
Show Notes Transcript

CUTTING EDGE NATURAL THERAPIES FOR DEALING WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, & STRESS. In today’s episode, I’ll be discussed the largest study on the use of psilocybin for these very issues. Stay tuned to find out more.

SHOW NOTES
5:44    Did you know that most research studies do not include women? 
6:42    Psilocybin study results may surprise you
7:29    #1 Result of micro-dosing for health and wellness...
9:15     Health and wellness benefits from controlled micro-dosing psilocybin
10:23   Predictions on the legality and ethics of psilocybin
14:00   Predictions about Big Pharma and synthetic psilocybin

Looking to optimize your health, wellness or performance? 
Register for my upcoming Gene Hack Boot Camp
https://drbriangbrown.com/genehack/bootcamp

Have a question you'd like Dr Brian to address?
https://drbriangbrown.com/question

Coming Soon!
Book Release....Health Hijackers! Stay tuned for getting your copy...

Naturally Dealing With Depression, Anxiety, & Stress

KEYWORDS

Psilocybin,  big pharma, drugs, research, crystal meth, doses, ADHD medications, anxiety, compound, depression,  meth

Dr Brian G Brown  00:59

The mission is simple: to help high achievers naturally eliminate emotional and physical obstacles, so they can optimize their life for higher achievement. 

 Good day and welcome to the Genesis Zone show. This is Dr. Brian Brown. Talk about timing, shortly after my last podcast episode about psilocybin and its use in depression and anxiety. Soon as that podcast episode is in the books, a good buddy and research partner of mine texted me a screenshot of a new study that was released about two hours after the show aired. Now my research buddy isn't some fly by night guy. He's part of a team that the Bear Grylls show hires to go in ahead of time, and scout out medicinal and edible plants in the environment where Bear will be shooting upcoming episodes. This guy's legit. 

 

So, when he sends me something, I pay attention, and I go down the rabbit hole with him. By the way, I've been trying to get him on this show for over a year. But he's pretty shy, full of knowledge, but pretty shy. I'll get him on here eventually for a series of some kind. And he's gonna blow your mind. Stay tuned. 2022 is the year he doesn't know it yet. But he will be on the show in 2022. 

 

Anyway, I dropped what I was doing and immediately looked at the article that he sent. So far, it's the largest study of its kind with just under 9000 participants. It was an open enrollment study that stayed open for several months. And a number of participants, they've actually gone into phase two of the study, and they're still in open enrollment and a number of participants continue to participate or enroll. 

This study is continuing to grow, we're going to have more data and numbers larger than 9000 in the coming months.

 

I originally intended to end the series on psilocybin with the last episode. But when this one came out, I was like I've got to do a show on this particular study because it's that important. So, let's dive in. 

 

This study was published in the journal Scientific Reports on November the 18th. It's titled, ”Adults Who Micro dose Psychedelics Report Health Related Motivations, and Lower Levels of Anxiety, Depression, and Stress Compared to Non-Micro Dosers.”

 

Now in this study, there were 4050 participants who micro dose and 4653 participants who did not micro dose. So, it was a really good comparative analysis. We've got these two large groups, one that micro dose is one that doesn't in research terms, this is a very big study. It has what's referred to as power because of the sheer size of it. Now, power is also related to the design of the study and things like that. But as far as sheer size, it has the power behind it.

 

Psilocybin was the most commonly used micro dose substance, with 85% of the participants reporting in the study using psilocybin versus other substances. Now, demographically, micro dosers were similar to non-micro dosers. But micro dosers were more likely to report mental health concerns compared to non-micro dosers. 

 

I'm going to get more into the demographics here in just a second. 

 

Here's what the group of study participants looked like, just in case you didn't know when Big Pharma and other big pharma influenced researchers conduct research about drugs, new drugs, they purposefully stack the study with an overwhelming majority of participants who are male. And in many cases, the studies are all male. This has been the case for decades. And yes, I know what you're thinking, Well, what about female oriented drugs, hormones, things like that. Believe it or not, they also use males in those studies, overwhelming majority. It's kind of crazy. I know. But I digress. So, the sign of a good study is that women are not excluded for any reason, which was the case in this particular study. 23% of the participants in this study were women.

 

Dr Brian G Brown  05:59

That's actually a good number. I know it sounds kind of low. But that's actually a good number. As far as voluntary enrollment. Interestingly, 

 

-Just over 80% of participants are over the age of 25 years of age

-10.9% of all the participants were greater than 55 years of age.

-Participants were largely college educated, with 55.2% of participants reporting, college level academic experience, 

-13.6 reporting graduate level college experience.

 

I'm gonna take a little side sidebar here, that kind of goes with what we see with micro dosing, having been used in Silicon Valley for decades, for productivity enhancement, thinking, pattern enhancement, creativity, enhancement, and things like that. And notice I said micro dosing, not hero dosing. So yes, micro dosing actually helps in those areas, it's been known for a long time hasn't necessarily been researched to the full extent that we would like it to. But anecdotally, in those populations that are highly college educated, a lot of graduate PhD level people use this in Silicon Valley, because it pushes their productivity and pushes their thinking patterns to think outside the box. 

 

Now that we have a grasp on who these participants are, let's move on to the results. 

 

The number one cluster of results was this, micro dosers, who reported mental health concerns at the beginning of the study, exhibited lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress equally across all gender lines at the end of the study, by approximately 10% improvement. 

 

So really, really interesting tidbit, if you didn't have any depression, anxiety or stress that you reported in the beginning, you typically just didn't see that much improvement. So, if you're a person that doesn't struggle, struggle with those things, depression, anxiety, stress related issues, then you're probably not going to see much of a mood enhancement benefit off of it. 

 

Now, that's contrary to antidepressants, antidepressants, prescription antidepressants, if you're not depressed, you can actually take them and get a euphoric feeling almost a manic feeling. So, I thought that was interesting, from a psychiatric clinical perspective, we just didn't see that in this study. It was only the people who struggled with depression, anxiety and stress saw a benefit from that particular effect from micro dosing. 

 

The number two benefit: health and wellness related motives were highest among those who micro dose. Now, I want you to think about that for a minute. Psilocybin, technically speaking, is listed as a Schedule One illicit drug by the federal government,  for that matter by 95% of all the world's governments listed as an as an illicit drug. It's included as part of the war on drugs, along with meth, cocaine, crack heroin, LSD and marijuana. 

 

Yet here we have research proof that this natural substance called psilocybin. Psilocybin, given in the right doses, low doses to be exact, improves motivation for health and wellness, and improves depression, anxiety and stress.

 

Dr Brian G Brown  09:33

Now, having treated more than my fair share of persons who struggle with substance abuse both inpatient and outpatient, and inpatient settings and outpatient settings, all of the other drugs that people can abuse, decrease motivation for health and wellness measures. In other words, people lose interest in taking care of themselves, but not so a psilocybin. In these low doses, it's really interesting. We've always been taught that all drugs are destructive. And I truly believe that drugs like alcohol, cocaine, meth, crack heroin, fit that bill. 

 

So, with psilocybin, does this mean that we're going to have to change the narrative? Well, I have a two-part prediction to answer this question.

 

Part one of my prediction is this, the narrative about the legality of psilocybin and the ethics of psilocybin its use will change when Big Pharma comes out with a synthetic, manmade version of their own. Oh, and guess what? They're already currently working on it. In fact, they already have it. 

 

Researchers at the Imperial College of London, Johns Hopkins University, and NYU are testing synthetic psilocybin in clinical trials as we speak, and privately held companies such as Complex Pathways,  Thai Life Sciences, and PSI Gen have been working on this compound together, and it's called COMP360. Comp stands for compound they haven't even named it yet, COMP 360. Why do they need a synthetic version you ask? Well, it's simple. You can't patent a natural substance. So, psilocybin is unpatentable. And therefore, too cheap. It makes nobody any money. So, when you patent something, you get to control the price. 

 

This is unfortunate because so many people who struggle with the facilitating depression and anxiety could benefit from the sheer decriminalization and legalization of psilocybin. If the powers that be so chose to do so. And if you don't think the narrative will change, when Big Pharma comes up with their own version, and you're thinking, but Dr. Brian, there's no precedence for this. I'll tell you that there is a precedence. 

 

Let me explain. Look at ADHD medications. For example. Did you know that ADHD medications were based on illegal drugs like crystal meth methamphetamine? Now before you go out sideways and say, but Dr. Brian meth isn't a natural substance. I know it's not it's a manmade substance, but it's illegal. It's a schedule one illegal drug, illicit drug. 

 

But it's a prime example of Big Pharma taking an illicit drug and making it into a profit generator. One of the first ADHD medications to hit the market was Ritalin, methylphenidate. By classification, it's a methyl amphetamine, you don't need to know the science behind all the chemical compound structure that it's just a methylamphetamine, just like crystal meth, but it's proprietary. And it's patentable. And it was a chemical created by big pharma laboratory. Therefore, they got to control the price on it for decades. 

 

And guess what? It's manufactured in low controlled doses, see a pattern here? So crystal meth people who abused crystal meth, they use these extremely high doses, people who abuse psilocybin, they use extremely high doses. As back with crystal meth, they were noticing that very low doses of crystal meth improved attention, concentration, focus, it decreased hyperactivity, and they were like, oh, maybe we're onto something here. 

 

So Big Pharma grasped hold of that. They took that compound and made it into something that could sell. Those low-end controlled doses that's the same thing is happening with psilocybin. 

 

Then the next ADHD drug on the market was Dexedrine, aka Dextro amphetamine, scientists took the methyl amphetamine compound and tweaked it just a little bit and voila, a new compound was born that was a bit longer acting, a good bit more potent than methylphenidate or methylamphetamine group of drugs. So, as you can see, there is a precedent already. And this is just one example.

 

Dr Brian G Brown  13:53

Part Two of my prediction is when Big Pharma comes out with a synthetic version of Psilocybin, much like the methyl amphetamines and the dextro amphetamines that big pharma made, this new synthetic Psilocybin will be a very pricey Schedule Two drug that has to be prescribed. Just for contrast, your ADHD drugs or schedule two drugs, morphine or oxycontin. Those types of pharmaceuticals are all scheduled two drugs so they can be prescribed. Generally, in the United States, a prescriber who has DEA privileges like I do, you can prescribe schedule two through four. 

 

Schedule one are research drugs and illicit drugs. You have to have a special research privilege under the DEA in order to be able to house those and use them for clinical research only. But these are just my two predictions and it's just a hunch. But in this case history will likely repeat itself again. 

 

That's what Big Pharma does, they have a model, and it works. 

 

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression and God forbid thinking of suicide, I encourage you to reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

 

I have a favor to ask. The information provided on the show does not get out into the world. Unless you and I partner together. One of the biggest ways you can help spread the word is to subscribe to my podcast. I keep my show really tight. They rarely run over 20 minutes. This show right now is coming up on 16 minutes. 

 

If you like my content, here's how you can help: Go to Amazon, iHeartRadio, Spotify and subscribe to my podcast. Apple podcast has been in the works for a while, their system’s glitchy. And we're working through those glitches and we'll be on Apple any day now. I'll post the links to those areas where you can download my podcast in the show notes. 

 

Or if you're watching this live on Facebook, you'll be able to catch those right underneath the show posting. Or you can simply look up Genesis Zone with Dr. Brian Brown. Thank you ahead of time, thank you. And coming soon, we're going to be doing a big announcement. In the new year, we're where we are we are putting some different infrastructure in place for the Boot Camp that you've heard me talking about. 

 

So, stay tuned for that you're going to be really, really excited I'm going to be opening up possibly opening up a free Facebook group. Who knows where we can start opening up some dialogue and having some regular communication on the subject of epigenetics.