Life expectancy [in Eugene/Springfield & Oregon]

“The report demonstrates that opportunities for people to be healthy are not shared equally among neighborhoods, even when they’re just a few miles apart in the same county,” according to the Oregon Health Authority.   “This report tells us we have a lot of work to do to ensure everyone in Oregon has a chance to…

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Psychology

Healing with the psychonauts: psychedelic medicine goes mainstream

All of this comes not a moment too soon. Studies show that psychedelics have extraordinary efficacy in treating the illnesses that currently plague America: trauma, addiction, depression, anxiety, isolation, disaffection, and crippling fear of death. Forty years after going underground, the conversation around psychedelics is coming back into the open…  Psychedelics went underground but did not go…

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Magic mushrooms… entourage effect

…magic mushrooms contain multiple active ingredients…. However, to date, psilocybin research has [been]— myopically focusing on one single ingredient (psilocybin) rather than appreciating the synergistic combinations made by the mushrooms.  Mushrooms contain many different molecules.  Psilocybin [ingested, converts to psilocin]… the active chemical that is responsible for much of –but not all of–the psychoactivity in…

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The whole fungus : good

Oregon has the opportunity to serve as a model for the country in treating drug use for what it is—a public health issue. Similar legislation would allow Oregon to adopt proven, evidence-based, and data driven approaches to best help drug users, their families, and the community. An emergency room physician in Maryland, USA, Dan Morhaim, MD…

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Medicine/Healing

LSD to the rescue? Experts believe psychedelic drugs could treat mental disorders

Findings from a study presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association suggested that symptoms of social anxiety in autistic adults may be treatable with a combination of psychotherapy and MDMA … Research discussed also explored how LSD, psilocybin (known colloquially as “magic mushrooms”) and ayahuasca (a brew used by indigenous people of the…

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Medicine/Healing

Hallucinogens: potential mental health benefits

Throughout the symposium presenters discussed need for additional research to gain better understandings of the implications of using such psychedelics as an adjunct to psychotherapy as well as legal and ethical issues needing to be considered. Traditionally psychedelics drugs are thought of as relics from hippie generations or taken by music festival and rave goers,…

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Medicine/Healing

New kratom “purported-death” reports still leave more questions than answers

The government’s data has previously failed to make a compelling argument that kratom actually kills people, and the new cases don’t offer much support… [Jane Babin, an attorney and molecular biologist who’s been investigating kratom death reports.] expressed concern [however] that confusion [and misleading news reports are] leading health officials to blame kratom for any death where mitragynine…

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Medicine/Healing

FDA may soon allow MDMA prescriptions for PTSD

Last August 2017, the agency streamlined that process by deeming MDMA a “breakthrough therapy,” meaning it “may demonstrate substantial improvement” over current options. ​ MDMA, which was banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1985, could be available by prescription as soon as 2021. The rehabilitation of MDMA, a.k.a. “ecstasy” or “molly,” is directly related to…

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