Magic mushrooms have used as a recreational psychedelic "drug" for decades. However, they have also been used for improving health and encouraging spiritual growth for over 7,000 years.

Despite magic mushrooms being classified as a schedule 1 controlled Substance in the U.S., is there health benefits to consuming these plants?

What Makes Magic Mushrooms Magical?

Magic mushrooms contain a psychedelic compound known as psilocybin. Psilocybin is found in nearly 200 species of mushrooms across the world.

Psilocybin is the compound that causes those who eat mushrooms to "trip". However, psilocybin can also provide many health benefits when taken in responsible doses such as stimulating brain cell formation. In fact, historians argue that the it may have been psilocybin that was responsible for some of the early advancements in human intelligence.

Psilocybin can also provide individuals the ability to connect with themselves on a deeper level. However, this again is dependent on the dose taken because "heroic" doses (a.k.a. the recreational dose) can be high enough to cause someone to have very negative hallucinogenic experiences.

Additionally, psilocybin in the right dose has been shown to:

Improve symptoms of Depression
Improve cognitive function and creativity
Combat headaches
Treat addiction
Improve symptoms of OCD
Improve symptoms of anxiety

Of these, depression is one of the most intriguing to me since it is becoming more and more popular.

Psilocybin and Depression

Of course with any claim to the possibility of treating a condition, there needs to be supporting research.

A study published earlier this year took patients suffering from depression and gave them a 10 mg dose of psilocybin week 1 followed by a 25 mg dose a week later.

What the researchers found was shocking! Brain imaging found that only one day after treatment, patients demonstrated changes in their brain makeup that coincide with improvements in symptoms of depression.

If that was not enough, these patients also reported feeling better not only immediately but also up to 5 weeks after the treatment!

This research has also been supported by research out of John Hopkins which found that patients diagnosed with cancer who were experiencing depression saw benefits in mood up to 6 months after being treated with psilocybin.

Conclusion

It is important to keep in mind that psilocybin is not something that should be taken lightly despite it being commonly used as a recreational drug. Psilocybin can provide many health benefits and even at higher doses could provide some benefit but with these higher doses also comes the possibility of a bad and potentially life-altering "trip".

If you are interested in learning more about psychedelic drugs then I would recommend looking into Dr. Sam Harris!

References:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-magic-mushrooms-reset-brains-depressed.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7

https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/12/01/hallucinogen-treats-cancer-depression-anxiety/