Fastest downloaded episodes of the podcast so far this year:

#1
"DMT, Serotonin, Inflammation, Psychedelics, and Past, Present & Future of Psychedelic Medicine" with David Nichols & @lab_nichols #2
"Gut-Brain Communication, Vagus Nerve, Fats & Sugars, Food Addiction, Gut Hormones & Weight Loss Drugs" with Will de Lartigue

🧵#ScienceBreakdown: "Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity through the activation of intracellular 5-HT2A receptors"

Interesting new paper by @DEOlsonLab, @LinTianPhD, et al. looking at why some serotonin 2A receptor agonists promote neuroplasticity, but others do not.

1/ Various small molecules, from endogenous neurotransmitters like serotonin to tryptamine #psychedelics, activate 5HT2A receptors... and yet they can lead to very different effects.

Getting at why this is was one of the basic motivations for this study.

2/

🧵I've done several episodes about #COVID, including the origins of the #SARSCoV2, the biological & epidemiology of the virus, and how mRNA vaccines work.

Here are a few good ones, and a long-from article, that focus on these topics:

1/7 "The Mystery of SARS-CoV-2 & the Origins of COVID-19" with @Ayjchan:

Listen here: mindandmatter.substack.com/p/podcast-45-a…

2/7

🧵Mind & Matter content series on @Leafly.

A written content series with a new article each month exploring the relationship between humanity and psychoactive drugs.

In this thread, I will collect links to each article in the series.

All articles: leafly.com/news/tags/mind…

1/ "Death and psychedelics: How science is reviving this ancient connection"

Explores the relationship between #psychedelics & death. It integrates the perspective of thinkers ranging from Timothy Leary to Aldous Huxley to @BrianMuraresku.

Read here: leafly.com/news/science-t…

2/

Just learned that fluvoxamine, a common SSRI used to treat depression and other psychiatric conditions, increases the half-life of caffeine in the bloodstream.

Like, to an absurd degree:

1/ Fluvoxamine does this by inhibiting a cytochrome P450 enzyme that metabolizes caffeine. Caffeine levels remain elevated for way longer than normal.

This would be bad for sleep.

2/

🧵"Psychoplastogens" = drugs that rapidly induce physical changes in the brain (neuroplasticity).

Examples: ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, DMT, MDMA.

Neuroscientists can literally watch new connections sprout overnight, as in the example below.

Movie:

1/ There are other plasticity-promoting psychoactive drugs, such as SSRIs, that are not psychoplastogens because they induce plasticity on a slower time scale (weeks).

Psychoplastogens can stimulate plasticity when exposed to neurons for <1 hour.

pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.102…

2/

#ScienceBreakdown:

"The Phytochemical Diversity of Commercial #Cannabis in the United States."

This is a preprint for a study I recently completed with collaborators at @CUSystem: @bkeegan, @cannagenomics.

Descriptive summary of the study below.

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

1/ Some questions we asked:

How diverse is #cannabis in the US in terms of cannabinoid + terpene content?

Are similar or distinct chemical phenotypes (chemotypes) seen across US states?

What are the most common chemotypes we reliably see and about how many are there?

...

2/

#ScienceBreakdown: A group of scientists (@DEOlsonLab) created an ibogaine analog lacking nasty properties of ibogaine but retaining desirable ones. It is also claimed to be non-hallucinogenic.

Background and dissection of study below.

Full study: sci-hub.st/https://www.na…

1/ Background:

Ibogaine is an alkaloid found in iboga, a shrub from West Africa. It's a dissociative psychedelic and can induce intense hallucinations that last for many hours.

Prelim evidence suggests it may help treat addiction, but it can also have serious side-effects.

2/

#ScienceBreakdown: Is DMT produced by the pineal gland in the mammalian brain?

I often see this claim on the internet and am surprised how often I'm asked about it. Below, a breakdown of a 2019 study in (mostly) rats looking at this.

1/n

#psychedelics

nature.com/articles/s4159… For those that don't know, DMT is arguably the most powerful hallucinogen. It's typically smoked/vaporized. Subjective effects are intense but short-acting (minutes). The peak minutes produce a completely transformed experience, utterly alien compared to normal consciousness.

2/

#ScienceBreakdown: "Administration of THC Post-Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B Exposure Protects Mice From Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome."

Full study here: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Breakdown of the study in this thread.

#cannabis

1/ Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) = deadly condition where lungs get super inflamed b/c immune system responds too strongly. This leads to lots of collateral damage to throughout the body.

Mortality rate in humans = 38.5%. No current drugs exist that help very much.

2/

Getting questions about recent @Forbes article. Article makes good points + gives good advice, but also makes erroneous claims based on misreading recent #cannabis research. Basic claims of article + breakdown of the new study in this thread. 1/

forbes.com/sites/chrisrob… Many #cannabis consumers buy weed based on THC level, trying to get the most THC for their $. High THC weed sells faster. Article says that buying weed based just on THC is a bad idea. There's more to quality than just THC %. I agree with this, but the article goes further... 2/

1/n, Several people asked me about this headline, on a recent preprint claiming that #cannabis extracts high in #CBD have, "the potential of reducing [#coronavirus] infection by 70 to 80 percent.” Quite a claim. Let's briefly look at the study... 2/n, Remember, this a preprint, so hasn't been peer-reviewed and people are rushing to get #COVIDー19 related studies out ASAP. Let's briefly look at what they did and some results. Are the experiments/results compelling, or is this an absurd rush job (place your bets now!) ...