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Psychedelic therapy can 'open up' the brain to ease depression symptoms, study shows

Psilocybin – the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms – appears to 'open up' the brains of some people dealing with depression and could lift negative thinking patterns for around three weeks, according to a new study.

Peter Griffith - Getty Images Researchers at Imperial College London say that this shows how the alternative treatment works differently to conventional medication.

According to the findings, the compound increases flexibility and fluidity in the brain. As such, the findings show that this form of therapy appears to work differently to antidepressants, with the researchers behind the study believing that they may have 'untangled' how psilocybin can provides therapeutic effects. 

Researchers believe that these results indicate that psilocybin-assisted therapy could be an alternative to conventional depression treatments. (Psilocybin is one of a number of psychedelics which is currently being investigated as a potential alternative therapy for mental health conditions.)

The team has warned that people with depression do not try to self-medicate with psilocybin. These studies were conducted under strict medical conditions. Taking any form of the compound without these safeguards may not have a positive outcome, and possession is illegal in the U.K.

Conducted by Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research and published in leading science journal Nature, research focused on analysis of brain scans from close to 60 people receiving some sort of treatment for depression.

What have previous studies indicated about Psilocybin-assisted therapy?

Previous studies have explored the potential of the compound on relieving some of the symptoms of conditions such as depression and anxiety. These have yielded some promising results, although the mechanism of how the compound resulted in such changes was unclear.

These new results indicate that people who responded to the therapy showed increased brain connectivity, or an 'opening up' of the brain, for up to three weeks post treatment. This 'opening up' effect was associated with self-reported improvements in their depressive symptoms.

The academics behind the findings believe that psilocybin-assisted therapy could help people with depression to 'break out' of the rigid brain patterns associated with the condition.

Why might these findings be important?

'These findings are important because for the first time we find that psilocybin works differently from conventional antidepressants – making the brain more flexible and fluid, and less entrenched in the negative thinking patterns associated with depression,' said Prof David Nutt, Head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research.

'This supports our initial predictions and confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments.'

These new results are taken from two studies. In the first, all participants were given psilocybin. In the second, which was a randomised controlled trial, some people were given the drug, with others given a different antidepressant. In addition, all participants were given talking therapy with a mental health professional.

The brain scans were taken before the psilocybin therapy, then one day or three weeks after. An analysis of the scans showed altered connectivity between brain regions, with an increase in communication in brain regions which are typically more segregated in people with depression.

Could these results last longer than 3 weeks?

Longer term data to see if the effects lasted beyond three weeks is still being analysed, so if this therapy provides benefits in the longer term is yet to be seen. The researchers say, however, that brain activity changes one day after treatment are a good predictor of whether a person would still show improvement six months after the therapy.

That is most definitely not to say that this treatment is a silver bullet for depression. 'We don’t yet know how long the changes in brain activity seen with psilocybin therapy last and we need to do more research to understand this. We do know that some people relapse, and it may be that after a while their brains revert to the rigid patterns of activity we see in depression,' said Prof Robin Carhart-Harris, the study's senior author.

He also flagged that these results have potential implications for the treatment of other illnesses. 'One exciting implication of our findings is that we have discovered a fundamental mechanism via which psychedelic therapy works not just for depression – but other mental illnesses, such as anorexia or addiction. We now need to test if this is the case, and if it is, then we have found something important.' 

Reference: Your Health:Claudia Canavan

9 dehydration symptoms that aren’t thirst

In a perfect world, we’d all remember to drink the right amount of water every single day, but let’s face it: most people don’t include “drink water” on their to-do lists. When you fail to drink enough to replenish the fluids lost through urination, sweating, and even breathing, you begin to enter a state of dehydration.

And being dehydrated doesn’t just make you feel thirsty—it can also have a major impact on how your entire body functions.

How much water should you drink each day?

You’ve probably heard the rule of thumb that you should drink eight glasses of water a day, but it turns out that the amount of water each person should drink varies.

Children and older adults tend to need more water to stay hydrated, says Seth Smith, M.D., clinical associate professor in the University of Florida Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. People who take certain medications, have a history of cardiovascular disease, or have recently had a viral illness need to drink more, too. If you’re in a hot, humid climate or you’re exercising (and sweating) you’re also more susceptible to dehydration.

A person who weighs about 150 pounds has about five liters of total body water, Smith says. It’s not unusual for a highly active person to lose up to two of those liters via sweat during a workout. To prevent dehydration, the fluids lost need to be replenished.

The best way to do this is to listen to your body and drink water when you feel thirsty. You should also drink water before, during, and after any physical activity. In addition to getting enough water, maintaining a diet full of hydrating foods like fruits and vegetables is another way to replenish lost fluids.

4 functions of water in the body:

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Signs of dehydration to watch out for:

When you don’t have enough water in your body, dehydration will follow, and yes, thirst is one symptom. 'Usually when thirst occurs, the person is about two percent dehydrated,' Smith says. That means you don’t have to sprint to the water fountain immediately, but you should grab a glass of water soon. If you don’t listen to your body’s signals, you’ll slowly become more dehydrated, especially if you’re engaging in physical activity.

But thirst isn’t the only dehydration symptom to know. Watch out for these other signs:

1. Dry mouth

Dry mouth is another way your body tells you it needs more total body water. Your body can’t make sufficient saliva if it doesn’t have enough fluids. Watch out for bad breath, too, which can be caused by dry mouth. Grab a bottle of water before a piece of gum, because the culprit is often mild dehydration.

2. Dark or tea-coloured urine

The more total body water you have, the clearer your urine will be. If it’s a darker color, that means it’s more concentrated, and it’s a sign you should drink more water.

3. Decrease in urination

Water helps your kidneys remove waste from your blood in the form of urine. If your kidneys aren’t getting enough water to carry waste from your body, you simply won’t urinate as frequently. Instead, you’ll keep that waste in your body, and if you’re chronically dehydrated, it can cause more serious problems over time. When urine is too concentrated, waste minerals stick together to create kidney stones.

Remember: It’s not just your renal system that depends on water to function properly—just about every major system in your body does, including your heart, brain, and lungs, Smith says.

4. Dry skin

Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and just like any other organ, it needs the right amount of blood supply to function. If you notice that your skin is drier than usual, don’t just reach for a moisturiser. It could be a sign that you don’t have enough total body water, and you should add more of it to your diet.

5. Low blood pressure

More than half of the blood in the body is plasma, the liquid part of the blood. Plasma is made up of water, protein, and salt. Without enough H2O in your plasma, your blood will become more concentrated, and it will be a lot more difficult for it to flow through the body to the organs that need it.

6. Muscle cramping

When you’re dehydrated, your blood becomes more concentrated, and therefore your blood volume (the total volume of blood in your body) drops. So when you don’t hydrate properly, your body goes through a thought process: what parts of the body need blood the most? 'The heart is going to win out over the muscles,' Smith says, and inadequate blood flow to the muscles causes those muscle cramps.

7. Constipation

Like the renal system, the digestive system needs plenty of water to run smoothly. Water allows your food to move through your intestines, and it also keeps your intestines healthy and efficient. Constipation could be a sign that there isn’t enough fluid to carry waste through and out of the body.

8. Fatigue

Always tired? Everything from a mid-afternoon slump to overwhelming fatigue could be caused by dehydration. When you don’t have enough water in your body, your blood pressure drops, the blood flow to your brain slows, and your heart rate increases—all of which can make you feel pooped out.

9. Headaches

If your brain isn’t getting enough fluids to function properly, a range of symptoms will follow. Headaches are most common, and dehydration is also a common migraine trigger. Fading in and out of consciousness, feeling lightheaded and dizzy, and fainting are some of the most extreme signs that a person needs to rehydrate immediately.

How much of your body is water?

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Exactly what to do if you're dehydrated

The treatment for dehydration—from mild to moderate—depends on replacing the fluids your body has lost. For mild symptoms, drink water and snack on something with sodium, which Smith says helps the body retain fluids. Take small sips of water instead of big gulps, as too much water can overload your stomach and make you nauseous.

If water and salty snacks aren’t enough to help you bounce back, or you’re experiencing more moderate symptoms, you should drink a sports drink with electrolytes. Electrolytes are minerals in the body’s fluids, and if you’ve sweat a lot, you may need to replenish them as well as your total body water.

Smith says it’s time to seek medical attention when someone is having trouble rehydrating on their own. Severe vomiting, mental status changes, and fainting are sure signs that it’s time to call for help.

Reference: Runners World

Rhinovirus symptoms: Doctor says who is most at risk of becoming ill

A doctor has outlined those who are most at risk of becoming ill with rhinovrius, which is a respiratory condition that develops in people as the common cold. Those with untreated asthma, COPD or imparied are most at risk of becoming sick with rhinovrius.

LarsZahnerPhotography A doctor has outlined who is most at risk of rhinovirus (file picture)

Dr Joe Kidney, is a leading respiratory physician at the Belfast Trust and was speaking as the Department of Health asked people who are experiencing the symptoms of a rhinovirus to stay home and isolate, even if they have tested negative for Covid, Belfast Live reports. He said that around 12 per cent of the population has the virus in their nose at any one time and it is most likely to replicate in colder temperatures.

Dr Kidney said that most people who are infected with a rhinovirus only experience the symptoms of a cold, however there are certain groups who are more at risk of developing a more serious infection, such as asthmatics, those with COPD or an impaired immune system.

Due to the changing nature of rhinovirus, it can be difficult to build a full immunity to them. It is possible to be infected by a rhinovirus within weeks of recovering from one.

Speaking to Belfast Live, Dr Kidney said: "I think we all get about six colds a year under normal circumstances and our bodies might have forgotten that during the lockdown. The majority of those are rhinovirus and there are around 12 per cent of us that have a rhinovirus in our nose at any one time and they like to replicate in colder temperatures such as 32 degrees rather than 37, which is our body temperature.

"So when it gets cold outside it replicates in our nose which is why we call them colds. Most of the symptoms are of a cold, cough, runny nose, sinusitis and they can make you feel just rotten but often not very very ill, where flu is much more likely to give you temperatures. Although you can still get aches and pains with rhinovirus as well.

Reference: Hulll Live: Connor Lynch & Phil Norris

Surgeons in China removed hearts of inmates 'while they were still alive', study claims

Provided by Metro China has one of the largest organ transplant programs in the world (Picture: Favre / EPA / REX / Shutterstock)

Surgeons in China have cut hearts from prisoners who were still alive, new research has claimed.

Human rights campaigners have described the news as ‘almost too dreadful to believe’.

The communist state has one of the largest organ transplant programs in the world.

Hospitals even advertise in English, Russian and Arabic in a bid to attract ‘transplant tourists’.

It is currently legal in China to harvest organs from executed prisoners.

But researchers from the Australian National University now claim surgeons have carried out unethical heart transplants on prisoners who were still alive.

Their hearts were cut from their chests before they were brain dead – the usual requirement for such an operation.

Chinese officials say the inmates were brain dead before the surgeries, but researchers have deemed this impossible. 

The main way to determine brain death is by seeing if the patient can breathe without the use of a ventilator.

Provided by Metro Protests have previously been held in a bid to ban unethical organ harvesting in China (Picture: Corbis News)

And in China’s controversial transplant cases, the declaration of death has been made before the prisoner’s breathing ability was even assessed with the machine. 

The study’s authors – Matthew Robertson and Jacob Lavee – said their research shows ‘how the process of executions appears to have transitioned from a firing squad in a field to the operating room’.

The experts poured over thousands of medical papers before their findings were unearthed in the American Journal of Transplantation. 

Dr Lavee told the Daily Mail: ‘There were several other problematic features of these clinical case reports. For instance, the donors did not have intravenous lines established until moments before surgery, and several papers referred to acute brain death.

‘This evidence suggests that the donors’ organs were procured before they could have been properly diagnosed as brain dead.’

The research revolved around 124,770 medical papers from official Chinese databases between 1980 and 2020. 

They found 71 suspected heart-removal deaths in 56 hospitals.

But they fear the true number of unethical surgical deaths is much higher. 

Mr Robertson said: ‘We found that the physicians became the executioners on behalf of the state, and that the method of execution was heart removal.

‘These surgeries are highly profitable for the doctors and hospitals that engage in them.’

Provided by Metro Human rights advocates say the new evidence is ‘almost too dreadful to believe’ (Picture: Getty Images)

Provided by Metro A rally was previously held in Taiwan against organ harvesting from Falun Gong members (Picture: AFP)

The study states: ‘The leader of China’s transplant sector wrote in 2007 that effectively 95% of all organ transplants were from prisoners.

‘Presumably this includes both death row prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The question remains as to how they were executed, and the role of transplant surgeons and other medical workers in that process.

‘Our concern is whether the transplant surgeons establish first that the prisoners are dead before procuring their hearts and lungs.’

Chinese officials have routinely defended their methods.

In countries such as the UK and America, waiting times for transplants are measured in months or even years. In China, it’s a period of just a few weeks.

The medical core value of ‘do no harm’ is integral to organ transplants across the wider world.

A similar ‘dead donor rule’ forbids the procurement of vital transplant organs from living people. The rule also bans physicians from participating in executions.

Reference: Metro: Kirsten Robertson