Magic mushrooms may one day treat anorexia, but not just yet
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Anorexia nervosa is a severe mental health disorder where people fear weight gain. Those with the disorder have distorted body image and hold rigid beliefs their body is too big. They typically manage this through restricted eating, leading to the serious medical consequences of malnutrition.
Anorexia has one of the highest death rates of any mental illness. Yet there are currently no effective drug treatments and the outcomes of psychotherapy (talk therapy) are poor. So we’re desperately in need of new and improved treatments.
Psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, is one such novel treatment. But while it shows early promise, you won’t see it used in clinical practice just yet – more research is needed to test if it’s safe and effective.
What does treatment involve?
The treatment involves the patient taking a dose of psilocybin in a safe environment, which is usually a specifically set up clinic. The patient undergoes preparation therapy before the dosing session and integration therapy after.
Psilocybin, extracted from mushrooms, is a psychedelic, which means it can produce altered thinking, sense of time and emotions, and can often result in hallucinations. It also has the potential to shift patients out of their rigid thinking patterns.
Psilocybin is not administered alone but instead with combined structured psychotherapy sessions to help the patient make sense of their experiences and the changes to their thinking. This is an important part of the treatment.
What does the research show?
Research has shown improved effects of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy after one or two dosing sessions, a couple of weeks apart. Most research to date has targeted depression.
Psilocybin has been found to increase cognitive flexibility – our ability to adjust our thinking patterns according to changing environments or demands. This is one of the ways researchers believe psilocybin might improve symptoms for conditions such as depression and alcohol use disorder, which are marked by rigid thinking styles.
People with anorexia similarly struggle with rigid thinking patterns. So researchers and clinicians have recently turned their attention to anorexia.
In 2023, a small pilot study of ten women with anorexia was published in the journal Nature Medicine. It showed psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (with 25mg of psilocybin) was safe and acceptable. There were no significant side effects and participants reported having valuable experiences.
Although the trial was not a formal efficacy trial, 40% of the patients did have significant drops in their eating disorder behaviour.
However, the trial only had one dosing session and no long-term follow up, so further research is needed.
A recent animal study using rats examined whether rigid thinking could be improved in rats when given psilocybin. After the psilocybin, rats gained weight and had more flexible thinking (using a reversal learning task).
These positive changes were related to the serotonin neurotransmitter system, which regulates mood, behaviour and satiety (feeling full).
Brain imaging studies in humans show serotonin disturbances in people with anorexia. Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is showing promise at modifying the serotonin disturbances and cognitive inflexibility that have been shown to be problematic in anorexia.
Research with animals can provide unique insights into the brain which can sometimes not be investigated in living humans. But animal models can never truly mimic human behaviour and the complex nature of chronic mental health conditions.
What’s next for research?
Further clinical trials in humans are very much needed – and are underway from a research team at the University of Sydney and ours at Swinburne.
Our trial will involve an initial 5mg dose followed by two subsequent doses of 25mg, several weeks apart. An initial low dose aims to help participants prepare for what is likely to be a new and somewhat unpredictable experience.
Our trial will examine the usefulness of providing psychotherapy that directly addresses body image disturbance. We are also investigating if including a family member or close friend in the treatment increases support for their loved one.
Data from other mental health conditions has suggested that not everyone sees benefits, with some people having bad trips and a deterioration in their mental health. So this treatment won’t be for everyone. It’s important to work out who is most likely to respond and under what conditions.
New trials and those underway will be critical in understanding whether psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is a safe and effective treatment for anorexia, and the optimal conditions to improve the patient’s response. But we are some way off from seeing this treatment in the clinic. One of the big issues being the cost of this intervention and how this will be funded.
Susan Rossell, Director Clinical Trials and Professor Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology and Claire Finkelstein, Clinical Psychologist and PhD candidate, Swinburne University of Technology
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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How an Idaho vaccine advocacy org plans its annual goals
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The start of a new year means many nonprofits and community health workers are busy setting goals and reflecting on what’s worked and what hasn’t. For those engaged in vaccine outreach, it also means reflecting on the tools and tactics that help them communicate better with their communities about why vaccines matter.
Across the country, childhood vaccination rates have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a resurgence of preventable diseases like pertussis.
Also known as whooping cough, pertussis has surged in states like Idaho, said Karen Jachimowski Sharpnack, executive director of the Idaho Immunization Coalition, in a conversation with PGN about the organization’s 2025 priorities.
Sharpnack shared how spikes in infectious respiratory illnesses can create opportunities to listen better and understand the nuances of the communities they serve.
Here’s more of what Sharpnack said.
[Editor’s note: The contents of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.]
PGN: Whooping cough cases are up in your state. Can you share an example of how your organization is responding?
Karen Jachimowski Sharpnack: If you look at Treasure Valley and Northern Idaho, the majority of those cases have been reported, and it’s like five times as much as we had the previous year.
So, two things that the Coalition is doing in response: First, we put out radio public service announcements throughout those particular areas about what whooping cough is, how contagious it is, and what you should do if you think your child or anyone you know has it.
Second, we are contacting every school superintendent, principal, school nurse, with a letter from us at the Coalition [to warn about] the whooping cough outbreaks in schools right now. Here’s what the symptoms are, here’s what you can do, and then here’s how you can protect yourself and your families.
It doesn’t mean the health district wouldn’t do it, or the Department of Health and Welfare can’t do it. But from our standpoint, at least we are bringing an awareness to the schools that this is happening.
PGN: How does your organization decide when outreach is needed? How do you take a pulse of your communities’ vaccine attitudes?
K.J.S.: We consistently hold listening sessions. We do them in English and Spanish if we need to, and we go around—and I’m talking about the southern part of the state—and bring people together.
We’ve done adults, we’ve done teenagers, we’ve done college students, we’ve done seniors, we’ve done all age groups.
So, we’ll bring eight or 10 people together, and we’ll spend a couple of hours with them. We feed them and we also pay them to be there. We say, ‘We want to hear from you about what you’re hearing about vaccines, what your views are if you’re vaccinated.’ Anytime, by the way, they can get up and leave and still get paid.
We want to hear what they’re hearing on the ground. And these sessions are extremely informational. For one, we learn about the misinformation that goes out there, like immediately. And two, we’re able to then focus [on how to respond]. If we’re hearing this, what kind of media campaign do we need to get together?
PGN: How do these listening sessions inform your work?
K.J.S.: So, a couple times a year we also pay a professional poller to do a poll. And when we get those results we check them against our listening sessions. We want to see: Are we on target? Are we ahead?
We just finished putting a one-pager together for legislators, so we’re ready to go with the new [legislative] session. We do this poll every year in August-September to know how Idahoans are feeling about vaccines. We get the results in October, because we’re getting ready for the next year.
We actually poll 19-to-64-year-olds, really honing in on questions like, ‘Do you believe vaccines are safe and effective?’ ‘Do you believe that school vaccination rules should still be in place?’
And what’s pretty cool is that two-thirds of Idahoans still believe vaccines are safe and effective, want to keep school rules in place, and believe that the infrastructure systems that we have in place for our vaccine registry should remain the same. Those are important to hear, so this is really good information that we can pull out and do something with.
PGN: Like what?
K.J.S.: Here’s the bottom line. It takes money to do this work, so you have to be able to say what you are going to do with the results.
Doing a poll costs anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000. This is an expensive investment, but we know that the polling is so important to us, along with the time that I have my staff go out and do the listening sessions and get feedback.
We take those results to educate, to talk to our legislators, and advocate for vaccines. We actually do these high-level media campaigns around the state. So, we are actually doing something with the polling. We’re not just sharing the results out.
And then we actually ask, what can we do to make a change? What are we hearing that we need to focus on?
That’s why it’s really important, because we are actually pushing this out for 2025. We know where we’re going in 2025 programmatically with marketing, and we know where we’re going with advocacy work.
We’re not guessing. We’re actually listening to people. And then we’re making really concrete decisions on how we’re going to move the organization forward to be able to help our communities.
This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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How to Eat 30 Plants a Week – by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
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If you’re used to eating the same two fruits and three vegetables in rotation, the “gold standard” evidence-based advice to “eat 30 different plants per week” can seem a little daunting.
Where this book excels is in reminding the reader to use a lot of diverse plants that are readily available in any well-stocked supermarket, but often get forgotten just because “we don’t buy that”, so it becomes invisible on the shelf.
It’s not just a recipe book (though yes, there are plenty of recipes here); it’s also advice about stocking up and maintaining that stock, advice on reframing certain choices to inject a little diversity into every meal without it become onerous, meal-planning rotation advice, and a lot of recipes that are easy but plant-rich, for example “this soup that has these six plants in it”, etc.
He also gives, for those eager to get started, “10 x 3 recipes per week to guarantee your 30”, in other words, 10 sets of 3 recipes, wherein each set of 3 recipes uses >30 different plants between them, such that if we have each of these set-of-three meals over the course of the week, then what we do in the other 4–18 meals (depending on how many meals per day you like to have) is all just a bonus.
The latter is what makes this book an incredibly stress-free approach to more plant-diverse eating for life.
Bottom line: if you want to be able to answer “do you get your five-a-day?” with “you mean breakfast?” because you’ve already hit five by breakfast each day, then this is the book for you.
Click here to check out How To Eat 30 Plants A Week, and indeed eat 30+ different plants per week!
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Dial Down Your Pain
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This is Dr. Christiane Wolf. Is than an MD or a PhD, you ask? The answer is: yes (it is both; the latter being in psychosomatic medicine).
She also teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which as you may recall is pretty much the most well-evidenced* form of meditation there is, in terms of benefits:
No-Frills, Evidence-Based Mindfulness
*which is not to claim it is necessarily the best (although it also could be); rather, this means that it is the form of meditation that’s accumulated the most scientific backing in total. If another equal or better form of meditation enjoyed less scientific scrutiny, then there could an alternative out there languishing with only two and a half scientific papers to its name. However, we at 10almonds are not research scientists, and thus can only comment on the body of evidence that has been published.
In any case, today is going to be about pain.
What does she want us to know?
Your mind does matter
It’s easy to think that anything you can do with your mind is going to be quite small comfort when your nerves feel like they’re on fire.
However, Dr. Wolf makes the case for pain consisting of three components:
- the physical sensation(s)
- the emotions we have about those
- the meaning we give to such (or “the story” that we use to describe it)
To clarify, let’s give an example:
- the physical sensations of burning, searing, and occasionally stabbing pains in the lower back
- the emotions of anguish, anger, despair, self-pity
- the story of “this pain has ruined my life, is making it unbearable, will almost certainly continue, and may get worse”
We are not going to tell you to throw any of those out of the window for now (and, would that you could throw the first line out, of course).
The first thing Dr. Wolf wants us to do to make this more manageable is to break it down.
Because presently, all three of those things are lumped together in a single box labelled “pain”.
If each of those items is at a “10” on the scale of pain, then this is 10×10×10=1000.
If our pain is at 1000/10, that’s a lot. We want to leave the pain in the box, not look at it, and try to distract ourselves. That is one possible strategy, by the way, and it’s not always bad when it comes to giving oneself a short-term reprieve. We balanced it against meditation, here:
Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically)
However, back to the box analogy, if we open that box and take out each of those items to examine them, then even without changing anything, even with them all still at 10, they can each be managed for what they are individually, so it’s now 10+10+10=30.
If our pain is at 30/10, that’s still a lot, but it’s a lot more manageable than 1000/10.
On rating pain, by the way, see:
Get The Right Help For Your Pain
Dealing with the separate parts
It would be nice, of course, for each of those separate parts to not be at 10.
With regard to the physical side of pain, this is not Dr. Wolf’s specialty, but we have some good resources here at 10almonds:
- The 7 Approaches To Pain Management
- 10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis
- Science-Based Alternative Pain Relief: When Painkillers Aren’t Helping, These Things Might
When it comes to emotions associated with pain, Dr. Wolf (who incidentally is a Buddhist and also a teacher of same, and runs meditation retreats for such), recommends (of course) mindfulness, and what in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is called “radical acceptance” (in Buddhism, it may be referred to as being at one with things). We’ve written about this here:
“Hello, Emotions”: Radical Acceptance In CBT & DBT
Once again, the aim here is still not to throw the (often perfectly valid) emotions out of the window (unless you want to), but rather, to neutrally note and acknowledge the emotions as they arrive, á la “Hello, despair. Depression, my old foe, we meet again. Hello again, resentment.” …and so on.
The reason this helps is because emotions, much like the physical sensations of pain, are first and foremost messengers, and sometimes (as in the case of chronic pain) they get broken and keep delivering the message beyond necessity. Acknowledging the message helps your brain (and all that is attached to it) realize “ok, this message has been delivered now; we can chill about it a little”.
Having done that, if you can reasonably tweak any of the emotions (for example, perhaps that self-pity we mentioned could be turned into self-compassion, which is more useful), that’s great. If not, at least you know what’s on the battlefield now.
When we examine the story of our pain, lastly, Dr. Wolf invites us to look at how one of the biggest drivers of distress under pain is the uncertainty of how long the pain will last, whether it will get worse, whether what we are doing will make it worse, and so forth. See for example:
How long does back pain last? And how can learning about pain increase the chance of recovery?
And of course, many things we do specifically in response to pain can indeed make our pain worse, and spread:
Dr. Wolf’s perspective says:
- Life involves pain
- Pain invariably has a cause
- What has a cause, can have an end
- We just need to go through that process
This may seem like small comfort when we are in the middle of the pain, but if we’ve broken it down into parts with Dr. Wolf’s “box method”, and dealt with the first two parts (the sensations and the emotions) as well as reasonably possible, then we can tackle the third one (the story) a little more easily than we could if we were trying to come at it with no preparation.
What used to be:
“This pain has ruined my life, is making it unbearable, will almost certainly continue, and may get worse”
…can now become:
“This pain is a big challenge, but since I’m here for it whether I want to be or not, I will suffer as I must, while calmly looking for ways to reduce that suffering as I go.”
In short: you cannot “think healing thoughts” and expect your pain to go away. But you can do a lot more than you might (if you left it unexamined) expect.
Want to know more from Dr. Wolf?
We reviewed a book of hers recently, which you might enjoy:
Outsmart Your Pain – by Dr. Christiane Wolf
Take care!
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Unwell Women – by Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
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For a demographic that makes up a little over half of the world’s population, women are paradoxically marginalized in healthcare. And in other ways too, but this book is about health.
Dr. Cleghorn had to fight for seven (!) years to get her own lupus condition recognized as such, and continues to have to fight for it to be taken seriously on an ongoing basis. And yet, 95% of the book is not about her and her experiences, but rather, the bigger picture.
The book is divided into sections, by period in history. From Hippocrates to the modern day, Dr. Cleghorn gives us a well-researched, incredibly well-referenced overview of the marginalization of women’s health. Far from being a dry history book in the early parts though, it’s fascinating and engaging throughout.
The modern day sections are part shining a light into dark areas, part practical information-and-advice “did you know this happens, and you can do this about it”, and part emphatic call-to-action to demand better.
Bottom line: this book is in this reviewer’s “top 5 books read this year”, and we highly recommend it to you.
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The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook – by Nisha Vora
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We all know that we should “eat the rainbow” (and that no, Skittles do not count)… So why do we often find ourselves falling into the same familiar habits and well-worn comfort foods?
Nisha Vora, of “Rainbow Plant Life“, is here to make things a lot easier—brightening up our plates is her mission!
In this Instant Pot-authorized, beautifully illustrated cookbook, Vora offers us 90 recipes to do just that. And because it’s an Instant Pot cookbook, they’re all super easy.
What if you don’t have an Instant Pot? Well, don’t tell Instant Pot we said this, but another pressure cooker brand will work too. And if you don’t have any pressure cooker, the recipes are modifiable for regular pots and pans. The recipes also lend themselves well to slow-cooker cooking, for that matter!
Where Vora really excels though is in making mostly-one-pot dishes beautiful and tasty.
The recipes, by the way, are drawn from cuisines from all around the world, and cover:
- summer and winter dishes
- breakfasts, sides, mains, desserts
- the healthy and the decadent (and sometimes both!)
As for the presentation of each recipe, we get at least one full-page photo of the finished dish and sometimes extras of the steps. We get a little intro, the usual information about ingredients etc, and a no-fuss step-by-step method. It’s very easy to use.
If you have allergies or other dietary considerations, this book is pretty mindful of those, making substitutions minimal and easy.
Bottom line: this comprehensive book will seriously brighten up the colors of your cooking!
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How To Actually Get Abs (10 Annoying Tips That Work!)
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Cori Lefkowitz, of “Strong At Any Age”, advises…
The method
It may not be fun, but here’s what she finds works:
- Be boring: stick to a simple, repetitive diet to track progress easily, and make hitting macros simpler.
- Cut back on protein bars: processed protein bars are calorie-dense but not filling (due to their small volume), so limit them, especially when trying to get lean.
- Stop daily fluctuations: she advises to be precise with macros and calories daily, not just weekly, to see consistent results.
- Focus on fiber: aim for 25–30g of fiber daily to improve gut health, reduce cravings, and maintain health while cutting fat.
- Get 30–40g of protein per meal: ensure each meal has enough protein to fuel muscle growth and support overall body function.
- Prioritize carbs around workouts: eat carbs before and after training to fuel performance, aid muscle repair, and maintain lean mass.
- Take diet breaks: incorporate 1–2 week maintenance phases to prevent metabolic adaptation, maintain muscle, and thus stay consistent in the long-term.
- Be careful with fat burners & preworkout: these can harm sleep, recovery, and long-term fat loss; opt for natural dietary energy sources instead.
- Don’t set-and-forget: regularly assess and adjust your diet and macros as your body and lifestyle change.
- “Suck it up, buttercup”: fat loss requires persistence, discipline, and pushing through tough moments when you feel like quitting.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Is A Visible Six-Pack Obtainable Regardless Of Genetic Predisposition?
Take care!
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