Showing posts with label anxiety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anxiety. Show all posts

Psychedelics Should Be Used to Treat Depression

Perhaps the drive to ban drugs is misplaced. The war is being lost anyway. Since the 1960s research on psychedelic drugs has been frowned upon. However, recent findings show benefits from imbibing these chemicals which come mainly from mushrooms.

Psychedelics alter perception so that an individuals sees strange things that are not there. A side benefit is an improvement in mood. Anxiety and depression tend to disappear. Research in the US and Europe is really taking off. Oddly, although the drugs have been banned they are not addictive.

Australia is not following the lead. It is still stuck in the past with talk about psychedelics being hushed up. A further problem is that chemicals derived from mushrooms and cacti are not patentable. There is no big money in it.

The harm done by regular intake of psychedelics is near zero. Quite different from the common belief. Many of the elderly suffer from psychological problems. If these can be solved by putting the aged into a better state of mind a lot of good will be done.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conservation
     Australian Blog★                         
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)
Share Article
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Study Shows Optimistic Cancer Sufferers Live Longer - Or Does It?

Treating the effect as the cause is wasting valuable time in finding a cure for cancer. A Study found that depressed people lived shorter lives when they had cancer. Depression per se and lack of hope, optimism and anxiety were tested. Those suffering from these "attributes" didn't live as long as "optimists" who were also cancer sufferers.

A great leap of faith was made to claim that mood sufferers did not seek second opinions on cancer. Note that this was not proven it was just surmised. Overall findings were that optimism did not lead to better survival in people with cancer. Well this is game. set and match. You can't have it both ways. Either being optimistic improves survival or it doesn't.

There is no doubt that psychological treatment improves the well being of cancer patients, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and say optimistic cancer sufferers live longer. A great deal of money is set aside for medical research. We have to be careful to ensure this money is well spent.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Health
Australian Blog★                         
ALL BLOG ARTICLES· ──► (BLOG HOME PAGE)
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

The Way You Feel Affects Surgery Recovery Time

The way you feel about yourself and the social environment in general can affect the time taken to recover from surgery. Few tests have really proven this to be fact, however. Existing data were re-examined in an attempt to find a correlation. Relationships were indeed found

Depression, anger, anxiety, sadness, loneliness and intramarital tension certainly do not help recovery. Strong religious belief and optimism reduced pain improving healing time. Learning relaxation techniques also helped, as did interaction with a psychiatrist.

Though the data points to affects on recovery times, strong correlations were not found. This is rather perplexing. Common sense would indicate improved outcomes with positive outlooks. For the present, medical practitioners will have to accept that the way one feels affects healing without relying too heavily on the findings.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Health
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Those in Developing Countries Suffer More Depression

Only Western people get depressed due to their fast way of living - right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Those in developing countries are also stressed as they struggle to survive. While Westerners do not have to worry too much about securing food, getting adequate sustenance for themselves and families is in many cases the main priority for the Third World population.

An examination of depression in developing countries by the University of Queensland on 480,000 subjects highlights this disturbing finding. People in Third World nations just do not go to doctors for treatment. The survey in 91 countries shows that stress is common across the board.

There is a fine line between depression and stress. Many would say they are the same thing. Anxiety was found to be higher in the USA with depression there being the lowest. Examining depression specifically, developing countries had more than twice the rate of the US - 9 per cent.

Political and military conflict was the main factor in causing depression. Getting correct data was the issue for researchers. Many surveyed didn't differentiate between anxiety and depression. They said they experienced mental suffering. If we in the West have difficulty in clearly defining stress and depression, it must be really challenging for those in developing countries.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Society
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Magic Mushrooms Could Be Beneficial for Mental Health

Shamans of Central and South America used "magic" mushrooms when they supposedly took a journey into the life beyond. In this zone they made claims of being able to forecast the future. A test was done by the American Dr Andrija Puharich who held hands with a shaman as they took the mushroom together. Puharich reported that he and the shaman went down spiral stairs into the underworld. In other words they actually shared a mystical trance state. If this really occurred it means that people do not lead separate lives from each other. One person can drift into ecstasy when they take a drug, but two people? That puts a different perspective on things.

Psilocybin, the chemical in magic mushrooms, was thought to excite the brain but new findings show the chemical reduces brain activity by suppressing neural firing in communication hubs, while at the same time stimulating the frontal cortex. Shamans and witchdoctors have taken drugs from plants they collected to give them spiritual powers for centuries. These drugs are now being tested to find out if they can be used to treat depression, anxiety and mental health in general.

The brains of a group of people were scanned with fMRI while they were under the influence of Psilocybin. Results showed that blood flow was reduced to communication centres. With these centres desensitized there would be a tendency for the mind to wander. The sense of self would also be reduced. Users of the drug say their ability to recall events that happened in the distant past was improved. There are plans for tests on cancer sufferers to determine if taking psilocybin can lessen anxiety in patients.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Health
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )