It never ceases to amaze me to see how shocking certain CDC statistics are. Especially when it comes down to the amount of Americans who are on prescription medications, mainly antidepressants. When 1 in 9 Americans are taking an antidepressant of some description then clearly something must be wrong right? Well yes on behalf of the clinicians prescribing them and perhaps on the patients part. I mean there are some disorders that require medication and it's a hugely controversial topic which I'm using as a diving board to jump into this post. So without further adieu let's jump in.
What many don't realize about most pharmaceutical drugs that are on the market is that there is an ordered procession of sorts before they can be marketed for sale to the public. So when that amazing chemical that may increase or suppress your serotonin production is discovered in some remote region it goes through paces before being pitched to you as the latest happy in a capsule cure. If it looks like that molecule may have multiple impacts on multiple regions of the brain it goes back to the drawing board or is discarded altogether. Now long term impacts of most drugs (10 years or longer) are rarely looked at because the data just isn't there.... Or the pharmaceutical industry isn't concerned about putting the golden goose through the inquisition.
Recently a lot of research has been done at Imperial College London into the use of psilocybin as a means of treating depression. These clinical trials have revealed that psilocybin is more effective than SSRI's in the treatment of depression. Hard to believe right? An etheogen that we can all find growing on a hill working better than what the television says I should talk to my doctor about?... Yep. (I hate those f***in commercials btw) I invite the reader to look into this as it could take up an entire post but basically it boils down to this... we don't use etheogens in the treatment of depression because every good drug dealer likes to have their customers return to purchase more product. There are many who have claimed that taking one large does of psilocybin once a year causes there symptoms to completely disappear. Again pretty unbelievable but interesting.
For some reason the Serotonin molecule gets a lot of play in the world of pharmeceuticals. It's the one molecule that modern psychiatric medicine likes to boost or suppress to level patients out or boost them up... often leading to the Mr. Toads Wild Ride most long term users of these medications experience. ALL of the the current drugs on the market that target serotonin production have side effects that mirror the symptoms they treat. I.e. suicidal ideations, sever depression, insomnia, etc. What makes serotonin a favored molecule to play with by those who design these medications? Well it can be streamlined into a single direction. But lets look at other molecules and see how they stack up and how well our brains are built for them.
This fellow is tryptamine which is a derivative of tryptophan. You know... the chemical every annoying family member brings up after Thanksgiving dinner because they read an article in the TIMES about it making you feel sleepy? Yeah... that one. It's actually in a family of different molecules that include DMT. (Dimethyltryptamine)
The above molecule is Serotonin. Add one oxygen atom and it would be tryptamine. A great deal of this doesn't just reside in our brains by the way. A significant amount of our bodies serotonin also resides in places like the intestines. Another fun factoid to consider is that by taking one 30mg dose of codeine you wipe out a large amount of it and it can take your body up to 90 days to reestablish it's previous level of serotonin.
This fun fellow pictured above is called Dimethyltryptamine or DMT for short. People like Graham Hancock are always banging on about it and rightly so. If we get rid of the oxygen molecule we added to the last molecule and instead add two methyl groups we get DMT.
This handsome fellow is psilocin which your body converts into psilocybin upon consumption. It's what we get if we add just one tiny oxygen atom to our good friend DMT.
So what's the point in pointing all of this out? Well a popular belief in modern medicine is that consuming etheogens or hallucinogenics is some sort of chaos gamble. The cult of convention pushes the belief that these chemicals are some sort of foreign agents that have no place in our neurochemistry. When we consider the fact that the pineal gland has more serotonin than anywhere else in the body, and that the pineal gland has the ability to convert serotonin into DMT we begin to get a different picture. Your brain was outfitted for these molecules. Sit with that for a moment.
Most clinical professionals involved in psychiatric medicine do a month researching the effects of these molecules throughout the course of their training.... except serotonin of course. Interestingly enough clinical training and gaining your degree is about repeating back the desired information like any other degree or qualification. To an extent this is great as it leaves one able to do what is required to do their job and not cock up and kill someone. But it also leaves a huge gap where something is lost when inquiry stops and entertaining anything other than what is available on the market become part of practice norms in medicine.
I'm not knocking those who work in the field of medicine. I have worked with some of the brightest people I have ever known who were/still are hell bent on being awesome at their job. Am I implying that there is a big pharma conspiracy?... Won't really say either way because I'm not sure. But ask yourself as a consumer... Is any big industry concerned with your well being? It's a big question with so many details involved that it could eat twenty posts minimum. What I am hitting at though is that other lines of inquiry should be pursued. I do have doubts in regards to the leaps and bounds Imperial College have made using psilocybin to treat depression resulting in a drug that will make it to market. As with all products I do ask myself the same question those in marketing do... Where's the long term profit?
Well guys that's it for now. A quick post that's more babel and rant than anything. What Steemit is all about I suppose. It is a huge topic so I tried to keep it brief. Thanks for taking the time to read and as always I look forward to your awesome content. Keep on Steeming.
Image credits:
Vector Stock
Pinterest
medium
giphy
