logo
The key to living longer could be tied to a surprising substance, study suggests

The key to living longer could be tied to a surprising substance, study suggests

Yahoo16-07-2025
A new study suggests that psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, could extend lifespan.
Researchers at the Emory University Department of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, discovered that psilocybin extended cellular lifespan and improved survival in aged mice.
Psilocybin is the "naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by hallucinogenic mushrooms," as defined in the study.
Single Dose Of 'Magic Mushrooms' Provides 5 Years Of Depression Relief, Researchers Find
Psilocybin has recently received attention due to "considerable clinical evidence" for its potential in treating various psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions, the researchers noted.
The study, published in the journal Nature, uncovered the first experimental evidence that treatment with psilocin – the "active metabolite" in psilocybin – increases longevity in aged mice.
Read On The Fox News App
This suggests that psilocybin may be a "potent geroprotective agent," the researchers wrote.
Co-author Louise Hecker of Emory University said the data suggests psilocybin impacts "multiple hallmarks of aging."
This includes reducing oxidative stress levels and preventing DNA damage, also known as preserving "telomere length." (Telomere are DNA-protein structures on the ends of chromosomes, which help to prevent cellular damage.)
Parkinson's Patients Who Take 'Magic Mushrooms' See Key Benefits, Study Finds
"Psilocybin appears to slow the 'wear and tear' that accompanies aging," Hecker said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "Mice and cells are healthier and live significantly longer."
The treatment led to "a dramatic impact on cellular life extensions" and increased the survival of mice, even when administered later in life, the researcher noted.
The mice also appeared healthier, growing back black hair that was once white.
"Most of what we know about psilocybin is clinical outcomes and what it does in the brain," Hecker commented. "These studies shed light on the fact that psilocybin has potent impacts on the entire body."
As these are the first studies showing the impact of psilocybin on aging, Hecker noted that there is still "much more to learn" about the drug's potential.
"What are the optimal dosing protocols for humans? What is the optimal age for treatment initiation for optimal benefits?" Hecker questioned.
"Is there an age, beyond which point, when treatment does not provide efficacy? Are there potential harms or adverse effects associated with long-term treatment? What are the mechanisms of its action? All these questions need to be rigorously tested."
Additional studies are needed to answer these questions and confirm whether treatment impacts lifespan, Hecker noted.
Gabe Charambides, founder of Odyssey – America's first legal psilocybin retreat, located in Oregon – said he considers these findings "compelling."
"While most human psilocybin trials have focused on mental health outcomes — depression, anxiety, PTSD — this work highlights physiological shifts, including markers of cellular aging," he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
While Charambides' retreat doesn't test for any biological changes, he said that many guests report relief from physical ailments like chronic pain and migraines.
"Those self-reports suggest the mind–body effects the study hints at may translate to humans as well," he told Fox News Digital.
Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter
Administration of psilocybin should differ "sharply" from mice to humans in terms of screening, preparation and safeguards, Charambides noted.
Individuals who benefit the most from psilocybin therapy include those who "feel stuck" after significant life events – like childhood trauma, divorce, career upheaval or bereavement – or people who aim to improve their mental health, he added.
Ryan Moss, chief science officer at Filament Health, a clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company in Canada, has emphasized the importance of administering psychedelics in a safe setting.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
"Psychedelic experiences can sometimes feature anxiety, hallucinations and paranoia," Moss previously told Fox News Digital. "Some patients using traditional psychedelics have reported experiencing adverse cardiovascular events during clinical trials."
To mitigate these risks, Moss recommended that clinical trial participants receive thorough preparation and monitoring by trained professionals during sessions.Original article source: The key to living longer could be tied to a surprising substance, study suggests
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Miniature Neutrino Detector Catches Elusive Particles at Nuclear Reactor
Miniature Neutrino Detector Catches Elusive Particles at Nuclear Reactor

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Miniature Neutrino Detector Catches Elusive Particles at Nuclear Reactor

A relatively small detector caught neutrinos from a nuclear reactor using a technique known as coherent scattering Physicists have caught neutrinos from a nuclear reactor using a device weighing just a few kilograms, orders of magnitude less massive than standard neutrino detectors. The technique opens new ways to stress-test the known laws of physics and to detect the copious neutrinos produced in the hearts of collapsing stars. 'They finally did it,' says Kate Scholberg, a physicist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. 'And they have very beautiful result.' The experiment, called CONUS+, is described on 30 July in Nature. Challenging quarry Neutrinos are elementary particles that have no electrical charge and generally don't interact with other matter, making them extraordinarily difficult to detect. Most neutrino experiments catch these elusive particles by observing flashes of light that are generated when a neutrino collides with an electron, proton or neutron. These collisions occur extremely infrequently, so such detectors typically have masses of tonnes or thousands of tonnes to provide enough target material to gather neutrinos in relevant numbers. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] Scholberg and her collaborators first demonstrated the mini-detector technique in 2017, using it to catch neutrinos produced by an accelerator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The Oak Ridge particles have slightly higher energies than those made in reactors. As a result, detecting reactor neutrinos was even more challenging, she says. But lower-energy neutrinos also allow for a more precise test of the standard model of physics. Scholberg's COHERENT detector was the first to exploit a phenomenon called coherent scattering, in which a neutrino 'scatters' off an entire atomic nucleus rather than the atom's constituent particles. Coherent scattering uses the fact that particles of matter can act as waves — and the lower the particles' energy, the longer their wavelength, says Christian Buck, a leader of the CONUS collaboration. If the wavelength of a neutrino is similar to the nucleus's diameter, 'then the neutrino sees the nucleus as one thing. It doesn't see the internal structure', says Buck, who is a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. The neutrino doesn't interact with any subatomic particles, but does cause the nucleus to recoil — depositing a tiny amount of energy into the detector. Catching sight of a nucleus Coherent scattering occurs more than 100 times as frequently as the interactions used in other detectors, where the neutrino 'sees' a nucleus as a collection of smaller particles with empty space in between. This higher efficiency means that detectors can be smaller and still spot a similar number of particles in the same time frame. 'Now you can afford to build detectors on the kilogram scale,' Buck says. The downside is that the neutrinos deposit much less energy at the nucleus. The recoil induced on a nucleus by a neutrino is comparable to that produced on a ship by a ping-pong ball, Buck says — and has until recent years has been extremely challenging to measure. The CONUS detector is made of four modules of pure germanium, each weighing 1 kilogram. It operated at a nuclear reactor in Germany from 2018 until that reactor was shut down in 2022. The team then moved the detector, upgraded to CONUS+, to the Leibstadt nuclear power plant in Switzerland. From the new location, the team now reports having seen around 395 collision events in 119 days of operation — consistent with the predictions of the standard model of particle physics. After COHERENT's landmark 2017 result, which was obtained with detectors made of caesium iodide, Scholberg's team repeated the feat with detectors made of argon and of germanium. Separately, last year, two experiments originally designed to hunt for dark matter reported seeing hints of low-energy coherent scattering of neutrinos produced by the Sun. Scholberg says that the standard model makes very clean predictions of the rate of coherent scattering and how it changes with different types of atomic nucleus, making it crucial to compare results from as many detecting materials as possible. And if the technique's sensitivity improves further, coherent scattering could help to push forward the state of the art of solar science. Researchers say that coherent scattering will probably not completely replace any existing technologies for detecting neutrinos. But it can spot all three known types of neutrino (and their corresponding antiparticles) down to low energies, whereas some other techniques can capture only one type. This ability means it could complement massive detectors that aim to pick up neutrinos at higher energies, such as the Hyper-Kamiokande observatory now under construction in Japan. This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on July 30 2025. Solve the daily Crossword

A Doctor's Plea From a Nation Asleep on Brain Disease
A Doctor's Plea From a Nation Asleep on Brain Disease

Newsweek

timea day ago

  • Newsweek

A Doctor's Plea From a Nation Asleep on Brain Disease

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. As a physician who once treated pain, I now endure the unimaginable. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has left me quadriplegic, dependent on a tracheostomy to breathe and a feeding tube to eat. Diagnosed at 35, my career ended abruptly. My family's story reveals the scale of the coming storm—my father battles Alzheimer's, my uncle succumbed to Parkinson's, and my grandmother to Lewy body dementia. We are not outliers; we represent a silent epidemic. Neurodegenerative diseases are surging, yet our nation slumbers, unaware of the devastation ahead. The public's complacency is by design, built on a statistical illusion. ALS, fatal since 1869, exemplifies this peril. With a median survival of 2-3 years, it strikes about 1 in 300 people in their lifetime, which predicts that over 1 million people now alive in the U.S. will succumb to ALS. Yet, under federal law, it is labeled "rare" because that definition is based on prevalence—a static snapshot of how many people are living with a disease at one time. Because ALS kills its victims so quickly, the number of living patients stays below the 200,000-person "rare" threshold. Its very lethality ensures it is never treated like the mainstream public health crisis it is. This paradox obscures a terrifying forecast: a projected 69 percent global increase in ALS cases by 2040. This illusion of rarity perpetuates a deadly inaction that extends to all brain diseases. Alzheimer's already affects over 7 million Americans and is projected to strike nearly 13 million by 2050, costing our economy $384 billion in 2025—and projected to nearly $1 trillion annually by mid-century. Exterior view of the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Exterior view of the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Getty Images The failure to confront this crisis stems from a Tale of Two Agencies within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2017, Congress established the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), a dynamic hub that has revolutionized cancer treatment, accounting for 85 percent of all accelerated approvals in the last decade. This success is the result of focused will and resources; National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for cancer has topped $7.2 billion, compared to $2.8 billion for neuroscience. Neurology has no such center. Lacking an institutional home, it is fragmented, slow, and characterized by a risk aversion unthinkable in oncology. This disparity persists because of the tragic nature of these diseases. In the 1980s, ACT UP activists staged "die-ins" to force a reluctant government to fight AIDS. Patients with ALS, Huntington's, or Alzheimer's cannot mount a similar protest—we are physically silenced and immobilized, unable to "seize the FDA." This vulnerability places a unique moral obligation on our leaders to act proactively on behalf of the voiceless. The new FDA leadership now arrives with bold promises of change, posing a question that haunts everyone touched by an untreatable neurological disease: Will this time be different? Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vows to "sweep away barriers" and to "figure out new ways ... of accelerating approvals for drugs and treatments that treat rare diseases." FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has several times asked why it takes 10 years for a drug to get to market and proposes a "conditional approval" pathway based on a "plausible mechanism." Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Director Vinay Prasad promised to "take action at the first sign of promise for rare diseases." For the ALS community, these words are now a crisis of credibility. In a disease that has a median survival of 2-3 years, we are asking for regulatory flexibility for a treatment that began its Phase 1 trial in 2011 and was granted FDA Fast Track designation in 2014. As a petitioner on the July 3 citizens' petition for a stem cell therapy known as NurOwn, my community has presented the FDA with a clear test. Ultimately, we are seeking accelerated approval based on new, unprecedented survival data from an expanded access program—data that exceeds the extension of survival of many approved cancer therapies. But the initial request is simpler: invite the sponsor to resubmit its application for a full review. Ours is a request for due process to give a voice to the voiceless—the lowest possible bar for the Trump administration to demonstrate its promised flexibility. A clear, bipartisan solution has already failed once. The Neuroscience Center of Excellence Act, introduced in 2021 to replicate oncology's success for brain disease, stalled in committee. It is time for our leaders to find the political will that has been so catastrophically absent. Congress must immediately revive and pass the Neuroscience Center of Excellence Act. The FDA, in turn, must match its leaders' promises with action by granting our petition a review. The science is poised for breakthroughs, but it is being shackled by a broken system. For those of us on a deadline, this is not a policy debate. It is a death sentence. Awaken now, before this silent storm engulfs us all. The voiceless can't wait. Dr. Shahriar Minokadeh, a former anesthesiologist trained at Johns Hopkins and pain management at UC San Diego, types via an eye-gaze device. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

Could a single shot at birth shield kids from HIV for years?
Could a single shot at birth shield kids from HIV for years?

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Could a single shot at birth shield kids from HIV for years?

There's potentially exciting news from a trial conducted in monkeys: A single shot of gene therapy given to newborn monkeys appears to shield them from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, for at least three years. Of course, studies conducted in animals don't always pan out in humans. But scientists say that if it does, it could save the lives of babies and children still imperiled by HIV. The study authors estimate that more than 100,000 children worldwide (largely in subSaharan Africa) are believed to contract HIV soon after birth, primarily via breastfeeding with an HIV+ mother. "Nearly 300 children are infected with HIV each day," said lead author Dr. Amir Ardeshir, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center in New Orleans. "This approach could help protect newborns in high-risk areas during the most vulnerable period of their lives." His team published its findings July 30 in Nature. It noted that the new work hinges on the notion that in the first few weeks of a primate's life -- humans are primates, too -- the body's immune system is naturally more tolerant of "invaders," including gene therapies. The research focused on a tried-and-true form of HIV-fighting gene therapy. It works by programming cells to continuously produce HIV-fighting antibodies. The gene therapy was piggybacked onto a harmless adeno-associated virus (AAV) to help deliver it to the muscle cells of newborn rhesus macaques. Muscle cells were chosen because they are particularly long-lived, Ardeshir's team explained. The gene therapy instructs these cells to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies, or bNAbs, which are capable of neutralizing multiple strains of HIV. It's not the first time bNAbs have been used in gene therapy to fight HIV. However, in prior trials repeat injections were required to keep the immune system vigilant. In the new trial, "we turn these muscle cells -- which are long-lived -- into micro factories that just keep producing these antibodies," Ardeshir explained. When such an approach is used in older monkeys, however, the animals' robust immune systems turn against the therapy, shutting it down. That didn't happen when Ardeshir's team introduced it during a macaque's first few weeks of life. All of the monkeys who got a single shot of bNAbs therapy soon after birth were shielded from infection with HIV for at least three years, with no need for a booster. Tulane researchers said that's roughly the equivalent of a treatment that could ward off HIV in humans deep into adolescence. If the gene therapy was delivered even a bit later -- 8 to 12 weeks after birth -- the young monkey's more developed immune system swung into action to fight it, eroding its effectiveness. Giving the shot soon after birth seemed key, Ardeshir said. "This is a one-and-done treatment that fits the critical time when these mothers with HIV in resource-limited areas are most likely to see a doctor," he noted in a Tulane news release. "As long as the treatment is delivered close to birth, the baby's immune system will accept it and believe it's part of itself." Will it work in human babies? That's not entirely clear, since it's possible infants might be less amenable than monkeys to therapies that are delivered via AAV, the team said. The monkey trial also used only one strain of simian-human immunodeficiency virus, which is similar in some ways to HIV but may not reflect the variety of circulating strains of HIV strains. Still, the research team is hopeful. Giving families a one-shot preventive tool to protect their children would be especially useful in areas where access to repeat medical treatments can be tough, the researchers said. "Nothing like this was possible to achieve even 10 years ago," Ardeshir said. "This was a huge result, and now we have all the ingredients to take on HIV." More information Find out more about HIV and AIDS at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). SOURCE: Tulane University, news release, July 30, 2025 Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store