…While dementia, which affects 7 million Americans, worsens over time, doctors in Brazil, where the woman lives, sought to find out if the hallucinogen psilocybin – found in ‘magic mushrooms’ – could stall her decline.
Doctors writing in a medical journal said the woman was given 5g of psilocybin – a large dose sometimes nicknamed a ‘heroic dose’ – in a supervised session, which triggered profuse sweating and a drop in body temperature before she entered a long sleep-like state.
But after about 19 hours, the woman began having conversations on her own, which lasted several hours.
Over the next few days, she was also able to control her bladder, dress and walk by herself and hold eye contact and smile at her loved ones.
A month later, the woman was given a second 3g dose of psilocybin. Instead of falling asleep, she was reportedly conversational and expressive the whole time, describing emotional scenes like surfing with her son on a peaceful island.
The woman also spontaneously told her healthcare team, ‘It is pleasant to come here.’
‘Facial expressivity, emotional reciprocity, spontaneous humor, and gait agility appeared markedly improved,’ doctors from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil wrote in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
There were no adverse effects, which can include agitation and cardiovascular instability, such as a high heart rate or blood pressure.
Woman with dementia shares first words in five years after taking psilocybin
American Buddhist Net 