These Mushrooms Improve Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s Disease comes with a long list of symptoms.

Some are bad, some are worse.

A new revolutionary study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology may change that.

Because it reveals how a specific type of mushroom can significantly improve one of the worst symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

Parkinson’s Disease causes uncontrolled movements along with mood problems like depression and anxiety.

These mood issues often appear years before the physical symptoms, and can predict faster decline in patients’ health.

Psilocybin is a natural compound found in what some call magic mushrooms.

While researchers have shown that psilocybin can improve depression and anxiety in recent years, they’ve been hesitant to try it on people who have brain diseases.

Many worried it might make their condition worse or cause dangerous side effects.

That’s why this study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology breaks new ground.

It’s the first time any psychedelic drug has been tested in people with a neurodegenerative disease.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco recruited 12 participants with mild to moderate Parkinson’s Disease who also had depression or anxiety.

Their average age was 63, and five of the twelve were women.

The team gave each person two doses of psilocybin two weeks apart: first a smaller dose of 10 mg, then a larger dose of 25 mg.

During the study, participants also received eight psychotherapy sessions to help process their experiences.

The researchers checked their mood, thinking abilities, movement symptoms, and side effects before and after treatment.

They paid special attention to their scores on the Movement Disorder Society–Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS).

The results surprised even the scientists:

● No serious side effects occurred during the study. While most participants experienced some mild effects like anxiety, nausea, or increased blood pressure, these were temporary, and none needed medical help to manage them.

● Non-motor symptoms (such as mood and anxiety) improved significantly: –13.8 points on the MDS-UPDRS Part I scale.

● Motor symptoms measured by MDS-UPDRS Part II and III also showed improvement: –7.5 points on Part II and –4.6 points on Part III.

● Cognitive performance saw significant gains, particularly in tasks like paired associates learning, spatial working memory, and probabilistic reversal learning.

● Depression scores dropped by 9.3 and 3.8 points on two clinical scales.

● The improvements in mood lasted for the entire three-month follow-up period.

● Movement and cognitive improvements were still present at the one-month check-up.

Psilocybin is gradually being decriminalized or authorized for medical purposes in some states in the United States and in countries like Canada and Australia.

So, you might want to check with your medical service provider whether this is an option worth exploring.

Otherwise, wait for larger studies to confirm these findings before you take the leap.

But magic mushrooms alone will not eliminate all symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

Using a few more diet and lifestyle changes — explained here — can completely eliminate all symptoms of Parkinson’s…