The Numinous and Hope

Hope is an indispensable component for living a life of meaning, value, and well-being. Hope enables us to manage stressors, threats, failures, and personal doubts while helping us to stay focused on our goals and strivings.

Hope is particularly relevant to the Numinous dimension of meaning.

The value of the Numinous for healthcare providers and its role in managing patients is overviewed.

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Psilocybin, Brain Health and Longevity

In the second wave of psychedelic research, there are multiple trials taking place across the world.

This includes looking into their potential use to treat end-of-life anxiety and depression in the terminally ill (at the US’s John Hopkins University and NYU), for smoking cessation, alcoholism, anorexia, OCD, asthma, longevity and pain syndromes, as well as seven separate trials worldwide into the use of psilocybin to treat depression.

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Can Microdosing Hurt the Heart?

Psychedelics like psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and DMT act on serotonin receptors, and previous research has found that other drugs that act on serotonin receptors can cause fibrosis, or the thickening of heart valves.

That, in turn, can lead to serious or even fatal heart issues like arrhythmias or valvular heart disease.

So far, there’s been little research on the link between repeated psychedelics use and heart health, but this week, researchers at the University of Fribourg Center for Psychiatric Research in Switzerland published a paper in the Journal of Psychopharmacology reviewing the existing evidence.

“It is possible that chronic microdosing may carry a risk of fibrosis and valvular heart disease, which should be assessed in future studies,” the authors write.

“Any future work considering longer microdosing regimens should incorporate breaks and regular screening for vascular abnormalities.”