Author: Halina Zakowicz

10 Surprising Facts About Hallucinogens, Psychedelics and “Magic Mushrooms”

Posted on by Halina Zakowicz

The BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute, which is located at Promega Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin, recently hosted the 10th Annual International Bioethics Forum titled “Manifesting the Mind”. Several notable speakers gave presentations on a rather unexpected subject matter: the use of hallucinogens such as psilocybin (i.e., magic mushrooms) to better understand the nature of consciousness and to even treat neuropsychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and drug addiction. I was one of the lucky participants that attended this forum.

Unlike scientism, science in the true sense of the word is open to unbiased investigation of any existing phenomena.
-Stanislav Grof

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How Exercise Can Grow Your Brain

Posted on by Halina Zakowicz

Image courtesy National Institutes of Aging, NIH.
I used to work in a physics lab where I was in charge of regularly transferring liquid helium from a tank to a susceptometer (an instrument often used for superconductivity studies). One day, the helium transfer line that I was holding sprung a leak and I froze a good portion of my finger before I was able to stop that leak. Over the days that followed, I could not feel my finger at all and assumed that the nerve damage was permanent. However, as those days turned into weeks and my previously frozen finger healed, I started regaining sensation. After a month had passed, my finger looked and felt just like it had before the helium freeze.

Neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) is widely accepted as fact for the peripheral nervous system; for example, the nerves in my finger grew back even though I had lost them to frostbite. However, there is the widespread belief that neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) are static and do not multiply after adulthood. The evidence for such belief is everywhere, from spinal cord injuries that result in permanent lifelong paralysis to neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis. However, like many widespread beliefs that are simply assumed to be true, nature always finds a way to foil our best laid plans. Continue reading “How Exercise Can Grow Your Brain”