Anonymous ID: 10a15b Nov. 12, 2020, 11:46 p.m. No.11622906   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2919 >>2932 >>2975 >>2984

Psychedelic ayahuasca tea may hold key to treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

 

November 11, 2020

MADRID — Ayahuasca tea, a powerful hallucinogenic drink used in native American ceremonies, could emerge as a strong natural treatment for mental illnesses and neurological problems like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, a new study suggests.

 

Ayahuasca is an ancient brew, made from the ayahuasca vine and chacruna shrubs. The tea has been used for 1,000 years to bring on vivid visions in ceremonies by natives of the Amazon rainforest. Many western tourists travel to South America to try the tea in the hopes of gaining spiritual enlightenment or to experience hallucinations recreationally.

 

But scientists in Spain, who have been researching ayahuasca’s main psychoactive ingredient, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, say it could be used as a medicine. The study, carried out at the University of Madrid, reveals the shamanic beverage could cause the brain to form new brain cells, called neurons. Tests also suggested that after being given DMT, mice showed improved learning and memory skills.

 

The team behind the study also points to previous experiments which suggest DMT could have antidepressant effects.

 

“This capacity to modulate brain plasticity suggests that it has great therapeutic potential for a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases,” says Dr. José Ángel Morales, a researcher in the university’s department of cellular biology and an author of the paper, in a media release.

 

Drinking ayahuasca tea may help the brain form new neurons lost to disease

 

The death of certain types of neuron causes the symptoms of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Published in the journal Transitional Psychiatry, findings show that consuming ayahuasca tea could prompt the brain to make the cells needed to repair itself.

 

“The challenge is to activate our dormant capacity to form neurons and thus replace the neurons that die as a result of the disease,” explains Dr. Morales. “This study shows that DMT is capable of activating neural stem cells and forming new neurons.”

 

https://www.studyfinds.org/ayahuasca-tea-alzheimers-parkinsons-dmt/

Anonymous ID: 10a15b Nov. 12, 2020, 11:51 p.m. No.11622949   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3006 >>3121

Laser-Guided Lightning May Help Prevent Wildfires

 

SYDNEY (AFP) — Small, portable laser pointers could be used to guide lightning strikes, with a study suggesting the technology may prevent bolts from sparking wildfires, a researcher told AFP Thursday.

 

A team of international scientists have shown storm clouds could be “short-circuited” by using a hollow laser — like a pipe of light — to deliver particles into the clouds and draw lightning strikes, research co-author Professor Andrey Miroshnichenko from the University of New South Wales in Canberra told AFP.

 

In lab tests, the team — which also included scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) — successfully used a laser tractor beam to direct the path of an electrical discharge to specific targets, Miroshnichenko said.

 

In the past, high-powered lasers were needed to achieve similar results, making the technique dangerous, costly and inaccurate.

 

But the new research suggested that small, hand-held lasers could be used in the field within the next decade, he said.

 

“It turns out that to deliver particles, you do not need high-intensity lasers, even low intensity like your laser pointer will be already enough,” Miroshnichenko said.

 

Using a tractor beam with a hollow center, micro-particles in the air could be heated up and delivered to a specific point and trigger an electrical discharge.

 

Although it is yet to be tested outside a lab, the technique could potentially be used to control dry lightning strikes, infamous for sparking large blazes including several major bushfires in Australia and the western US in the past year, Miroshnichenko added.

 

“We can imagine a future where this technology may induce electrical discharge from passing lightning, helping to guide it to safe targets and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires,” co-researcher Vladlen Shvedov, from the ANU Research School of Physics, said.

 

The research, published in Nature Communications last month, also involved Texas A&M University in Qatar and the University of California in Los Angeles.

 

https://www.courthousenews.com/laser-guided-lightning-may-help-prevent-wildfires/