{"id":8764,"date":"2022-08-11T02:22:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T02:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/endogenous-dmt-a-scientific-mystery\/"},"modified":"2022-08-11T02:22:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T02:22:39","slug":"endogenous-dmt-a-scientific-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/endogenous-dmt-a-scientific-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Endogenous DMT: A Scientific Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div property=\"content:encoded\">\n<p>Here\u2019s an intriguing question: Why do our bodies, and those of other mammals, produce N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (<span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>), a potent psychedelic also found throughout the plant kingdom? The answer, perhaps disappointingly, is that we still don\u2019t know. According to the authors of a new review in the <em>Journal of Psychopharmacology<\/em>,<sup id=\"fnref:1\">1<\/sup><span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>\u2019s <em>raison d\u2019etre<\/em> \u2013 indeed whether or not it\u2019s relevant to mammalian physiology at all \u2013 is the subject of a 60-year debate that remains unsettled to this day.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of rehashing the entire history, which the review authors assert began in 1961 with a claim in the journal <em>Science<\/em> that endogenous <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> could underlie mental illness,<sup id=\"fnref:2\">2<\/sup> let\u2019s jump to 2001. When Rick Strassman\u2019s landmark book <em><span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>: The Spirit Molecule<\/em> was published that year, <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> was still a niche subject in a niche field. In 2001, only six papers across the entire body of peer-reviewed scientific literature so much as mentioned the compound \u2013 five of which, including one coauthored by Strassman,<sup id=\"fnref:3\">3<\/sup> were concerned with research methods and pharmacology. (The sixth was an early and now widely cited study out of Europe on the subjective effects of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca, which contains <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>.<sup id=\"fnref:4\">4<\/sup>)<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-right\">\n<p>Strassman posited that <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> generated in the pineal gland plays a key role in near-death and mystical experiences.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Stateside, Strassman\u2019s studies in the 1990s into the peculiar, powerful effects of pure <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> administered intravenously to healthy human volunteers at the University of New Mexico represented the first government-approved research into psychedelic drugs in more than two decades. But even beyond that, his book, informed by these groundbreaking studies, reignited the debate over the role of endogenous <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> in humans by proffering some rather provocative theories involving the pineal gland, considered by some to be a \u201cthird eye\u201d or seat of the soul.<sup id=\"fnref:5\">5<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In particular, Strassman posited that <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> generated in the pineal gland \u2013 a tiny gland the size of a grain of rice deep within the brain that produces melatonin, a structural analog of <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> \u2013 plays a key role in near-death and similar mystical experiences. Many of the dozens of <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> trips cataloged in Strassman\u2019s studies include features also common to previously reported near-death experiences.<\/p>\n<h2>Second Thoughts about a Third Eye<\/h2>\n<p>Following the publication of <em><span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>: The Spirit Molecule<\/em> (and, later, the release of a documentary co-produced by Strassman and starring Joe Rogan), this line of thinking became \u201ca hot topic in countercultural pseudoscience,\u201d write the authors of the new review, both of Spain\u2019s <span class=\"caps\">ICEERS<\/span> Foundation (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Services). But they then proceed to throw cold water on Strassman\u2019s theory by citing research led by another major figure in psychedelic science, David Nichols, who published a paper in 2018<sup id=\"fnref:6\">6<\/sup> \u201cexposing the numerous difficulties that the pineal gland [would] have to face in order to produce fully psychoactive amounts of <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> in the few seconds or minutes before death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Complicating things further, the review authors also reference a 2019 study in <em>Nature<\/em><sup id=\"fnref:7\">7<\/sup> that documented a doubling of extracellular <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> levels in the rat visual cortex following experimentally induced cardiac arrest \u2013 both with and without an intact pineal gland \u2013 suggesting a link between stressful situations and endogenous <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>, but not the pineal gland.<\/p>\n<p>Why else might this mysterious molecule be produced in the mammalian body at low levels? \u201cIt has been proposed that <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> is a neurotransmitter, a neuromodulator, and a neurohormone, and that it serves a protective function in peripheral tissues,\u201d the authors write, citing evidence for each from as far back as the 1970s and as recent as the 2010s. However, they add, again citing Nichols, \u201cother authors defend that it is not likely that <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> can play any natural role at the concentrations [at which] it has been detected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the review authors seem to land somewhat closer to Strassman than Nichols. They conclude that it\u2019s \u201cvery likely\u201d that endogenous <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> plays a role in some aspect of mammalian physiology \u2013 perhaps related to consciousness or dreaming, they speculate \u2013 and assert that \u201cthe time has come to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\"><\/div>\n<h2>Current <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span> Research<\/h2>\n<p>Despite popular interest and a prolonged debate over the function of endogenous <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>, current research into the compound is focused on its use as a psychedelic drug, both as a component of ayahuasca and on its own, typically smoked or vaporized. But the two research aims need not be siloed. After all, it was the study of cannabis that led to the discovery (and naming) of endocannabinoids and the broader endocannabinoid system, which in turn continues to inform the use of cannabis and cannabinoids to therapeutic ends.<\/p>\n<p>Or, in another example offered by the authors, opiates helped us to better understand pain, which can in turn help us to better use opiates. Similarly, they write, \u201cour knowledge about psychedelic drugs will improve substantially if we understand the natural mechanisms with which they interact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To take things one step further for both cannabis and <span class=\"caps\">DMT<\/span>, if endogenous counterparts of Schedule 1 substances \u201care at the heart of important aspects of being human,\u201d they write, then that\u2019s cause enough to reconsider our legal, political, and philosophical perspectives on these drugs.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>Nate Seltenrich, an independent science journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, covers a wide range of subjects including environmental health, neuroscience, and pharmacology. Copyright, Project <span class=\"caps\">CBD<\/span>. May not be reprinted without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h2>Footnotes<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectcbd.org\/endogenous-dmt-scientific-mystery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s an intriguing question: Why do our bodies, and those of other mammals, produce N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a potent psychedelic also found throughout the plant kingdom? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}