(Neuroscience News) One of the main natural components of ayahuasca tea, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), promotes neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons) according to research led by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
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In addition to neurons, the infusion used for shamanic purposes also induces the formation of other neural cells such as astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.
“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”, explained José Ángel Morales, a researcher in the UCM and CIBERNED Department of Cellular Biology.
The study, published in Translational Psychiatry, reports the results of four years of in vitro and in vivo experimentation on mice, demonstrating they exhibit “a greater cognitive capacity when treated with this substance”, according to José Antonio López, a researcher in the Faculty of Psychology at the UCM and co-author of the study.
Changing the receptor eliminates the hallucinogenic effect
Ayahuasca is produced by mixing two plants from the Amazon: the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the chacruna shrub (Psychotria viridis).
The DMT in ayahuasca tea binds to a type-2A serotonergic brain receptor, which enhances its hallucinogenic effect. In this study, the receptor was changed to a sigma type receptor that does not have this effect, thus “greatly facilitating its future administration to patients”.
In neurodegenerative diseases, it is the death of certain types of neuron that causes the symptoms of pathologies such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Although humans have the capacity to generate new neuronal cells, this depends on several factors and is not always possible.
“The challenge is to activate our dormant capacity to form neurons and thus replace the neurons that die as a result of the disease. This study shows that DMT is capable of activating neural stem cells and forming new neurons”, concluded Morales.
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Source:
https://neurosciencenews.com/dmt-neurogenesis-17253/
According to that study the neurogenesis of DMT happens through the Sigma-1 receptor:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32989216/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma-1_receptor
“An endogenous ligand for the σ1 receptor has yet to be conclusively identified, but tryptaminergic trace amines, as well as neuroactive steroids such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and pregnenolone all activate the receptor.[11]”
In my estimate this is part of why DHEA works great with tetrahydrocannabinol, which itself increases pregnenolone synthesis as reported in previous years:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4545660/
You don’t need DMT or any psychohallucinations to achieve these effects.
If you have no steroids or you can’t import or administer them properly (oral DHEA is not great) you can approximate by eating a ton of egg yolks (along with carbohydrates) which contain lots cholesterol and other substrate for the body to produce those steroids and also phospholipid compounds that *might* help increase oral absorption of fatty compounds. Saturated fats and other things also may help.