57. Survivor Science Soundbite: The Potential of Psychedelics in Healing

In this first Survivor Science Soundbite, I’m bringing you a quick dive into a topic that’s getting attention in recovery science: psychedelics—specifically psilocybin, the active compound in ‘magic mushrooms’—and its potential role in stroke recovery. We’ll talk about some emerging research on psilocybin’s impact on brain health, neuroplasticity, and how it could someday support emotional and physical resilience post-stroke.

Plus, a reminder about this month’s Mid-month Meetup on Thursday, November 14, at 6 PM Eastern—an open, welcoming space for all survivors and supporters to connect and share insights. Head to survivorscience.com for details. Let’s kick off the week with something new to think about!

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Medical Disclaimer: All content found on this channel is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information provided, while based on personal experiences, should not replace professional medical counsel. Always consult with your physician or another qualified health provider for any questions you have regarding a medical condition or treatment. Always seek professional advice before starting a new exercise or therapy...

Transcript

0:00

What's up. What's up. What's up. What's up, everybody. Welcome to the first survivor science soundbite. I'm will Smith. And if you know me from You know, I like to keep it real. These sound bites are new thing. I'm trying out. It's a way of sharing quick insights each week as we've transitioned the podcast from the lovable survivor over to survivors science. My goal here is to get us thinking about what's possible. Just kickstarting the week. Little conversations that I don't always think about or have in the full episodes. No fluff, no bullshit. Just kind of talking. And sort of kicking off the week and then at the end of the week, we'll recap. See where we're at. See if I'm still thinking about the same thing. Hopefully episodes, the full episodes come out in the middle of the week will be a nice tie in, but sometimes I'm guessing they won't be. This week. I have a theme. I want to talk about something that might be, it might sound surprising, although if you've been paying attention to the news in the world, that may not be that surprising, but I think it has a lot of potential. Talking about recovery and science and in particularly psychedelics what brought this on. So there's been a lot of talk in recent years over. The use and exploration of psychedelics for. Veterans. Suffering from PTSD. I think there that is a great reason to get into this. I don't know a ton about it, but I'm just kind of exploring it. And I want to see what your thoughts are when it comes to this. Because I think based on a lot of the research that I've seen and come across, it seems to have tremendous benefits. I suspect like most things. It may work for some, and it may not work for others. That is the pro. Not really the problem. It just kind of the, the. The way things are with the human body. Some people's bodies and chemistry respond to certain things and some peoples don't. Unfortunately. But I do think. In a, you know, in a clinical safe setting, the benefits here for some are tremendous. And for some, unfortunately it doesn't seem to work out, but why not try it? Why not explore it? This is brought. But like really my sort of awareness of it over the last probably year. I tweeted at Joe Rogan and Bobby Kennedy last night because I know he's a big proponent of this. They both are. And I, I am too, frankly. I think veterans are somewhat are a group on veteran's day of all days. Our group that often gets. Brushed aside kind of like strokes, Thrivers a lot of similarities there, PTSD. They've seen major war, you know, we as stroke servers. I've likely not encountered the same things, but it's it's, there are similar components. And I think when you think about this specifically, and you're looking at, uh, Psilocybin. And the act of camp compounds and magic mushrooms as they're, you know, probably known as to you. I think it's worth investigating. I think some scientific research is particularly in the stroke field are really starting to explore this more. The benefits, very similar to the benefits that, you know, veterans. People with PTSD You know, the studies see tremendous benefits in. Covery. I've also been thinking about this because I know a lot of people talk about stem cells and stroke recovery. And so it's just really interesting to me. I think if there's the more things we can do. The more tools we can offer survivors ongoing longterm. You know, the better why not? As I always say. So there was a recent study. There was a podcast that for I'm blanking on the name right now, but I, I was listening to a podcasts where they were kind of starting to investigate this. And do you know, a lot of the benefits of a psilocybin are helping reduce brain damage, helping improve. Movement in animals, recovering from strokes. They discovered silicide Lynn may. May enhance neuroplasticity, which is again, the brain's ability to rewire itself. Even if you're not familiar with the term, or you're likely familiar with the experience that your brain starts to. Over time and depending what kind of work and what you're doing and how you're functioning and where you're at in your recovery. You might be experiencing this. That's one reason. I mean, there's, there's a ton of reasons. There's a lot of benefits. I can't see the downsides. I just think we need to keep trying and helping because. You know, our health system is kind of failing us. I do believe that those that are able to get into acute treatment and worked with therapists over long periods of time. There are benefits. There's no doubt. Right. But they aren't living the same thing we're living with as survivors. So again, I think anything we can do to help promote. Explore and whatever we can do. Because again, stroke is, there is no cure for stroke. There's no magic pill. You know, but I think. I think there are a lot of things about stroke that are interesting. We go through an experience. We learn a lot about ourselves, some more than others. It's not easy. It's hard. Even if you put a ton of work in. The benefits, you know, they're great, but like, That ability to be the way we were potentially before the stroke. Is kind of like, it's kind of like a dream I think we all want it. I think we all adjust to knowing the fact that we may never get there. And some of us, you don't want to get back there. And there's no reason that we can't and anything we can do to aid in that process, I think is something worth exploring. Again, there was another review from frontiers in neurology. Highlighting how psychedelics, you know, aid and brain repair and promoting neurogenesis and reducing inflammation, which is, you know, for me, inflammation is a big one. I think all stroke survivors experience it, but especially me with Ms. Reducing inflammation, obviously changing my diet and exercising has played a huge role in that. But I'm lucky. I worked really hard, but there are people who want to work really hard at their recovery. And for a number of reasons, they may not be able to. So. You know, it's not as easy as just saying, Hey, go run 20 miles a day. Like not everybody is unfortunately able to get to that place. Hopefully they can. And it's just really interesting because I think. This is, those are the kinds of people that people that want to put in the work and do the work, but can't yet get into the work. In terms of physical activity and walking and. You know, it sounds easy to people that haven't experienced the stroke, but for those that have, we know how hard it is just to get from a wheelchair to a Walker, to a cane. And then see people can't go beyond the cane. For a number of reasons for any reason, but like, it's not because they don't want to put in the work. There just may be other reasons. So I think why this all matters is because, you know, as a stroke survivor, I'm always exploring. What might help in recovery and support others? I think people who, again, who want to put in the work, but maybe aren't able to put in the work. This is why it's really interesting to me. This is just another tool in the toolbox. I know that's a corny cliche, but. Again, everybody is different. Every stroke is different. Anything we can do to help each other. In terms of research and, and help doctors who are overwhelmed and nurses and all the medical professionals. They want to help us as much as we want their help, but sometimes. It just gets to a point. And so I think, you know, this conversation about psychedelics is really interesting because again, we're seeing a lot of studies come out where people who have suffered severe PTSD or other. Major brain injuries from war. In particular veterans, you know, I think there's a lot of similarities here. It's obviously not an exact one-to-one, but I think being able to. People that have had. You know, I did an episode last week on stroke and PTSD. Again, it's not the same as being a veteran and experiencing PTSD, but there are enough similarities. But it kind of got me thinking about this and kind of the question I wanted to explore here. So, you know, these are all things that I'm thinking about this week. Again, this is the first, uh, ever server science soundbite. Again, five quick, quick five, 10 minute episode. Before we wrap this one up, I do want to let everybody know coming out. So this Thursday, November 14th, six to 7:00 PM. You can join the open. I'm calling it the bid month meetup for all survivors, it's open to all survivors, caregivers, anybody who's involved with stroke, part of the stroke community. Wants to get together. It'll be I'm hosting the event. You can go to survivor science.com. There's a banner in the bottom of the website. Uh, you can't miss it to sit. It's a fixed banner. Where you can sign up. All you have to do is sign up and then obviously you gain access to the link for this Thursday nights. Call. Hope you'll join us. Hope you'll come hang out. It's always great meeting other survivors, seeing what's working, connecting, talking. It's just meant to be open and fun and free. And, you know, we can, we can talk about anything really. We can talk about how your recovery is going, how your week's going. What are you trying to have? You, have you listened to this? Are you interested in the possibility that psychedelics might offer as a soak? So are. Maybe you've tried stem cells or other things like Botox, you know, I've talked a lot about my Botox experience. It was very helpful. In particular with my leg. But I had less success with it in my hand. But it was great to try it because you know, it's safe, reasonably safe. I mean, that's, that's relative term. Everybody's different, but I think it, you know, having opportunity to try these things and, and really help myself kind of. Progress and. Botox wasn't meant to be a quick fix solution for me. It, it, it was, it aided me. To kind of get to the next step. It's always, if you've listened to this show, we know it's always about taking these small micro steps and kind of building over time. It's all a guy. I had my stroke and I started running toilet 20 miles a day. I mean, that was in a wheelchair for all of 2020 for the first year, year and a half. Probably. And so it's been a pro progressive. Uh, progressive path and over time. You know, There was little days and weeks have edited up. And now I'm five years out. Fairly better than ever, although I'm particularly tired today, but. You know, That's part of stroke. So again, if you want to sign up, go to and join the mid bum, meet up, go over to survivors science.com. To wrap this up, you know, just curious, what are you thinking about what's on your mind in terms of your stroke recovery, have you considered other unconventional approaches are always things I'm learning about things I'm curious about. I do feel, I'll say this probably now for the rest of my life, I feel about 85% recovered. But that depends on the day. That depends on the time. That's, if everything's working out perfectly with oil, rarely does. But yeah, just curious to hear your thoughts. So what do you want to talk about in these future? A little soundbite episodes. I'm going to do, I'm going to try to do two of these a week in between, uh, releasing full episodes each week, usually on Wednesday, but it could be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then we'll do another one of these quick sound bites on Friday to wrap up the week and see how you're doing. See how my thoughts have changed. Anything else. I kind of think that might be worth a conversation, but may not have made it into a full episode. So, yeah. Thanks for tuning in. To the first soundbite for survivor science. And, uh, I hope this gives you something to think about and I'll, again, I'll be back on Friday to wrap up the week and share my thoughts. Let's see, what's evolved and changed. And what I've learned since then. Until then take care of keep pushing forward. And remember you're not in this alone.