Psychedelic Substance May Hold The Cure For Diabetes

A psychedelic substance which is brewed and consumed by?indigenous tribes of the Peruvian Amazon may hold the key to promoting the growth of insulin-producing beta cells in diabetics, according to researchers?from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

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Ayahuasca, which is also the name for the?Banisteriopsis caapi?vine, is more commonly referred to as?dimethyltryptamine, which has the abbreviation DMT. Ayahuasca has been mixed with other vines by Amazonian shamans to produce a trip during which the user experiences spiritual revelations and a sense of reawakening. It is?classified?as a Schedule 1 drug in the United States, which means it has been deemed to have??no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.?

But Dr.?Andrew Stewart, director of Icahn’s Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, says Ayahuasca may well be one of the most promising substances ever used for the treatment of diabetes. The incidence of diabetes has risen dramatically in the United States over the past couple of decades. Said Dr. Stewart:

?Our results provide a large body of evidence demonstrating that the harmine drug class can make human beta cells proliferate at levels that may be relevant for diabetes treatment.?While we still have a lot of work to do in improving the specificity and potency of the harmine and related compounds, we believe these results represent a key step toward more effective future treatment of diabetes.?

Beta cells, Dr. Stewart explained, are the most important factor related to diabetes in humans:

?In children and adults with type 1 diabetes, they’ve lost 99 percent of their beta cells, so they cannot make enough insulin. That’s the cause of their diabetes. People with type 2 diabetes have about 50 or 60 percent reduction in their number of beta cells in their pancreas.?

With more study, researchers hope to synthesize?Ayahuasca into a form that can be used on diabetics without any of the psychedelic properties. If so, it could mark one of the most significant discoveries in the field of diabetes since the advent of synthetic insulin.