Three weeks ago, Dr. Jordi Riba who works in Sant Pau Hospital in the capital city of Catalonia – Barcelona, revealed some fantastic results from his research. He was part of the Beckley Foundation in Amsterdam, and the Beckley Foundation. The CSIC (The Spanish National Research Council) contributed too. The full report from this study is not yet revealed.
This team included researchers from CSIC – Ana Perez Castillo, Maria Isabel Rodriguez Franco, Jose Morales Carcia, and Mario de la Fuente Revenga. What this team found was stunning – the two alkaloids known as tetrahydroharmine and harmine that are found in Ayahuasca brew, trigger neuron maturation and expansion and support their growth from stem cells. Thanks to this study, many preconceptions and theories related to the adult brain were eliminated.
Namely, scientists and experts were convinced that the adult brain cannot produce new neurons. However, scientific studies conducted at the end of the 20th century have shown that this theory is not precise. This study has revealed that the growth of new neurons or neurogenesis as scientists call this process appears in two areas of the brain – the hippocampus and the region around the ventricles. It is a well-known fact that the hippocampus is crucial for basic cognitive activities like memory and learning. Its function slowly begins to decline over time.
In addition, the emergence of some common neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease can speed up this process.
Even though the final results of this new study are just preliminary, they have shown that boosting the cultures of cells (packed with stem cells) with tetrahydroharmine and harmine can radically improve the differentiation rate and their growth rate. Several universities and healthcare facilities have created additional scientific studies to get more information.
If these findings are replicated in human subjects we might be able to come up with some other Beckley Foundation based on Ayahuasca.
According to Amanda Feilding, one of the directors of the aforementioned program, possible applications can include neurodegenerative disorder treatments, psychiatric disorder treatment, and reversing the harm caused to the brain by trauma and/or stroke.
Dr. Jordi Riba has created a series of illustrations that show how tetrahydroharmine and harmine act.
