There has been a growing momentum about psilocybin for a while, and not because of its psychoactive properties. Many people dealing with severe migraines are increasingly using it to reduce the blinding pain because traditional medications often don’t help them.
However, this chemical compound is legal in only a handful of countries. That makes treating migraine and other headaches with it outside of those countries almost impossible.
Psilocybin is an ingredient naturally found in shrooms, hence its illegal status. But what are shrooms?
We answer this and other questions below, before providing you with the ways to use psilocybin to treat migraine.
What Are Shrooms?
Searching “What are shrooms?” online will open a whole world of results explaining the numerous effects, benefits, risks, uses, and types of shrooms.
All the results will have a basic definition in common. Shrooms, or magic mushrooms, are mushrooms that produce psychedelic effects. Some of the common effects of shrooms include hallucinations, euphoria, and time distortion.
People have been using them for thousands of years, reporting spiritual experiences, and more profound discoveries of oneself. Some people also use them because of the ability of psilocybin to treat anxiety and depression.
Can Psilocybin Really Treat Migraine?
There aren’t enough studies on the subject to fully prove the positive effects of psilocybin on migraine treatments. That’s because psilocybin is a Schedule 1 drug, which means it’s illegal for personal and medical use.
However, those few available studies and surveys show promising results.
One qualitative study on self-treatment of migraine shows that psilocybin is indeed effective in treating migraine and cluster headaches.
Another survey on cluster headache patients found that psilocybin is much more effective than traditional medications when it comes to shortening or stopping cluster headaches.
Yet another psilocybin study regarding cluster headaches reported aborted attacks, cluster period termination, and a significant extension of the remission period.
These headaches are incredibly more severe than migraines, so we can safely assume that psilocybin greatly helps with migraines too.
How Does It Work?
When psilocybin enters the body, it converts into psilocin, which is an alkaloid of magic mushrooms. Psilocin then binds to the serotonin receptors known as 5-HT receptors, activating them and altering the action of serotonin in the brain. Hence, psychedelic effects take place.
Again, because of the lack of studies, we don’t fully understand how exactly psilocybin creates those effects.
What we do understand is that activating the serotonin receptors helps relieve the pain of migraines. That’s because migraines often take place because of chronic low serotonin.
3 Ways to Treat Migraine with Psilocybin
If you want to use psilocybin to treat migraine, make sure it’s legal for you to do so. Although purchasing magic mushrooms may be illegal in your country, you may be allowed to grow your own shrooms for personal use.
Once you’ve checked and ensured you can use them, choose from the following ways of treating migraine with psilocybin.
Microdosing
Microdosing is the most common way to use this compound. Depending on the dose, you may experience little to no psychoactive effects.
Microdosing psilocybin means taking less than 0.5 grams of dried mushrooms every or every other day. That’s a very small dose that has unnoticeable psychedelic effects.
Taking a Psychoactive Dose
Some people like the psychedelic effects of psilocybin, so they take a higher dose. That would be about 2-3 grams.
If you choose to go down this road, it may be wiser to do so only in case of severe migraine pains, instead of taking that high a dose often.
Extracting Psilocybin from Mushrooms
Yet another way to use psilocybin to treat migraines is to extract it from shrooms. However, that’s a very complicated process that requires a great level of knowledge and experience.
Extracting psilocybin from mushrooms means using it later as a powder that you can take orally.
Hopefully, you will go with micro-dosing, as that’s truly the best and safest way to use this compound and effectively get rid of incessant headaches.
Whatever you decide, make sure you use the right dosage for your needs. Everyone’s body reacts differently to shrooms, just like it reacts differently to regular medications, supplements, and even foods.
It’s vital to see what works best for you so that you can reap the benefits without the side effects. Perhaps micro-dosing won’t stop your migraine, so you might need to up the dose.
Or maybe a single dose helps you in the long run, so you experience months of migraine-free periods. You simply don’t know until you try; however, make sure you do it with caution.