Author: ayslblog

I must confess I spent most of the evening of #VeteransDay (November 11) watching #warmovies and listening to #marchingsongs.   All these brought back memories of #WWII, and tears.  I should say “selective” memories, as when we left #Hong Kong to go to my mother’s village (~100 miles NW of HK) to escape the war, I was 4 years old, yet the only things I remember about HK was – the air-raid shelter was very crowded and our house had an accordion metal sliding gate at its front door.  I must have seen #bodies without heads #floating in the #harbor, because the #Japanese #soldiers were #beheading #Chinese #civilians along the water front after they took HK.   I must have blocked off that memory in subconscious self-defense. 

           After spending 4 years of #carefree childhood in my mother’s village away from the #ravages of the war itself (except one famine), we saw Japanese soldiers being marched through town, and knew the war was over.  That later somehow evoked my memory of the #FlyingTigers of #ClaireChennault and Uncle Doon Ng (Wu) from my mothers’ village who was a colonel in the Chinese air force at the time, both fighting the Japanese out of #Chongqing (Chungking), China’s wartime capital.  My fond memories of #Americanarmedforces came later via their marching songs and WW II movies.  For some reason, I have always felt connected with #Americanveterans, and I intend to do something for them with my PBN mycelia.

           I am lucky to be born into a family with scholastic traits on my father’s side and TCM traits on my mother’s side.  Over a few generations, my father’s family had gone through hard times but continued to survive until WW II, then we lost everything to bombs. 

           I grew up with my mother’s family, in HK and in her village during the war.  My childhood in the village was safe and well protected by my family members.  School was never my thing, especially the boring compulsory subjects.  Hence, I #flunkedout of elementary school, and then high school.  But I picked up #Spanish, #French and #German during my freshman and sophomore years and somehow managed to skip my junior year and graduated with honors from another high school.  We were poor at the time, but Uncle Siu and Aunt Pauline supported my college education in #Taiwan where I graduated with a B.S. in #Pharmacy.  Then, after returning to Hong Kong and taught chemistry for a year, I came to the #UniversityofMichigan in Ann Arbor in 1962 on a #teachingassistantship in #Pharmacognosy.

My PhD research was growing #Psilocybe #baeocystis #mycelium in #liquidculture, inducing it to produce #psilocybin (P), #psilocin, and other close analogs (sister compounds), two of which I isolated, determined their chemical structures, and named them #baeocystin (B) and #norbaeocystin (N).  Then, I had a long and diversified, #independent #career (#phytochemist, #microbiologist, #naturalproductchemist, #Chinese herbalist, #herbal scientist, & #entrepreneur) for 55 years until I rejoined the #psychedelics space and discovered a potential #newindustry based on #naturals, #BYPASSING the #synthetics, using my PBN mycelia as the vehicle to start this new industry.  The unique thing about this PBN mycelium is that it can be grown in known nutrients, forming pellets in the fermenter (aka bioreactor).   You simply harvest them, rinse them with distilled water, and freeze-dried them.  That’s your product!  No toxic contaminants from the soil or the synthetic process.

           During my long career, I responded to government #requestsforproposals (#RFP) only twice, and both times I won the contract/grant.  So, I know my fellow scientists like my innovations; my projects and successes were real, not just luck, or cronyism.

Two issues have prompted me to consider this new industry of #natural #psychedelics (#PBN):

1. We know all synthetic drugs are toxic, due to the drugs themselves or the #impurities present.  NO studies have disproved this.
2. Despite the closeness of B and N (#4-hydroxytryptamine, after losing its phosphate group in our body) to the #neurotransmitter, #serotonin (S, aka #5-hydroxytryptamine), no one has produced either chemical naturally for further studies.  Thus, #4hydoxytryptamine and #5hydroxytryptamine are basically non-identical #twins!  Can B and N rejuvenize our brain cells?   Regardless, they have no toxic petrochemicals lurking in them to cause us harm as in #syntheticdrugs.

It’s time to break up synthetic drug-therapy’s #vicious #cycle or bypass it.  Without the v.c., much human #pain and #suffering can be avoided, along with much less money going to the #exploiters of #humanhealth.  Hence, when I have the chance, I’ll use my PBN mycelium to bypass the toxic synthetic psilocybin, to help our veterans who fought for our country and came home wounded with #PostTraumaticStressDisorder (#PTSD). 

           This medicine, mycelial supplement, or whatever you call it, is sure NOT to have the toxic properties inherent in synthetic drugs which beget #newdiseases that require more drugs to treat, hence the v.c.  But it is a #PerpetualFountainofGold for #BigPharma & Co.

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[Reprinted from LCHN-25 Mar/Apr 2000 in “My Life & Rollercoaster Career pp. 378-380.”]

Whom should you believe?  For years we have been told that salt is bad (high blood pressure!), coffee is bad (caffeine!), eggs may be worse (heart attack!), butter is bad (cholesterol!), margarine is good (no cholesterol!), estrogen is bad (and now good!), and “fiber” is good (prevents cancer! lowers cholesterol!), etc., etc.  Now, one is not so sure! 

         In a recent article on fiber by a reporter of the Associated Press, reprinted in The Record of New Jersey,the title proclaims “Another magic bullet misses mark” followed by “Fiber, miracle food no more, one of many recent letdowns.” ²  This gives you the impression that we should no longer include fiber in our diet.  But what is fiber in the first place?  Unlike specific, well-defined chemicals or drugs such as caffeine, aspirin, or cocaine, fiber and other food substances being studied in humans are seldom clearly defined.  Add to this the high variability of the complex human organism, you have many strikes against you in trying to obtain meaningful results.  I can see the rationale behind the use of statistics to determine the validity or significance of a study using a pure chemical drug ON a complex human being, where at least the non-human part is constant.  On the other hand, I can’t see the justification of using statistics to rationalize the results of studying complex variable natural materials ON an even more complex human organism.  With the potential myriad of permutations among the countless variables, how scientific can these studies be and how valid their results?  This is an aspect of clinical trials on natural materials that has always bothered me.  Just imagine taking a relatively simple artificial mixture of ONLY caffeine, chlorogenic acid, theophylline, catechin, huperzine A, ginsenoside Rb1, cocaine, ephedrine, hypericin, ursolic acid, cimetidine, berberine, aspirin, and guar gum, and try to study the effect of caffeine in humans!  This is simply out of control!  This mixture is not even half as complex as a natural material like ginseng or eleuthero.  Yet, can any researchers honestly say they have a controlled study under this kind of situation?  Not unless they are totally ignorant in, or oblivious to, the non-human aspects of their study.  By this I mean the natural materials (“drugs”) they are studying.  Up to this day, many researchers (including pharmaceutical and medical) continue to regard natural materials (be it an herb or herbal extract) which they study, as pure chemicals, knowingly or unknowingly, 21 years after the publication of the infamous study of “ginseng” that resulted in the term “ginseng abuse syndrome!”  In that study, the author considered any commercial product with a label of “ginseng” as ginseng, presumably Asian ginseng (Issue 18)!³  Without at least controlling the natural materials under study, no wonder there are so many controversial research findings.  It is like the researchers have been comparing oranges with apples all these years!  It is no wonder we keep getting conflicting health advises.  Because there are no uniform criteria or standards for evaluating/selecting substances like fibers, coffees, teas, or ginsengs as materials to be studied (Issue 19), one researcher’s results may be positive while another’s negative.  And when these reach the popular press, the results are frequently misinterpreted, exaggerated, suppressed, or manipulated, to suit its own agenda.  The end result is a very confused public, even me, though I am more skeptical than confused!  Take the case of fiber.  The reporter of above article makes it sound like fiber is a single, chemically well-defined drug that is expected to produce a very specific pharmacological effect (hence he refers to it as “magic bullet”) that is supposed to prevent colon cancer.  When 2 recent studies didn’t show such effect, he declared the “magic bullet misses mark.”  But fiber is not a single-chemical drug like aspirin or morphine!  Unless all scientists agree to clearly define what fiber is whenever it is being studied, the results would be different each time, no matter how many times “fiber” is being studied.  The attitude we should assume concerning any kind of clinical trial with natural substances, especially with foods and food ingredients, is to consider any of their findings simply as potentially useful information to add to our collective traditional wisdom or common sense.  They should never be taken as new definitive scientific wisdom, at least not until the scientific world agrees on what they are actually studying when it comes to natural food materials.  For now, like always, moderation is the key to good health.  I don’t know about you, but I continue to eat eggs whenever I want to, though not excessively.  I prefer butter to margarine because I simply have never believed that margarine is better or even good for you, and I don’t eat that much butter anyway.  Regarding fiber, I don’t have any regular diet regimen for that either, though I eat whatever fruits and vegetables that are available to me.  All these plus a little (just a little) guilt feeling that I should eat more of this, or less of that, due to years of subconscious indoctrination by bad science, especially via the popular media. 

(2) D.Q. Haney, “Why Healthy-Eating Rules Change So Much – Another Magic Bullet Misses Mark,” The Record, New Jersey, April 22, 2000, p. A-9;  (3) R.K. Siegel, “Ginseng Abuse Syndrome,” JAMA, 241: 1614-1615(1979).

“… While both the natural and synthetic versions of a chemical contain impurities, these impurities are quite different. In a genuinely natural chemical from a traditional herb or food, one that is extracted without involving reactions with other synthetic chemicals, the impurities present have been safely ingested along with this chemical in the herb/food for a long time, often many centuries.  On the other hand, its synthetic version has been produced usually through numerous synthetic steps (chemical reactions), generating many new chemicals as impurities. The chemists try their best to purify the resulting chemical by removing these impurities. Still, there are always traces of these unknown impurities left…”

Have they ever been identified or tested for their toxicities?  Ask the folks who make synthetic “pharmaceutical-grade” drugs, including psilocybin, in coming years. Don’t buy their products unless free of impurities!

#CompassPathway#, #GeorgeGoldsmith#, #EkatrinaMalievskaia#

#Impurities# #contaminants#

From my recent book, “My Life & Rollercoaster Career” pp. 235-236; it was first published in March 1997, 23 yrs ago, in which I already pointed out the problem with ‘modern’ drug therapy and its vicious cycle created by the synthetic drugs’ impurities and contaminants:

“… While both the natural and synthetic versions of a chemical contain impurities, these impurities are quite different. In a genuinely natural chemical from a traditional herb or food, one that is extracted without involving reactions with other synthetic chemicals, the impurities present have been safely ingested along with this chemical in the herb/food for a long time, often many centuries.  On the other hand, its synthetic version has been produced usually through numerous synthetic steps (chemical reactions), generating many new chemicals as impurities. The chemists try their best to purify the resulting chemical by removing these impurities. Still, there are always traces of these unknown impurities left…”

Have they ever been identified or tested for their toxicities?  Ask the folks who make synthetic “pharmaceutical-grade” drugs, including psilocybin, in coming years. Don’t buy their products unless free of impurities!

#CompassPathway#, #GeorgeGoldsmith#, #EkatrinaMalievskaia#

Much of it is in the vicious cycle, governed by greed. This v.c. only benefits its owners & associates, but gives the rest of us more diseases and miseries. I believe it started with our transition from natural medicines to synthetic chemicals in our modern drug era. Synthetics have since been gradually and steadily replacing our tried-and-true traditional natural medicines. During this period of over 100 years, especially the past 80, we have created a massive confusion that somehow led to our v.c. And the twisted mix of faux sciences applied equally to both synthetic and natural therapeutics, with a heavy dose of politics, have finally landed us where we currently are – a largely unresolvable mess. It’s a mix of drugs and supplements entangled in a big glob of not easily identifiable and separable goodies and baddies In my next post, I’ll offer a glimpse of hope for our younger generations with the recently rediscovered world of fungi, esp. psilocybin mushrooms. But much hard work is still ahead. Stay tuned! hashtag#healthcare hashtag#sickcare hashtag#viciouscycle hashtag#greed hashtag#newdiseases hashtag#syntheticdrugs hashtag#natural hashtag#medicines hashtag#therapies hashtag#politics hashtag#confusion hashtag#sciences hashtag#mushrooms hashtag#fungi hashtag#psilocybin hashtag#herbalsupplements

It was firmly established when a new drug, Valbenazine (Ingrezza), was approved by our FDA in April, 2017, for treating Tardive Dyskinesia, a totally new disease caused by taking mental-health drugs, along with other drugs to treat their accompanying side effects. The drug scientists might not have known that they were heading down the wrong path to the v.c., but once in it, they should certainly realize its disastrous effects on humans, and stop. But I was wrong! They not only didn’t slow down, but accelerated the marketing pace to be sure our tax dollars, in $billions, are rushed to their coffers in the name of helping TD sufferers. I see no problem if the scientists were so dedicated to their ‘scientific’ pursuit that they simply never realized their achievements were actually causing human pain and suffering. However, when they found out, they would make amends as any decent or honest scientists would. Instead, they sold their soul to the devil. How disappointing! hashtag#viciouscycle hashtag#newdrugs hashtag#mental health hashtag#valbenazine hashtag#ingrezza hashtag#tardivedyskinesia hashtag#drug hashtag#scientists hashtag#human hashtag#painandsuffering hashtag#billionsdollars hashtag#makeamends hashtag#honest hashtag#devil

No one seems to know. I have already discussed this earlier. The “vicious cycle” is the result of the confusion, equating natural chemicals with their synthetic counterparts. Our current advances in scientific measurements should have no problem differentiating the theoretical from the actual. Now that we can synthesize chemicals that are tens, hundreds, or thousands (or more) times stronger in biological activity than those of their natural sister chemicals, 1 molecule in a million molecules of the drug can do us harm. After 80 years making and testing synthetic drugs within our v.c. without success, now on the verge of starting a potential huge natural healing system in our mental health fields, it’s essential that we not let natural hemp and psilocybin mushroom products fall into the v.c. trap again. Join me and my colleagues to publicize and share our new non-synthetic technologies so that their benefits can reach the most people possible, not just a tiny rich few. hashtag#synthetic hashtag#natural hashtag#viciouscycle hashtag#confusing hashtag#impurities hashtag#BigPharma hashtag#mentalhealth hashtag#healing hashtag#psilocybinmushroom hashtag#hemp

I have been into both synthetic and natural drugs for 55 years and I’ve learned a lot; still learning. Our efforts spent in healthcare (sick care) are mostly for self-interest, not for the common good. For example, if our expertise is mass spectrometry, we would use this technique to try to do a job no matter how convoluted or irrelevant the outcome, which could have been easily done by simpler, cheaper, and more appropriate techniques. And in drug discovery, whatever new drugs developed depends on our particular specialty (alkaloids, terpenoids, or steroids, etc.) not what is best for any disease targeted.

REACTION SCIENCE is another term I’d like to add to the crowded field of ‘modern’ research terminology. Our immunity is something we always have, inherited from our ancestors. It was ruined by our ‘scientific’ drugs during past decades. Then, some bright minds among our younger generations discovered that it was ‘lost.’ Now, we are trying to catch up with the field of microbiome, using the same scientific approaches we know. Is this yet another lifeforce to be rediscovered which we always had, but lost? hashtag#incidental hashtag#reaction hashtag#science hashtag#drugtherapy hashtag#synthetic hashtag#sickcare hashtag#immunity hashtag#terminology hashtag#microbiome hashtag#lifeforce

When inedible, non-ingestible, or potential, highly toxic chemicals (e.g., petrochemicals) are used in synthesizing our drugs or chemical supplements, 2 issues automatically arise. 

            (1)  The drugs themselves are totally brand-new to our planet, so are their accompanying byproducts and intermediates, with which our body and other living systems on earth have never had prior contact. 

            (2) The drugs are not purified to a uniform, sufficient purity like 100.00% or better (not to mention a 100.000000%), to be DEVOID OF impurities, after purification, which would cause side effects. Hence, all drugs with their ‘normally’ allowed amounts of impurities have side effects at their normal therapeutic doses.

When these drugs cause side effects (some become new diseases), we have no idea what therein causes them, unless we subject every single one of the chemicals making up these impurities to the standard testing protocol applied to new drugs (in vitro, in vivo, small organisms to animals, clinical trials, etc.). Regardless, we treat these new side effects or new diseases with more drugs, new or old.  Therefore, when a new drug is used in such situations, it is basically for treating DRUG-CAUSED or MANMADE diseases, e.g., Valbenazine for Tardive Dyskinesia. This is a perpetually lucrative deal for drug makers as they can now make any drug, whether effective or highly toxic, and charge anything they want with impunity. No scientists or consumers seem to dare raise any questions. That’s why I call it the VICIOUS CYCLE, as it only benefits Big Pharma & Associates. And it exploits drug consumers/patients and the rest of us taxpayers who have been brainwashed to pay exorbitant prices as a necessity for drugs.

For these reasons, I strongly believe that our health, like life, is sacrosanct. No one should be allowed to mess with it, let alone exploit it for self-gain and simultaneously ruining our health. This is not much different from taking a life, but slowly, and perpetually repeating the cycle for more consumers or patients (i.e., lives). What do we normally call this, besides my calling it the V.C.? Think about it!  As intelligent and honest scientists, unless you were part owner of the V.C., don’t you think there is something wrong with this – something inhuman?

#viciouscycle #inedible #noningestible #toxic #impurities #petrochemicals #chemcial #supplements #purity #devoidof #normal #sideeffects #newdiseases #drugcaused #manmade #BigPharma #takinglives #protocol #drugtesting #exploit #impunity #valbenazine #tardivedyskinesia 

We are all educated in the Big-Pharma way, followed by practical training or engaging in a drug-related profession in industry or academia. If you are an exception, the following post (article) is NOT for you. In order for my colleagues to understand what I am talking about, please read my earlier post (article), “A Disruptive Concept in Drug Therapy” here or on my blog: www.ayslcorp.com/blog. What exactly do I mean by the VICIOUS CYCLE? Please go to my new article, to be uploaded momentarily on LinkedIn… Or you may simply Google my name and the article’s title. It’d probably show up. hashtag#viciouscycle hashtag#BigPharma hashtag#disruptiveconceptindrugtherapy