Scientists found a surprising potential use for the psychedelic in magic mushrooms

The psychedelic compound that makes magic mushrooms so trippy shows serious promise for protecting cancer patients from years of chronic pain. For people undergoing cancer treatment, the nerve pain associated with blasting the body with chemo can be debilitating. Even worse, the pain and discomfort can last for years — well after the body is done fighting cancer — and there’s no effective treatment that relieves it. Known as peripheral neuropathy, the condition is caused by damage to nerves in the extremities, often the hands, feet, arms, and legs. Now, a research group led by clinicians and researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found that psilocybin administered to mice prior to dosing them with chemo completely blocks the painful condition from developing. Mice in the study received two doses of psilocybin, the compound in mushrooms that causes hallucinations. They then underwent six rounds of chemotherapy lasting six months. Animals in a control group not given psilocybin went on to develop hypersensitivity to pain, a dulled sense of touch in their paws, and “withered” sensory nerve fibers in their skin. Miraculously, the animals treated with psi…