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Could magic mushrooms be used to treat pneumonia patients?

Irish researchers are attempting to find out.

SOME €13.5 MILLION is going to be spent on medical research projects in Ireland over the next five years, Health Minsiter Leo Varadkar announced today.

A total of 36 projects will be funded by the Health Research Board (HRB), covering areas such as cancer, HIV and pneumonia.

Professor Neil Rowan will head up a team of scientists at Athlone Institute of Technology and NUI Galway who are looking into how a combination of stem cells and a component of magic mushrooms, Beta-1-6-D-glucans, could be used to help pneumonia patients.

The researchers hope that the study could lead to an alternative to antibiotics.

Pneumonia accounts for 5% of deaths in Ireland. It is the most common cause of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome where there is currently no specific therapy.

“This will hopefully impact on patient care by offering a new therapeutic intervention, something that doesn’t exist at this moment in time,” Rowan said.

The successful research projects were selected from a long-list of 190 applications. Thirty two of them will receive funding of up to €330,000 and must be completed in three years, while four will receive up to €800,000 and will be completed within five years.

The research teams are spread across Ireland, with researchers linked to TCD, UCD, NUI Galway, UCC, RCSI, Athlone Institute of Technology, Maynooth University and University of Limerick.

HIV and Cancer

Dr Patrick Mallon is leading a team in UCD that will be researching how to limit bone loss in HIV patients on anti-retroviral drugs.

As people with HIV now live into old age because of the success of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), long-term effects of HIV and its treatment, such as osteoporosis, are becoming major issues.

The group will conduct a clinical trial on 80 people with HIV who are about to start ART. Participants will either receive a short course of alendronate or a placebo taken weekly for 14 weeks. The study will determine the loss of bone density over the first year of ART between the two treatment groups.

Meanwhile, Dr Juliette Hussey from Trinity College will be assessing the effect of diet and exercise in helping patients who are recovering from surgery for oesophageal cancer, the sixth most common cancer in Ireland.

Hussey noted that there is currently a low survival rate for people with this form of the disease, but said this is improving.

The Government might well be keeping a close eye on one of the projects in particular. Dr Steve Thomas from TCD will be looking into what Ireland needs to do to successfully implement universal health care.

Varadkar announced the funding at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin today.

He said that the investment highlighted “the Government’s commitment to developing new research in areas with a clear health benefit, as well as developing new approaches to health care, and boosting the medical science sector”.

Every treatment, every medical device and every procedure in our health service starts with a good idea that has been proved in practice.

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31 Comments
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    Mute Stuart Piercy
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    Oct 29th 2014, 2:28 PM

    As far as I am aware the mushrooms in the picture are NOT magic mushrooms and are poisonous so do not eat etc. Very misleading.

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    Mute Paddy Mac
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    Oct 29th 2014, 2:29 PM

    Whhhaaatttt!! Oops :(

    67
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    Mute alpha_chaarlie
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:54 PM

    Certainly don’t look like any of the mushies I took as a teenager!

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    Mute SpliffDude
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    Oct 29th 2014, 6:23 PM

    These are Irish magic mushrooms
    http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1999543.ece/alternates/s2197/Magic-Mushrooms.jpg

    Good times! Always look for a nipple. Nipples are good! :)

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    Mute Catherine Mayock
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    Oct 29th 2014, 10:01 PM

    And I thought silly season was over.

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    Mute conor
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:04 PM

    Ffs, that’s not a liberty cap… You might just have poisoned someone thanks to such a misleading picture.
    Its like showing a picture of bleach when you meant water.

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    Mute Bella Gunning
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:34 PM

    I remember collecting liberty caps each October in front of our boarding school. We called it Oktoberfest and the memories still make smile…
    They were legal then of course, times were simpler and people were happier shape-shifters

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    Mute alpha_chaarlie
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:54 PM

    10 times better than LSD

    33
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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Oct 29th 2014, 2:24 PM

    And how do I to about getting me some of this pneumonia you speak of?

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    Mute buzzbaron
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:16 PM

    You should try go picking in a tank top and a pair of your power rangers undies, should solve your problem!

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    Mute BlueSkyThinking
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    Oct 29th 2014, 2:42 PM

    Magic mushrooms have been used to help smokers quit. A recent study (albeit a small sample size) had an 80% success rate. Compare this to the most successful current treatment—the drug varenicline which has only has a 35% success rate. And to think Mary Harney made them illegal here.
    http://time.com/3399433/quit-smoking-psychedelic-drugs-acid-test/

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    Mute conor
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:13 PM

    Show no picture if you cant google ‘liberty cap’, or write no article if you cant google ‘liberty cap’.
    For anyone who doesn’t know, ‘magic mushrooms’ in Ireland are called liberty caps…
    I don’t ingest them, but I know what they look like. Very distinct nipple on top, can vary in colour depending on age and weather conditions. Found in almost every county, and world renowned for there properties.

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    Mute Phil O' Meara
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    Oct 29th 2014, 2:45 PM

    The photo accompanying this piece was originally a poisonous toadstool which was dangerous because someone could consume one thinking they were eating magic mushrooms.

    There’s now an accurate photo of magic mushrooms up so people now know what they look like.

    Interesting quandary….

    36
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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:06 PM

    Ok I don’t want to sound like someone in the know but I think those mushrooms are still not magic mushrooms. They look very very similar.
    Those in the pic have very pronounced grooves on the head.
    They’ll probably change the pic a third time.

    51
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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:07 PM

    Also magic mushrooms are brown and they’re more of a grey colour.

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    Mute Dean Holmes
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:02 PM

    Don’t take them ones in the pic!!! Look out for the nipples on top of the shroom,liberty caps!

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    Mute Dave J
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:03 PM

    the eskimos in my tea cup say mushrooms are really good for you

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    Mute Joe Travers
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    Oct 29th 2014, 5:39 PM

    .uoy rof taerg era yeht kniht I tub .namtab htiw tahc a gnivah gniliec eht morf gingnah mi .ereh txet ot gnilggurts ma I

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Oct 29th 2014, 6:12 PM

    !nwod gnitteg kcul dooG

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    Mute Joe Travers
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    Oct 29th 2014, 7:22 PM

    Sknaht iva

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    Mute Glen
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:06 PM

    Shroooooooooooooommmmssss

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    Mute conor
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:16 PM
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    Mute Peter Grimes
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:57 PM

    The mushrooms in the Dail are poison,

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    Mute Isaac Smyth
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    Oct 29th 2014, 6:08 PM

    They cause psychosis in some people. Can be permanent.

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    Mute Mary Lyons
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:30 PM

    At least you probably wouldnt be giving a sh!t about the symtoms!

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    Mute CeannComhairleDollop
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    Oct 29th 2014, 4:08 PM

    Sure they can, they’re magic after all aren’t they?

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    Mute Gavin Scott
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    Oct 29th 2014, 7:09 PM

    No way, I reckon they can use these to treat paranoia instead!

    2
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