How Ketamine Therapy Heals the Brain

Introduction to the Functional Edge 0:00

Ketamine as an agent in a lot of places will administer ketamine. As an IV infusion, you go in, and you get the medicine, then you leave. However, because you're really working at that deep state, that subconscious state. What arises, especially with patients who have trauma or have deep-seated root issues that leads to the symptoms of depression or anxiety, say something that happened in childhood, something really challenging or something really traumatic or abuse or things that live in our history and our memory that really sometimes lives there without us fully being aware of it.

Welcome to the Functional Edge. I'm Dr. Julia Ward, and this is where science meets real-world strategies for living healthier, sharper and stronger. From uncovering hidden environmental toxins to unlocking peak performance and mental clarity, we cover it all. Ready to take control of your health and thrive? Let's dive in. Welcome to the Functional Ed podcast. I am your host, Dr. Julia Ward, medical director and founder of Balanced Body Function Medicine. Today, we are honored to welcome Dr Ahmed to our show.

And in this episode, the Dr, Ahmed will be sharing insights on mental health and ketamine therapy. and offering expert guidance to help you navigate your health journey with the latest advancements in functional medicine. So stay tuned for an engaging conversation that promises to empower and inspire your path to wellness. Again, today's guest, Dr. Aya Ahmad, is a physician, educator, researcher, and lifelong learner whose career has been dedicated to treating some of the most vulnerable populations.

Dr. Ahmad began her journey as a biochemical engineer before earning her medical degree and completing her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Guest Background and Ketamine Overview 2:00

She went on to serve as clinical faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and associate professor of pediatrics at The University Of California San Francisco. Her passion for whole-person care led her to complete advanced training in integrative psychiatry, ketamine-assisted therapy, and narrative medicine at Columbia University. Today, she's the medical director and co-founder of Shaw Minds, a healing center in Sacramento, where she blends integrate psychedelic and narrative medicine to guide the healing for adults and adolescents.

Dr. Amand brings a unique perspective to mental health care, grounded in compassion, science, and a deep belief in the human connection. I'm honored to have her here today to discuss the powerful role of ketamine and the future of psychedelic medicine. Welcome. Oh, that was such a beautiful intro. It was like impressed by myself. Like, wow, That was beautifully presented. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Well, for those new to the concept of ketamine therapy, can you explain how ketamine works neurochemically, especially in contrast to traditional antidepressants?

And why can it create such rapid shifts in mood and perception? Well, that's a very involved question and I'll do my best to answer it. Ketamine, I tell patients ketamine is an antidepressant. It is antidespressants, it is anti-anxiety, anti anxiolytic medicine, and it's an anti inflammatory agent. it isn't anesthetic. Medicine is used commonly in emergency rooms and for short term procedures. And in low dose, less than, you know, sub anesthetics dosing, doesn't an aesthetic dosage that you would use in the hospital.

And what does it mean for a medicine to be a psychedelic? As a psychadelic, it acts on the central nervous system, on gabinergic system. So it's a whole different operating system than what you'd have for, say, serotonin system which is SSRIs and SNRI. But it works on a GABA system that is a glutaminergic system and there are probably more receptors of gabanergic in the nervous than they are seratonin. So it works pretty broadly on the brain and the nervous system, and I would say in certain parts where they're more denser collection of those receptors, the NMDA receptor particularly, it blocks that receptor.

And it really increases the glutamate release, which acts on then the downstream, those other signaling pathways that enter the cell and increase or decrease in excitatory activity of those neurons. And so it basically lowers the neuronal activity that's really hyperactive. in certain parts of the brain, which are really affected by trauma. So the hippocampal, the default mode network system of our body in our brain. And by tuning down that default-mode system, that network, it really opens up or allows access to the other parts our our brains, our cortical sensory processing activity.

This is a very similar activity that happens when you sleep. So when sleep, you are actually turning down your default mode network and your brain then is able to really do a lot of sorting and processing. And so you have dreams and you sensory experiences and think you're floating and those sort of things. It's that deep meditative state that you access to in a sleep state, in good sleep states. So that's essentially what ketamine does. It really opens that window of the brain and really allows for you to enter the deep state of relaxation.

And as you're doing that, as as your in that state, you are able to really visualize or process or really kind of think about things in a very supportive, very relaxed way. I tell patients that ketamine is a sympathomatic agent. It actually does two things. Really, it relaxes the nervous system, but it also activates the cardiac system with the, you know, the sympathetic response as well. And so it's a metabolically involved process where your, really your brain, your heart pumps more, and it actually increases blood flow through the brain.

So that's why the blood pressure rises. But it, also, relax is the nerve system. You're like, oh, so you're thinking about things while you Yeah. And just to clarify that default mode pathway or that sort of default, what do you call that? Neuronal pathway. That's like your usual way of thinking. These are like the stories we tell ourselves. Like, I can't eat butter because I do this. Or, you know, like, yeah, can go down this street because there's danger down here.

How Ketamine Works in the Brain 7:00

I call them really like fixed pathways that become very fixed because it's your functional brain. It's you're awake brain that says, Oh, I've got to do this. I'm going to that. Okay. Think about this, but it becomes very. Fixed and may become pretty rigid. So that becomes the only pathway sometimes when you are really focused or, and for people who've had traumatic experience or have are depressed or who are anxious, those pathways become such a rigid process that it's hard to break through, right?

So by tuning it down, you're able to really access the other parts of you. The other aspect of how ketamine works intracellularly is that has an upregulation of AMBER receptors. which are a release of other synaptic proteins inside the cell. And that synoptic signaling pathway increases what we call BDNF. BdNf is a brain-derived neurotropic factor, which allows, again, for the neuronal growth or neurotopic or dendritic growth in neurons itself. So it's like the fertilizer, I'd say, of the brain or the...

So you're kind of like adding fertilizer to your brain by doing this treatment. BDNF is a natural neurohormone, right? It's made in the body, and made when your body is relaxed, when you body's sleeping well, your has good nutrition, you do deep meditation. So it's a very natural hormone that is there to, again, to enhance and regenerate and support that. There's also activation of mTOR, which again increases signaling and production of other neural hormones, like other neurotransmitters. So there's that cascade effect as well that happens when ketamine is administered.

I also call ketamine an anti-medication. It is a medicine that works on the nervous system even after it's cleared the body, right, because of this cascade effect. Because it actually, you know, activates this system synaptic signaling and your growth and regeneration and secondary production of other neurotransmitters which become depleted, say, in depression or anxiety or even anxiety. That's great. What ketamine does is it has metabolites. And this is where that secondary antidepressant effect occurs.

So you asked about how does this actually work rapidly? Well, it a rapid response when it works in most patients. The secondary response happens with the metabolite, which is the hydroxynolketamine. which has that antidepressant effect. So even after ketamine clears the body, the metabolites of ketamines still remain and, you know, last anywhere from 7 to 10 to 14 days. And that allows for that, again, keeps that anti-depressant affect ongoing. Yeah, that's awesome. You offer ketamine assisted psychotherapy rather than just like ketamin in isolation.

What is it about the therapeutic container like the presence of a trained guide or therapist that deepens that healing process? Oh, that's a beautiful question and a very important one. Ketamine as an agent in a lot of places will administer ketamine, as in IV infusion, you go in, and you get the medicine, then you leave. However, because you're really working at that deep state, the subconscious state. What arises, especially with patients who have trauma or have deep-seated root issues that leads to the symptoms of depression or anxiety, say something that happened in childhood, something really challenging or something very traumatic or abuse or things that live in our history and our memory that really sometimes live there without us fully being aware of it.

And we know that something is there and it's there, and lives in the experience of our daily life, but we don't really make that direct connection to it And that's really what we get access to in a deep meditative state. And with that, you never know what can come up in any situation with patients when they've had really dark experiences. So the involvement of having a trained facilitator or therapist or a doctor who is trained in supporting the experience of that session is vital to the treatment.

to really help process. And the therapeutic container, as you described, is truly an important container to have because not only does somebody need to preparation in therapy to understand their intentions of what they're seeking, in treating the root cause of their depression or trauma that's showing up in their life now, say, things that happened 20 years ago, and it's now showing off in that life, now in some form or fashion. Having that preparation with trained providers is also a part of that process.

So you kind of develop that connection in relationship with a therapist or guide or doctor who can kind to guide you in in preparation for the sessions. And then when one person starts beginning their treatment, having somebody there in the room, because these experiences can, you know, sometimes having someone's presence there, somebody's hand to hold or somebody to observe that you're going to be okay, just having that presence is really a powerful one. And then after their experience, the therapy around that can be really, again, opening up to that processing of that experience.

It gives the patient some homework or some ideas of what to do and how to take the key points out into practice into their daily life. So it involves kind of both the preparation, both, the actual experience and even the aftercare of an experience like this, which is where we see the real change in transformation in treatment. Yeah. So many people still equate ketamine with either its anesthetic or even recreational use. What are some of your most persistent myths or misunderstandings that you've encountered in your clinical work?

Yeah, I would say even for me as a physician who had used ketamine as an anesthetic agent for short-term procedures. I mean, in hospitals, they often used Ketamine in suturing patients, or even, for sure, procedures, seeing kids kind of talk a lot about what they were seeing. We used to call it a hallucinatory dissociative anesthetics, that patients just become kind-of unaware of their body, you know, was talking and suture them. They're talking to you and you're suturing them and they have no idea what you are doing and don't even care.

It is quite magical. That's one aspect. And they're calm. They are very thoughtful and insightful and will be talking. So yes, that was kind of my own experience. And then when I actually had to study the science of psychedelics, I was profoundly moved by just knowing that, oh my God, this is what's actually happening. There is actually this release, there's really powerful kind who people are. They get connected to their true self and they really feel calm in that state. And also they're having what we call hallucinations.

Well, those hallucination now in treatment, when patients are treated, we actually give them you know, eye mask, music, and they have kind of hallucinations in their thoughts and their minds, but those hallucination are really experiences, you now, that they've had.

Therapeutic Container and Guided Sessions 15:00

Or their understanding or their, just how you dream when you have a very vivid dream, essentially that's a hallucinating. So that perception, shift in understanding that as a perception really was profound and we use this aspect in therapy. So that's one way as a recreational drug, ketamine is on the streets, unfortunately. And as medicine that is a dissociative, meaning people don't, with high doses or really high level doses, people have no recall, you know, they get, that you don t require any oxygen with the anesthetic.

It doesn't require the airway support. People, it's like having a, and just getting them you know, drunk and not having that recall of an experience can be really why it's on as a recreational medicine or drug. And yes, that is the conception or misconception of ketamine as recreational drug and for the same reason, though, when it is done in a facilitated way. Ketamine is a true, I would say, medicine to treat, again, that depression that's really been resistant, right? Yes. It's not been, hasn't, you know, depression, it's, not, the resistant part is, and I always question, what does treatment-resistant depression really mean?

Because that the indications for ketamine, Right? It is treatment resistant conditions, especially depression. And my question is why is it, What's resistant? Who is resistant? Is it the patient or is it a medicine? You know, because we give a lot of medication in psychiatry. We start with the SSRIs, we start them with NSS and we have a list of nano antipsychotics. And then we go to, oh my God, it's not working. It's working on this patient. This patient is treatment resistant. Is that the patients fault?

No, no. It's really the medication that's not working. Right, the medications not work for their biochemistry for whatever reason. Yeah, exactly. And we know from some of the STAR-D trials, if you're familiar with that, that by the time a patient has had first line, second line third line the treatment response diminishes. By the third-line treatment, 60% of patients are not going to respond. And it becomes even more resistant each time you make that switch. So by the time, you know, at your third line treatment, only about 7% of patients are going to respond to a third switch of antidepressant.

That means 93% percent of the patients aren't going have to be achieving remission by switching medication. It's important to understand that the neurochemistry in depression or treating any kind of condition and where it's acting on. Yeah. You've been trained in MDMA assisted therapy as well. How does the internal experience and the therapeutic mechanism of MDM differ from that of ketamine and what unique healing opportunities does each offer? Well, each of the psychedelics have a unique, I would say, signature effect.

MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, the neurochemistry is different. And MDM, say in particularly, works as a psychedelic in a very different way. It really works on the dopamine pathways. And also, it has a difference in release of oxytocin and serotonin. It works on different operating systems than, say, the NMDA receptor system or the gabinergic system of KeV. Psilocybin works the seratonin system, but on the 5H2 receptor sites, which are quite more prominent in the brain, versus the And there's several types of serotonin receptor systems in the body, and the 5-H2 receptors are really where psilocybin acts.

So yes, each of these psychedelic medicines do work on different parts of the nervous system and have their own signature effect. The difference between that is MDMA, again, by increasing serotonin and oxytocin, really creates that sense of connection and love. While some of these, taking the medicine, they actually feel a lot more aware to their emotions, to the sense self, the connection with others, that So MDMA can often be used for treatments where people need to have some processing, especially in communication with somebody else, like working through situations.

So as a medicine, it kind of works in that level, keeping that. Where people can have deep, hard conversations on a couple's work. I was going to say, was it not originally like a couples therapy kind Yeah. Yeah, it is. And it has been used. I mean, ketamine as well, but MPMA, I would say, would probably be a better choice if it was legal to use for that very purpose or for family, you know, family therapy, working through things where we let go of our ego, Our ego just kind of diminishes and we have these conversations that really, you know, allows for that empathetic connection.

We often hear ketamine described as a disruptor of entrenched thought patterns. In your experience, how does this disruption help patients with chronic depression, PTSD, or anxiety find a sense of renewal or hope? Yeah. Well, another very complex question, which I'll attempt to answer. You know, as a disruptor, and we spoke about the default mode, you know. And often when we're depressed, we have, again, that ruminating thought, That negative self-talk that tends to kind of linger or just become that fixed

Myths, Misconceptions, and Treatment Resistance 21:00

pathway of like, I can't do this. I don't deserve this,I don t need this doesn't work for me. It doesn t work living. Those pathways become such a a prominent process that becomes the only way when patients have that chronic process happening in the brain. And ketamine comes in and you give it in, and it just clears that default system. And we see that often when patients say, wow, something's lifted. My brain feels alive and clear. I don't have those thoughts anymore. Where do they go? So for suicidality, for instance, ketamine is indicated for suicidal ideation as well, and it works really quickly.

When it does, it work very quickly and kind of clears, really just working on that negative self, which is again the frontal cortex, right, the executive brain. is the part of the brain that says, put the brakes on this, you don't need to do this. And it's a developmental effect too, right? And when you're an adolescent and that's the only thing you are hearing is stop, don�t do that, because it�s that braking system. So again, it just clears that opens up, blocks that kind of pathway of thinking and clears the process as a medicine for suicidal ideation, this can be really powerful.

As a pediatric hospitalist, I'm having to admit children, adolescents coming in who are really, you know, therefore, because, they can't break from that thought pattern. And the next step is suicide attempt. We were in the emergency rooms having, to manage or find beds for these adolescents in, the hospital, using ketamine as a drug to help break through that, without that risk of increasing suicide ideation like you have with SSRIs. Ketamine to really clear that suicide radiation so they don't necessarily have to be admitted.

They can go home and then still continue treatment but without that risk of loss. Which is huge because before ketamine we really didn't have anything for somebody who was actively suicidal. traditional antidepressants takes weeks to kind of take a hold. So it's nice to have something that's immediate. S-ketamine is FDA approved for treatment resistant depression with SI or suicidal ideation. At our center, we use IV ketamine. which, again, is not FDA approved for, you know, the same condition. It's the the drug.

And it's only because esketamine is a pharmaceutical medication, Spravato, that was, And it's tested for... Because Big Pharma came up with it. Yes, that's correct. That's right. With advances in neuroimaging and neuroplasticity research, how do you think brain science is helping to validate and destigmatize psychedelic medicine? Oh, wow, beautiful question. Again, the way I see brain science really emerging is really from really seeing the brain for what it is, for the systems that it supports and how it works.

Understanding the science of, you know, that neuroscience of thinking or thought or even behaviors. Really seeing that in our centers, we've just started a brain map. brain mapping using quantified EEG to really visualize the activity in terms of brain waves in people and seeing that. And once one of these can see what a depressed brain looks like and what it visually looks on by looking at the brain wave patterns, It really validates patients. They see, oh my God, it's not just in my head. It actually is something that's actually happening.

Yeah. Physical. There's no explanation for it. And then by doing, say, trans-magnetic stimulation or other treatment modalities where you actually can work on those specific areas, you're actually then recharging or renewing that dysfunction that happens with Again, for whatever neurochemical or physiological reason, you can actually treat that. So yes, I do see the science of psychedelics and science psychiatry really becoming more about intervention, interventional psychiatr. where you're looking at the brain in neurochemically and also emotionally, you can really work with patients, understand their story, understanding who they are, and understand the context of where they live and how they And by understanding all aspects of somebody's condition, right, not just their symptoms, you're really supporting the true self and emergence of that in a very holistic way, as well as, scientific way and objective ways you can really get to a good place in treatment.

And a lot of our patients are really learning through this treatment program that we have where we do the integrative medicine, where you look at how they sleep, how to eat, what resources they have in their life, and then do ketamine treatments to help, again, allow for that break from those fixed ways of being and that traumatic trauma response to their body and the anti-inflammatory, antidepressant effect. And then, you know, having a way of visually looking at that, and then ketamine and TMS are really complementary and add on that durability of response.

MDMA and Other Psychedelic Therapies 27:00

But again, going back to the patient, where they now feel more motivated after treatment to have that change. When people are depressed, when they're sad, they feel stuck. Yeah, and then they feel stuck. It's energetically very dense. You know, they don't this is a lot this that inertia Yeah is really hard to really come through and so by giving something that helps alleviate that And increases dopamine increases motivation, you know. Yeah. Is that energetic level in their body? They feel more alive.

They motivated for change and then incorporating that into their treatment really moves them through that mountain that they wouldn't have had to. They would have to be harder for them to climb if they hadn't had something to help lift them. So integration is often described as like the second half of the psychedelic experience. How do you guide your patients through this phase to translate insight into meaningful, lasting change? Yeah. Integration, integration, and integration. I suggest that. On intake, when I see a patient, I'm learning really about who they are when they come in.

What brings them in? What are the things that they're struggling with right now in their life? what was it like for them when there were a child? How are they living in that life now? And what are their struggles that their experiencing and how is that affecting their health? Right? But how's that showing up in the body? I think that's an important component to first begin with, right, because you get a good grasp and foundation of what elements of resources this patient may have, what are the barriers that are preventing them from really engaging in change, and what is their imagined outcome?

You know, if I can ask a patient, What do you imagine for yourself? after this, if you go through this process, what do you imagine? Like, how do see yourself? What do imagine for yourself, because we're now building into what we call manifestation. And when somebody can imagine that, it's almost like they really are seeing it as reality, and then they're able to kind of really manifest it for themselves, for what they imagine specifically for themself. And so this kind of begins with that, you know, in that intake, we kind get an idea of where they are, what kind things they have surrounding them, whatever resources they had, and then really eliciting that sense of self and that where do they want to be.

That then gives us the secondary part of, okay, now when they start treatments, we have those key points there to say, Okay, how do you integrate what you just learned about this, you know, in your experience, where you're able to see something with a different lens? How do we bring that to your life? It becomes a homework exercise. If you just had an experience where you're able to really forgive your abuser with that compassion and you see something that tells you you have a broader view of something and see it in a different way.

You can then look at it and say, okay, this thing, traumatic thing really happened to me. It really happens to be. But now I can let that go. I could let it go and I really see myself and see that even that, there's some wisdom in that experience. And this is now when I take that and move through that with that lens of empowerment because you can move to the next phase of where you want to be. And so that's kind of how we bring integration into first kind individualize it.

Disrupting Negative Thought Loops 31:00

We know that it's the specific story elements of what is really the cause or where somebody is. And then bringing that into and bringing those key insights into their practice of living. That's wonderful. So you practice in California where there's more openness towards integrative and psychedelic therapies. Even so, what challenges do you encounter in helping patients and the broader medical community embrace ketamine-assisted therapy as a legitimate mental health treatment? That's the bigger challenge, I would say, among my peers.

I even, from my own experience, would never have thought that I'd be doing this, because I was very... I grew up in the 80s, where drugs, you know... The war on drugs. The War on Drugs, LSD, as you may know. You're melting down your brain. So for me... It really came from my own personal experience with something like this. I think only then was I able to have an awakening to something that I saw was so powerful. My own experience really allowed me to really feel that this is something important.

I actually had to go through and learn the sciences behind this to really convince myself this is real. So there is a science. And so I would tell my colleagues, there's medical science to this. This is not just voodoo medicine. There's something there. there are physiological explanations to how this works. The data speaks for itself. You know, there's many research now and plenty of data on the efficacy of psychedelics. MDMA was just, you know third phase, it got approved and then for whatever reason, that, after going through years and years of research and demonstrated effects of MDM in really eradicating PTSD, right, as a condition.

wasn't able to get to the final stages, but there's evidence even there, there is evidence with psilocybin, evidence of LSD. So I would say go to science, really convince yourself of this. You can tell patients, the word psychedelic for me was a very triggering term because I often thought psychedelics and psychosis were But psychedelic really means, you know, the mind manifesting, really, to mind opening, mind awareness. And it is a medical term and also, there's so many things that in medicine we don't know about.

We don' bring in aspects of spirituality or aspects with science there. With spirituality there is science with breath and meditation. These are the older sciences, these are indigenous sciences. These are the sciences that we have long forgotten that, we should bring into our health care. Why not ask about persons with practice in that world or their spiritual awareness, because that is a healing power. I've seen that. And I often tell patients, when you feel love, your body feels it too inside.

You've got to feel it. When you're happy and you are joyful, you know where you feel that, bringing it down to the somatic. We think our feelings are all above in our head, but they must be in the body too. When we eat something healthy, You know your gut feels it. It feels better. When you're doing something like dancing in a flow state, you feel good. You're in that out state. There's a physiological explanation for why that occurs.

Integration, Safety, and Set and Setting 35:00

And that is a very regenerative, as I said, to where BDNF increases and, you know, all these things happen. You know I've had patients who've have had cancer and gone through kind of treatments that really invite all the artistic sciences into their treatment and they had a deep response and a deeper healing. effect. Reduced side effects, reduced alternate medications to the effects. We know that stress, when somebody's stressed and you're in a stressed state and they have an infection, they're going to be worse off.

They're going to have a long or prolonged course of illness, they're gonna get secondary infections or have other things because their immune system is not the same way. Cortisol in the brain does affect cellular health. So yes, how do you reduce cortisol naturally? Right? What should someone ask themselves or a potential provider before beginning ketamine-assisted therapy? Like, what does a safe and effective treatment setting look like to you? Yeah, very important question. And this is something, again, on intake I often ask about because if somebody is in a situation where they don't have resources, having that connection with somebody else or family or that support, That's a very important component when people are going through this kind of change.

You know, who are you? Where do you live? Are you living in a toxic environment? Because these kind treatments open up that space of vulnerability. So having space around that, you're set and setting. We talk a lot about set-and-setting and what is your set like right now? What is you setting like at home right know? So these are important questions to consider when you're thinking about doing treatments like this because you do want to be in a good place or in the safe space and also have a safe support even during your treatment within a setting that supports that.

So he's trained. They know the science, they're facilitated, and they are trained in supporting patients who are going to be having kind of experiences that may take them into these vulnerable places. So that sort of training is vital. I would say don't go to a center that just is going be very casual about this type of treatment because it's not. And if you want a quick fix or you just want to try this out, It may or may not work for you, it may work, but when you really want to do this in the best way, really think about it and be prepared and have preparation.

Don't just start without really preparing your body. I've noticed that there tend to be like kind of two types of centers. There's the ones that are run like an infusion center, like in IV drip bar. that are usually put on by anesthesiologists, you know, because they're just, they are very sterile, right? And then there's the ones that more like a therapist's office where there is a lot more attention put to that set and the setting. And I personally think you're going to get a better outcome from that type of setting, where you have more, attention to the sort of detail.

Yes, our center is very much like that and it's purposefully designed to be that way. We could be easily called the infusion center because we do infusions every day and we have procedural processes, we follow the same ocean guidelines around our practice, but it doesn't look like it. We have things hidden away, we have biohazards, and you know, you have gloves, but it still gives that feel where they feel like they can have a natural conversation without feeling like their object or their number or they're a patient who is just coming in for a procedure.

It's very much about who they are as a human being. So for someone who's tried everything else, like therapy, medications, hospitalization, but they're still struggling with depression or trauma, what would you want them to know about the potential of ketamine therapy? I would say there's always hope, you know, that that is something I see a lot of. I a see lot a people who feel like they are the problem, they the disease, their label. No, your not a label, we're not disease. You have had difficult experiences, you've had challenging experiences.

Your body is responding to you in that way. But there's hope and there is other ways of treating in medicine that is a conventionally trained doctor and now trained in alternative treatments like this. I find that bringing both aspects of that, is very important still. And really understanding your medical health, your body health is just as important as your mental health.

Hope for Patients and the Future of Psychedelic Medicine 40:00

So it's not just in your head, it is also in you body. And you're body also needs to get that nourishment, that support in the treatment. Recognizing that you'll be carried through that. There will be a witness, there will a guide. You're not going to be alone in this. I think a lot of people feel like when they go to the doctor, It's all on them and they get a prescription and now they have to figure it out. Having somebody who's facilitated can be there and witness you and say, you know, just like you do when somebody's, in the ICU, going to hold their patient's hand and saying it's going be okay and that can so healing.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, finally, last question. Looking ahead, what excites you most about the next wave of psychedelic research and treatment options, whether it's MDMA, psilocybin or even digital therapeutics? Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm very excited. I think as we advance into and open up our minds, and even in conventional treatments in medicine, when we can really expand on this as a broader society, that awareness is really happening. There is a second wave of recognizing psychedelics as the form of treatment.

We're years away, though, from getting approval and getting, you know, we do have to compete with pharmaceutical companies. That is the reality. It is a big barrier for us in alternative treatments because it is very strong community of pharmaceutical drugs that really pushed on a lot of people, a No one asks those questions about, is it really truly efficacious? And so I think there's still lots to be learned there. I find that just awareness and advocacy, and that's why I like to speak out about these sort of treatments, my own, your own people's own stories and journey.

And I that has a lot of power as well. In my podcast, that is kind of really why, I feel like that an important component to sharing to the community at large. And I think once people have that awareness, there is a lot of power in that story. I'm excited about the system of change. You know, I imagine someday, as people find barriers in healthcare, in the systems of healthcare with insurance, with the challenges there, people should have options. They should. And I know that in some states, there's laws to help enhance that other alternative treatments that patients can have, especially for people with chronic conditions, bringing in that digital component to care, looking at biometric.

I'm all about advancing and incorporating the advanced technologies into integrative medicine into holistic care. And I think just, you know, having that awareness and openness to it will take time, but definitely is happening as we speak. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on our podcast today. It was really educational and super fun and enlightening. So thank And if anybody wants to know more, they can look us up on our website. I'm in Sacramento, California at www.shaminds.com.

And on the website, we have a lot of resources. So even if you don't live in California, you just want to learn more about this. We have lots of resource on a website that you can podcast who we have a lot of resources where we really engage in the community of medicine and expand on what we know as scientists, as engineers, and doctors and people learning more about what they want and seeking for it. That's awesome. Do you offer telehealth as well? Yes, I do. Okay, that's perfect. Well, thanks again.

Thank you for joining me on the functional edge. I hope today's episode gave you fresh insights and practical tools to level up your life. If you found value in what you heard, don't forget to hit subscribe, share the podcast with someone who needs it and leave a review. It's the best way to support our mission of bringing powerful health solutions to more people. For more resources, updates, and behind-the-scenes content, visit drjuliaward.com. Until next time, stay strong, Stay healthy, And keep living on the functional edge.