NFL, UFC athletes use ibogaine psychedelic to treat brain injury

As awareness grows around the dangers of head injuries in sports, a small number of professional fighters and players turn to psychedelic, called the soremal for treatment.

Ibogaine, which is obtained from the West African shrub, is the preparation 1 in America, without legal medical use, and experts call for caution because of the need for further research. But the results, according to several athletes, “change the game.”

“It saved my life,” said the former offensive guard of NFL Robert Gallery, who went to Mexico in 2023 to try Ibogain.

“I am not worried all the time, I'm not depressed,” he continued, “I can run and be grateful that I am alive, instead of thinking that I should step in front of a half-road walking along the road.”

The psychedelic substance was obtained from the plant of the IBOG, and supporters advertise its ability to treat dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury or CHMT.

Observatory study of 30 special forces of researchers from Stanford University suggests what is a bogin can be very effective With a decrease in anxiety, depression and cognitive problems associated with the CCT.

“This is a wonderful thing,” said MMA Tet Fletcher, retired fighter, who ascribes treatment with exemption from suicidal thoughts.

The Glory Hall of NFL Brett Favr even tried it to see if he could help his Parkinson, a neurodegenerative disease associated with the ChMT.

Although athletes simply discover the sobain, the drug well known in veterans, which experiences high indicators of brain injury and PTSR.

In Stanford Study the influence of a bogain On special forces veterans, the participants saw an average decrease by 88% in PTSR symptoms, by 87% in depression symptoms and 81% of alarm symptoms. They also demonstrated improvements in the concentration, processing of information and memory.

“No other drug could never mitigate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of the cranial -minute injury,” said Dr. Nolan Williams, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in a statement on the results. “The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this connection further.”

In order to get federal approval, and a bogin should have passed through several stages of clinical trials in the management of products and medicines and will be moved by the drug combat administration to a less limiting category of drugs.

It is believed that list of list 1 does not have federal medical use, high potential for abuse and lack of generally accepted safety. They also include psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and marijuana.

States can work faster than the federal government, highlighting the exceptions for controlled programs of therapy of Ibogain, similarly to the fact that Oregon made psilocybin therapyThe field of many states also decided to legalize marijuana for drug or entertainment.

The co -author of the study Dr. Jan Brother said that the researchers said that Bogain could stimulate the healing of the brain, causing an increase in certain neurotrophic factors.

“These factors signal the reinforcement of the survival of brain cells and synaptic plasticity, which is the ability to change the power of their connections for brain cells or even form new connections,” said the briefer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “This can contribute to the healing and recovery process after the injury.”

Dr. Kevin Bikart, a professor of neurology UCLA, who specializes in the brain injury among athletes, said that Stanford’s study is “amazingly promising” and reasonably believe that professional athletes may experience similar results.

“This group [veterans] It is a strong analogue for retired professional athletes from sports with a high content of contacts, such as football or hockey, who are now dealing with constant cognitive and emotional difficulties, ”he said.

Dr. Ramon Diaz Arrastia, director of the TBI Penn Medicine research center, said that Bogain is one of the most promising compounds for the treatment of the ChMT.

Nevertheless, Bickart, Diaz-Arrastia and Stanford, researchers emphasized the need for larger randomized controlled studies that demonstrate strong therapeutic benefits and security profile before use in America.

They also emphasized the fact that Bogain can cause heart problems, such as heart arrhythmia, and it is necessary to introduce under strict medical supervision. In Stanford’s study, heart and magnesium monitoring were used to mitigate this danger, and the researchers said that no participant had adverse heart effects.

The gallery heard about Ibogain, listening to the podcast about veterans, whose struggle resonated with his own. He was at the end of his rope and is ready to try something to free himself from dark thoughts and a sonorous noise in his head.

“It was a kind of last hope for me,” he said. “I was only in this place, in need of noise and thoughts to stop.”

Dr. Gallery believes that he is probably Designed CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) as a result of repeated brain injuries during its eight seasons in the NFL. CTE, which can be diagnosed only after death, is a serious neurodegenerative disease that can cause dementia, violent mood swings, loss of motor control and depression.

Many well -known athletes who committed suicide were later determined to have CTE, including the patriots of New England Aaron Ernandes, midfielder of the Glory Hall of the Younger Sea and the safety of Chicago Bear Dave Duson.

Fletcher, a former MMA fighter, who is also an actor and a trick, heard about Ibogain through his friends of the military bone.

During his combat career, he experienced many concussions, but in 2019 there was a head injury during the trick, which went wrong in 2019.

The next morning he woke up in a state of terror. He did not know how to pack his bags or leave the hotel room in which he stopped on the set.

Fletcher spent next year in almost total solitude, largely unable to leave his house due to light and sound. Like the gallery, he tried many ordinary and experimental methods of treatment, but nothing compared to the relief that is a bogin brought it in 2023.

“We put a group of scraper on problems using pharmacology,” he said. “This [ibogaine] This is what I watched just freed people. Nothing but this. “

Keith Jardin, a former UFC fighter, was inspired by the history of Fletcher and went to Mexico to independently receive treatment. The retirement hockey player Els Hemski ascribes a bean to help free him from the use of psychoactive substances and alcohol dependence with which he fought after his 16-year-old Career in the NHL.

“Seven months have passed, I did not have a sip of alcohol,” he said. “It changes life. This really restarts your brain. This gives you a new path. “

Fletcher saw how the brain injury brings athletes, and the light Ibogain provides. He wants both to be part of a larger conversation in the world of professional sports.

“I would like these large organizations to study these things in the other way, because you could lengthen your career and lengthen life,” he said. “And Bogain, of course, is part of this conversation.”

Favre also wants more attention to accelerate medical tests of new methods of treating brain injury and related conditions. According to him, after Sobogaina, his symptoms of Parkinson disappeared within three days, and then gradually returned.

“I'm not disappointed. I am more excited by the opportunity, knowing that I can do it again, ”he said. “I hope it is [conversation] It helps to open the door not only for sores or psychedelic drugs, but also only medicines or treatment as a whole that can help people. ”

Bicart said that there is a serious gap in effective, approved methods of treating constant symptoms of brain injury.

“This leaves many, including veterans and potentially former athletes, without reliable solutions for constant disability, cognitive difficulties and psychiatric conditions, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety that can be associated with head injuries,” he said.

Inspired by his own experience with Sobogain, the gallery cowed a non -profit organization called Athletes for care Teach athletes with TBI according to treatment options and advocate research of psychedelic therapy.

“The sports community is not very good in talking about mental health,” he said. “Seeing how veterans take responsibility and care about their community, I want to do this for the sports community and for my friends, whom I know, who suffer.”

Gallery, Favre, Hemsky, Fletcher and Jardine, among about a dozen retired athletes, who were treated at the Ambio Life Sciences clinic in Tihean, which is a popular place for therapy of Ibogaina.

Since the opening in 2021, Ambio has reported that he introduces a sibrine of more than 3,000 patients, including 1000 military veterans.

Dias-arrast, professor of medicine Penn, said that he would not advise the Americans to order and go online or travel outside the country for treatment, since it remains unregulated, with disabilities. Birgart, professor of UCLA, repeated these problems, noting that safety is the most important caution.

“People should be careful about some unregulated treatment methods, since the dosage of cleanliness and the presence of pollutants are often unknown,” said the bicurt. “The placebo effect can also be very powerful, especially for treatment, which require significant efforts and costs.”

Ambio, the clinic with which Stanford researchers worked for their observation research on Ibogain, emphasized her Security protocols During treatment, including thorough monitoring of the dosage and health of the heart of patients.

In America, a political and scientific impulse for more clinical research is growing in America.

In June, Texas approved Historical investment of $ 50 million In state financing to support the testing of drugs for Ibogain, inspired by the results observed by veterans.

Arizona lawmakers approved state funding of 5 million US dollars for clinical study of Sobogain in March, and legislators of California seek Quick tracking of research Sobogain and other psychedelics.

“Honestly, I am amazed to see how much interest is now in Ibogain,” said co-founder Ambio Jonathan Dikinson. “We begin to see things that we thought, were unimaginable a few years ago.”