GENE VARIANTS EFFECTING WELL BEING
== SCN9A gene - "odium channel, voltage-gated, type IX, alpha subunit"
The SCN9A gene belongs to a family of genes that provide instructions for making sodium channels. These channels, which transport positively charged sodium atoms (sodium ions) into cells, play a key role in a cell's ability to generate and transmit electrical signals.
The SCN9A gene provides instructions for making one part (the alpha subunit) of a sodium channel called NaV1.7. NaV1.7 sodium channels are found in nerve cells called nociceptors that transmit pain signals. Nociceptors are part of the peripheral nervous system, which connects the brain and spinal cord to cells that detect sensations such as touch, smell, and pain. Nociceptors are primarily involved in transmitting pain signals. The centers of nociceptors, known as the cell bodies, are located in a part of the spinal cord called the dorsal root ganglion. Fibers called axons extend from the cell bodies, reaching throughout the body to receive sensory information. Axons transmit the information back to the dorsal root ganglion, which then sends it to the brain. NaV1.7 sodium channels are also found in olfactory sensory neurons, which are nerve cells in the nasal cavity that transmit smell-related signals to the brain.
== ADRA2B - Alpha-2B adrenergic receptor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-2B...
In October 2013 researchers from the University of British Columbia confirmed this and further reported that the variant predisposed those people who had it to focus more on negative aspects of a situation. Prof. Rebecca Todd claimed "This is the first study to find that this genetic variation can significantly affect how people see and experience the world.” http://news.ubc.ca/2013/10/10/genes-p...
http://adra2b.com/
== MDMA / Ecstasy / UTOPIAN PHARMACOLOGY
http://www.mdma.net/ Mental Health in the Third Millennium
MDMA and Beyond
Can safe, sustainable analogues of MDMA be developed? There is an urgent need for non-neurotoxic empathogens and entactogens suitable for lifelong use. Alas no single "magic bullet" yet exists that replicates the subjective effects of MDMA on a long-term basis. Hence most of us are doomed to display the quasi-psychopathic indifference to each other characteristic of the MDMA-naïve state.
In the long run, genomic medicine can underwrite mental and physical superhealth for everyone. For in principle, lifelong well-being can be genetically hardwired from conception. In the short run, better-designed research tools and therapeutic agents can probe, and then repair, our damaged minds. As chemical stopgaps go, MDMA is a magical revelation. It's perhaps the best aid to insight-oriented psychotherapy ever synthesized. Tragically, when MDMA is used to excess the outcome can be harmful, not healing. So as a weekend club drug, MDMA is seriously flawed. Today, of course, empathogens and entactogens are outlawed for any purpose. The altered states of consciousness they induce are criminalised. People who take such agents are stigmatised as "drug abusers". Yet some MDMA users feel, rightly or wrongly, they've been granted a tantalising glimpse of what true mental health may be like in centuries to come; and an insight into what the rest of us are missing. http://www.mdma.net/
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Adam Ford records IEET Fellow, David Pearce, on the SCN9A & ADRA2B gene variants, the MDMA drug, and 'Utopian Pharmacology' - Mental Health in the Third Millennium MDMA and Beyond.
GENE VARIANTS EFFECTING WELL BEING
== SCN9A gene - "odium channel, voltage-gated, type IX, alpha subunit"
The SCN9A gene belongs to a family of genes that provide instructions for making sodium channels. These channels, which transport positively charged sodium atoms (sodium ions) into cells, play a key role in a cell's ability to generate and transmit electrical signals.
The SCN9A gene provides instructions for making one part (the alpha subunit) of a sodium channel called NaV1.7. NaV1.7 sodium channels are found in nerve cells called nociceptors that transmit pain signals. Nociceptors are part of the peripheral nervous system, which connects the brain and spinal cord to cells that detect sensations such as touch, smell, and pain. Nociceptors are primarily involved in transmitting pain signals. The centers of nociceptors, known as the cell bodies, are located in a part of the spinal cord called the dorsal root ganglion. Fibers called axons extend from the cell bodies, reaching throughout the body to receive sensory information. Axons transmit the information back to the dorsal root ganglion, which then sends it to the brain. NaV1.7 sodium channels are also found in olfactory sensory neurons, which are nerve cells in the nasal cavity that transmit smell-related signals to the brain.
== ADRA2B - Alpha-2B adrenergic receptor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-2B...
In October 2013 researchers from the University of British Columbia confirmed this and further reported that the variant predisposed those people who had it to focus more on negative aspects of a situation. Prof. Rebecca Todd claimed "This is the first study to find that this genetic variation can significantly affect how people see and experience the world.” http://news.ubc.ca/2013/10/10/genes-p...
http://adra2b.com/
== MDMA / Ecstasy / UTOPIAN PHARMACOLOGY
http://www.mdma.net/ Mental Health in the Third Millennium
MDMA and Beyond
Can safe, sustainable analogues of MDMA be developed? There is an urgent need for non-neurotoxic empathogens and entactogens suitable for lifelong use. Alas no single "magic bullet" yet exists that replicates the subjective effects of MDMA on a long-term basis. Hence most of us are doomed to display the quasi-psychopathic indifference to each other characteristic of the MDMA-naïve state.
In the long run, genomic medicine can underwrite mental and physical superhealth for everyone. For in principle, lifelong well-being can be genetically hardwired from conception. In the short run, better-designed research tools and therapeutic agents can probe, and then repair, our damaged minds. As chemical stopgaps go, MDMA is a magical revelation. It's perhaps the best aid to insight-oriented psychotherapy ever synthesized. Tragically, when MDMA is used to excess the outcome can be harmful, not healing. So as a weekend club drug, MDMA is seriously flawed. Today, of course, empathogens and entactogens are outlawed for any purpose. The altered states of consciousness they induce are criminalised. People who take such agents are stigmatised as "drug abusers". Yet some MDMA users feel, rightly or wrongly, they've been granted a tantalising glimpse of what true mental health may be like in centuries to come; and an insight into what the rest of us are missing. http://www.mdma.net/
Subscribe to this Channel: http://youtube.com/subscription_cente...
Science, Technology & the Future: http://scifuture.org
Humanity+: http://humanityplus.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpBRI0yf81Q