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If you want a lasting uplift, magic mushrooms might do the trick – but if you want a far deeper mind-and-body boost, try yoga or meditation, say two new clinical reports.

A study of 36 volunteers by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, reports that taking psilocybin from hallucinogenic mushrooms in clinical conditions once can give people a sense of mystical or spiritual uplift that still raises their sense of wellbeing more than a year later.

The study, in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, revives the idea of using mind-altering drugs for therapy pioneered in the 1960’s, which became discredited amid a miasma of tie-dye-, DayGlo and dope smoke. The lead researcher, Roland Griffiths, says the “mystical-type experiences some people have during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression, and may serve as a potential treatment for drug dependence.

On the other hand, using any preparation made from magic mushrooms is illegal in the UK – and about a third of the patients in the study experienced anxiety after their trips, so another report this week may offer a more sustainable solution.

Practicing meditation or yoga can change the way your genes work, turning off patterns of activity that affect how your body reacts to stress, claims a study in the journal PLoS One.

Herbert Benson, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, compare the way genes expressed themselves in 19 long-term practitioners of yoga or meditation and 19 healthy non practitioners.

It found that more than 2,200 genes were activated differently in people who were long-term practitioners of yoga or meditation. This was linked to lower levels of oxidative stress in the body, with beneficial changes in their immune cells. You don’t have to spend years practising to get the benefits, Benson adds. In tests, 20 volunteers improved their gene expression levels after eight weeks’ practice.

Source: The Times, July 2008.