Breaking: Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, may be effective in treating anorexia nervosa, the serious mental health condition that presents as an eating disorder. 

A new study from researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found that a single dose of the psychedelic, administered alongside therapeutic integration, is an effective treatment for some individuals suffering from the illness. 

Three months after a single psilocybin session, 90% of the study’s participants said they felt more positive about life endeavors; 70% said they’d experience an overall shift in personal identity and quality of life; and 40% went into remission from their eating disorder.

“This drug altered how I felt about my body almost independently,” one study participant said in a UCSD news release. “It was like a gift, altering my perception for me in a way that I’m not sure I could have done on my own.”

This is an exciting breakthrough given that anorexia is difficult to treat in part because patients often say they feel better as a result of their anorexia, and therefore do not want to be cured, and in part because relapse is common. Anorexia also has the highest death rate of any mental illness. 

“Results suggest that psilocybin therapy is safe, tolerable, and acceptable for female anorexia nervosa, which is a promising finding given physiological dangers and problems with treatment engagement,” the study’s authors said. 

Shroomboom’s founder, Alejandra Rodriguez, has been outspoken about the role psilocybin played in her own recovery from anorexia, citing its healing magic as the reason she’s so passionate about mushrooms. Studies such as this one, which legitimize mushroom medicine, will ideally enable others to benefit as she has, and researchers involved with this work hope their efforts will inspire larger clinical studies to come and, eventually, legal clinical access to this drug.