In an interesting study published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology found that folks who used some form of psychedelic reported smoking cigarettes less often and eating healthier diets. From the report:
When only the responses of participants who reported that they used psychedelics at least once in their life were analyzed, results indicated that persons reporting higher levels of psychological insight from psychedelic use had somewhat more pronounced healthy exercise-related behavior (i.e. they exercised a bit more), a bit healthier alcohol use behavior (drank alcohol less) and ate somewhat healthier diets compared to those reporting lower levels of insights.
Similar results were obtained for exercise and diet when two patterns of psychological insights were considered separately. Also, greater reported Goals and Adaptive Patterns type of psychological insights was modestly associated with more healthy alcohol-related behaviors. People who reported greater psychological insight from their most insightful psychedelic experience were somewhat less likely to be overweight and obese.
“Although these results cannot demonstrate, they suggest that psychological insight during a classic psychedelic experience may lead to positive health behavior change and better physical health in some domains, in particular in those related to weight management,” the authors concluded.
The study, “Classic psychedelics, health behavior, and physical health”, by Otto Simonsson, Peter S. Hendricks, Richard Chambers, Walter Osika, and Simon B. Goldberg, surveyed 2,822. The psychedelics studied included “ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, peyote, San Pedro, or psilocybin.”
