Meryl Horne

Oh, yeah.

So that's what I'll tell you about after the break.

Plus, is it safe?

Yeah.

So let me tell you a story, actually, because there was supposed to be a clinical trial back in the 90s that the NIH was going to do on Ibogaine, specifically NIDA, the part of the NIH that does drug addiction research.

And, you know, it got started.

They had even given Ibogaine to some patients, but then the trial was stopped.

Why?

Well, Ibogaine can kill you.

Oh, gosh.

Some of the people died in the study?

Not in that trial, but they had heard about a death that happened in the Netherlands from Ibogaine, and that seemed to spook the people running the trial, so they pulled the plug on it.

How do you die from Ibogaine?

Well, I mean, we know Ibogaine, of course, goes to the brain and that's why you trip, but it also goes to the heart and that's where it can cause trouble.

So in particular, there is a little channel in the heart that lets ions go through it, potassium specifically.

And when Ibogaine gets into the body, even at pretty low levels, it latches onto this channel like a magnet.

which is really bad because this channel is really important for making your heart pump blood properly.

So you get basically a heart attack?

Sort of.

It's technically an arrhythmia.