3.2_Ketamine-Iboga Connection – NMDA_Lowan H. Stewart

Dr. Lowan H. Stewart is an emergency physician and was an associate clinical professor who currently resides in Oslo as a result of working with a team to bring the specialty of Emergency Medicine to Norway. Additionally, he has over 20 years of experience with clinical use of ketamine, is a member of the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, founded and served as medical director of the Santa Fe Ketamine Clinic, the first such treatment center in New Mexico, and founded Axon Klinikken, a ketamine-only clinic, in Oslo in 2019, the first of its kind in Scandinavia. I invite Lowan on the podcast to discuss the phenomenology, pharmacology and therapeutic applications of ketamine, a dissociative hallucinogen. As I said in the opening of Dr. Addy and I’s episode on Salvia divinorum, you’re probably wondering why I’m interested in discussing ketamine on an iboga podcast. The reason for this is: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, also known as NMDA. Compared to other affected receptor sites, iboga alkaloids seem to be very selective for the NMDA receptor. The main question inspiring this episode is: What can we learn about iboga phenomenology and its visionary state by looking at other hallucinogens that also share affinity for the same receptors as ibogaine or noribogaine? Topics of our discussion include: history of clinical ketamine use; overlap between the dissociativeness of ketamine- and iboga-induced states of consciousness; what NMDA antagonists do to the brain; dissociative drugs’ effects on memory and learning faculties; neurodegeneration and neurogenesis; John C. Lilly’s use of ketamine and/in float tanks; physiological vs. environmental toxicity of psychoactive agents; addictive and abusive potential of ketamine; and what many of his roughly 3000 patients have reported over the years about the phenomenology of the ketamine experience. To find out more about Lowan, visit his website at (https://axonklinikken.no). Also, visit my Podcast Supplements article regarding afterthoughts of Lowan and I's conversation (https://amhouot.com/84-ep3-2_ketamine-iboga-connection-nmda_lowan-h-stewart/).

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