Gwyneth Paltrow likes to dish out lifestyle advice.

Her qualifications? She owns Goop, an alternative ‘wellness’ brand that wants you to believe in the power of crystals and the benefits of vaginal jade eggs – for a price, and a hefty price at that.

Her latest prediction for the future of ‘wellness’ is a hallucinogenic drug called ibogaine, reports The Telegraph.

We’ve written about some of the potential benefits of the drug – derived from a rainforest shrub found in central Africa – before. It can be useful for treating addiction, especially opioid addiction.

That said, it has also been linked to at least 19 deaths between 1990 and 2008, according to a paper by Prof Kenneth Alper, of New York University School of Medicine.

Here’s what Gwyneth had to say in an interview with the New York Times, where she was talking up Goop:

She was asked: “So what’s the next big thing? What’s the next gluten free or conscious uncoupling?” She replied: “I think how psychedelics affect health and mental health and addiction will come more into the mainstream … I mean, there’s undeniably some link between being in that state and being connected to some other universal cosmic something.

“How do we evolve? What is the next iteration of the culture as it pertains to the way we think about things? The degree of openness to which we think about things and process things? What about ibogaine, that shrub from Gabon?” However, she added the disclaimer: “I don’t know. Don’t take my word for it.”

Paltrow says that she has never taken hallucinogens herself because she’s too scared. I guess she’ll never commune with the “cosmic something” then. Shame.

Paltrow’s Goop website features an interview with Dr Deborah Mash, professor of neurology and pharmacology at the University of Miami, who has re-searched ibogaine and believes it is useful in treating addiction.

However, she warned that the drug was dangerous if not taken under medical supervision.

If the drug has benefits in terms of overcoming addiction, then let the medical professionals handle it.

As a general principle, nobody of sane mind should be taking health or wellness advice from anyone who is associated with Goop, or from Gwyneth Paltrow.

Being rich and giving your children stupid names like Apple doesn’t make you an expert.

[source:telegraph]