hi everyone,

so i know i have a pretty fast metabolism when it comes to food.
Does anybody know if there are any studies done on how a fast metabolism can effect drugs? how fast the onset is or how strong you react to them?

from experience i know i react stronger to medium doses of shrooms or mdma compared to some of my friends.




not even 10 minutes ago i took 20mg of harmine freebase sublingualy, and i can already feel a pretty good effect

This is much more complicated that any of us can imagine. Individual, environmental and genetic factors may play a big role.

Each one of us may metabolize a specific drug in a unique way. I as an example have pretty standard reaction to most drugs (both legal and illegal). Then there's cocaine - it works for me just like regular caffeine, maybe ever so slightly stronger. Tried it twice (sample tested) and I'm simply sticking to caffeine.

I am unaware of any studies that would easily answer your question. I don't think there is a simple answer at all... Way too many variables.

Yes people can metabolize drugs very different depending on a lot of factors. Some obvious and well studied ones have to do with liver enzymes. People have variants on liver enzymes (like cytochrome p450's for example) that most certainly influence how they metabolize different drugs. Things like this are studied in clinical research for sure because it effects how pharmaceuticals will effect certain people how they might interact with each other etc.

I had my genes tested with one of those kits and then took all that raw genetic data and ran it through some other programs you can find on the internet. It was interesting because I found I have variants of some cytochrome p450's which do effect how I metabolize certain classes of drugs. I found this interesting especially when comparing tolerances and overall effects with friends and how they react to certain drugs. I also have a fast metabolism. But that isn't a very specific term I metabolize certain things faster then other people (like I pee 3-4 times more then average person I know I've counted). But I might metabolize certain things slower then other people. When we say fast metabolism we usually mean people who are skinny or hyper or pee a lot but that might not have anything to do with how you metabolize different classes of drugs.

Related:

Fast and slow metablizers of hoasca (Callaway 2005)

this sounds very interesting.
also i am also one of those people who need to pee way more than others do.
which test kit did you use?

I used 23 and me to do the original SNP sequencing. Then I took the raw data and ran it through software program called Promethease. Some people find these genetic services scary because they do use your information for medical research. Its the entire purpose of 23 and me really. But I fully support that effort and don't care what they do with my genetic information. I think everyone should have their genomes screened at birth and really whenever you go to the Dr if you haven't already. Society would be better off in the long term if we had all that information in my opinion.

Anyway 23 and me won't tell you the dirty details. Promethease gives you a lot more information. So using that I was able to find out I have a variant in my CYP2C19 gene which metabolizes a bunch of drugs. I'm actually a poor metabolizer of certain drugs because of this SNP variant. For example I metabolize diazepam (valium) slow. This would explain why whenever I've taken valium I pass right out and don't enjoy it at all. Interesting this explains why I hate benzo's. Now I know why I can't metabolize them correctly.

I checked to see if I have variation in the CYP2D6 gene which encodes enzyme that metabolizes harmine. It looks like I have some normal variants and some abnormal ones although not sure what it means.

Anyway I love knowing this kind of stuff. But it can be scary you might learn things you don't want to know.

thank you for all the information.
i will have a closer look at 23 and me