Secret of longevity eggs not LSD: discoverer
Reuters
BASEL, Switzerland
January 13, 2006
The 100-year-old Swiss chemist who discovered the psychedelic drug LSD said on Friday the secret to his longevity was the eggs he eats for breakfast and not the mind-bending drug.
Albert Hofmann, who celebrated his centenary on Wednesday, rejected the idea that the drug had prolonged his life, despite taking his first trip in the mid-1940s and his last just three years ago.
Instead, Hofmann revealed the secret of his longevity was the two raw eggs he eats with his muesli for breakfast.
“In an egg there is everything a being needs to develop — vitamins, minerals and hormones,” he said.
Hofmann attended the first day of a weekend symposium in Basel on Friday, organized by a non-profit making group which promotes research into psychedelic drugs and wants to prompt a debate on whether LSD could have a clinical use again.
Although best known as a recreational drug, LSD was used in the United States as a psychotherapy treatment in the 1950s before it was banned by the U.S. government.
Scientists at the U.S.-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies are investigating new uses such as LSD’s effects on so-called cluster headaches — a painful rare condition similar to a migraine.
“It is still my problem child,” Hofmann said. “But very often they turn into wonder children. I hope that it can be possible in time for LSD to find the place in society that it deserves.”
At his centenary celebrations on Wednesday, Hofmann put his name to an appeal launched by the symposium’s organizers to legalize the drug for clinical and scientific use, which will be lodged with authorities in Europe and the United States.
Reuters published an article about Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday, noting that he attributes his longevity to daily egg breakfast rather than his infamous discovery, LSD.
