A small study hints that psilocybin, the drug in magic mushrooms, may calm swelling in the body, according to NPR. The people in the study had Parkinson's.

The study came out Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, NPR said. Lab tests in animals and cells have shown this for years, NPR said. This is some of the first proof in people.

A team at UCSF tested the blood of 12 people with Parkinson's, NPR said. The team checked five signs of swelling, which doctors call inflammation. They did tests before and after two doses of the drug.

The levels fell a lot after the doses, NPR said. They stayed low a month after the last dose. A sign of stress in the parts of cells that make energy also got better right after the doses, NPR said. That change did not last.

Ellen Bradley of UCSF helped lead the work. She said it gives the team a first sign to look into, NPR said.

The study had limits, the researchers said, according to NPR. There was no control group, and the patients knew they were getting the drug. More studies need to check the results, said Aoife O'Donovan of UCSF, who also wrote the paper, NPR said.

The data came from an earlier test of whether the drug was safe for people with Parkinson's, NPR said. Bradley said that test looked safe and "really promising," NPR said.

Parker Kelley of Columbia, a lead author, said the work could lead to more research, NPR said. That could include work on depression and heart disease, he said.

Charles Nichols, a drug expert in New Orleans, was not part of the study. He called it "really exciting," NPR said. But he said "we can only draw so much" from them.

What we know: In 12 people with Parkinson's, blood signs of swelling fell after psilocybin.
What we don't: Whether the results hold up in larger, controlled trials. Only NPR has reported this so far; NewsHabit hasn't seen independent confirmation.