Are extreme heat waves here to stay? Amber Renee Dixon visits the Desert Research Institute to find out more. Then a panel discusses a bill recently passed that will allow Psilocybin research in Nevada. Can it make a difference for people suffering from PTSD?

“It makes me lose a little faith in humanity,” says neuroscientist Dustin Hines. The source of his despair is Power Slap, a brutal offshoot of combat sport which sees competitors deliver open hand slaps across the face of their opponent.

Could magic mushrooms and ecstasy be coming to a psychiatrist’s office near you? They will if state lawmakers approve a bill to allow researchers to use psilocybin and MDMA to aid in therapy.

North Las Vegas veteran Gerald Mayes says psilocybin — hallucinogenic fungi also known as “magic mushrooms” — helped him with his post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.

"Magic mushrooms" may become available here in Nevada if a newly-proposed bill passes in the state legislature.

Depression may increase your risk of stroke and, if you have a stroke, it may slow your recovery. People who had symptoms of depression had a 46% greater chance of suffering a stroke than those who had no such symptoms, according to a study led by Robert Murphy, a PhD student at the University of Galway in Ireland, that was published today in the journal Neurology.

Nevada ranks 51st in access to mental healthcare in the U.S. Despite this grim statistic, Rochelle Hines, who holds a PhD in neuroscience — as does her partner Dustin Hines — sees promise in the state’s burgeoning institutions, such as the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Clark County Children’s Mental Health Consortium, and UNLV. “It’s just figuring out how we can better support these institutions and connect them even more with our communities… and also remove barriers to access,” Rochelle says. “If a patient really wants to try an innovative therapy, you have to look at the barriers that might be preventing them from being able to access that.”

Actor Chris Hemsworth announced that the results of a genetic test he took have revealed that he is at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease because he has two copies of the APOE4 gene.