Everything Mushroom Tinctures Part I: Bye Mombrain!

A series with everything you need to know about mushroom tinctures, starting with why, and why, not to take them.

This piece will be the first of three (or four?!) pieces with everything you need to know about mushroom tinctures. We want this information to be available so it will live in the free archive. But paid subscribers can listen to this post if they like. The audio version is at the bottom.

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We get a lot of questions about tinctures. 

Everything from “What is a tincture,” to “Why do yours work so well?” We figured we might as well answer all those questions (and in the most thorough way). 

The third piece in this series will be light-hearted, useful, and brief. The second will be technical, longer, and might ruffle some feathers. This first piece will start on a personal note as I’ll share about the time I fixed my mom-brain using our tinctures... 

Parents already know, but for everyone else, when you have kids, you learn what you can do on four, two, and less than one hour of sleep. 

If you're the default parent, doing “nothing” is a high-level skill that takes preparation and self-reflection. That's why when I noticed I was having trouble keeping my train of thought or remembering things, I chalked it up to being yet another symptom of parenthood. 

But then I got consistent sleep and it didn't go away. 

There were so many changes with my postpartum body that I resigned myself to accepting my dulled mental facilities as just another new thing about me; something inconvenient but a part of getting older and having kids. Luckily, James was more attentive than me. He saw that the issue could be fixed and asked me a useful question: Have you tried our tincture?

Our Miracle Bundle (good for mental performance*)

I have a confession to make. 

Not only had I not tried it, I had no idea which one to try. (Don't judge. I had to start somewhere.) On top of that, if I'm going to be honest, I was skeptical. It's not that I'm unfamiliar with the healing power of tinctures. I've had amazing success multiple times with the guidance of a naturopathic doctor. 

But mushrooms were still new to me. Being neither plant nor animal makes them a bit mysterious. And on top of that, they're popular right now but only in coffee. And surely if they were useful for anything other than energy, I'd have heard some mention of it by now, right? 

Absolutely not. 

So I took one of our lion’s mane tinctures every morning; our old, weaker formula. Guess what happened? And not in a week. Guess what happened that day? The first thing I noticed was the energy. An unexpected side effect, as I didn’t even take the variety best for boosting energy. Even on the days when the toddler decided to forgo sleep, I had pep. 

I remembered more. I focused longer. I had insight more quickly. Essentially, I was back to my old self. (Younger self?) Even sharper than before I had the baby. 

Lion’s mane, the mushroom that helps brains looks a bit like brains, doesn’t it?

Confession #2, because transparency is big to us. 

There were some caveats to this story. To understand them you need to understand some science-y things about me. I have the MTHFR, or the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, gene mutation. A variation that according to Healthline may lead to high levels of homocysteine in the blood and low levels of folate and other vitamins. 

This means I’m sensitive to B vitamins, especially synthetic ones. All mushrooms are an excellent source of B vitamins. Real vitamins. Not the synthetic ones. Hello, energy boost. Did that mean I shouldn’t take lion’s mane? No. But I dialed back my dosage when I noticed I wasn’t sleeping as easily as expected, taking it every other day instead of daily, and pausing when I no longer needed it.

As another feature of this gene mutation, I also have chronically low blood pressure. Another thing that mushrooms are excellent at is reducing blood pressure. The lion’s mane didn’t seem to affect mine (I know because I track my vitals every day). But I know from learning more about mushrooms that other mushroom tinctures will. 

Not everyone who would benefit from mushroom tinctures can or should take them. 

Naturopathic doctors, doctors of oriental medicine, and functional doctors will be the ones to guide you if you are unsure or want mushroom tinctures for their outstanding health benefits while dealing with a medical issue. These are the kinds of doctors that will recognize, and be well-versed in, the potential of mushrooms. 

Plot twist. After learning more about mushrooms, I see that many of the supplements I’ve taken at the direction of a functional practitioner were mushrooms. The more you know.

There are plenty of studies detailing why lion’s mane would fix my brain so I won’t go into that here. Instead, in the next piece, I’ll talk about why our tincture was as efficient as it was and how to recognize a high-quality mushroom tincture. That piece will be the detailed one. We tend to hold nothing back, being honest to a fault. Sorry in advance. We aren’t judging! Everyone has to start somewhere.

See you in part II of this series, friends! Subscribe to make sure that you see it.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.