If you’ve been keeping an eye on our social medias or popping us a message recently, you’re probably aware that someone new has recently joined the team! My name is Daisy, and although I’m particularly knowledgeable on the role of fungus within our ecosystem- I’m new to researching mycology at home. Therefore, I’m learning as I go, so why not join me? At the moment, tinctures have caught my eye! They claim to do so much, but how do we know this is true?

Mushrooms have been used as treatments for various ailments for many centuries. For many of us, using mushrooms as a remedy is a new and exciting idea, but this idea has been present in many cultures around the world for an incredibly long time. The ancient Egyptians, the Vikings and the Romans all had a culture enriched with mushrooms, to name only a few. In fact, the oldest known mummy was found with Piptoporus betulinus on its persons, which was well known for its antibiotic properties and as a natural parasite killer.

Although we don’t rely as heavily on mushrooms in modern day medical treatments, their benefits are still present. They’re often able to do what some well-known artificial medications can. With our growing society, highly dependent on these artificial supplements, it’s refreshing to go back to the old, well-known methods which have been thoroughly tested in the book of history and have shown success for our ancestors. Most mushroom extracts claim to boost your immune system, but some go further with promises of energy, alleviated symptoms of illness and much more.

Modern day mushroom supplements have blown us away with the various ways they can come to us. We’ve seen mushroom deodorant, tea, smoothie powder, capsules and our personal favorite, liquid mushroom tinctures. Liquid mushroom tinctures are arguably the easiest way to consume supplemental mushrooms as you can add a few sweet drops to your beverage and call it a day! Although, we’re not sure how the deodorant works, so I may be proven wrong yet!

I can only comment on the handful of times I’ve tried Lions main tea, which has definitely cleared my head in the past. So like you may be, I’m incredibly curious to see the effects of these concentrated extracts in comparison. These mushroom extracts claim to boost your immune system, your energy levels and your health. They almost sound too good to be true!

Our mission here at Shiny Spores.com is to provide you with the best, most honest advice we can- therefore we thought we’d take a journey into the world of tinctures to see what evidence we can find towards these claims! To do this, I’ve chosen three well-known tinctures to test out on myself and my life partner: Lions Mane, Reishi and Turkey Tail.

Both my partner and I will be giving Lions Mane a go as we both suffer from foggy heads, and we would all like some mental clarity in our lives. Not only does Lions Mane help with memory and focus, but it also claims to help with digestion. My partner suffers from awful digestion issues so we’re hopeful this will alleviate his symptoms.

I will personally be testing out the Reishi tincture which claims to improve sleep and reduce stress as well as being able to boost the immune system. This would be incredibly beneficial for me as I’m a massive overthinker (who isn’t?), who tends to awaken to any bump in the night and then struggles to get back to sleep as I ponder on the day’s events. We all know that feeling of restlessness, so hopefully the Reishi tincture will prove to be fruitful!

My partner on the other hand, sleeps like a log- or he would be if it wasn’t for his hay fever induced cough, so I thought I’d spike his morning tea with a few drops of turkey tail. Turkey tail claims to help massively with respiratory issues as well as improving both your immune system and energy levels.

My partners collaboration with this experiment will be especially interesting, as he is a complete skeptic when it comes to herbal remedies, so it’ll be exciting to see what happens. Although he was hesitant at first, after a discussion of the possible health benefits of mushroom tinctures, he has agreed to help me with our experiment. I couldn’t be more happy with this, as his stomach issues can cause him a lot of grief, and paired with his prevailing cough, we’ll be sure to see a difference quite quickly as we continue to take the tinctures.

I have to be honest, with all the research I’ve done into this area of mushroom health supplements I am incredibly hopeful that these tinctures will work. Thankfully, to avoid personal bias, my partner will be my skeptical anchor in this ocean of optimism and excitement. It will be interesting to see the opinions from both sides of the coin as we explore the effects these tinctures may have on us and our individual health.

Each bottle of tincture we sell has enough liquid in it for two weeks, so that’s how long this little experiment will run for. I’ll update you all on any exciting developments with our personal project regularly! Two weeks should be long enough to notice any effects, and if this goes well, we may be lifelong worshippers of mushroom extracts- much like the Ancient Egyptians or the Ancient Greeks!

Feel free to follow along our journey on our website, our Facebook page, or on our TikTok page where we’ll be posting daily updates!