What makes a smart drug more impactful than the average daily dietary supplement?
Brain function is something we heavily rely on collectively to increase productivity, reach goals, keep a positive mood, and become more effective in our craft. Cognitive stimulants offered all over the world can create a variety of different routes for effectively powering through a more focused, productive day in the office, classroom, or anywhere in between.
If you haven’t tried nootropics before, medicinal mushrooms aren’t the usual place that most folks would think to start. However, they’re exceptional alternatives to caffeine-powered popular choices like caffeine capsules that have been linked to:
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Boosting cognitive function
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Improving working memory
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Elevating mental performance under stress
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Improving neurotransmitter success
Beyond these key attributes though, there are numerous blends of mushrooms that go a step beyond, and take your whole daily routine and health into account.
At Troomy, we’ve incorporated medicinal mushrooms into our nootropic blends to make a powerful daily supplement to act as a cognitive enhancer that also elevates daily function. These caffeine-free, naturally flavored gummies are delicious additions that are entirely vegetarian-friendly.
How are Nootropics Considered “Smart Drugs?”
The connotation surrounding “smart” drugs (or nootropics) is in large part due to how they impact cognitive function. This includes anything from short-term memory, learning, and mild cognitive impairment.
Additionally, ailments like cognitive decline is a difficulty many of us worry about when working long hours and straining our brains for top cognitive performance. However, cognitive decline is actually most tightly associated with age rather than strain or being overworked mentally. What’s been suggested in numerous studies is that good habits are the best trick to working out kinks in your cognitive function. Habits like sleep, strong nutrition, exercise, and more are all much heavier weights.
Still, it’s a great idea to look for support when you need it, and the highest-performing nootropics are a strong place to start.
What are the Most Popular Nootropics in 2023?
While Adderall, Methylphenidate, or Ritalin aren’t over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, they’re probably the main cognitive function-impacting drug you’ve heard of. For patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other function-impacting ailments, Adderall can be a huge quality-of-life booster. However, there are over-the-counter options for boosting cognitive productivity and efficiency as well, just not any ADHD-prescribed medications.
A handful of nootropics that may be considered in the “dietary supplements” space of over-the-counter drugs you might be familiar with are citicoline, rholdiola rosea, bacopa monnieri or modafinil which are directly connected to dopamine levels and neurotransmissions. Modafinil is an example you may be familiar with that is often used to reduce daytime sleepiness and difficulties with narcolepsy. Many of these symptoms and difficulties can be developed from both excess mental strain and physical. While smart drugs may not be used to cure sleep apnea, supporting symptom reduction can make a huge difference.
While each of these can be strong and vary in effectiveness on a per-patient basis, it's worth giving a try based on the research attached to medicinal mushrooms that's been conducted heavily over the past several decades.
What are Researches Saying?
Research suggests that a single dose is often not going to create a long-term effect, and quality-of-life changes are still unknown in hard evidence for healthy individuals to use in the long haul. However, numerous stories and studies have covered the impact of various holistic wellness strategies, and how nootropics work into them.
While signs are good and strong connections have been made to successfully improving health habits, nootropics should not by any means be taken in place of prescription medicine. Mental health or cognitive decline for example can be naturally supported through brain cell protection and growth that nootropic supplements like medicinal mushrooms might promote, but they are by no means a cure-all. Be sure to weigh your options and contact a medical professional to get advice on how to proceed with your supplement intake and medications surrounding any cognitive health deficiencies or other ailments.
What are Medicinal Mushrooms?
Medicinal mushrooms go beyond your average everyday mushrooms you might find in your pasta. While white button or portobello mushrooms are great for vitamins and minerals, medicinal mushrooms actually provide functional value.
Take lion's mane, for example. Lion's mane is a cognitive-boosting mushroom that still gets a ton of vitamins and minerals into your daily routine after regular use. The only difficulty most folks used to have with it was its availability.
Since most eastern cultures were the only cultures to recognize these mushrooms for their power for the past several thousand years, they used to be hard to come by in the west. Now, you can find all kinds of supplement forms of each and every medicinal mushroom in shops all over the web.
Are They Safe?
Absolutely! Unlike LSD or other dangerous substances you might be familiar with in the psychedelics world, medicinal mushrooms offer zero hallucinogenic properties. This makes them safe from any major side effects. However, in some cases there are rare allergies that can cause rashes, skin irritation, or an upset stomach.
Psilocybin is often directly connected to what most of us might think of us as “magic” mushrooms, which aren’t the same as medicinal mushrooms in any psychedelic-based way.
Dietary Supplements vs Nootropic Supplements for Medicinal Mushrooms
Dietary supplements in the case of mushrooms can be very similar to the nootropic blends you might be familiar with off the shelf as over-the-counter support for cognitive enhancement. However, their functional value can go far beyond the cognitive support you might get in lion's mane or brain health boosting from cordyceps.
How Do Medicinal Mushrooms Compare to Mainstream Nootropics
Sleep Disorders
Sleep disorders riddle all age groups and can make starting and finishing your day way harder than it needs to be. Medicinal mushrooms are an excellent, well-tested route to support better, restful sleep for higher-performance days ahead.
In practice, reishi is one of the top-performing sleep enhancers in the medicinal mushroom world, which has been linked to creating a sense of calm and increasing the body's natural ability to relax before bed.
Brainpower
Getting increased brainpower without the crash can be extremely difficult. Most of us will look to a quick fix like coffee or an energy drink, while others may look to exercise for that post-workout burst. Overall, medicinal mushrooms like lion's mane might be the perfect addition to your routine.
Lion's mane has been studied in boosting focus and increasing brain health output, while keeping you far away from addictive, highly-sugary supplements. This creates a quick and clean route to boosting brain power while also making your day in the classroom or at work go by a whole lot faster.
Caffeine-Free Energy
As opposed to most nootropics you might find on the market today, medicinal mushrooms offer a zero-caffeine route to better health and wellness performance. Most cognitive enhancers will rely on kickstarting your energy wells and getting you in a jittery state, medicinal mushrooms like lion’s mane are huge for cognitive function boosting.
Still, wakefulness and natural energy is majorly improved upon with support from mushrooms like cordyceps. This is where you can get a zero-jitter support that may work a bit better than an energy drink or coffee, and feel your best without the crash.
On top of energy and cognitive benefits, there's a whole lot more that mushrooms can do for your diet daily.
Extra Health Benefits Linked to Regular Medicinal Mushroom Use
Cardiovascular Health Support
Your heart health and blood pressure can make or break your long-term health. High blood pressure is a rampant risk in over 100 million confirmed cases from just five years ago.
Luckily, numerous medicinal mushrooms have been used to support treating cardiovascular risk factors. These mushrooms like shiitake or ganoderma lucidum (reishi) are tested for improving communication throughout the cardiovascular system and increasing blood flow, reducing risk of artery damage and keeping blood pressure regulated.
Immunity and Inflammation
L-theanine is often connected to preparing the t-lymphocyte cells in your immune system to be more proactive in resolving flu symptoms and feeling your best. Although, medicinal mushrooms get their fair share of work in as well.
Mycelium foundations combined with antioxidants are great for fighting off free radicals in the body. Since most medicinal mushrooms are heavily powered by these nutrients, you can naturally power your body's immunity and ability to resist inflammation damaging your health.
Stress and Anxiety Relief
Even the most healthy people in the world suffer from stress and anxiety in some capacity. Fortunately for mushroom users, those same antioxidants that are great for reducing inflammation can also support regulating moods. In fact, inflammation itself can often be tied directly to mood shifts and proactively combat the ability for a mood to swing, and instead keep it more regulated.
Now, in 2023, there's a whole mess of different ways to try medicinal mushrooms. They've swept over the nootropic world by storm, and really started becoming a force in health and wellness through a variety of different supplement formats.
Different Routes to Try Medicinal Mushrooms as Nootropics
Mushroom Coffee
Loads of students and folks in the workplace have looked straight to coffee for mushroom support. It's already such a soul-cleansing, empowering cup of goodness we have every day. Why not combine it with mushrooms?
The issue most of Team Troomy runs into with coffee blends is caffeine. Caffeine laces almost every blend of function boosters, and can make the latter half of your day crash-filled and jittery. Chances are, you might want to look to an alternative supplement if you're looking for quality, everyday support.
Mushroom Powder
Mushroom powder is another great place to start with mushroom-powered wellness. It offers a quicker, poignant variation of mushroom wellness that can easily be packed into your everyday recipes, or blended into a smoothie. With less prep time, mushroom powders a quick blend that make health and wellness that much easier.
The trouble with mushroom powder is it can often get messy. It also might blend a handful of mushrooms together you aren't necessarily looking for, and you'll still run into the caffeine dilemma. Between each of these, there's an awesome alternative that gets the best of both the flavor and functional-support worlds.
Mushroom Gummies
Overall, gummies are the perfect middle ground for getting mushroom-powered wellness into your diet. They blend mushrooms naturally into an accessible, caffeine-free, and natural sugar mix of delicious flavor. With zero prep time or hassle, you'll be on your way to a better day ahead in no time.
Now, the trick is just finding the perfect blend for boosting focus and increasing cognitive function.
Getting Started with Medicinal Mushrooms for Smart Drug Support Today
Overall, prescription drugs are strong for those who have been diagnosed with ADHD and other cognitive ailments. However, even without those ailments diagnosed, that doesn’t mean you still can’t get the most out of a productive day. If you’re looking for short term support just for getting through a project or two, or longer term support to promote better habits with your workflow, there’s a wide variety of alternative nootropics to try.
Medicinal mushrooms are a fantastic place to get going with nootropic support. You can boost a ton of different parts of your day, and today, we'll start with Focus.
Focus is our lion's mane gummy from Troomy that is lovingly crafted to elevate your productivity at work, increase immunity, reduce brain fog, and help get you closer to your daily vitamins and nutritional value. In passionfruit tangerine flavors of 60-count jars, it's easier than ever to get started.
So why wait? Find your "True Me" with Troomy today!
Disclaimer: None of the above information or claims have been reviewed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
