The Brain-Boosting Properties of Lion’s Mane Mushroom & Making a Medicinal Mushroom Double Extract — Milk & Honey Herbs

Lion’s Mane Mushroom is an herb I’ve been enjoying so much over the past months. It’s a powerful nootropic, provides mood support, has a special talent for helping heal damaged nerves, and possesses the famous beta-glucan polysaccharides that make medicinal mushrooms such potent immunomodulators. Over the winter we’ve been learning a ton about herbal nootropics in our Viriditas Membership Community and I wanted to share a but of what we’ve been covering! But first…what’s a nootropic you might ask?What’s a Nootropic?Nootropic is an herbal action used to describe brain-boosting, mood enhancing herbs. I truly consider them medicine for our times. The name nootropic is comprised of two Greek words, nöos, meaning ‘thinking,’ and tropein, which means ‘to guide’The Romanian psychologist and chemist Dr. Corneliu Giurgea was one of the first scientists who researched nootropics and was the first person to bring them forward in research and in the scientific community in the early 1970’sAccording to his definition, a true nootropic may:– Improve learning and short-term memory retention– Increase resilience to stress hormones and trauma– Protect brain cells and improve brain bioactivity– Promote intercellular communicationDr. Giurgea developed six key criteria to qualify substances as true nootropics.1.       Enhancement of memory and learning2.     Improved cognition under stress3.      Protection of brain cells (neuroprotective)4.     Facilitation of cell-to-cell communication5.     Backed by human research demonstrating brain bioactivity6.     Absence of usual pharmacological effects of psychotropic drugsToday not all herbal nootropics fit this exact definition and in herbalism we use the term to describe herbs that enhance mental focus, cognition, memory, learning, mood, and are neuroprotective.  Many, but not all, are adaptogens and they each tend to have their own unique mechanism of actions, when we know it. In my experience in my herbal practice, these are herbs that need to be taken consistently to feel the effects and I’ve seen the effect stop when people stop taking them. They tend to be tonic herbs for the nervous system, safe for daily use, and some are even food as medicine plants or fungi, such as Lion’s Mane.