What if there was a way to ramp up the energizing effects of your morning cup of joe in a healthy and natural way? Drinking mushroom coffee has many benefits, and this article will outline the 5 main ones.
If you’re frequently tired, you know that relying on caffeine is a delicate dance between drinking just enough to get the juices flowing and not overdoing it to the point of hand tremors.
But do you know how you can boost your energy and experience other health benefits without chancing a mid-day caffeine crash? Add a scoop of mushroom extract to your regular coffee or tea. Drinking mushroom coffee provides an anti-tiredness effect.
Tiredness can manifest through both physical and mental signs. From sore, weak muscles and slowed reflexes to brain fog, moodiness, and difficulty concentrating—fatigue is many-sided.
In This Article
- #5 - Mushrooms Support a Healthy Inflammation Response
- #4 - Mushroom Coffee Promotes a Healthy Metabolism for Physical Energy
- #3 - Mushrooms Can Reduce the Effects of Stress on the Body & Mind
- #2 - Mushrooms Improve Sleep Quality
- #1 - Mushrooms Support Focus & Cognition With No “Crash”
- 5 Mushroom Coffee Benefits at a Glance
- Tips for Mushroom-ing Your Coffee
#5 - Mushrooms Support a Healthy Inflammation Response
Ground mushrooms are antioxidant powerhouses that help your body maintain healthy inflammation responses, which can be derailed by chronic inflammation.
Persistent low-grade inflammation (1) keeps your body in a state of high alert, expending more energy than it has available—this creates a feeling of fatigue.
Inflammation is a natural part of how your immune system works to protect your body from harm. That said, chronic inflammation typically builds gradually, manifesting as feelings of tiredness, headaches, muscle aches, and joint pain.
Therefore, you need to consider balancing out inflammation as a long-term game by consistently adding mushroom powder to regular coffee.
An Antidote to Inflammation & Fatigue
To counter the negative effects of unbalanced levels of inflammation in the body, current research (2) found that chaga mushroom extracts:
- Have antioxidant properties that help your body fight off damaging free radicals
- Aid the antioxidant enzymes in your body to break down potentially harmful oxygen molecules
- Support your body in balancing out its inflammatory response for added health benefits
It makes sense to use chaga mushroom extract in regular coffee or tea to help promote a healthy inflammation response in your body. This will support optimal energy levels and stave off fatigue.
However, it’s important to think of your entire system and lifestyle as working in tandem.
That’s why certain lifestyle changes may also ease fatigue-inducing inflammation. These lifestyle changes include:
- Sleeping for 7–9 hours every night
- Reducing stress through deep breathing
- Incorporating aerobic and strength exercises weekly
- Limiting sugar intake and processed foods in your diet
This was Drew’s experience with chaga mushroom powder:
“It gave me energy. Prior to the use of Chaga… I could hardly wake up. Now I feel refreshed… I will be a lifetime customer.” — Drew, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Verified Real Mushrooms Customer
Expert tip: The health benefits of mushroom coffee are built on accumulation. To fully experience the beneficial effects of our 100% pure organic mushroom powders, we recommend taking a ½-teaspoon a day for a prolonged period of time.
The health benefits of mushroom coffee with chaga mushrooms include an anti-tiredness effect.
#4 - Mushroom Coffee Promotes a Healthy Metabolism for Physical Energy
Sometimes, because of age, poor diet, or hormonal changes, our metabolism may function sub-optimally. This impacts our energy levels, including our ability to exercise regularly and effectively.
Drinking mushroom coffee with functional mushrooms, specifically, Cordyceps, can enhance our metabolism and have an invigorating effect.
So, considering that exercise boosts mood, focus, heart health, and better sleep, how can we support a healthy metabolism to be more active and reap these health benefits?
A Mushroom With Energetic Health Benefits
A study on the effect of Cordyceps whole mushrooms on the metabolism (3) found that regularly supplementing with these ground mushrooms:
- Increased the metabolic threshold, meaning an increase in blood oxygen level and ability to exercise more without experiencing fatigue
- Enhanced the ventilatory threshold, meaning a more effective buffering from lactic acid accumulation, thus delaying and reducing muscle burn and fatigue
Regularly supplementing with mushroom extracts can aid your body in providing balanced energy, allowing you to stay active well into old age.
Here’s how two of our customers experienced their energy boost from Organic Cordyceps Mushroom Extract Powder:
“Helped me with my workouts. I noticed I didn’t run out of breath as quickly, and I felt like I had more endurance.” — Daniel, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Verified Real Mushrooms Buyer
“It gives me energy in the morning before my workout.” — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beth D., Verified Real Mushrooms Buyer
Expert tip: Cordyceps sinensis (wild Cordyceps) is so rare and difficult to cultivate that you won’t find it in any supplements available in the North American market. But what you will find in your Cordyceps mushroom supplement is commercially cultivated Cordyceps militaris, which is cultivated at scale in a sterile medium and doesn’t harm any insects.
Make sure that your Cordyceps mushroom powder is extracted from the fruiting body and not the mycelium (vegetative body). One way to check this is to see the package details for measured amounts of beta-glucans.
The fruiting body yields higher beta-glucan content and has no starch filler, unlike most mycelium-derived products. If you want to get actual health benefits from your mushroom coffee, pay attention to your product label!
#3 - Mushrooms Can Reduce the Effects of Stress on the Body & Mind
Speaking of beta-glucans, these compounds are the key structural component of mushroom cell walls. As active ingredients in whole mushrooms, they help the body and its systems manage occasional stress, which often causes fatigue.
Let’s briefly break down how they provide these health benefits.
Good bacteria in the colon ferment dietary fiber, including beta-glucans. The process releases nutrients that support a healthy immune response and improved psychological well-being.
This ability to support our bodies in self-regulating natural stress responses and aiding relaxation without compromising your health is what makes mushrooms adaptogens. Drinking mushroom coffee helps the body adapt to stress and gently steers it onward.
Mushrooms Help Your Body & Mind Adapt to Stress
In one study (4), beta-glucans extracted from oyster, shiitake, and reishi mushrooms were used as supplements over a 6-month period. The results showed that these mushrooms had the following health benefits:
- Improved mood states and a better overall well-being
- Supported a stronger immune response, including improving respiratory tract health and allergy symptoms
Stress and, therefore, fatigue may also negatively impact heart health.
How do we counter this?
An animal study (5) showed that supplementing with shiitake and maitake mushrooms also helped to manage blood pressure and cholesterol levels—leading to better heart health.
A medicinal mushroom complex that includes shiitake and maitake, like Real Mushrooms’s 5 Defenders supplement, is a great way to manage physical and mental stress. One of our customers shared their experience with this health-balancing effect:
“Since taking Five Defenders I’ve been less susceptible to catching colds, and in general, I feel stronger and more balanced.” — Ingrid, Verified 5 Defenders Buyer.
Expert tip: If regular coffee (caffeine) makes you a jittery mess, you can still benefit from the mushroom powders by adding them to smoothies, yogurt, hot chocolate, elixirs, and even baked goods.
You can get the benefits of mushroom extracts by adding them to coffee or by adding them to other drinks, snacks, or meals. Here’s our free mushroom recipe book to help you get started on your mushroom supplementation journey today.
#2 - Mushrooms Improve Sleep Quality
Traditional Chinese medicine used reishi mushrooms to ease restlessness and insomnia for hundreds of years, showing that even ethnomedicine recognized sleep as a key health marker.
All the obvious symptoms we typically link to tiredness, such as slower reflexes, reduced cognitive efficiency, and impaired memory, can point to poor sleep quality.
In fact, one study (6) showed that it takes longer than 7 days of full sleep to recover from the same number of days of restricted sleep.
Good sleep hygiene is essential because, without it, we lose the regenerative effects of sleep hormones like melatonin and growth hormone. We also get a high amount of stress hormones in the body, which wreak havoc on the body’s resilience, immune response, and metabolism.
How Mushroom Coffee Grounds Can Support Restful Sleep
So, how exactly do mushrooms aid in good sleep quality?
An animal study (7) found that reishi mushroom extracts increased total sleep time and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep.
It’s no surprise since during NREM sleep, your body:
- Strengthens the immune system
- Builds bone and muscle
- Repairs and regenerates tissues
Our customer Steve definitely had this sleep-improving experience:
“I have been a light sleeper for a long time and relied on Melatonin and other sleep aids… I have been using Reishi extract exclusively for the past three months, and I am continuing to sleep noticeably better than before.” — Steve, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Verified Real Mushrooms Buyer
Expert tip: We recommend taking your Organic Reishi Mushroom Powder in the evening in your hot chocolate or tea to regulate your natural biorhythm and get you into a rejuvenating, deep sleep.
Balance these effects with the benefits of mushroom coffee in the morning. Simply add Organic Cordyceps Mushroom Extract and Organic Lion's Mane Mushroom to your regular coffee brew to reset your biorhythm, wake the body up with an energy boost, and prime the brain for optimal functioning.
#1 - Mushrooms Support Focus & Cognition With No “Crash”
Many of us depend on our morning coffee or tea to wake our minds up and increase mental acuity. If you count yourself among this group, then you may have noticed that caffeine has its downsides.
Downsides of Caffeine
Caffeine reduces the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical that makes you feel sleepy. Simultaneously, it increases the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline to give you energy (10). This is why many people struggle with sleepless nights, anxiety, and jitters after consuming caffeine.
Caffeine can also make you feel fatigued and irritable and even give you a headache after its effects wear off. This is often referred to as “crashing.” It typically occurs about five hours after consuming this stimulant (7,8,9).
A Functional Alternative to Caffeine for Alertness & Focus
One of the potential health benefits of lion’s mane, like the other medicinal mushrooms, is that it is a very effective adaptogen for promoting a healthy inflammatory response and supporting a healthy immune system. But it also has another unique characteristic.
Lion’s Mane mushroom powder has received considerable attention for its effect on brain function and cognition. This is a relatively new use for this mushroom and is related to discoveries around its effect on Nerve growth factor (NGF) in the 1990s. More recent clinical studies have supported this discovery (11).
Human clinical studies have shown lion’s mane mushrooms can improve scores on anxiety and depression scales (12). Human studies have also demonstrated that lion’s mane can support better memory recall in aging people with mild memory issues (13,14).
Animal tests indicate compounds from lion’s mane may support nerve impulse transmission as well as support short and long-term memory (15). Interestingly, the same compounds were found to counter oxidative stress in the brain (15).
As many of our customers have noted, their cognition, memory, energy, and mood improved once they began supplementing with lion’s mane extract.
“I use Lions Mane in my coffee every morning, it helps calm my nervous system and is helping my anxiety greatly. I don't want to be without this in my daily routine! Also, I feel more energetic and less fatigued throughout the day.” - Annette, Real Mushrooms Verified Buyer
“From adding the lion's mane to my morning coffee I have really felt a benefit in my mental acuity.” - Dylan, Real Mushrooms Verified Buyer
Expert tip: Lion’s mane extract powder can be taken either as a replacement for caffeine or can be added to regular coffee to help offset the potential for jitters and anxiety
5 Mushroom Coffee Benefits at a Glance
We’ve covered a lot of potential health benefits, but these immune-modulating, antioxidant, stress-relieving, and sleep-improving benefits of drinking mushroom coffee are just the tip of the iceberg.
Let’s review, in the table below, how all these ground mushrooms work to boost energy:
Remember, the effectiveness and potency of your mushroom coffee blends to provide health benefits depend on their extraction from fruit bodies, grown organically; which is a core value of Real Mushrooms.
Tips for Mushroom-ing Your Coffee
To reap the benefits of mushroom coffee, you can use the mushroom extracts individually or try them in a super blend, such as our 5 Defenders Organic Mushroom Complex.
With this 100% pure, organic blend, you’ll get a powerhouse of nutrients from shiitake, maitake, reishi, turkey tail, and chaga mushrooms. Together, they deliver more than 20% of the recommended daily intake of beta-glucans.
If you’re ready to boost your energy and reap the potential health benefits of mushroom coffee, try our mushroom powders or mushroom capsules today.
The benefits of mushroom coffee blends include helping the body adapt to stress, boosting energy, and improving sleep quality, all of which can manage tiredness.
Expert tip: Use our collection of mushroom coffee recipes to find unique ways to enhance your morning mushroom coffee blends for overall health.
Learn More About the Benefits of Ground Mushrooms:
- Medicinal Mushrooms: 7 Kinds and Their Unique Health Benefits
- Healthy Mushrooms: A Primer for Newbies to Mushroom Supplements
- Medicinal Mushroom Benefits: Mycelium vs Fruiting Body
- Medicinal Mushrooms for Pets
References
- Lacourt, T. E., Vichaya, E. G., Chiu, G. S., Dantzer, R., & Heijnen, C. J. (2018). The High Costs of Low-Grade Inflammation: Persistent Fatigue as a Consequence of Reduced Cellular-Energy Availability and Non-adaptive Energy Expenditure. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 12, 78. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00078
- Szychowski, K. A., Skóra, B., Pomianek, T., & Gmiński, J. (2020). Inonotus obliquus - from folk medicine to clinical use. Journal of traditional and complementary medicine, 11(4), 293–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcme.2020.08.003
- Chen, S., Li, Z., Krochmal, R., Abrazado, M., Kim, W., & Cooper, C. B. (2010). Effect of Cs-4 (Cordyceps sinensis) on exercise performance in healthy older subjects: a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 16(5), 585–590. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2009.0226
- Vlassopoulou, M., Yannakoulia, M., Pletsa, V., Zervakis, G., & Kyriacou, A. (2021, March 2). Effects of fungal beta-glucans on health – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials - food & function (RSC publishing) DOI:10.1039/D1FO00122A. The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journals, Books and Databases. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/fo/d1fo00122a
- Kabir, Yearul & YAMAGUCHI, Mami & KIMURA, Shuichi. (1987). Effect of Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) and Maitake (Grifola frondosa) mushrooms on blood pressure and plasma lipids of spontaneously hypertensive rats. Journal of nutritional science and vitaminology. 33. 341-6. 10.3177/jnsv.33.341.
- Ochab, J. K. (2021, September 1). Observing changes in human functioning during induced sleep deficiency and recovery periods. PLOS ONE. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0255771
- Evans, J. et al. (2020, December 2). Caffeine. StatPearls
. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519490/. - Sajadi-Ernazarova, K. R. et al. (2020, November 10). Caffeine Withdrawal. StatPearls
. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430790/. - Temple, J. L., Bernard, C., Lipshultz, S. E., Czachor, J. D., Westphal, J. A., & Mestre, M. A. (2017, May 26). The Safety of Ingested Caffeine: A Comprehensive Review. Frontiers in psychiatry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5445139/.
- Ferre, S. (2007, December 18). An update on the mechanisms of the psychostimulant effects of caffeine. Journal of neurochemistry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18088379/.
- Hirokazu Kawagishi. January 7, 2021. Chemical studies on bioactive compounds related to higher fungi. https://academic.oup.com/bbb/article/85/1/1/6066730?login=true
- Mayumi Nagano, Kuniyoshi Shimizu, Ryuichiro Kondo, et al. August 31, 2010. Reduction of depression and anxiety by 4 weeks Hericium erinaceus intake. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20834180/
- Mori, K., Inatomi, S., Ouchi, K., Azumi, Y., & Tuchida, T. (2009). Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Phytotherapy research : PTR, 23(3), 367–372. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.2634
- Saitsu, Y., Nishide, A., Kikushima, K., Shimizu, K., & Ohnuki, K. (2019). Improvement of cognitive functions by oral intake of Hericium erinaceus. Biomedical research (Tokyo, Japan), 40(4), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.2220/biomedres.40.125
- Spelman, K., Sutherland, E., & Bagade, A. (2017). Neurological activity of lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus). J Restorative Med 6 (1): 19–26.