The Energy Fix Episode 105 - FINAL.mp3
2025-03-17
Transcript
0:00:13 Tansy Rodgers: Welcome back to the Energy Fix, a podcast dedicated to help you balance your energetic body by diving deep into the sweet world of all things health and spirituality. My name’s Tansy and I’m an intuitive crystal Reiki energy healer, energetic nutrition and holistic health practitioner, and a crystal jewelry designer. It’s time to talk all things energy. Let’s dive in. Welcome back, my fellow creative soul, to the Energy Fix podcast. I’m so grateful that you’re here and that you’re tuning into the space where we really start to explore this intersection of energy, holistic healing and expansion.
0:00:56 Tansy Rodgers: Now, as we dive into this episode, I want to just ask you a simple question. When was the last time that you truly felt connected to the intelligence of nature? Maybe that’s not so simple. Or maybe it is. You know, this isn’t just about walking outside or admiring the beauty of the trees, but actually feeling the pulse of the earth, the wisdom in the air that you breathe, the guidance that’s encoded in every plant, every mineral, every drop of water.
0:01:32 Tansy Rodgers: It’s about getting past that surface. Because when we are constantly surrounded by natural medicine, and that’s what it is, it’s natural medicine. Even just stepping outside and taking some breaths of fresh air is natural medicine. We are constantly surrounded by it, but most of us forgot how to actually listen. And today, we’re going to tune back in. This episode is a deep dive into the world of medicinal mushrooms, also known as nature’s ancient healers.
0:02:07 Tansy Rodgers: And we’re going to talk all about how they interact with our bodies, not just on a physical level, but on an energetic level as well. Our guest today, Dr. Anna Sitkoff, is a true master in this field as a licensed naturopathic doctor, a medicinal mushroom expert, and boy, you are going to hear her expertise. She is so full of wisdom and she’s also the co founder of Lucidum Medicinals. She blends the power of science, research and intuition to help us truly understand how mushrooms can support immune health, the nervous system, and even emotional and spiritual balance.
0:02:52 Tansy Rodgers: Now, before we dive into all of this juicy wisdom, let me fill you in on a few powerful opportunities that are going to be coming your way. I want to make sure that you’re fully aware of them because there’s a lot of stuff going on right now. So first, this weekend, March 22nd and 23rd, 2025, I’m going to be at the Divine Collaboration in Gettysburg, Pennsylv. This weekend is going to be an incredible gathering of healers and intuitive leaders and high vibe souls ready to really co create and so we’re all coming together for this expo. This happens every year and I’m really excited to step back into the arena.
0:03:35 Tansy Rodgers: So if you are in the area, come out and immerse yourself in the energy, join in the expansion and how it feels. Get yourself connected to other people, but also maybe even most importantly, come and visit me in person. I love getting to meet you and getting to connect one on one face to face. March 25 if you are in Lititz, Pennsylvania or around the surrounding area, I am going to be co hosting another sound and crystal Reiki healing session at Shavia Healing Arts.
0:04:12 Tansy Rodgers: It is a deeply transformative healing session. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I love these sessions with my co host Jill O’Leary of Shavia Healing Arts. They are so much fun. So March 25th 5:30pm if you are in the area, this is a live only session. If you’re in the area, please come on out and join us. You can head over to Tansy Rogers.com and get all the details and contact me directly so that you can reserve your spot.
0:04:44 Tansy Rodgers: Now if you’re not local to any of these areas, don’t worry. I have a virtual free live event that is coming up on March 31st. This is an opportunity that you don’t want to miss. I’m hosting this completely free event where we’re going to dive into energy blocks, holistic healing and learning how to reclaim your flow. Flow. This event is called why you feel stuck and how to reclaim your flow. And so in this workshop you’re going to be learning some hidden energy blocks that are keeping you feeling stuck and exhausted. Maybe how your emotions, your gut, brain health, your stress levels are affecting your flow.
0:05:27 Tansy Rodgers: Especially if you are an ADHD soul. This is going to be so good for you. You’re going to learn a simple practice to help shift your energy super fast. And also it is a live Q and A. So if you have some burning questions on your heart and you want to reach out and find out some answers, some some insights, this is the time to do it. So if you head over to Tansy Rogers.com you can sign up there as well and get all of the information.
0:05:58 Tansy Rodgers: And then finally before we head into this podcast episode, I have the Energy Alchemy Circle wait list. It is officially open. It is my next biggest release and I am so excited to be putting this out into the world. This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time and I’m finally Stepping into it if you’ve been feeling called to go deeper, to learn how to shift your energy and to heal on a cellular and soul level, the Energy Alchemy circle is definitely for you.
0:06:32 Tansy Rodgers: Joining the waitlist doesn’t mean that you’re committing. I just want to clarify that joining the wait list means that you are interested in learning more. It means you’re going to get first access to details. You’re going to get exclusive bonuses that only the waitlist gets and an invitation to step into something that could radically shift your path. So if any of this sounds interesting, please head on over to tansyrogers.com
0:06:59 Tansy Rodgers: you can find all the information over there and it’s almost like a choose your own adventure. Whatever makes you excited and whatever is calling to you right now. As always, if this podcast is resonating with you, please hit subscribe. Leave a five star review, let a positive review. It’s one of the simplest ways that you can help support this show, share this energy with more souls, and to allow other people to really learn how to step into their next level of healing and expansion.
0:07:34 Tansy Rodgers: So, okay, I think that is all the updates. Like I said, there’s so much going on, but I just didn’t want you to miss out on any of these opportunities. Now we’re going to dive into this episode and one thing I do want to mention, because Dr. Ana did not mention this in the episode, her and I discussed this once we were off air. She is offering an exclusive, exclusive discount code for all of the listeners of the Energy Fix podcast to receive 20% off of products off their orders on her websites. And I will have all of those links down in the show notes, including what the code is. The code is Energy Fix.
0:08:16 Tansy Rodgers: This is definitely the best opportunity for you to get your hands onto some of her products and also take rest, assure that she knows what she’s talking about and is creating really quality products. All right, grab that cup of delicious hot tea or coffee. Sit back, relax, get into the mode of listening to this Incredible episode with Dr. Anna Sitkoff. Let’s dive in.
0:08:49 Tansy Rodgers: Welcome to the Energy Fix, Anna. I am so excited to have you here today.
0:08:54 Anna Sitkoff: Thanks for having me.
0:08:55 Tansy Rodgers: You know, we’re going to be diving deep into the whole conversation about medicinal mushrooms and what that is and how it affects your body and all of the fun stuff in holistic nutrition and health that go around medicinal mushrooms. But before we get into the nitty gritty of all of it, I really want the listeners to know you and where you’re at right now, in this season of your life, what’s important to you and how things are shifting and transitioning. So is there a word or a phrase that you’re really embodying right now in this journey in the season of your life?
0:09:31 Anna Sitkoff: This season I would say mother. It’s kind of. I have a 13 month old and so I feel like my role in my family, in the world is like very. Yeah, just like taking care of, of my baby and my family and my patients and definitely. Yeah, mama.
0:09:55 Tansy Rodgers: And so going from going from not being a mother to being a mama and then juggling all of those roles because that’s a lot of new hats that you just put on. How are you. Is there like some self care practices, some behavioral shifts? How are you really embodying that mother, that mother energy?
0:10:20 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I am fortunate to have a lot of help. We live next to my mother in law and so I get to balance my care taking in my mama self with at least a few hours or maybe like an hour every day of some kind of self care. Whether that looked like walking or exercising or do a lot of strength training. That’s kind of like my main self care thing. And I have a wonderful husband who also mothers me and takes care of me and you know, helps make dinner and say.
0:11:03 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I, I think that having a strong community has been key for the transition and it’s been hard.
0:11:13 Tansy Rodgers: Of course, of course it’s hard. And the community is absolutely essential. You know, you just said something that I never thought about. But I think it’s so important to really drive home if the opportunity is there. You said that you have a husband that mothers you. And so I feel that when a woman becomes a mother, when a person becomes a mother and they step or when a dad becomes a father and they step into that role. Right.
0:11:43 Tansy Rodgers: I think that it’s so important to have somebody to then give that back to them so that you’re fueling that part of your soul so that you can then give. It’s like you’re filling up your cup so that it can overflow and give back to your own child.
0:12:00 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it can be. Mothering is like the most beautiful and the most depleting thing and unless you have like someone else there who’s like caring for you, it can just continue to be really hard. And I’ve been fortunate that it can also like be so nourishing because I am getting support from my husband and my friends, my community and my all of my parent in laws and yeah.
0:12:27 Tansy Rodgers: Oh, I love that. Well, this is going to be such a great conversation today because I feel that the word medicinal mushrooms really is quite trendy right now. There’s buzzwords around it, but the concept of them and what they actually are doing is not so much talked about. It’s just, oh, you should take xyz. But why? Other than maybe some of the surface level conversation. So, Anna, your transition from a scientific researcher to a naturopathic doctor is quite a journey, and I would love for you to take a moment here and just share some of those moments or those experiences that sparked your passion for the healing power of medicinal mushrooms and wanting to get people to understand more about them.
0:13:22 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, my interest in medicinal mushrooms really came, I’d say, like, right after my undergraduate degree, which was in nutrition. And I learned a little bit about mushrooms there, but not really in great detail. And my father had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and I remember him being prescribed a mushroom blend from his Chinese medical doctor, who he was working with alongside his oncologist. And I just got so interested. I was also studying herbal medicine at the time, and I felt like medicinal mushrooms were just kind of skipped over in that education. They didn’t go deep. It was like, oh, mushrooms are good for the immune system, and that’s it.
0:14:07 Anna Sitkoff: And so when I decided to become a naturopathic doctor, it was in medical school that I was doing the research, and I was able to do research on lymphocytic leukemia cancer cells, which was so cool. And I got to choose any mushroom I wanted to work with. And I was really looking into the how and why. And like, how do mushrooms stimulate or modulate the immune system and trying different extraction methods.
0:14:34 Anna Sitkoff: And that really just got me so fascinated with what extraction methods will get the most out of the mushrooms and what is the actual way you should be dosing mushrooms and which mushrooms do what, and just kind of this whole rabbit hole, I guess, that has taken over my entire life. I’m still in the rabbit hole, but it’s just. Is like something that I feel. It’s. I’ve continued to feel so passionate about, and I’ve gotten so lucky to have amazing mentors that have given me opportunities to write in textbooks about medicinal mushrooms and really just continue my.
0:15:23 Anna Sitkoff: My passion in the. The supplement company that I have and in my medical practice. And the mushrooms have definitely, like, infiltrated my entire existence as they do.
0:15:36 Tansy Rodgers: And I feel like when you find that thing, you’re never really getting out of the rabbit hole. You’re always in It.
0:15:45 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
0:15:48 Tansy Rodgers: Well, what was it like when you first realized medicinal mushrooms potential? And how did that actually start to shape your approach to health and wellness?
0:16:00 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I think, like, when was it? Actually, I think it was probably even before I went to naturopathic medical school. I was working in an apothecary, and I decided to start teaching classes about the local medicinal mushrooms. And I didn’t know much about mushrooms generally at the time. It was kind of one of those things where it’s like, teach about something that you want to know about. And so I decided to teach this class about the medicinal mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. And in my mind, I was like, this is going to be, like, the best medicinal mushroom class that ever existed.
0:16:38 Anna Sitkoff: And when I say that to myself about anything being, like, the best, I really get into it. And I just started diving into the research, and my mind was blown. And I was just amazed at the amount of research that had actually been done and also how limited it was based on the potential, because there was in vitro studies, like, more like test tube studies, and there were a lot of animal studies, but there weren’t a ton of human studies. And I just felt like there needed to be more there, which I’m still hoping for more, but there is some that come out every year.
0:17:25 Anna Sitkoff: And I just. Yeah, it just seemed like such. This. This, like, amazing. Almost like a. Not like a panacea of just like, name a body system, there’s a mushroom that impacts that physiology of that system. And I. I just saw them as just these, like, amazing organisms that I needed to know more about. And. And then when I was in school, like, in the clinic, I didn’t really see any of the practitioners using them very much, or if they were using them, they weren’t really using the right kinds of products, which we can definitely get into.
0:18:13 Anna Sitkoff: And, yeah, it kind of felt like there was like this. This hole that I needed to fill for the medical community. And so I’ve been spending my. A lot of my time and energy trying to fill that hole with the mushroom knowledge that I have and that I’m always collecting. If that answers your question.
0:18:38 Tansy Rodgers: It does.
0:18:39 Anna Sitkoff: Okay, great. I’ve been seeing patients all day, so I’m just kind of like, my brain is, like, mostly working and it’s a little fatigued.
0:18:48 Tansy Rodgers: No, you definitely. You definitely answer. Well, I’m going to ask you a question that may really challenge your brain, and I don’t know if there’s a definite answer, but how many mushrooms are there that are medicinal mushrooms? Is there an actual number or they just. Is there hundreds of them?
0:19:03 Anna Sitkoff: I mean, there’s like the handful of medicinal mushrooms that people are most familiar with, which I guess it would be like Reishi, turkey tail, shiitake, maitake, lion’s mane, cordyceps, tremella, oyster. I’m sure I’m forgetting some at least like 10 to 15 that people are most familiar with. And then there’s like that’s only one genus and species of each mushroom. It’s like when I say Reishi, it’s like, oh, Ganoderma lucidum. But that’s only one species of Reishi. There are tons of species of medicinal ganodermas.
0:19:42 Anna Sitkoff: So I mean there’s hundreds of medicinal mushrooms.
0:19:46 Tansy Rodgers: Interesting. I didn’t realize that there were so many different species of just one kind of.
0:19:54 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah, fascinating.
0:19:57 Tansy Rodgers: So depending on what the species is, does it interact with your body differently?
0:20:05 Anna Sitkoff: It depends. So some we can use Reishi as an example. So like Ganoderma lucidum and some of the other ganodermas like Ganoderma organens or Ganoderma tuga, which are local to the United States. I would say they’re basically analogs. They work very similarly. Then there’s Ganoderma aplanatum, which is different and it looks different. Whereas. So like Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma organens, they look very similar. They’re this like bright red, varnished, beautiful polypore mushroom.
0:20:44 Anna Sitkoff: And Ganoderma uplandatum is also known as artist conch, where the surface is actually like a darker brown and it’s not bright red. It does not look the same, but it’s still ganoderma. And some of the properties are very similar. But whereas Reishi, I would say is more energetically heart focused, the artist conch is more lung. And then as far as chemical compound wise, they are very similar as far as the polysaccharides and the triterpenes look similar.
0:21:25 Anna Sitkoff: Unfortunately there hasn’t been a ton of great comparisons that go through all of the different species, but there’s been a few studies looking at chemical compound comparisons and they’re pretty similar.
0:21:38 Tansy Rodgers: Oh wow.
0:21:38 Tansy Rodgers: That’s fascinating. Fascinating and so complex. I had no idea.
0:21:43 Anna Sitkoff: Wow. Yeah.
0:21:44 Tansy Rodgers: Well, can you unpack a little bit of how these compounds interact with our systems in ways that it’s both scientific and accessible, perhaps sharing maybe why these interactions are so crucial.
0:21:58 Anna Sitkoff: Yes, definitely. So we’ll just start with polysaccharides because that’s going to be true for all, all mushrooms. And just to back up One moment when we’re talking about mushrooms here, we’re talking about the fruiting body or the above ground portion of the fungal organism. So this is like what we can see, and then we can kind of get into the different fungal parts later, because that’s an important part of the conversation.
0:22:25 Anna Sitkoff: So mushrooms all have polysaccharides, or they’re basically just like long sugar molecules. And these are a part of the mushroom cell wall. All the mushroom cell walls have these polysaccharides and chitin as their main kind of structural compounds. Chitin is one of the hardest substances on earth. It’s what crustacean shells are made out of. And so you really need to cook your mushrooms to extract those polysaccharides.
0:22:57 Anna Sitkoff: But those long sugar molecules, once they are ingested, they’re basically unchanged as they go through your stomach acid and digestive juices. And then they interact with the immune system within your intestines, which is also called the GALT or the gut associated lymphoid tissue. We have these cells in the GALT called M cells, where some cells of your innate immune system are like the first responders come in and those have specific receptors for these polysaccharides.
0:23:28 Anna Sitkoff: There’s the main one is dein, one that people are maybe familiar with, and then there’s a few others. And so this sugar molecule binds to these receptors on the immune cells within your intestines and then that elicits an immune response. So macrophages, which are like the big eaters of your innate immune system, some of those first responders, they become activated and then they release signaling molecules that tell other cells to become active, like natural killer cells and cytotoxic T cells.
0:24:01 Anna Sitkoff: These are like your main antiviral and anti cancer defenses. So that’s one way that those polysaccharides are benefiting the immune system. Another way is that they are prebiotic. And so the gut microbiome is essential. Like balance in the gut microbiome is essential for a healthy immune system. And so having a lot of these polysaccharides as part of your diet, and you can just do this by like eating a lot of mushrooms is feeding all those good gut bacteria.
0:24:35 Anna Sitkoff: And so it’s also benefiting the immune system that way. And then there’s some other actions depending on the mushroom, where they’re like increasing certain other immune cells, like T regulatory cells, which can help kind of like calm an autoimmune response or increase certain cytokines or cell signaling molecules that are going to be more anti inflammatory or more immune stimulating kind of depending.
0:25:08 Anna Sitkoff: And then we have these other compounds in many mushrooms, most notably, I would say in Reishi, we have these triterpenes and terpenes. Some people have maybe heard of them. They’re talked about a lot in the pot cannabis world, but they’re in a lot of plants and a lot of mushrooms. And they can be kind of lighter or they can be heavier in weight. The lighter in weight terpenes, like the mono terpenes or the sesquiterpenes, that’s like what we smell when we smell essential oils. It’s often like terpenes and then these heavier terpenes are what the mushrooms have.
0:25:55 Anna Sitkoff: And so they’re not going to volatilize off. You can’t really smell them very much. But they are bitter to the taste. And so if your mushroom extract is bitter, that’s usually from the terpenes. But they also have an impact on the immune system that’s more kind of like directly antiviral and directly cytotoxic to cancer cells in some cases. And they’re going to be also kind of more have like an antihistamine effect.
0:26:23 Anna Sitkoff: So these are kind of like the two main players in the immune response when it comes to mushrooms. And they’re also importantly, they’re extracted differently. And so when you make a tea with mushrooms, if you’re boiling mushrooms into a broth, you’re going to get a lot of those polysaccharides, those sugar molecules that are going to stimulate the immune system. And then the triterpenes though are fat soluble or alcohol soluble.
0:26:53 Anna Sitkoff: And they’re not going to be as much extracted in the that water extract in the tea or the broth. And so you need to either do an alcohol extract of them or make sure that if you’re using a mushroom supplement that it’s a powdered extract or that there’s been some kind of alcohol and water extraction method that’s happened there.
0:27:19 Tansy Rodgers: Oh wow. Things you just don’t think about.
0:27:22 Tansy Rodgers: Oh yeah. Have you ever wondered why some people can take all the right supplements, eat the cleanest diet and still struggle with gut health, energy and immune function? Well, the missing link is really your microbiome, your gut microbiome. That’s why I love Just Thrive Probiotics. It’s a company that has completely revolutionized gut health with their clinically proven spirit four based probiotics.
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0:28:26 Tansy Rodgers: They go hand in hand when it comes to deep rooted healing. Medicinal mushrooms thrive in a balanced gut. And when your microbiome is in peak shape, your body can actually absorb and utilize the benefits of functional foods and herbs way more efficiently. So if you’re ready to give your gut the upgrade it deserves, make sure you check out just thrive probiotics and you can even use my exclusive code to get 15% off your order.
0:28:57 Tansy Rodgers: Go down to the show notes, click on that link. And when you get to the code, make sure to put in Tansy 15 for 15% off your order. All right, now let’s get back to today’s conversation.
0:29:11 Tansy Rodgers: Okay, so let’s also talk about the other fungal parts. So you talked about the above ground part of the fungus. How about the other parts? Are there health benefits with those?
0:29:24 Anna Sitkoff: So the mycelium would be, I think, the main other part. And then sometimes what you might see on a label is something that says primordia, which is just like it’s when the fruiting body is like just starting to erupt. And there are medicinal benefits to the mycelium. It similarly has polysaccharides. It’s not going to be as high in polysaccharides as the fruiting body. It’s not going to have as many triterpenes as the fruiting body.
0:29:51 Anna Sitkoff: There are certain enzymes that are released in the fruiting process that increase those compounds. And the issue with mycelium is that it’s almost impossible to find a mycelium supplement that isn’t diluted with grain because people who are growing mushrooms, they’re growing them on a grain substrate. So substrate is just like what the mycelium is growing on. And it’s usually going to be like sorghum or brown rice or oats.
0:30:29 Anna Sitkoff: And that’s kind of like tempeh, I think would be a good example of like myceliated grain or fermented grain. And so even though that mycelium is medicinal because it can’t be separated from the grain that it’s growing on, a lot of the powdered supplements that have mycelium as the main compound in there are very diluted and you’re not even going to be getting a lot of the medicinal benefit from. Does that make sense?
0:30:59 Tansy Rodgers: It makes total sense. As you were talking, I was thinking, would that be an issue for people that maybe have, well, I guess depending on the grain, that maybe have a gluten sensitivity or that are intolerant of some of those grains and then you don’t know. You have no clue that maybe a reaction is happening because of that?
0:31:19 Anna Sitkoff: Yes. And this has happened. I’ve seen this with multiple patients. Actually. I had a patient who was making, like, a mushroom hot chocolate that was really, like, not making her feel very well. And I was like, what. What is this mushroom hot chocolate you’re getting? Because it said mushroom hot chocolate. But then you look at the ingredients and there’s no mushroom in it. It’s mycelium with added.
0:31:41 Anna Sitkoff: And when it says other ingredients, it says, like, I think it was brown rice in that one. And she’s sensitive to rice. And it’s like, well, there we go. And this is. This is something that I think a lot of people in, like, the mushroom community is fighting back against is like supplement regulation and the labeling and that a mushroom is a mushroom and mycelium is not a mushroom. Mycelium is part of the fungal organism, but it is not a mushroom.
0:32:13 Tansy Rodgers: Ana, this is why I’m so happy we’re having this conversation, because as you talked about that, I had a huge. Aha. There has been many of mushroom supplements that I have tried that afterwards. I feel bloated, I feel not so great. It doesn’t sit in my stomach well. And I have a gluten sensitivity. And so I had no clue about this. And this is a good possibility of why that was happening. Wow.
0:32:41 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Yeah. Look at the other ingredients and see. And then always look to. On the nutrition label, if it says mycelium or if it even says just biomass, that’s another indicator that it’s going to be the, like, mycelium plus the grain that it’s been growing on.
0:32:57 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Wow. So thinking about what we just talked about in regards to people with sensitivities, I just want to throw this in here because this popped into my head too. What if somebody has a fungal infection? Maybe they have Sibo candida. Are they able to. To enjoy medicinal mushrooms? Or is that something that maybe they need to stay away from in to help heal that first? Like, what’s your take there?
0:33:23 Anna Sitkoff: This is. This is a great question and a question that I get from patients all the time. And I think that there’s a few answers here. So one is that if it’s candida, mushrooms are actually antifungal, which seems kind of weird, but it’s like mushrooms also need compounds to protect themselves from fungal infections while they’re growing out in the world. And so they have compounds that are antifungal.
0:33:52 Anna Sitkoff: Also, the fact that they are prebiotic, they’re helping to increase Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. And so they can help to kind of like, crowd out the candida or the other kind of, like, bad bacteria that might be present in the microbiome. And so they have that kind of antifungal capacity. As far as sibo goes, it depends. Some people tolerate them fine, and then some people don’t tolerate the mushroom. It’s like the sugars in the mushroom. It doesn’t really have to do with, like, the fact that they’re fungus, but it’s more of just, like, tolerating the polysaccharides generally.
0:34:32 Tansy Rodgers: I feel like sibo is just a rebel in general, so this doesn’t surprise me. It’s just like, sibo does what it wants.
0:34:38 Anna Sitkoff: Sibo does what it wants.
0:34:40 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Yeah.
0:34:40 Anna Sitkoff: Yes. Yeah. And then the other question I get a lot that I think is along these lines is like, what about mycotoxins? And that’s this other interest that I’m, like, currently been doing research on, and I’m going to. That’s like, my next big blog post is about mushrooms and mycotoxins. But I think they can be both helpful and hurtful. It’s like, depending on where your mushrooms are coming from is the biggest thing.
0:35:09 Anna Sitkoff: Mushrooms are, like, medicinal. Mushrooms are going to have maybe mycotoxins from other yeasts present if they have been processed weird or if they’ve been sitting out or if they weren’t dried well. So it’s not going to be from the mushroom itself, but they may have mycotoxins from other yeast, depending on how they’ve been processed. Yeah. And so, like, I feel comfortable using medicinal mushrooms with my patients who have mycotoxin exposure. I haven’t seen it be an issue because I also, like, know where the mushrooms are coming from that I prescribe.
0:35:46 Anna Sitkoff: But for. For people who are dealing with that or have that question, I would say that they just need to, like, be sure about the processing of their mushroom supplement.
0:35:54 Tansy Rodgers: And that was going to be my next question because, I mean, mycotoxins, you can’t see, they are. They’re undetectable with the human eye. You can’t smell. You know, they’re. They’re not. They’re not very accessible in detection. So it’s really comes down to the. The quality of the product itself, it sounds like.
0:36:15 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, and that’s true with anything, though, whether it be a mushroom or a grain or coffee or chocolate or whatever you’re consuming that could potentially have mycotoxins, just like, if something has been, you know, subjected to moisture and then sitting out and. Or processed and like sitting in a container for a long period of time, there’s risk with anything.
0:36:35 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Well, I want to add on to this conversation now. We talked about how it processes in the body, but let’s also talk about how you blend together traditional and modern medicinal practices, especially in the energetics of the mushroom. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about what you do or what you educate on when it comes to the energetics of the mushrooms.
0:37:01 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, well, I think that we can. There’s, like, so much to talk about here. I’m just, like, trying to decide where to start. I think we could start with birth, because that’s where everything starts. So I. I think that mushrooms are like the doulas of nature, and they are the alchemists. They are the doulas. They are there for transformation. They help to trans. Transform death into life. And so any experience where there is transformation happening, they can be helpful.
0:37:46 Anna Sitkoff: And I think that what I. I’ve seen is like, it’s. And it’s. I think it, like, you can talk about, like, the literal birth and like, postpartum period, and they can be so helpful there for helping you recover and transform this new person or the new mother that you are. And then there’s really cool research with using psilocybin psychoactive mushrooms in helping people to kind of come to terms with the dyeing process.
0:38:18 Anna Sitkoff: And I think that any mushroom could be helpful there. I don’t necessarily think it needs to be like a psychedelic mushroom, but I’ve seen people transform, even just really, like, ptsd, just using like, reishi mushroom and Reishi helps to nourish the heart and the spirit. And it really, like, I. It was actually, like, with a patient, and I wasn’t even expecting her to have this response. And I was giving her a mushroom blend for support to use alongside chemotherapy for her cancer.
0:38:58 Anna Sitkoff: And it had this. It’s like the side effect was that her PTSD symptoms got so much better. She felt like she was like a different person walking around and, like, experiencing the world in a different way. Like she felt like, it helped with this transformational kind of psychological experience, which is pretty, pretty cool there. And. Yeah, and I’m just thinking of like my other kind of mushroom formulas that I.
0:39:28 Anna Sitkoff: That I typically use. And I think that my. I’m thinking of the lung, this lung formula that has cordyceps. And it’s like traditionally it’s like cordyceps would be eaten and you would feel like it’s like for strength and endurance and vitality. And then you can think about like how cordyceps even exists. And I guess a lot of people listening may not know that cordyceps is actually like. It takes over the mycelium, takes over the body of a worm or an ant or another insect, and then it kind of forces that ant to climb up to the tallest branch in the forest where it can then fruit into the cordyceps fruiting body and then release its spores.
0:40:25 Anna Sitkoff: And it’s also called like a zombie fungus. But really there’s a lot of kind of strength then you take on after consuming a mushroom like that. I’m sure it can be thought of a few different ways, but yeah, those are a few things that come to mind.
0:40:48 Tansy Rodgers: I love that you said mushrooms are the doulas of nature. That is such a cool concept and really paints a picture of how it helps the transition process. Can you maybe talk about some of the MO. You don’t have to go through all like 10 to 15, but can you talk about some of the most common mushrooms and their energetic or emotional benefits? Like to add on to this. This part of the conversation. Like what. What goes with what?
0:41:20 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, this is something I actually don’t think about that often, so it’s not totally top of mind. So it might take me a minute to kind of think about it. So we talked about reishi and that’s going to be kind of. Yeah. More really energetically speaking, I think of for really nourishing the heart. If there’s any kind of like, kind of grief. It’s like reishi mushroom. Absolutely. For. I think so Tremella.
0:42:02 Anna Sitkoff: Tremella mesenterica or Tremella fusiformis is like very. It’s also called witch’s butter and it’s kind of like gooey and very. Almost like it’s like one of those jelly fungus, if you’re familiar with those kinds of mushrooms at all. But it’s very cooling and so if there’s any kind of like excess heat can really help to cool that down. Turkey tail would be another one that people are probably very familiar With.
0:42:37 Anna Sitkoff: And I think that. Yeah, I think that this conversation about energetics and mushrooms is a little bit difficult, honestly, because there’s the energetics of cooling or heating. And I’d say for the most part, mushrooms are very cooling to the system. You can think about where the mushrooms grow. They’re all going to be growing in a very damp, dark environment. I think that organisms take on the energetics of the place where they’re grown. And also with mushrooms, it can also have to do with the tree that they’re growing on.
0:43:18 Anna Sitkoff: So there’s some aspect there as well. I honestly just don’t really think about mushrooms that much with the emotional energetic aspect. So I don’t think I’d be a good person to talk about that.
0:43:30 Tansy Rodgers: No, that’s okay. I was just curious if you had connections and. And. And what people use certain ones for. Because I love. I love how you explained Reishi is great for grief or ptsd. Like that is. That’s so good to know of how that can just calm down some of those very anxious or depressive feelings that come about with that.
0:43:53 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can absolutely go through the most common mushrooms and kind of like what they’re used for on like a physiological level.
0:44:03 Tansy Rodgers: That’d be great.
0:44:03 Anna Sitkoff: I end up. Yeah, great. We can. It can be a little bit more grounded there. Wonderful. So let’s just start with cordyceps then. Since I talked about cordyceps and how cool it is and kind of like how it grows and for the most part when people are taking cordyceps, it has not grown on a worm or a spider. It’s usually grown on rice, and then the fruiting body is harvested off of the rice. But cordyceps really, for lung support is like the biggest. The biggest thing.
0:44:34 Anna Sitkoff: It can help with the kind of like the oxygen capacity of the lungs. It can help also with endurance. So if you are like going on a long run or a long bike ride or just like a long yoga session, whatever it may be, Cordyceps is kind of like the go to that I think about also. I’d say, yeah, on like a doctrine of signatures kind of level. It’s like cordyceps looks like an erect penis. A lot of mushrooms do.
0:45:06 Anna Sitkoff: And cordyceps can help with fertility and just like general kind of. It can be helpful for erectile dysfunction as well. And then there’s also all this cool research on cordyceps and kidney function showing that cordyceps intake in people who have received a kidney transplant respond better to the transplant than People who are not taking cordyceps. So that’s one. I also actually, I use a combination of cordyceps and Reishi for kidney support. They can be really helpful there.
0:45:46 Anna Sitkoff: And then turkey tail, which a lot of people might be more familiar with turkey tail, maybe for like, breast cancer support. And that’s because there’s a specific compound that was extracted from the mycelium that was patented as a drug to use as adjunctive cancer care in Japan. So it’s common practice there to use this compound extracted from turkey tail, which is pretty cool. Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s like oncologists in Japan will just, like, know what that is. Whereas here there’s like, you want to use mushrooms.
0:46:21 Anna Sitkoff: Although I work with some oncologists who are on board with my patients taking mushrooms. But. And then there’s also with turkey tail, in addition to being very supportive for the immune system and great adjunctive for. Alongside chemotherapy for people is that it does help to support the gut microbiome. It does have a lot of these polysaccharides that can support both the gut and also the vaginal microbiome.
0:46:48 Anna Sitkoff: So there’s. There’s actually like a product on the market that has turkey tail polysaccharides in it to use intravaginally. Kind of cool. Yeah. And I really like using turkey tail and Reishi and then maitake, which I can talk about next in combination for their kind of combined antiviral effects. I have had a number of patients who have H, who are HPV positive, use that combination regularly, and it was very effective at eradicating hpv. And so that’s great.
0:47:33 Anna Sitkoff: And that’s going to be more through stimulating the antiviral immune response. And there is one paper that showed that mushrooms, when you take them all together, are more effective at supporting the immune system than when you take them by themselves, which I think makes sense. Mushrooms are definitely like community organisms. They work very synergistically when they’re together.
0:47:59 Tansy Rodgers: And that makes sense because you see that a lot in formulations.
0:48:03 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah. And, yeah. And so Maitake being part of that formula, we can get into. There is this really cool study on Maitake for women who have pcos and showing that taking the Maitake was almost just as effective as the traditional medication to stimulate ovulation. Clomiphene for stimulating ovulation. So my talkie is kind of my. My go to for people who are trying to regulate blood sugar and regulate hormones if they’re kind of having irregular menstrual cycles and.
0:48:41 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah.
0:48:42 Anna Sitkoff: Do you want me to just keep going kind of down the list of some other mushrooms Questions?
0:48:46 Tansy Rodgers: Okay, no, I don’t have any questions right now. Yeah, I would love for you to keep talking about some of the other main ones like lion’s mane or.
0:48:54 Anna Sitkoff: Yes, I’ll get into lion’s main next. Ye. Yeah. So lion’s mane is going to have its main effects on the central nervous system, but also the peripheral nervous system. So central being like your brain, lion’s mane can help to stimulate something called nerve growth factor synthase. And so having more nerve growth factor may prevent Alzheimer’s disease, dementia. There’s some studies showing that people who take lion’s mane regularly do have some improvement in memory functions and also mood.
0:49:29 Anna Sitkoff: So it can be helpful for depression. And the lesser known kind of benefits of lion’s mane are actually in the gut, that lion’s mane can be very cooling to an overheated digestive system. And so if there’s gastritis, lion’s mane can be really, really beneficial. There’s some cool studies on mice who had inflammatory bowel disease and it showed the colon kind of before and after lion’s mane therapy. And the lion’s mane, the mouse, the mice that were taking the lion’s mane, it’s like all the ulcerations were basically disappeared.
0:50:08 Anna Sitkoff: So, yeah, lion’s mane for digestive health, I think can be very impactful. And then for any peripheral nerve damage. So my patients who have like peripheral nerve neuropathy, whether it be like a chemotherapy side effect or from unknown causes or from diabetes, lion’s mane can be really helpful for that peripheral nervous system repair as well. Yeah. And then edible mushrooms like shiitake are also just like very medicinal.
0:50:40 Anna Sitkoff: And I think that when it comes to mushrooms that you can eat, like shiitake and maitake, it’s like, just eat them, eat mushrooms, because then you’re also getting all the fiber and it’s just like a. They’re. You don’t have to take them as a supplement. And that’s like my psa. It’s like you don’t have to take mushrooms as a supplement. Just eat them and make sure you cook them really well. But yeah, shiitake is kind of more on the immune stimulating side.
0:51:13 Anna Sitkoff: And so I think that, like right when I’m just starting to get sick, that’s like the kind of the ideal time for shiitake. I don’t really think of it as much as a powerful like immune modulator, but more of like a stimulator. And so, like, making a shiitake broth or something like that can be helpful. One thing with shiitake is that there’s like a small percentage of the population that gets shiitake dermatitis.
0:51:43 Anna Sitkoff: And so if anyone gets like a rash after eating shiitake, there’s a diagnosis for that. It’s shiitake dermatitis.
0:51:53 Tansy Rodgers: Oh, no, You. You emphasize making sure to cook them before you eat them. And is that because of breaking down those walls?
0:52:00 Tansy Rodgers: I.
0:52:01 Tansy Rodgers: The reason I’m asking is because I know there’s a lot of people who struggle, and this has happened to me too, that struggle when they’re eating raw mushrooms like shiitake, that they start having the, like, the, like the after effect of burping or just feeling uncomfortable or maybe there’s some acid reflux. Is that because the walls need to be broken down?
0:52:24 Anna Sitkoff: Yes. Do not eat raw mushrooms. Yeah, always cook them and cook them well. You’re not going to overcook your mushrooms. All of these medicinal compounds we’ve talked about are not destroyed by heat. So, yeah, I think that if you’re not cooking them, then, yeah, there’s a lot of potential for digestive issues there.
0:52:48 Tansy Rodgers: Oh, fascinating. Fascinating.
0:52:51 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. One other mushroom I want to make sure to mention is oyster mushroom, because I think it’s like one that you can probably easily get in most grocery stores. It also, like, grows in abundance, like, all over the United States. And oyster mushroom is like. I mean, I love it for many reasons. It’s one of my favorite edibles. But it’s also really high in a compound called ergothioneine. And ergothioneine is this very important amino acid that can basically only be found in mushrooms. It’s found in some other, like, fermented foods and algaes, but it’s really high in oyster mushrooms specifically, and it is a really strong antioxidant. And it works kind of similar to glutathione and actually works as like a backup system for glutathione.
0:53:39 Anna Sitkoff: We have very specific transporters only for ergothioneine. So it’s like humans definitely evolved with mushrooms. Scientists have tried other compounds with these transporters. Nothing binds, only ergothioneine, and it’s like, really readily taken up into the cells. And so there’s been studies showing that you can, like, eat or, like, take ergothioneine as a supplement or even eat ergothioneine rich mushrooms.
0:54:06 Anna Sitkoff: And almost all of the ergothioneine is taken up into the bloodstream and absorbed and then that ergothioneine can even be stored in the cells for up to a month. So if you are subjected to a lot of potential toxins or like, I mean, I always think about, like, smoke from forest fires or whatever it may be, then you have this, like, backup antioxidant system from ergothiamine. So another reason to eat your mushrooms. And there’s like. Yeah, there’s research showing that, like, people like, the more mushrooms you eat, the more of these transporters you’re going to have and the less likely you are to develop like a neurodegenerative disease, potentially.
0:54:50 Anna Sitkoff: So ergothine plays a role there.
0:54:53 Tansy Rodgers: Wow. So would you say that that especially like oyster mushroom. Mushroom, for example, is really great for helping in detoxing?
0:55:02 Anna Sitkoff: Sure, yeah. Yeah. Mostly because it’s going to be. Yeah. Supporting the, like, ergothioneine and glutathione levels. Yeah.
0:55:11 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Wow.
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0:56:43 Tansy Rodgers: Let’s get back to the show.
0:56:47 Tansy Rodgers: So do you have a lot of clients or people that come in that are very skeptical about the use of medicinal mushrooms? And if so, what do you tell them or how do you address? Because obviously, as we’re talking, I mean, there’s so much backing and research that shows how beneficial they are. And you’ve seen so much in your clients with the use of them. How do you address that?
0:57:15 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I have. I don’t think I’ve had one patient question me with mushrooms. Yeah. I think also, I mean, I probably have patients, like, when, when patients come to me, maybe they’re like, expecting it. Sometimes I have patients that ask me why I didn’t prescribe them mushrooms is a usual question. They’re like, but what about, like a mushroom for this? And I’m like, well, mushrooms aren’t always like the first treatment for everything.
0:57:44 Anna Sitkoff: But I think, I think that the, the few times I’ve had, maybe I have had the patients question me about it is with mycotoxin stuff. They’re like, should I even be taking this, though? I have mycotoxin exposure. So that’s really. I think, when it has come up.
0:58:02 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So funny. People were like, why aren’t you giving it to me? I was supposed to be eating mushrooms.
0:58:10 Anna Sitkoff: Exactly. But also, it’s like, I think that, like, prescribing mushrooms now compared to how it was probably like 15 years ago. It’s like you said, there’s this huge mushroom boom where all of a sudden it’s like, it’s. It’s everywhere. It’s like most people that don’t even think they’re consuming medicinal mushrooms, maybe there’s medicinal mushrooms hidden in their protein bar without them even knowing it. So I think, yeah, people just question it less and less. And I also live in the Pacific Northwest and people are totally like, yeah, just used to mushrooms being kind of everywhere.
0:58:47 Anna Sitkoff: So of course there are doctors prescribing them.
0:58:49 Tansy Rodgers: Well, Ana, let’s talk about them being everywhere. You know, you did say that if you can eat them, the edibles, just eat them. Just. Just don’t even worry about a supplement. Just eat them. But if we’re looking at supplements and you’re looking at taking a formulation in a supplement, in a supplement itself, how can we choose supplements that are going to be of high quality? What do we need to look for? And also because this has become very popular, buzzword level, they’re all over the place, and not all of them are going to be beneficial. So what is your biggest advice in actually choosing a high quality supplement?
0:59:32 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, so the first thing would be to make sure it’s actually a mushroom. And just because it says mushroom on the front of the package does not mean it’s going to say mushroom in the ingredients, unfortunately. So the first thing is, double check says mushroom on the front, says Mushroom on the back or fruiting body. Those are interchangeable. The other thing is that if it’s going to be a. It could be a powder or a capsule or a liquid. All of those are fine.
1:00:03 Anna Sitkoff: But you want to make sure that it’s been extracted properly. So if it’s a liquid, you want to make sure that it says mushroom extract. With, like dual extraction. It’ll typically say. It should say on the label if it’s been. If there’s alcohol and water extraction that’s taken place. And you also, if it’s a liquid, you want to make sure that it has a ratio so you know, like what the dosage is. So if it says like 1 to 1, then there’s 1 gram per milliliter of mushroom in that formula.
1:00:37 Anna Sitkoff: If you’re choosing a powder, you want it to say extract. If it’s just the powder, then that’s okay. But then you need to heat it. You need to, like, add it to a soup that you’re making or make sure that it’s been heated for at least an hour minimum to break down the cell wall. If you don’t want to deal with that, then just make sure it says powdered extract. Oh.
1:01:02 Tansy Rodgers: And then. So fascinating.
1:01:04 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah.
1:01:05 Tansy Rodgers: Thank you for. Thank you for breaking that down, that part of it. Because I, I had no clue that there was a difference that you couldn’t just. That you shouldn’t just consume a regular powder if it hasn’t been heated.
1:01:18 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. And that could be another reason why people experience digestive issues with like mushroom hot chocolate or whatever. It’s like, if it’s also just like a powdered mushroom, then you’re gonna be having to deal with like the chitin that hasn’t been broken down. And not everyone can deal with that. So we’ve got powdered mushroom extract. You wanna look at the other ingredients under the nutrition label and make sure that it doesn’t say anything else in there. Like, it’s normal for it to say, you know, cellulose capsule or gelatin capsule. Like, that’s fine if it’s a capsule, but otherwise, like, you don’t really want to see fillers. Especially if it’s just like a bulk powdered extract. There shouldn’t need to be a filler in there.
1:02:06 Anna Sitkoff: And then ideally also you want the product to have been tested for heavy metals. That is one thing that mushrooms absolutely. Like, slurp up heavy metals from the environment. So make sure they’ve been tested for heavy metals. And then it’d be even better if it Says like the amount of polysaccharides or triterpenes that are. That are in the product. That’s like getting into the nitty gritty. It’s like at least have it say powdered mushroom extract.
1:02:41 Tansy Rodgers: What is. Which mushroom is your absolute favorite to take?
1:02:46 Anna Sitkoff: It so depends on the situation. It’s like, I guess.
1:02:58 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah.
1:02:59 Anna Sitkoff: It’s like take internally. I would say Reishi as like the most kind of gentle, like, regular mushroom where I’m like, not kind of like, it’s. Yeah. It’s like not situational. It’s like a general kind of. Yeah. Supportive therapy, I think, for my nervous system, for my sleep, for my immune system. It really hits a lot of. A lot of bases and the energetics, too, of Rishi. And we’ll go with that one.
1:03:35 Tansy Rodgers: I like it. I like it. Yeah. Like you said, I’m sure that it completely depends on what it is that you’re trying to address and what you need at any given point.
1:03:45 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
1:03:47 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Well, now I know that you have supplements that you have created, right? Yeah. Can you share an example of where your products have really helped in some of the work that you’ve done and some of the. Some of the client health benefits and. And how it supported them?
1:04:09 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, we can kind of go through each formula there. So I have an immune formula and that has maitake and turkey tail and reishi. And I think I mentioned earlier how it’s been really helpful for a lot of people in getting rid of hpv, which has been great. I use that formula so much for my cancer patients and that’s like, kind of one of my big passions is like, adjunctive naturopathic care for cancer.
1:04:41 Anna Sitkoff: A lot of patients who also, like, they have to have an oncologist on board. And I feel like there’s so much that naturopathic medicine can. Can do for them to, you know, prevent side effects of chemotherapy, make chemotherapy work better, just support quality of life. And mushrooms are a huge part of that. Mushrooms can help to keep their healthy cells healthy and kind of make the cancer cells more sensitive to the chemotherapy. It can help to keep their white blood cells up while they’re going through CH therapy, also help them from getting sick if they become immunocompromised with chemotherapy.
1:05:18 Anna Sitkoff: I’ve really seen that immune blend be so helpful there. And then also for some patients who just have chronically low white blood cell counts for unknown reasons, mushrooms can help to increase those counts, which has been really cool to see. And thinking through my. All of my people there’s anything else with that immune blend that I really see be. Be powerful. Yeah, really just those are I think, the main things.
1:05:56 Anna Sitkoff: And then we have a brain and nerves formula and that has the lion’s mane and oyster mushroom and Tremella. And the lion’s mane probably seems pretty obvious to people. We talked about how it supports the nervous system, can help kind of with memory and maybe prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s long term and mood. And then Tremella, that which is better. Tremella has a really cool study showing that it can help to improve gray matter volume in the brain.
1:06:29 Anna Sitkoff: And so we have Tremella in that one. And then the oyster mushroom is because of its high amounts of ergothioneine and that ability to cross the blood brain barrier. And I’ve used that patient for that patient that product a lot for. See, I’ve had a patient who was recovering from stroke and that I think was like a key part of his recovery. That in combination with creatine actually, and, and then just for like kind of people who are dealing with like brain fog mostly, I’ve seen that formula be really helpful.
1:07:10 Anna Sitkoff: The only kind of thing that’s like not ideal with all of the research and what I see like with lion’s mane and memory is that when you stop taking it, it stops working. So it’s not like actually transforming things like long term, but while you’re taking it, it works well.
1:07:33 Tansy Rodgers: Do other mushrooms, like, is that, do other mushrooms have the same effect with their particular benefit or is it just lion’s mane as one of the few that does not continue on with longevity of the, of the transformation?
1:07:49 Anna Sitkoff: So there’s this really cool theory called immune training where after your immune system has been like responding with beta glucans for a certain period of time, you don’t actually need to be taking the beta glucans as much anymore to have that immune modulating impact. So it’s like if you’ve been taking mushrooms for immune support for a month and you’ve been taking, let’s say three grams a day, then you can start taking much less than that and still have just as strong of an immune response.
1:08:25 Anna Sitkoff: So and, and theoretically you could get away with not taking them at all and that immune response would stay active for up to a year.
1:08:34 Tansy Rodgers: Wow.
1:08:35 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Yeah, there’s cool research on that. I wrote, there’s like a, a whole paper that I wrote about that if people want to check that out on my blog. I really get into the immune training theory and just the research that’s been done there.
1:08:47 Tansy Rodgers: Wow. Yeah. So you’re literally, you’re literally training your body how to heal itself.
1:08:54 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Yeah. It’s very cool. Wow. Yeah. And then the other formula that we have, our, our lungs formula is cordyceps and Reishi and the ergothioneine rich rich oyster mushroom again. And I’ve just, I like send that to all of my people in California dealing with all of the forest fires and then the fires in Los Angeles and just like any kind of lung support that’s like my go to. And people do really seem to kind of improve quickly after that. And I’ve been using it a lot for long COVID patients who have kind of like chronic lung issues. It seems to be really helpful there.
1:09:43 Anna Sitkoff: And endurance athletes.
1:09:50 Tansy Rodgers: Transitioning a little bit. I want you, I want you to talk about something that you brought up in the very beginning. You talked about you are a mama and you have a 13 month old. And so I want to talk just a little bit about that transition for you and even talking about the use of some of these mushrooms in that transition. So how has becoming a mother really enriched or reshaped your understanding of health and healing, especially regarding the challenges of fertility and postpartum recovery?
1:10:25 Tansy Rodgers: And do you specifically use some of these medicinal mushrooms to help you in that journey?
1:10:32 Anna Sitkoff: I feel like being pregnant and giving birth and then postpartum, I understood what so many of my patients experience regularly on this whole new level. Just like the weirdest things happen. It’s like I had like the worst acid reflux while I was pregnant and I just like understood acid reflux symptoms. Like this whole new level. I’m like, oh, like back pain is actually a reflux symptom. And yeah, I feel like, yeah, it’s definitely kind of shaped like, like, I think it’s made me such a better doctor going through all of that and especially just like childbirth. And I’m such an active person and I love to lift weights and move and exercise and just like not being able to.
1:11:24 Anna Sitkoff: To do that was extremely difficult for me in the initial postpartum period. And also just kind of really helped me to understand so much of what that so many of my, my patients go through. And also, yeah, it helped me to kind of like think back and be like, what do you recommend to people? Like, what would you recommend to yourself? And kind of, yeah, changing some self talk around those things. Yeah, I think that as far as like what I felt like was the most helpful during these, like the transition to, to the postpartum period.
1:12:09 Anna Sitkoff: It’s all just a blur now really. But again, like nourishment, protein intake. My husband made me every single meal, like every meal for months. And he kept me so nourished. And I think that that was like, no doubt, like probably the most important part of my recovery. I think that a lot of new moms aren’t like eating enough and drinking enough water. And that was just something that wasn’t one of my, my issues.
1:12:54 Anna Sitkoff: So that was, yeah, just really grateful for all the nourishment that I got, food nourishment and otherwise. And then I think herb and mushroom wise, like reishi and shatavari are like my go to. Have you heard of shatavari?
1:13:14 Tansy Rodgers: I’m not familiar now.
1:13:15 Anna Sitkoff: It’s this amazing traditional Ayurvedic herb. So Ayurveda is like a traditional Indian medicine. This plant is asparagus racemosa. So it’s a species of asparagus and it’s the root that’s used and it’s just for like, it’s an adaptogen that is for every stage of female transformation. So I think about it for like everywhere from puberty to fertility to postpartum to breastfeeding, menopause, it can really just be used along the whole spectrum. And that was.
1:13:55 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I’m still like a tablespoon of that powder a day. I’m like never letting go. I feel like it’s become my best friend. Yeah. And then Reishi, for all the reasons that we’ve. That we’ve talked about, but really it’s just been the food getting enough protein and getting. Yeah. All my nutrients and which I’m sure.
1:14:17 Tansy Rodgers: That that really helped with the potential postpartum depression and the hormone balancing and just keeping you more regulated so that you could have an easier transition through these hormonal shifts and energetic and emotional changes and everything that was going on.
1:14:37 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It’s like, as you know, with your history in nutrition, it’s like, yeah, blood sugar regulation is key to vitality. And so that’s been important to me. And of course there’s days when it’s like that doesn’t always happen perfectly and I feel it. And then the other thing too is like, once I started to feel stronger postpartum and starting to like work out again and move my body, like that is just. Yeah. So essential for, for kind of feeling.
1:15:11 Anna Sitkoff: Feeling. Well. Yeah. And then I think I also had the great benefit of my best friend having a baby three weeks before me. And so we would like text at Three in the morning. Just like hearts to each other. Like, whenever we were up feeding the baby, sometimes it was at, like, 1 and 3 and 5, and it was just like. It’s like, oh, Shannon’s also awake, also feeding her baby. And it was like, yeah, just, like, so nourishing to my heart. To know that, like, my best friend in the whole world is also just, like, in the same experience and.
1:15:53 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. It’s gonna cry just thinking about it.
1:15:56 Tansy Rodgers: That’s amazing.
1:15:57 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah.
1:15:57 Tansy Rodgers: To have that camaraderie, you know?
1:16:00 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah.
1:16:01 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah.
1:16:01 Tansy Rodgers: You both are awake and. Yeah. There’s not much you can do other than take care of the baby.
1:16:06 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
1:16:09 Tansy Rodgers: I know that. So many herbs and. Well, I guess I’ll say herbs specifically. Supplements are contraindications during pregnancy and even post pregnancy because of the breastfeeding. Mushrooms are safe.
1:16:25 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, mushrooms. I would say the first trimester is such a sensitive time. Like, just eat mushrooms. If you want mushrooms for immune support, just eat them. And then second trimester, third trimester mushroom supplements are fine. And postpartum, the beta glucans can actually help with breast milk production. So. Yeah, also totally fine. The beta glucans don’t pass through the breast milk, but can help to stimulate prolactin.
1:16:58 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Well, other than eating them, what’s your favorite simple way? Because eating them is super simple. But what’s your favorite simple way to start getting more of these mushrooms into your diet and into your life?
1:17:15 Anna Sitkoff: So, I mean, if you’re taking. So if you’re not eating them, then taking a supplement, is that what you mean? Or. Yeah, yeah.
1:17:23 Tansy Rodgers: Or teas, or if there’s any other ways that you. That you prefer or enjoy.
1:17:30 Anna Sitkoff: Yes. Yeah. So one of my favorite ways is to use a mushroom broth as, like, part of a soup. Or if you’re making congee or, like cooking any kind of grain in water, you can just. Instead of water, you can have it be mushroom broth. So then you’re getting all of those medicinal compounds in your grain or in your. In your congee. If you’re doing bone broth, just, like, throw a few handfuls of mushrooms in there. That’s also, like, one of my favorite ways.
1:17:59 Anna Sitkoff: Easy ways to do that. And then. Yeah, I think that’s, like, ends up being kind of how I have them the most, actually.
1:18:11 Tansy Rodgers: I like that. You know, as you were talking, you were talking about mushroom broth. I should have even asked this earlier, but I didn’t even think about it until right now. When we talk about medicinal mushrooms, the ones that you’re talking about here. Is stuff like white mushrooms and portobellos part of any kind of healing benefit, or are they really just, for a lack of better words, fillers and.
1:18:40 Tansy Rodgers: And have some nutrient benefits, but not quite really where we’re talking?
1:18:47 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Portobellos and, like, white button mushrooms, they’re actually just the. The same genus and species of mushroom just at different life stages. And because they’re mushrooms, they have polysaccharides as part of their cell wall, and so they have some immune benefit, but it’s not nearly gonna be the same as, like, if you chose shiitake or maitake or oyster mushroom as your main food mushroom. So, yeah, they’re like, they’re fine and they have their place, and if you can choose some of the other mushrooms, you’ll benefit more. Probably.
1:19:24 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. I wanted to clarify that because I don’t. I don’t want anybody listening to this, be like, oh, I’m gonna go out and get some white button mushrooms. And I am. I’m. Now I’m eating medicinal mushrooms because. Not saying that there isn’t some benefit there. It’s just we’re talking at a different level of health benefits.
1:19:46 Anna Sitkoff: Yes. Yeah. And I think there’s. I always think of this, like, there’s like, a Venn diagram of mushrooms where you have, like, your edible mushrooms, and then that, like, overlaps with medicinal kind of. And then there’s like, the medicinal mushrooms that are too woody to eat, but they’re edible if you make, like, a broth with them, but you’re not gonna, like, stir fry them. And then you have, like, your toxic mushrooms, but then those kind of overlap with the medicinal.
1:20:15 Anna Sitkoff: And then even if you prepare amanita in the right way, that can be edible. So there’s really this whole kind of diagram in my head that I’m always thinking about where there’s just so much overlap with all of it. But, yeah, I would put the portobellos in the edible category. I wouldn’t necessarily even overlap them too much into the medicinal category.
1:20:34 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Do you forage your own mushrooms?
1:20:37 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, I do. Yeah. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah. I think here it’s like, mostly abundance of chanterelle mushrooms. And if I’m lucky, it’s like, if I. I used to go on what I would call, like, mush runs, where I’d be, like, running in the forest, and I’d always, like, bring a bag with me because I was bound to, like, I always had my mushroom eyes on. So whatever I would see, I would kind of like, collect.
1:21:01 Anna Sitkoff: But yeah. There’s also some chicken of the woods here that’s like one of my favorites. And there’s tons of oyster mushrooms that grow here and. Yeah. And then there’s a lot of different medicinals that. That I historically would. Yeah. Collect and make medicine with. And that’s like, my favorite is to go out in the forest and teach classes about how. How to ID the medicinal mushrooms that grow here. And I love that.
1:21:29 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah, yeah. And you said you’re in Pennsylvania. Yeah, so I was in Pennsylvania once for an herb conference and went mushroom foraging there. And it was like the most amazing deciduous forest mushroom foraging experience I have ever had. Because here it’s all evergreens and it’s like a very different experience to go mushroom hunting here as opposed to someplace like Pennsylvania. It’s like, like, is awesome.
1:21:58 Tansy Rodgers: I know a lot of people in my area that love doing that kind of stuff. I always get scared because I’m like, I don’t want to ID something wrong.
1:22:06 Tansy Rodgers: And then.
1:22:08 Tansy Rodgers: And then I’m. I’ve got issues.
1:22:10 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. I think a lot of people have that experience with mushrooms. Yeah.
1:22:15 Tansy Rodgers: Well, reflecting on your personal and your professional growth, how do you really envision the future of medicinal mushrooms in use in our everyday health practices, and where do you think that it’s going?
1:22:29 Anna Sitkoff: I think that it is going in the right direction. I think that there has been, like I said, a lot of pushback against the myceliated grain products. More and more people are focused on creating good mushroom supplements that are high quality with mushroom powdered extracts. I think it kind of so much about research depends on funding, but hopefully there will be more and more mushroom research unknown if that’s really happening.
1:23:06 Anna Sitkoff: I don’t think I’ve seen a good clinical trial come out for a few years at this point, but I think that overall the Shroom boom has been a really positive thing for the mushroom world because the more people that are thinking about it and aware of it and using it, then the more likelihood there will be for funding to go into mushroom research and higher quality products because people know what to look for and so they’ll be pushed back against things that don’t look quite right.
1:23:37 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Which is good.
1:23:39 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah. Yeah, it is good.
1:23:41 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah. Well, this has been an amazing conversation. I’m so happy that you really dove deep into the explanation. I mean, my brain is swimming with so much information and, like, the depth of what I didn’t know. I’m just fascinating. I can’t wait to go and look at all of My mushroom products and see which ones.
1:24:07 Tansy Rodgers: Yeah, let me know which ones are.
1:24:09 Tansy Rodgers: Gonna have to go. Which ones are gonna have to be cooked. Oh, boy.
1:24:12 Anna Sitkoff: Yeah.
1:24:13 Tansy Rodgers: So where can people find you, Anna? What do you have going on in your work that you’re excited about and what’s new?
1:24:24 Anna Sitkoff: People can find me a few different places. So My website is Dr. Anasitkov.com and they can also find me. My writing in my blog is on that website. And then also at my old blog location, which is raishi and roses.com, which has been going since. Since 2015. And then my business website, lucid and medicinals.com and yeah, I’m always just thinking about new, new mushroom formulas that will be probably coming out sometime in the next year, which I feel excited about.
1:24:59 Anna Sitkoff: And yeah, I think that, that. Oh, and then I’m also. I’m on Instagram, kind of.
1:25:10 Tansy Rodgers: I appreciate that. Yeah, I like the little asterisk kind of.
1:25:16 Anna Sitkoff: Kind of, yeah.
1:25:20 Tansy Rodgers: Well, all those links will be down in the show notes, so make sure you head on down there and click on all those links and get in Dr. Anna’s world. Do you have any last words that you would like to lay on the hearts of the listeners?
1:25:42 Anna Sitkoff: Eat your protein and make sure that there’s at least one moment in every day where your nervous system feels safe and relaxed.
1:25:54 Tansy Rodgers: I love. I thought you were gonna say eat your protein and make sure there’s at least one mushroom on it. That’s literally.
1:26:02 Anna Sitkoff: I think this is, I’m just like, yeah, and eat your mushrooms too. Of course you can have your mushrooms with your protein, but these are like things that change lives for my patients. And so if I can like tell everyone, tell the world to just like eat enough protein and relax because sometimes it’s that simple. Yeah, exactly.
1:26:27 Tansy Rodgers: Oh, thank you so much for all of your wisdom. Thank you for all of the work that you’re doing and how you are shifting and changing the community and the world around you. I appreciate you.
1:26:39 Anna Sitkoff: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
1:26:43 Tansy Rodgers: Wow, what a mind expanding conversation. Medicinal mushrooms are truly some of the most powerful allies nature has given us. And I love how Dr. Ana really broke down both the science and the energetic wisdom behind them. It really makes you think. What else is nature trying to show us about? Healing, resilience and connection. As you go about your day to day, I invite you to reflect on this. How can you start integrating nature’s intelligence into your own healing journey?
1:27:18 Tansy Rodgers: Maybe it’s through medicinal mushrooms, maybe it’s through simply spending more time in nature. Or maybe it’s about slowing down and listening to what your body actually needs. Whatever it is, trust that your path to vibrant health is uniquely yours. And as always, I want to keep this conversation going with you. If this episode is sparking something inside you, send me a DM over on Instagram at veucomplete Underscore Crystals or tag me in your stories. I’d love to hear your biggest takeaways and to learn more about where this is taking you.
1:27:58 Tansy Rodgers: Let’s create a ripple effect of awareness and healing together. And hey, if you are loving this episode, if you’re loving this show, make sure that you hit subscribe and leave a five star review. Seriously, it means the world to me. Me. It helps this podcast reach more amazing souls like you and helps to get into the hands for those who are ready to uplevel their energy and transform their lives. All right my friends, that’s a wrap for today.
1:28:29 Tansy Rodgers: Keep your energy high, your heart open, and always remember, healing is a journey, not a destination. Until next time, keep spreading that beautiful energy you were born to share.
