Functional mushrooms and adaptogens are large categories of herbal and fungal medicine that have vastly different benefits within their own unique categories. Because of this, it can be really hard to decide which functional mushrooms or adaptogens to take as the majority do something different to your body. Today, I am going to be walking you through adaptogen blends and why they are far superior to simply taking a single adaptogenic herb.

The Synergistic Effect

When certain functional mushrooms and adaptogens are combined, they can have a sort of synergistic effect between them! A great example of this would be the combination of cordyceps and lions mane. While lions mane is excellent for supporting brain health, cordyceps work to make you feel more focused. With time, these become a power couple together helping you to feel more clear headed and productive versus taking them separately. While synergy is a very important aspect of why blends are so effective, this doesn’t take into account the vastly different benefits that certain functional mushrooms and adaptogens can have between one another.

The Natural Multivitamin

When you first hear of functional mushrooms and adaptogens you may think that including any single one of these compounds will be sufficient. However, as you do more research it becomes obvious that while two functional mushrooms are part of the same category, or even look the same, they can help the body on opposite ends of the spectrum. For example, while Turkey Tail is extremely effective in supporting your body's immunity, lions mane works to support the health of your brain. As you can see in this case, no functional mushroom is better than another, simply different in terms of what they do for you. 

Adaptogenic Blends

As you can see, simply including one functional mushroom and adaptogen isn't enough to receive the full benefits that this category of natural medicine has to offer. While single ingredient products are great for targeting a specific ailment, if you are simply looking to up your health game, blends are definitely the way to go. Making your own blends can not only be difficult due to the amount of research needed, but also extremely expensive because you need to order a multitude of ingredients in relatively lower quantities. That’s why in most cases it makes sense to pick up a pre mixed functional supplement. This way you can be sure it was consciously curated by expert formulators and will be even cheaper than trying to make it yourself.