The Webs We Weave
I’ve been thinking a lot about nets. Safety nets, mostly. Not really the actual safety nets stretched below tight rope walkers, but the nets we weave together to catch us as we do the acrobatics of life. Nets like putting pocket change into mason jars or direct depositing 30% of our income into a 401K so our future self might not judge our past self too harshly. We have regular oil changes and get our teeth cleaned for the same reason: to try to minimize life’s damages. Cleaning out the gutters, even paying our ever-expanding electric bill – these are tangible knots we tie with intention and hope that they will hold.
Equally important are the invisible social nets painstakingly crafted from the lines we cast to others over vast canyons of differences or from gentle daily greetings across a crowded a kitchen table. These we weave from day one – born to connect, and through that connection we build support that we know life requires of all.
I remember the first time I made eye contact with my first born. The midwives encouraged me to get into the bath and then brought in my little baby. I was in awe looking at this crinkly little flesh bundle that I had somehow grown inside of me (?!?!) when he popped opened his dark eyes wide and alert. I know people will say that newborns cannot see, but I felt seen. My heart string reached out and tethered itself to my baby – my whole body was flooded with a rush of this new, deepest love.
That blissed out feeling was no doubt fueled by my increased levels of oxytocin experienced during childbirth and nursing. It plays an important role in bonding and teaching baby brains the joys of connection. Oxytocin is produced in our hypothalamus and is one of the four “feel good” hormones along with endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. We all spend more time chasing these lil’ dudes than a mom on the tail of twin toddlers. Personally, as I age, I find that dopamine, which plays a role in focus, attention, and motivation, to be the most elusive of those Fab Four. I know I’m not alone in this quest.
We have expanded our brain health supplements at the Co-op substantially and have seen dramatic increases in interest of certain items, specifically products that include Lion’s Mane mushrooms:
Host Defense Mushrooms
Host Defense, known to some as Fungi Perfecti, is a local producer that uses spores collected in the wild to inoculate organic brown rice so the web of mycelium, those tiny thin white roots, can spread through the rice, while fermenting the rice, and then out pops up fruiting bodies. Host Defense offers liquids, capsules, and powders as well as their delicious MycoBrew drink mixes and their MycoShield products which combine mushrooms with herbs.
OM is another popular brand of mushroom powder grown on oats, available as powder and drink mix.
Malama Mushrooms, from Hawaii, is a fruiting body only product, and we sell pouches of their powders.
Many varieties of mushrooms in our produce department, both fresh and dried, are from Cascadia Mushrooms in Bellingham. Their grow-you-own mushroom kits for Lion’s Mane and Reishi – and others – can be special ordered through any produce employee.
Turns out, folks have strong opinions about everything, including mushrooms. This debate is often about fruiting body versus mycelium. Most likely whatever a company offers is the form they think you should take. In March, I was able to attend a lecture by Dr. Christopher Hobbs, mycologist and author of my new favorite mushroom book. Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide, 2020, and his opinion is that the cell walls of fungi, which provide beta-glucan, contain most of the therapeutic benefits people seek. These are found in a higher concentration in mycelium verses the fruiting body. No one is going to untangle the web of mycelium, so whatever it has woven around, you’ll get to: rice or oats, in most cases. The growing medium can sometimes contain starch – some folks like that, others don’t. Eating the fruiting body of the mushrooms like Shiitake, Oyster, and Chanterelle offers other benefits like fiber, protein, minerals, and even Vitamin D when dried in the sun.
Mushrooms have been studied for so many things! A great resource to dive into mushroom sciences is mushroomreferences.com. This website is designed to just give you the facts, ma’am. The language is clinical and chunky, so it might not be a casual read for some. The website also provides data about psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic” mushrooms that is associated with hallucinations and euphoria. In recent years, psilocybin has become more popular as a treatment for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, among others.
Oregon legalized psilocybin for therapeutic use in 2020, and clinics have been open for over a year. Our state legislature passed SB5263, and Governor Inslee signed it into law in May of 2023. Washington Psilocybin Task Force was established, and their final report was released at the end of 2023 (hca.wa.gov). Starting in January of 2025, University of Washington will be conducting a study of 30 to 40 veterans and first responders with PTSD and alcohol abuse. And just to be clear, you won’t find any of these types of magic mushrooms on the shelves of your Co-op.
What you may find though, is a truly amazing way to address serious health concerns from diabetes to cancer, or everyday hurdles like brain fog and belly aches. Mushrooms are food, super-duper foods, with many ways to be used. Dr. Hobbs’ book is a very comprehensive book for anyone interested in growing or gathering, buying or making supplements with lots of research to help discover which mushroom might be helpful in your life, or the life of someone who needs a little help reinforcing their own safety net.
“Leap and the net will appear” is a common phrase of faith and encouragement attributed to naturalist John Burroughs (1837-1921). When I see this quote, I think of the big painting I have of three toads leaping. To me, it’s a reminder of the way life, even in horrifying circumstances, can often offer small signs that make us feel less alone and protected. As I walk through the front door of my home, I feel held. Our wild and wonky westside home is our net, our nest. My bed seems to whisper to me “I got you” when I sink into her web of blankets and pillows after a day of chatting to people about how some wonders of wellness helped navigate a tricky patch in their life to minimize the bumps and bruises.
To me the best part of being human is this slipping and sliding along a path that doesn’t always have a clear destination and the ways we have to rely on each other, the ways the road is less weary with someone in the seat next to you. It’s not always easy being your brother’s keeper. Your lap going numb as you cradle a crying child, the strain in your back as you push a stranger’s car across a congested intersection, the closing of your throat and tightening in your chest in response to another’s tear. This is the blessing of our humanity. The way our hurt can help others to heal, and in that process of being in service to another we knit some of our own wounded edges back together so that we might take that next leap with less worry and more wonder.
by nancylee bouscher for the October 2024 Natural Enquirer