Microdosing Mushrooms: What to Know About This Growing Practice

Microdosing Mushrooms: What to Know About This Growing Practice

Is microdosing mushrooms something you are experienced with? The popularity on this subject is growing significantly, so we are looking more into it today

Before we get too deep into microdosing mushrooms, I want to state that we do not condone illegal activities. We are sharing this content for people who live in areas where the types of psilocybe mushrooms used for microdosing are legal. Please ensure that you know the laws in the area where you reside. With that said, we are looking at some studies on the microdosing of psychedelics and the potential therapeutic effects of doing so. The microdosing of mushrooms is considered to be an action of using medicinal mushrooms. If you are interested in this topic, you can take our online course on medicinal mushrooms.

What is meant by microdosing mushrooms

The microdosing of psychedelic substances has gained significant popularity over the past handful of years. Some of the popular substances being used in microdose form include LSD, psilocybe mushrooms, and cannabis. Microdosing mushrooms involves taking a very small amount of the mushroom. Most people who choose to microdose with mushrooms use some strain of psilocybe cubensis, although other types of mushrooms can be used too. Some people will debate the amount that is considered to be a microdose. A common range is .1 to .5 grams, although some will say that .5 grams is a bit more than a microdose. I will often consider the range to be .1 to .3 grams. The point behind microdosing is to take an amount that is a “sub-threshold” dose, meaning the consumer will not feel “high”, but they will experience other favorable feelings. The study ‘A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics’ is the main study I will refer to today, and it mentions some of the processes people are using to microdose. According to the study:
“People follow a variety of different schedules when microdosing, sometimes taking a dose each day but much more frequently interspersing dosing days with rest days. One common schedule is to microdose every three days . The idea behind this regimen is that there may be a residual effect from each microdose that lasts one to two days afterwards. Most popular press stories on microdosing have mentioned this three day cycle “
Clearly, there are different methods and schedules associated with microdosing. Perhaps there will be a more standardized method once more tests are conducted.

The benefits behind microdosing mushrooms

‘A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics’ shares the reported effects people experience while microdosing mushrooms. Here is what the study says:
“Despite the reported lack of acute effects of microdosing, proponents claim a wide variety of psychological and social benefits from regular microdosing, including increases in vitality, creativity, productivity, social ability, focus, analytic thinking, positive mood, memory, mindfulness and general wellbeing . Microdosing is thus a curious phenomenon: on the one hand advocates deny experiencing the alterations in consciousness that characterise typical doses, yet claim significant psychological benefits from regular use.”
This all seems quite amazing to me! Imagine being able to take a psychedelic substance, experienced benefits from it, and still not be “high” from it. There is clearly a lot of reason to look further into this topic.

More studies to look into if you are interested in microdosing mushrooms

‘A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics’ discusses four main scientific articles on microdosing. Here is the statement the study makes, which shares the authors of the four articles so you can go find them for yourself. I have also linked to them for easier access. The quote below also shares a brief synopsis of the study being referred to:
“To date there are four scientific articles on microdosing. Three of these indicate potential benefits from microdosing. First, Johnstad conducted a series of interviews with microdosers, who reported generally positive outcomes, including improved mood, energy levels and cognition. Second, in an open label study, Prochazkova et al. found that microdosing led to increases in convergent and divergent thinking–common indicators of creativity. Third, a large cross sectional study found that microdosers reported reduced levels of negative attitudes and emotions, and increased wisdom, open-mindedness and creativity, relative to people who had never microdosed . Fourth, the most scientifically rigorous study to date, was a double blind placebo controlled study by Yanakieva et al. . This study showed changes in time perception following microdosing, but did not investigate variables related to health or wellbeing.”
The microdosing of psychedelics, including the microdosing of mushrooms, will seemingly continue to grow in popularity as favorable results are reported and discovered. It may be seen that this is truly another area where mushrooms are healthy and beneficial. If you would like to learn more about medicinal mushrooms, you can take our medicinal mushrooms course. You can also read this article that discusses studies involving the golden teacher mushroom. Have you had experience microdosing mushrooms? What was it like? Do you support the legalization of psychedelic mushrooms? Please share your thoughts here
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