Podcast:
Inspired Living with Autoimmunity
5 Medicinal Mushrooms That Actually Balance Your Overactive Immune System
With:
Julie Michelson
July 28, 2025
I really enjoyed this opportunity to dive into an under-appreciated aspect of mushroom medicine - their role in and impact on autoimmune disease. Julie helped me explore how far from being contraindicated, medicinal & functional mushrooms can support the body across multiple systems, and play a key role in repair and healing in autoimmunity. I really hope you enjoy this episode!
Conversation starters
[For awkward dinner parties, silent elevator rides, grocery store lines, and your favorite barista]
"Mushrooms have this way of doing what the body needs. They help to bring homeostasis and balance to the human system."
"I feel like the mushrooms have hired me to speak for them—to be their representative and be like, 'This is how you use them. This is how you use them for this and this is the dose.'"
"Reishi is the mushroom of immortality. It has been talked about for centuries and for good reason."
Key Topics
[00:02:16] 🌿 My journey into natural medicine - growing up with parents who had chronic illnesses and discovering medicinal mushrooms through my father's cancer treatment
[00:08:00] 🧠 Mushrooms as immune modulators - explaining the difference between immune modulating vs stimulating, and how mushrooms support gut health through prebiotic polysaccharides
[00:11:45] 🦠 Antiviral properties - how reishi and turkey tail can help decrease Epstein-Barr viral load
[00:13:40] 🍽️ Medicinal vs grocery store mushrooms - the overlap and which ones you can find at the market (oyster, maitake, lion's mane, shiitake)
[00:17:20] ⚡ Stress and the nervous system - how reishi calms the heart spirit and lion's mane helps with depression and anxiety
[00:23:02] 💊 Quality and dosing - importance of mushroom powdered extracts vs myceliated grain products
[00:33:41] ⚠️ Immune-stimulating mushrooms to be aware of - shiitake and Agaricus blazei
[00:40:04] 🎯 Condition-specific mushrooms - lion's mane for MS, tremella for Sjögren's, reishi for scleroderma
[00:45:00] 🥗 Dietary recommendations - everyone should eat oyster mushrooms for ergothioneine and supplement with reishi
Spores for Thought
"I have yet to really honestly meet somebody who has an autoimmune condition that hasn't experienced some aspect of trauma in their life."
Resources
Textbook of Natural Medicine (medicinal mushrooms chapter)
Go Deeper
Mushrooms for each body system (graphic)
Medicinal Mushrooms – Going Viral (white paper)
Polysaccharides : Therapeutic constituents in medicinal mushrooms (blog post)
Lion’s Mane: a Psychosomatic Psychobiotic (blog post)
Shameless Plugs
IMMUNE — Balanced immune support featuring reishi and turkey tail for optimal immune modulation.
BRAIN & NERVES — Lion's mane-focused formula designed to support focus, mood, and nervous system health.
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