CBD and Mushrooms Together

We started with CBD in 2019 and added mushrooms in 2022, and for years we kept the two conversations apart. Different shelves, different customers, different regulators. That separation was practical rather than principled, and it is worth closing.

They are doing different jobs

The simplest way to think about it is that CBD and functional mushrooms are not competing for the same slot.

CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a signalling network involved in regulating things like mood, sleep and appetite. We wrote about the mechanism at length in CBD and the Endocannabinoid System, and the short version is that it is a modulating system rather than a switch.

Functional mushrooms are a different proposition again: whole foods with long traditions of use, taken over weeks, valued for beta-glucans and other compounds rather than for any single active. Lion's Mane and Reishi do not act on the endocannabinoid system, and CBD does nothing for cognition in the way Lion's Mane is traditionally associated with.

So the question "which one should I take" is usually the wrong question. The better one is "what does my evening actually look like".

Can you take them together?

There is no known interaction between CBD and functional mushrooms, and plenty of people take both. What we would say is this: do not start both at once. If you begin CBD oil and a mushroom capsule on the same Monday and something changes by Friday, you have learned nothing about which of them did it. Add one, give it three or four weeks, then add the other.

The more important caution is medication rather than mushrooms. CBD is metabolised by liver enzymes that also handle a long list of prescription drugs, which is why the advice for anyone on medication is to speak to a doctor before starting, that advice is about CBD specifically, and it has not changed.

Pairings that make sense

Evening. This is where the two ranges overlap most naturally. REST was built for the end of the day, and DREAM is our Reishi blend for the same window. People who take both tend to use the oil as the physical wind-down ritual, the dropper, the sixty seconds under the tongue, with the capsule taken half an hour before bed.

A body that has been used. EASE and the EASE Muscle Balm came out of that first year of the business, and they sit alongside training rather than in place of recovery. Nothing in the mushroom range competes with them.

A busy head. CALM in the evening, FOCUS in the morning. Two ends of the day, no overlap, no shared ingredients to double up on.

The regulatory bit, because it matters

CBD in the UK is a novel food. The Food Standards Agency advises healthy adults not to exceed 10mg of CBD a day from food supplements, and not to take it at all if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on medication. Functional mushrooms are food supplements under a different set of rules, where the only permitted health claims attach to the added vitamins and minerals, not to the mushrooms themselves.

That difference is why the two parts of this site read slightly differently, and why neither of them will ever tell you that something treats a condition. It does not, and we are not allowed to say it does, and both of those things are correct.

Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Do not exceed 10mg of CBD per day. Not for children, or anyone pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication.