Two years into hosting The Eversio Experience Podcast, Dr. Desiree Caruso and I decided to do something we had never done before.
We handed over the microphone.
Our guest host for this very first episode of Unhinged was someone who knows us well, someone who has lived the work she teaches, and someone who asks the kind of questions that don't let you off the hook.
Samantha Gladish, holistic nutritionist, podcast host, and one of our most beloved wellness allies, came prepared.
And we had no idea what she was going to ask.
This episode is different from anything we have done before. It is not about protocols or mushroom science, though we do get there. It is about the real conversations that happen when two women who have been quietly growing, grieving old versions of themselves, and rebuilding from the inside out are finally asked to just tell the truth.
This is that conversation.
Outgrowing Yourself: The Most Uncomfortable Growth There Is
What's a moment you realized you'd outgrown a version of yourself, and it was uncomfortable?
That was Samantha's opening question, and it landed exactly the way she intended it to.
For me, the answer came quickly.
I was an elementary school teacher for 20 years. For those of you who are newer to our community, Dr. Desiree Caruso was actually in my grade four class. That detail still delights me. Two people, nearly 20 years apart in age, sharing the same Human Design blueprint, both 4/6 generators, both drawn to this exact work. We often joke that we share one brain. The charts suggest it might be true.
But teaching shaped me in ways I am still unpacking.
I was trained to multitask. Not just trained, I was celebrated for it. Managing a parent meeting while administering a test while watching the back of the classroom, that was not the exception. That was Tuesday. And I carried that wiring into entrepreneurship, into motherhood, into everything.
It wasn't until I began studying neuroscience that I understood what I had been doing to myself.
The brain does not multitask. It rapidly task-switches. And every single one of those switches costs cognitive energy. I had been draining myself for decades and calling it capability.
When I look back now, I can trace a clear line from that constant state of dysregulation to the beginning of my autoimmune condition. A body that is always in a subtle fight or flight response is a body that is quietly moving toward disease.
Leaving that version of myself behind was not graceful.
It was disorienting.
But it was necessary.
The Nervous System Is the Foundation (Everything Else Comes After)
One of the most important things I have learned through this journey is that healing cannot be layered on top of dysregulation and expected to hold.
I see this often. Someone discovers functional medicine, or clean eating, or a new supplement protocol, and they commit fully. And yet something isn't shifting. The results are inconsistent. The energy doesn't return. The inflammation persists.
What I have come to understand, and what this episode circles back to again and again, is that the nervous system must come first.
When the body believes it is in danger, even a low-level, chronic kind of danger, it is not interested in healing. It is interested in survival. And survival mode does not respond to a new supplement or a dietary overhaul the way we hope it will.
Regulate first.
Then layer.
This is why the morning practice I built for myself matters so much to me. My mornings are not negotiable. Not because I am rigid about them, but because they are how I signal to my body that today is safe. That there is no emergency. That I can be still.
I am not in the 5 a.m. club. I never have been, and I do not intend to join. But when I wake, there is a sequence. There is intention. There is breath before there is a screen.
That boundary has probably done more for my health than any supplement I have ever taken.
And it has annoyed at least one person. Maybe more.
Rethinking "More Fungi, Less Pharma"
What's one belief you changed your mind about in the last few years?
This question asked for honesty, and honesty is what it got.
When Dr. Desiree and I launched Eversio Wellness, I came in with conviction. I had lived through the consequences of relying too heavily on pharmaceuticals to manage symptoms I did not yet understand. I had watched my body struggle under a system that was treating signals rather than sources. I was passionate, and I was certain.
Too certain.
"More fungi, less pharma" became our phrase. It is still on our tote bags. But over time, I had to sit with what I was actually communicating.
I was dismissing an entire modality.
And that is not balanced. That is extremism with a wellness label.
I have come to believe that extremism, in diet, in supplementation, in medicine, is often a sign of a nervous system looking for certainty where there isn't any. When we are dysregulated, we reach for rules. Hard, fast, absolute rules feel like safety.
But they are not healing.
Real healing asks us to hold nuance. To trust the body's signals. To know that there is a time and a place for every tool, and that the wisdom is in discernment, not restriction.
I have not taken a pharmaceutical in five years. That is something I am genuinely grateful for. But I no longer say that as a badge of honour. I say it as context. Because if the day comes when I need one, I want to be the kind of person who can choose wisely, not the kind of person who refuses out of ideology.
More fungi, less pharma.
Not no pharma.
There is a meaningful difference.
What Functional Mushrooms Actually Are (Because We Get This Question Every Day)
If you are new here, welcome. And if you have ever wondered whether our mushrooms will get you high, this section is for you.
The short answer is no.
The longer answer is that there are four distinct categories of mushrooms, and they are not interchangeable.
Forest decomposers. These are the mushrooms quietly breaking down the forest floor. They are doing essential ecological work. They are not for consumption.
Culinary mushrooms. The button mushroom in your grocery store stir fry. The portobello on your plate. Nourishing, yes. Medicinal in a general sense, yes. But not what we are talking about when we talk about functional mushrooms.
Functional mushrooms. Also called medicinal mushrooms. These are what Eversio offers. Lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, turkey tail, chaga, maitake, tremella. They do not produce any psychoactive effect. They support immune health, cognitive function, energy, sleep, and nervous system regulation. They are used as supplements and nutraceuticals, and they are backed by a growing body of research as well as centuries of traditional use.
Psychedelic mushrooms. A completely separate category. Still illegal in Canada, which means they are not something we can or do offer.
The confusion is understandable. The education simply has not caught up to the conversation. And closing that gap is a meaningful part of why we do what we do.
Why the Quality of Your Mushroom Supplement Matters More Than You Think
This is where we need to have a frank conversation about what is actually in the products on the market right now.
There is a significant and ongoing issue in the functional mushroom industry. Products are sold using images of beautiful, fully developed fruiting body mushrooms while the ingredient panel tells a different story entirely.
Mycelium grown on grain is not the same as a fruiting body extract.
Fruiting bodies and mycelium are both parts of the fungal organism, but they differ meaningfully in their composition, their active compound concentrations, and their research backing. When a product is made from myceliated grain, what often ends up in the capsule is largely grain starch, with minimal active fungal content. The claims on the packaging, which borrow from research conducted on fruiting bodies, do not apply.
At Eversio, we use dual-extracted fruiting bodies. Every time. The beta-glucan content is disclosed. Third-party testing is part of our standard practice.
When you are evaluating any mushroom supplement, ask these questions:
- Is this a fruiting body or mycelium on grain?
- Is it dual-extracted?
- Are the beta-glucan levels transparent?
- Has it been independently tested?
These are not small details. They are the whole story.
A Functional Mushroom Starter Stack for Women Who Are Stressed, Wired, and Exhausted
This is one of the most common questions we receive, and Dr. Desiree walks through her clinical approach beautifully in this episode. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Morning: Cordyceps + Lion's Mane
Cordyceps is often where people feel their first real shift. It supports cellular energy production and oxygen utilization in a way that translates to clean, sustained energy without the spike and crash that comes from stimulants. Dr. Desiree has shared that cordyceps changed how she breathes during exercise, eventually allowing her to stop relying on an inhaler before workouts. For the rest of us, it is the kind of energy that feels earned rather than borrowed.
Lion's mane supports neuroplasticity, focus, and what many of our community members describe as calm clarity. It is not alertness for its own sake. It is the capacity to be present and clear without the underlying noise.
Afternoon: Lion's Mane
For blood sugar regulation and sustained cognitive performance through the second half of the day, an afternoon dose of lion's mane alongside a meal is something both Dr. Desiree and I have found genuinely useful. Maitake, with its well-researched role in glucose metabolism, pairs well here too.
Evening: Reishi
Reishi is the nervous system's invitation to exhale. Taken in the evening, it supports cortisol regulation in the hours before sleep, helping to ease the transition from the activity of the day into the rest the body needs. One of Samantha's clients told her she no longer needed her nightly crime television ritual to decompress once she began taking reishi. She simply slept.
That is what a regulated nervous system feels like.
The Simple Starting Point: Our Five Mushroom Blend
If you want one product to begin with, our Five Mushroom Blend brings together reishi, cordyceps, maitake, lion's mane, and tremella. A half teaspoon in a morning smoothie is an easy and effective way to cover a significant amount of ground without complexity.
A note on consistency: these are not supplements that work overnight. They are tools that compound over time, supporting the body's systems the way regular exercise supports the cardiovascular system. Thirty days of consistent use is where most people in our community begin to notice a meaningful difference.
The Most Unhinged Thing We Have Done in the Name of Healing
Samantha asked, so we answered.
Last April, Dr. Desiree and I attended a Dr. Joe Dispenza meditation retreat together. If you are unfamiliar with his work, the experience is as follows: you wake at 2:45 in the morning. You have had no caffeine. You sit in a room with approximately 2,000 other people, put on your meditation mask, and begin a live, guided meditation led by Dr. Dispenza himself from a stage at the front of the room.
This continues for just over five hours.
The early hour is deliberate. Melatonin is still present. The prefrontal cortex has not fully activated. The brain is in a slower, more receptive state, and the meditations are designed to use that window to push into theta brainwave territory, the space between waking and sleep where the deepest shifts tend to happen.
There was a moment where both Dr. Desiree and I felt genuinely unwell. There was also a moment that I cannot fully describe in words.
Research has been published from attendees of these retreats measuring biological changes in participants before, during, and after the events. The data on what happens in a room of people who have collectively shifted their state is extraordinary.
I am returning in June. Ten days this time.
What Is Inspiring Me Right Now
The science of the heart.
For a long time, we have understood intelligence as something that originates in the brain. But what is emerging from research in the last several years changes that picture significantly.
The electromagnetic field generated by the heart is substantially larger than that of the brain. And growing evidence suggests that this field is not just internal. It is transmitted. It influences the biology of those around us, sometimes without a single word being spoken.
We have all experienced this. Walking into a room and feeling the energy shift before anything has been said. We attributed it to personality or mood. But the mechanism may be more literal than we realized.
I am in the early stages of learning how to teach this, how to help people understand that the state they are carrying is something they are actively sharing with everyone around them, and that they have more influence over that state than they may believe.
It feels like some of the most important work I have encountered.
A Final Word
If you found this post because you are exhausted and uncertain and have tried many things that have not quite worked, I want to say something directly to you.
Your body is not failing you.
It is communicating.
And when we stop approaching it as a problem to be solved and begin listening to it as a system with something to say, everything changes.
Healing does not begin with the right supplement or the perfect protocol. It begins with a nervous system that feels safe enough to receive.
Start there.
Everything else, the mushrooms, the nutrition, the movement, the sleep, it all lands differently when the foundation is present.
Thank you for being here for this conversation. We will be back with more Unhinged episodes, more honest questions, and more of the things that don't usually make it onto a wellness podcast.
Until then, be well.
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