Summary

James McDonald describes his personal experience with how cordyceps mushroom supplementation helped him overcome the challenges of low energy and poor athletic performance while on a raw vegan diet.

Abstract

James McDonald shares his journey from struggling with excessive sleep and low energy on a raw vegan diet to regaining vitality and productivity with the help of cordyceps mushroom supplementation. Initially, after a year into his raw vegan diet, he experienced a significant decline in energy levels, requiring up to 14 hours of sleep daily, loss of muscle mass, and reduced physical performance. He discovered cordyceps through a YouTube video by 'The Bioneer' and began supplementation, which led to an improvement in his energy levels, mental clarity, aerobic capacity, and libido. Despite the benefits, he eventually discontinued the vegan diet due to developing autoimmune issues. McDonald encourages readers to follow his health optimization research and experiments for more insights.

Opinions

James McDonald views cordyceps mushroom as a beneficial supplement for increasing energy and productivity.
He is critical of the raw vegan diet's impact on his health, citing it for his decline in energy and physical performance.
McDonald considers himself a biohacker, indicating a belief in the use of supplements and dietary adjustments to optimize health.
He attributes the improvement in his aerobic capacity and libido to cordyceps supplementation, suggesting a positive effect on his testosterone levels.
Despite the benefits of cordyceps, he decided to stop the vegan diet, implying that supplementation alone was not sufficient to address all his health issues.

From Sleeping 14 Hours Daily to Thriving On 7

How Cordyceps Mushroom Increased My Productive Hours

Image created by the author James McDonald using OpenArt

Cordyceps are one of the strangest species of fungi on the planet.

In fact, it is one of the strangest species of anything we have seen in this world. Its spores (seedlings) come from a fungus on the heads of caterpillars in the Tibetan Mountains. These then grow from the ground to create the cordyceps mushroom.

However, the form that is sold as a supplement is cultivated and harvested by humans.

Struggling On a Raw Vegan Diet

By the summer of 2017, I was 12 months into my raw vegan experiment and the honeymoon phase had passed.

I was 6’7” and 185lbs having withered away from a very lean 230lbs at the start. Additionally, my overall energy levels had fallen significantly. I would sleep for 8–9 hours at night and still needed another 5 hours sprinkled as naps throughout the day. After exercising or any strenuous physical activity I would immediately need a nap that lasted about 2 hours. And this was irrespective of the fact that I just woke up from 9 hours the previous night.

Also, having lost the lean muscle mass, the maximum load that I could move in the gym fell along with my running speed and endurance. This was in addition to the brain fog that had me reading a single sentence 5 times before I could understand what it was saying.

I knew this dietary torture (a concept I will elaborate on in future articles to which you can be updated by following me on Medium) had to stop soon, but not before I tried to supplement my way out of the predicament.

Cordyceps Mushroom to The Rescue

As a biohacker (health optimizer and experimenter), I am always looking for methods to improve my neurological and biological state.

One afternoon while browsing the internet I came across a YouTube video by ‘The Bioneer’. He gave a presentation on cordyceps and explained the science-backed benefits that supplementing could give to the user. The presentation stated that cordyceps were shown in studies to do the following:

1. Increase the amount of energy in the form of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) that is available for use in the blood.

2. It stated that the mushroom was shown to increase blood oxygen levels thus becoming more aerobically efficient.

3. And that Cordyceps alleviated adrenal insufficiency by increasing testosterone and lowering the stress hormone cortisol.

I was now intrigued and started supplementation the following week. Within about 10 days of starting, I felt the brain fog begin to lift and my need for naps throughout the day began to disappear.

My Long-Term Results from Cordyceps

I soldiered on with the vegan diet for another 6 months and started including cooked meals to preserve the little muscle mass I had.

Cordyceps improved my ability to concentrate for long periods and I was easily able to study for 3–4 hours without a break (I was doing a Master of Science in Enterprise Risk Management at the time). Though my aerobic capacity improved, my maximum force exertion in the gym remained stagnant. And, with an improved aerobic capacity as well as the perceived testosterone boost (no test was carried out) my libido increased drastically.

I however stopped my vegan experiment 6 months after I began cordyceps supplementation due to developing some autoimmune issues.

For more insights into my health optimization research, experiments, and tips follow me:

Medium James McDonald

Twitter/X @TheRoadScholar_