Ep. 9 Medicinal Mushroom Magic: Transforming Your Reality with Reishi and Mind Power

In this conversation, Carli and Dianne Solano discuss Dianne's journey from studying veterinary medicine to becoming a holistic orthomolecular nutritionist. Dianne shares her personal experience with hormonal imbalance and how she discovered the power of orthomolecular nutrition to heal her body. She also talks about her introduction to the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza and the impact it had on her life. Dianne explains Dr. Joe's teachings on neuroplasticity, meditation, and the power of the mind to create a new reality. The conversation also touches on the importance of medicinal mushrooms and their benefits for overall health and well-being. The conversation discusses the health benefits of medicinal mushrooms, specifically reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), which is used in a coffee powder called King coffee. The speakers highlight the various health benefits of reishi, including liver support, hormonal balancing, immune support, brain health, and anti-inflammatory properties. They also emphasize the importance of sourcing and quality, with the King coffee being grown in-ground for better nutrient absorption and bioavailability. Testimonials and scientific research support the effectiveness of reishi in improving various health conditions. The conversation concludes by encouraging listeners to try the King coffee and experience the potential health benefits.

References:
What the Bleep do we know
The Source
Fantastic Fungi
Dr. Joe Dispenza

King Coffee
Reishi Spore Capsules
COAs for Organo Ganoderma Lucidum
*There are ZERO noted interactions or counter indications for any diseases or medications with these products

Diane Solano

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Common Interests

03:47
Discovering Natural Medicine and the Power of Choice

07:19
Introduction to Dr. Joe Dispenza and His Teachings

12:26
Dr. Joe Dispenza's Impact on Dianne's Life

16:48
Understanding Dr. Joe Dispenza's Work

28:00
The Magic of Medicinal Mushrooms

30:12
The Science Behind Reishi

34:54
Supporting Liver Function, Hormone Balance, and More

38:09
Brain Health and Immunity

43:40
The Importance of Sourcing and Quality

49:01
Reishi Coffee: A Convenient and Enjoyable Option

53:01
Personal Testimonials and Ethical Practices

54:24
01 carli612 - Podcast Intro.mp3

Carli's Info:

Website: www.wellnessbycarli.com

IG: @wellnessbycarli

Transcript

Carli (00:00.824)
Diane, I'm so glad we were able to connect before you left the country. You are one hard woman to track down. Welcome to the show.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (00:12.084)
Lovely being here Carly and I'm so happy we're finally getting to connect because there's just so much exciting information to share out there.

Carli (00:19.192)
and we have so much in common, I can't wait. So today I have Diane Solano. She is here and I think of you as the poster child for being a mompreneur, but what really connects us is our passion, our endless passion really for medicinal mushrooms. And as I found out recently, the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza. And two things that I am so, I just could talk to, I could talk about forever. So let's start with you.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (00:40.052)
Yes.

Carli (00:47.416)
I want to hear your story. I know when I listened to a presentation from you, you mentioned orthomolecular nutrition, which I honestly wasn't familiar about. So I just want to hear you and how medicinal mushrooms found you.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (00:59.76)
my gosh. Well, you know, let's rewind a little bit. My original plan, Carly, was to study veterinary medicine. I love animals. Love animals. I had a fantasy in my brain, Generation X baby. We had no information back then, right? I just knew that follow your passion, love little puppy dogs, love kittens, had this fantasy that if I became a veterinary medicine doctor, I would be able to just snuggle with cats and dogs all day long. And of course,

Fast forward, I started my university career and I started doing my, you know, hours, what they call volunteer hours to get into the University of Guelph, which by the way is one of the top universities for Vet Med. And it was in that timeframe when I realized this was not the fantasy I signed up for at all. It was not it. And I just felt really deflated thinking, what am I gonna study because I'm a passionate girl. Like if I'm passionate, I'm in. If I'm not passionate, I'm out.

Carli (01:44.632)
Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (01:56.596)
So I thought, well, Diane, just take a break and see where life takes you. And it just so happens that that summer, my dad was diagnosed with stage four cancer. And he, I was at stage four, I don't even remember what stage it was. Either way, he was diagnosed with cancer. I had a science background. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with my life. And I thought, let me just become his primary caretaker. I started taking him to all his doctor's appointments. And they all were just rooting for the conventional medical model, which has a place.

But at that time, I just gave all my power away. Didn't ask questions. Things didn't make sense to me. I had a lot of scientific questions, but I just went ahead with what I was told. And sure enough, after his first dose of chemo, he passed away. So I learned later on that, you know, the body's designed to thrive, that there are many ways to deal with illness and challenges that our body, you know, shows up as. A lot of stuff is emotional in the human body.

But I didn't know this at the time. So that's what opened up my doors to natural medicine because I myself was already struggling with a hormonal imbalance. I learned that I had PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and every single expert from the biggest, best gynecologist in South America to the one year wait, I waited to talk to the best gynecologist in Toronto, teaching hospital, and they both said the same thing. Nothing you can do, totally genetic, take birth control pills for the rest of your life.

Carli (03:03.416)
and we'll see you next time.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (03:23.156)
When you want to have kids, let us know. You may or may not be able to get pregnant. We'll give you drugs for that. And that's the end of the story. But I felt something in my heart, something in my spirit just knew there was another answer. And I didn't know what that looked like. But I knew that there was that little voice inside, which by the way, if you're listening to this, that voice is so, so wise and so ancient. And that is your North Star. So I started opening up my door to natural because I thought, what have I got to lose?

And it wasn't until I met my first mentor who was an orthomolecular nutritionist. So that kind of circles back to like, what is this title? Who was the first person that said, Diane, write down everything you put in your mouth for a week. Don't change anything and show me what you do. Show me what you eat. So I was a good student. I was committed. I wrote everything down at that time and I showed up in his office and he looked at the paper and he said, sugar, sugar, carbs, sugar. You have no essential fats.

You don't hardly eat any protein. You don't have what it takes to make hormones. And I remember I sat there, I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, well, you want to bake a cake. You need eggs, butter, flour. You want to build a house. You need brick, mortar, wood, nails. You need building blocks to make things. The human body is the same way. You don't have the building blocks to create proper hormonal cycles. And I just stood there. I was so shocked and it felt like somebody turned the light on in the room.

And I thought, how is it possible that I traveled around the world, waited two years to visit the best in the world and no one once said, do you have what it takes to even make raw material in the body? That's what lit me up Carly. And that's what started off the path to my journey, Orthomolecular Nutritionist, which means again, Linus Pauling, right? Many molecules, orthomolecular nutrition, biochemistry driven nutrition that lets me understand that certain

Nutrients and how they work with pathways and pushing the body forward and signals receptor sites all that sciencey nerd stuff I needed to understand pathways I already had a science background and I thought you know, this is it I felt so excited because in Committing to the program that my mentor at the time gave me which was I had to give up the sugar I had to give up processed foods I was you know determined to turn my body around and sure enough started having essential fats

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (05:48.468)
started having proteins, started eating whole foods, got off the sugar addiction. My body turned around within a year, perfect cycles, no more hair loss, clear skin, because as a natural PCOS person, I was suffering. So this is what led down the path through the functional medicine, orthomolecular nutrition side. But it doesn't stop there. 20 years of practice, doing corporate programs, empowering people. I realized there are people doing everything right and they're still not getting the results.

And that's when I came across the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza, which changed my life forever. But, you know, we all evolve, we all grow. And it's no coincidence that I stumbled upon that. And that was the next phase of my personal growth and journey in the field of health and wellness.

Carli (06:35.544)
this is such a good story. First of all, PCOS, girly, well, previous, I've also beaten it. And that goes back to foundations, which I'm a huge proponent of, right? If someone, and how special are mentors, by the way, just one person to reframe things for you and your whole life changed. That's so, so valuable. And so building blocks, profound and simple. And so are foundations. They're profound and simple and balancing your blood sugar. And I love, you're like me, you're like, okay,

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (06:53.108)
Thank you.

Carli (07:05.336)
I got the simplistic, I've been sparked by this simplistic idea, now I need the nitty gritty. Like give me all the biochemical pathways, now I need the deep stuff. So that's such an awesome story. And so Dr. Joe Dispenza was kind of next phase. And so for anyone who doesn't know who that is, my only experience with him is I've read his books, I connect deeply to this information, done some meditations.

I could probably fumble through a description, but I would love for you to hear, just give people a summary of who's Dr. Joe and what does he teach.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (07:40.148)
my gosh, what does he, it's such a good question. Well, Dr. Joe Dispenza, I first started following his work. I loved his work, which I discovered who he was on a documentary called What the Bleak Do We Know? It's a documentary that was heavily science -based on the documentary that was released called, what was it, The Law of Attraction, The Secret. So The Secret was the documentary that the masses loved, but.

Carli (07:41.848)
I know, it's huge, but...

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (08:07.028)
the what the bleep was the quantum physics side, the science piece about law and attraction. And this is where there were so many experts on that panel, but Dr. Joe was one of those many experts that the minute he started speaking, my brain just like lit, like it was almost like I knew that that was the information I needed to discover more. And at that time, that documentary discussed neuroplasticity, which is basically how we as humans by the age of 30, we already have

feelings, interpretation of the world, habits that are heavily ingrained in us. And until we decide to become a different personality, AKA change who we are, how we think our energy field, we don't change our lives. And his beginner books goes heavy into that, which is what I was consuming at the time. I happened to be working with another Hay House author. I was designing her nutrition programs for her program called Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much. She did the energy piece. I did the biochemical piece.

She knew how much I loved Dr. Joe. And that's when she introduced me to him. This was way before he became famous, which I feel super blessed that I had that opportunity to meet him and just go deeper into his work. I didn't know how much he promoted meditation at the time. So when he was in Toronto doing his workshop, I attended it. And that's when I realized, okay, it's not just theory about here's how you change your habits in your brain, because that is part one of the science.

But the part two of the science, which I didn't realize I was gonna experience that day in the room was to sit down and actually disconnect from who you are. So he encourages a meditation, which is really about drawing all that energy we put out there on our thoughts, on our habits, on our things that we gotta do in our lives to stop thinking completely, go into utter silence, where the energy frequency now focuses inward on you. And this is where you actually start to kind of connect

with that third, that fifth dimension of who you are. You want to call it spirit, you want to call it soul, you want to call it vibration, you want to call it God. Whatever you want to call it, it is real. It exists and it is the frequency that heals the planet, that heals our skin, that makes things grow, that creates baby. There's a vibrational field that science is now discovering that is real. So Dr. Joe's work is basically taking spirituality and putting it in a test tube.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (10:26.868)
And he has just released his documentary called The Source, which was free like last weekend, showing and documenting people around the world having spontaneous remission. We're talking about people who are diagnosed with stage four, people that have given days to live every single miracle under the sun that you can think of, the impossible becoming possible within his workshops, because he's teaching people to stop being distracted by the illusion of all the stuff we get.

you know, so I guess, enticed with, which is money and relationships and ego. It's just like, stop and just be still and let that vibration show up in your world and start tasting, feeling, touching it because they're measuring that it is real. So that's essentially his work. I noticed that my screen just went frozen. So I don't know if you can hear me. there we go. Yeah, we're good. So that's Dr. Joe's work is complex, but it's simple.

Carli (11:19.96)
Yeah, that's okay.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (11:24.5)
the same time. So like I said, what he's teaching people to do is to take their power back and create the life that they've always wanted to create outside of these limiting beliefs and thoughts and personalities because that's how we're showing up, whether we know it or we don't. And that's where he changed my life because he basically gave me a slap in the head the day I went, I did his first workshop. It turned my life around completely.

Carli (11:47.064)
And was it a day workshop or a one of the week workshops?

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (11:49.62)
It was a, at that time he didn't do the week long retreats. They were called progressive workshops. There were only three days. you went in for three days consecutively and that was the workshop where he kind of was introducing the meditation, talking a lot around the science, the brain, the neuroplasticity, the frequency fields, the cerebral spinal fluid, the electromagnetic system between you and the earth, like all the stuff. So our analytical brains can accept.

that this is fact and then let go of the judgment so that we can sit down and just really focus on becoming nothing. And I can't even begin to tell you how hard that exercise in and of itself, it is so challenging. You're gonna come up against yourself like crazy, but that's part of the work. So it's in that process. It was in that weekend, Carly, that I remember, you know, he said, what is it in your life you wanna change? This was the exercise that day at the Progressive.

three day retreat. I remember the last day he said, you know, take out a time in your life, think about it. I want you to focus on recreating a new reality. And at that time I had just, I had just come out of a major heartbreak. You know, my relationship had fallen apart. I was in such a bad place in my life. And I remember feeling like, why is this happening to me? Such victim mode. And I remember at that time, before we went on break, he gave out these handouts and

I was thinking about the infidelity. I was thinking about the heartbreak and I thought, okay, Diane, stop. Don't think about it here because you're going to cry and you're going to make a fool of yourself. You need to like take those home, do it privately, think of something else. And in that moment, he called me out in the room. He's like, Diane, get over here now. But he yelled it like a child being reprimanded. And I remember being there with three other girlfriends and I looked at them and their eyes went big. And I was like, I don't know what I did. So I went down to where the lecture hall was, the door, and he pulled me outside the room.

And I remember I got singled out and he pulled me out and he sternly was like, what happened to you in there? And I stood there shocked and I'm like, nothing. And he's like, don't lie to me. And he said, the whole room collapsed. I felt the whole energy collapse. What happened in there? And I was just, I was so shocked, Carly. I remember standing there just being like dumped out at any. And then I remember these words. He said, listen, I don't know what happened to you, but I need you to know you created it.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (14:09.3)
And it doesn't mean you're unworthy. It doesn't mean that you deserved it. It means you unknowingly are creating a reality that you don't even know that you're doing. And that needs to stop. And he said, you need to get very clear on what it is that you want. And even if you don't know what it is that you want, I want you to know what it is you want to feel. Like what are the emotions and the feelings you want to experience on this earth? And I want you to get in there and start creating the life you deserve to live. And I remember

it was like somebody woke me up out of this wicked dream. And I became obsessed with this material. I started just listening and practicing something called metacognition, which is where we observe ourselves outside of ourselves so that we can break that, you know, that personality of ours to that, that just makes us do the thing. So that's where I just decided I need to really commit to changing the version of Diane. That's not really how she wants to show up in the world.

And who does Diane want to be? And how would she, what would that look like? What would it feel like? What would it taste like? So I started working with that energy field. And that's when Dr. Bob, my mentor, three months later showed up with this medicinal mushroom beverage company that was just growing around the world because I was doing the work. I was doing the work about how I wanted to show up as single mom. I was doing the work about how I wanted to create abundance in my life. I was doing the work about how I still wanted to have impact, but I still wanted time freedom.

and I still wanted to have location freedom and I wanted to have emotional freedom because one thing I learned from a dear friend and colleague, Sachin Patel, he says, whatever controls your emotions and your nervous system controls you, whether that's credit card debt, whether that's an abusive relationship, whether that's, you know, I don't know, addiction. If it controls your nervous system, it controls you. So what is it that you need to now redefine and stop giving power to?

So that was the work and that was introduced by Dr. Joe because I decided to take a look within.

Carli (16:09.4)
I'm so obsessed with that story. I want to unpack it a little bit before we talk about the mushrooms. So did he, is he intuitive? Did he see the energy collapse around you? How in the world did he single you out? I don't understand.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (16:23.028)
Well, yeah, he is intuitive, that I know. He doesn't talk about it. Nope. But I know for sure he is. I mean, how can you not be? When you look at a story, which by the way, some people have never heard of Dr. Joe, you need to look him up, Dr. Joe Dispenza. He has his own website. Look at the documentary, The Source. That will be mind boggling. Some of you guys will feel like there's this beautiful hope in the world you've never dreamed of. But his story, after being

Carli (16:25.496)
he doesn't talk about that.

Carli (16:32.504)
How?

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (16:50.388)
committed to being in a wheelchair for the rest of his life because every single expert said there was nothing they can do. He had broken vertebrae right across his skeletal wall. He said, you know, he just started connecting with the divine and he just started really going within and surely slowly and slowly his body started to heal itself. Things started to come together. It's a crazy story. It's definitely worth looking into. And imagine when you are healed,

through a deeper force of a life force that exists in all of us, that makes babies, that creates all these beautiful miraculous things around us we don't even pay attention to. This is the energy that truly heals. And when we have that life force, our bodies are so capable of anything. So, after that, I know he did a pact with the higher force universe and said, look, if I come back out of this, I will commit to doing your work for the rest of my life. And he did that.

He went down the rabbit hole of neuroscience and bio and neuroimmunology and connecting with top experts around the world. And now he has scientists actually taking his work being blown. Like scientists from Harvard, scientists, huge names going, how is this even possible? How is this possible? So this is the new awakening. I call him the modern day mystic because that's exactly it.

Carli (18:04.728)
Mm.

Carli (18:09.887)
And now I understand why I'm so drawn to his work. You unpacked that really well and you said spirituality in a test tube because I'm obsessed with science and I love spirituality and I've always said, I think they're the same thing. I think we're separating them, but they're not different. And when you can articulate how they're the same and that's his work, that's the perfect way to describe his work. So the movie, The Source, I'm gonna link that in the show notes.

Incredible. I'm so glad you posted on Instagram because I watched it right away. And I was, I couldn't, you couldn't get me away from the TV. It's so inspiring. It will instill hope anyone struggling with anything. But you just helped me understand his story a little bit more because I know he was, I think he was biking and hit by a Mack truck, literally, right? And put it in a wheelchair. But I didn't realize the piece because he doesn't talk about the spirituality too much. He talks about the science. And in this movie, I mean, there's Johns Hopkins.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (18:49.108)
anything.

Carli (19:07.224)
top scientists who won't even acknowledge there's anything spiritual going on. They're purely science -based. And I saw this one clip, and then we'll move on, where they have these cancer cells in petri dishes. And they have them—I'm getting goosebumps—they have them in the hospital and a healing group, which healing energy can come from our hands. I mean, it's electromagnetic, right? It is healing energy, they described. So they had a healing circle around the petri dishes of cancer and measurable—

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (19:20.372)
Yes.

Carli (19:36.824)
in a lab, the differences. It didn't go away in one hour of healing. That's not how it worked. But the measurable difference, and it's blowing the minds of these top doctors. And it's so cool that he's gotten enough momentum behind him to get the resources to measure all of these things with all of these top professionals. So you did a great job of describing his work. And it's just so good.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (19:47.348)
Yes.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (19:57.269)
He's a man on a mission. He's a man on a mission and the mission is real and the information is real. And the reason why he doesn't touch on the spirituality piece is because spirituality divides, religion divides. We don't need that anymore. What we need is the science. Let the science do the talking. You interpret it whatever way you want. But what we do know is that there is a field of energy and it is real and it is eternal and it is out there and it is what makes, you know, the seasons go round.

Carli (20:01.592)
Hmm.

Carli (20:08.152)
Yes.

Carli (20:13.336)
Amen.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (20:26.644)
flowers bloom and when you start looking deeper into the science which we now have access to, you can't help but to just fall to your knees in awe of this beauty. And I agree with you, Carly, when I was studying nutrition and the human body and looking at all my books and understanding the pathways, I remember being emotional going, there's something bigger that exists here. Like, wow, you know, as opposed to this, here's the medication, it'll go away. No, there's this power, there's this beauty.

in food that breaks down and feeds like how is this possible? And it just takes it on a whole different level. So again, the source, I highly recommend it. If you're struggling here, you know someone that is any topic under the sun, there's no limitation, just be open.

Carli (21:10.456)
So good. perfect, perfect way to start. So when you decided to change your reality and you wanted to make a change, I want to hear what that looked like for you because you took this work that we just talked about, which is incredible, and you created a different life and it involved medicinal mushrooms. So what did that look like?

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (21:26.26)
Yes.

Well, you know, I committed to observing myself going, okay, what emotions am I unknowingly constantly repeating in my brain? What kind of previous traumas, previous heartbreaks, previous, you know, definitions of the world am I deciding that I'm constantly replaying in my head because I'm creating more of that. That needs to stop. So in that work, I got really clear on what it is that I wanted. I wanted to make money. I was tired of trading time for money. I was tired of helping people by not being able to pay bills myself.

I really wanted abundance, but I still wanted to help people and I wanted to come from a good heart and I wanted to empower and I wanted to travel the world and I wanted to be at home with my son. And I got so clear on what I wanted. I didn't know what that would look like, but I just knew that I needed to decide first on the destination. And I always tell the team this, if you don't know where you wanna be, then how can you map it out? You just can't. So this is where I just started committing to the work.

doing the meditations, listening to his material over and over and over again because again, we human beings fall back to our old patterns. And I just didn't want that to happen. And then sure enough, three months later, my other mentor in functional medicine, Dr. Bob Rukowski showed up in Toronto. He was lecturing for a very big company called Metagenics at the time. And I went to that seminar because I needed advice. I needed advice on how I can actually create a lifestyle for myself now being a single mom.

And that's when Dr. Bob said, have you heard of this company that is blowing it up with medicinal mushrooms and beverages? And I was just kind of shocked, but I remember he said the one sentence, whatever, you know, I, what did he say? In three and a half years, I'm making more money with this than I have traveling around the world because I have time freedom. And that's when I realized, my gosh, he was so successful in my eyes, but success isn't always about money.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (23:18.74)
It's about the quality of life you live. And he wasn't living that quality of life because he never got to see his family. He had to be on an airplane. He was in clinic. And I thought, that is the new wealthy. Time is new wealthy. Emotional stability and peace is a new wealthy. Abundance comes in many different forms. And so I was just open and that's when he introduced me to the power of medicinal mushrooms. And then I started going down that rabbit hole and realizing that medicinal mushrooms have been on the earth

longer than human have, right? Human life has only gone back a few, you know, thousands of years, but billions of years ago, it was medicinal mushrooms. It was, you know, little algae. It was like bacterias, you know, Perosea that was on the earth at that time. And I didn't know how much medicinal mushrooms actually helped with breaking down the minerals in the earth and giving what the soil needed so that we could have plants, animals, and all these beautiful rebirth of life.

And what I discovered was that medicinal mushrooms actually have 50 % of our human DNA. So we're actually 50 % mushroom, 50 % human, which is hilarious. But it is what actually helps the world go round and round and round because it takes decaying matter on logs and soil and it makes it into minerals, which feeds the earth again. So it's that beautiful cycle of life. However, in the documentary, Fantastic Fungi, which I highly recommend,

Paul Stamence is one of the leading authorities experts in medicinal mushrooms. He does a lot of great TED Talks out there. There are science, again, showing how animals and plants are all thriving off of medicinal mushrooms. And when I started to then play with a company that was adding these fungi to a beverage people know, love and do, like coffee, it started to change body chemistry. So I sat there as a practitioner going, my gosh, this is so funny.

People will only do things they enjoy that are cost effective, that are tasty consistently. Because it doesn't matter the protocol, the herb, the tincture, it could be so effective for that person. But if it tastes terrible, if it's expensive, they'll do it for the time they need to do it and then they'll come off. However, if you take coffee, which is the habit people know love and do are never gonna stop doing. And the company said, we're just gonna put the health in the habit.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (25:41.364)
So every sip, the person was actually getting all the benefits that the medicinal mushrooms were driving to human physiology, but they were being consistent. And one thing I often teach is consistency is what drives everything. Bodies respond to frequency, intensity, timing of any stimulation, quality, right? So if I gave you and I a shot of tequila every hour, well, you know, guess what? We're gonna be really tipsy after a few hours doing these shots all the time.

Well, the same thing with health and wellness, right? This is why we give people hourly protocols of fish oils or B vitamins or herbs or whatever, homeopathy, whatever it is we're doing. Well, the company said, look, we're gonna take the habit people love, coffee, they have it once, two, three times a day, they never forget to drink it. What if we put the supplement inside the beverage? And that's what started happening. So in my process of learning about mushrooms, I also learned about human behavior and realized,

nobody wants to give up their coffee. And it was the first time in 20 years that I had practice that had people calling me at home, stopping me in my son's school yard for product. Like I never had anybody literally stop me in the school yard going, do you have more of that King coffee? Do you have more of that mocha? Because they couldn't get it anywhere else. And that's when I was literally like a dealer carrying product in the trunk of my car because people kept stopping me everywhere. And in my 20 years of practice, I realized, wow, you know, this product not only tastes good, not only

is effective, not only cost effective, but people physically couldn't go back to old brands. So they didn't want to go back to this Timmy's, McDonald's, whatever it is they were already doing because they physically felt better on this one. So I did a deeper dive and I realized, you know, medicinal mushrooms have so many health benefits to them. So before I keep talking, going down that road, I thought I'd take a pause and see, you know, if there's anything I can expand on.

Carli (27:26.584)
Yes. So amazing. And I love that we're 50 % share DNA with mushrooms because they're so intelligent. If you watch Fantastic Fungi, which I will also link, you're just in awe of mushrooms. The underground communication they have is so... It goes back to the source. Like, there's this magic. I mean, it's magic here, but it's also science. So I just want to be clear what everyone... What you're talking about is reishi, and you can expand on that. It's Ganoderma lucidum.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (27:46.452)
It's magic. Yes.

Carli (27:56.376)
and it's a coffee in a powder. So I actually have one here. This is King coffee. It's what I drink. And the stories and the testimonials are incredible, but it does start with the science. And I think I would love to hear you talk about the science, because as science geeks, that's what got me when I first heard this stuff. I've been drinking this since 2012. And for me, I think one of the things that first changed is

I know about coffee and I know coffee isn't the best for you, right? We've got the cortisol spike, we've got the mold, we've got the acidity, we've got the adrenals. Everybody loves coffee though and everybody's like, so what? With The King, when I started drinking it, what went out the window was the guilt because I actually learned that multiple packets of this helped someone with, I think it was, what was she suffering from? liver. She was on a liver transplant list. And so she was prescribed four of these a day.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (28:35.7)
Mm -hmm.

Carli (28:54.584)
And so the guilt went out the window and me feeling like I was doing something good with myself and not feeling guilty, actually excited about the second and third and fourth cup in one day, it changed the energy of my morning beverage.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (29:07.092)
Yes, yes, yes, big time.

Carli (29:09.592)
It's true. And so I also can never drink coffee after around noon because then I'd have insomnia. I can have one of these before bed. I actually tested it right before bed and I can still sleep. So the magic of this is yes, it's amazing coffee and you can talk about the coffee in a second, but it comes in a supplement for people that don't like coffee because there are non -coffee drinkers. You're a non -coffee drinker, aren't you? It's not about the coffee, even though the coffee is awesome and very high quality. It's about the Ganoderma lucidum, which is reishi.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (29:20.628)
love it.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (29:31.796)
I'm not a coffee drinker.

Carli (29:39.352)
which is the medicinal mushroom. And to be clear, there's three types of mushrooms. There's food grade, there's medicinal, and then there's hallucinogenic. So this is medicinal. I get this question all the time. You shouldn't eat mushrooms. When you have yeast overgrowth, I'm struggling with you. This is medicinal. It is not the same, my friends. So if you have yeast, this can actually really help. It's anti -fungal. So you share. I want to hear what you, because you study this, you are very, very connected to the reishi. Let's hear some of the...

PubMed, like the benefits of it clinically.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (30:09.876)
Absolutely. So one thing I loved that you clarified was that these are medicinal mushrooms. And like you said, they are in a category of their own. And when you start to look at medicinal mushrooms, there's many different types on the marketplace. You know, there's lion's manes, there's chaga, there's cordyceps. Rishi just happens to have almost all the health benefits that all the other mushrooms specialize in. So I'll give you an example. Lion's mane is excellent for the brain. You know, we have chaga, which is excellent for the central nervous system, cordyceps as well. So

These are the different nuances, but when you look at reishi, reishi actually is able to work on the many different systems that the other mushrooms specialize in. So it's kind of like the general, you know, I guess the general mushroom that was going to help the overall body physiology. And this is the reason why this company chose to use and lead with reishi as part of their medicinal mushrooms in the beverages that people love, which by the way, it's not just coffee. They also put it in their teas, their hot chocolate.

No known toxicity, no known toxic doses, no known interactions with medication. Safe for pets. We have veterinarians actually using reishi capsules, not coffee, but capsules in pet food. We have children. Instead of running on antibiotics, we want to make sure we're giving them a better choice if we can avoid that, right? Every case is going to be different. But just to kind of rewind a little bit, when I was looking at this,

That's when I started saying, okay, let's look at the research because the stories that we were getting were insane. And you're right, the transplant list is story is real. So let's rewind a little bit. What does reishi do? It will actually support phase one, phase two liver conjugation. So because it helps with the liver in processing toxins, this is the reason why people are not sensitive to caffeine because you have to process caffeine along those liver receptor sites.

Rishi comes in and supports the metabolism and the conjugation pathways that have to happen. So most people that can't do coffee after a certain time or get the jitters, they don't get it on this product for that reason. However, remember liver does so many jobs, right? One of them is hormonal balancing because it also has to metabolize estrogen. So when Rishi is being consumed, whether it's in the coffee, whether it's in the tea, whether it's in the capsules, it's supporting hormone signaling.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (32:29.748)
And that's why a lot of our women that are switching over to this coffee instead of the other one are noticing that they are less PMSE, their menopausal symptoms have gone away, their paramenopausal symptoms have reduced. I mean, it's gonna be different for everyone, but this is what we know. Published medical journals actually showing that it is liver protective. Published medical journals actually showing that it'll increase something called nitric oxide delivery. That's oxygen to all your cells and tissues.

And this is where people with headaches, chronic headaches, migraines, if there's low oxygen, it's gonna help raise the oxygenation through all the cells and tissues. Another area that it works well upon is the blood sugar sensitivity. So when people have blood sugar issues, diabetes, things of those nature, when you start consuming reishi, it could increase the level of sensitivity to your cells, therefore your blood values actually improve.

And this is where I tell people if you are on blood sugar medications, metformin, things of that source, you're gonna wanna keep measuring those values because if they improve, well guess what? Your medications need to be reduced. That's the conversation you need to have with your family doctor. But our goal is to help you get healthier, help improve body signaling. So that's another area that Reishi will support. One of the areas I really, really love is that it's great for immunity.

really good at increasing natural killer cell productivity. That's your first line of defense when it comes to cancer cells. It'll also break down the fibrogen, which is the protein coat of the cancer cells that it uses to disguise itself in order to become metastatic and transfer itself through all the body. So this is where we have a lot of integrative oncologists actually using the product to help with their natural anti -cancer protocols or whatever the cases are.

They're looking at Rishi and integrating it, whether the person is using Kumo or not, there's a place for it, which is very exciting.

Carli (34:29.144)
I think, not to interrupt you, I think actually in Asia somewhere it's an approved intervention by, you know, like over here it'd be the FDA or whatever, approved intervention for cancer. Like you couldn't say that over here, but it's approved over there. Isn't that wild?

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (34:45.012)
Can't say that.

Yes, that is crazy. So we can't make claims. We can't talk about diseases. We can't say anything heals anything. But what I can tell you is your body will heal itself. And mother nature is there's an intelligence behind it that'll start to communicate with the 100 trillion cells and medicinal mushrooms will do exactly that. Right? Imagine they have 50 % of your DNA. They go in there and they reboot your body system.

So I tell people, it's kind of like your cell phone, right? How many of us have an iPhone? Well, if I don't do a software update, it doesn't matter how new my phone is, it's not gonna work properly. Well, medicinal mushrooms are like cell upgrades. The minute you start consuming them, it's like rebooting your computer. It's like upgrading your software. It starts to communicate with all your cells and tissues. And that's what I loved about it. The science is there, the published medical research is there. The research is based on Ganoderma, not on a specific brand. We're talking about Ganoderma in general, whether you buy it at the health food store.

or you buy it at the herbalist down the street, or you take it in a coffee beverage like the ones we play with. You always wanna look for quality, but at the end of the day, the science and the data is actually there. Publish medical journals, PubMed IDs with third -party independent studies showing that it does help all these different areas, which are the ones we're talking about, right? It'll help with brain chemistry. We'll increase serotonin, your happy field good hormone. We'll bring down glutamate, which is what makes us excitatory, anxious.

will raise GABA. That's very calming. So this is where people that get the jitters with the coffee don't get it with this because the Ganoderma, that reishi, changes the way the caffeine and everything metabolizes in your body. We also know that reishi is very highly alkaline. So the minute you add something alkaline to something acid, you neutralize it. And that's why the pH of the coffee is a pH of seven, not a pH of five, which is what your standard coffee is, which is why people that have gut wrench and can't drink coffee

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (36:38.292)
can actually drink this brand because of the quality of the Ganoderma and what's in there. So, you know, these are some of the studies. I can go on and on. I mean, I know a lot of great testimonials on brain health. We're seeing the aging brain Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. Again, these are pathways that are low in oxygen. So, the nitric oxide delivery is there. A lot of inflammation. We know Ganoderma is anti -inflammatory and it also will still start to regulate that GABA glutamate pathway in the neurotransmitter brain.

This is where, again, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, there is an issue with glutamate excitatory neurons that are bouncing around. Same with ADD, ADHD, right? We have the same challenges. So this is where the hot chocolate for kids, we're seeing parents showing before and after schoolwork of children that have attention deficit, that have focus issues, that try a natural product. Maybe it'll help, but we know it won't harm. And that's the best piece of it all, right? Is that you'll only know by trying it.

but it is essentially a medicinal mushroom that's coming in to help your 100 trillion cells communicate better. And some humans will respond so drastically, amazingly on it. Some might take a little longer, but what we know is that there's no harm being done. And one of my favorite stories was the stories sent in by Sachin Patel. Sachin, by the way, he's a wonderful colleague and friend. He has a platform called The Perfect Practice. Really lovely spirited entrepreneur.

that just knows how to impact lives, really works from a great place. And it was Sachin who got really excited about the King coffee, the one you're drinking Carly. I remember a few years back, he was like, this is amazing coffee. We love it. It's got all the purity we want for it. It was gotten all the awards for the organic blends, but it wasn't until he met a colleague of his who was also functional medicine practitioner who had a little boy at the age of eight who suffered from a stutter.

And this little boy, like he gave his son everything you can think of, fish oils, you know, changing the diet, gluten -free, everything we do that we can, but that little boy still couldn't get rid of that stutter. So he would go to school and being teased, right? Imagine walking to school, eh, eh, eh, eh. Like kids are cruel. And it was this little boy that was still struggling and Sachin went to his colleague's friend, colleague's house, and he brought him a hot chocolate.

Carli (38:48.824)
Mm. Mm.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (38:59.348)
He dropped off four sachets and said, you know what, give this to your son. Let's see where it goes. Sure enough, the testimonial came in huge, huge, huge, like, OMG, I can't believe four hot chocolates, six dollars later, little boy, no more stutter. And that's because medicinal mushrooms were just able to go in and reboot the system. So I'm sure the foundation was laid. You know, Dr. Dad did everything he could, functional medicine practitioner. I'm sure he.

got a good base going on, but it was just that one little thing that pushed everything over the edge was the reishi. So these are the stories we're seeing over and over and over from Africa to Asia to Europe to North America. It's the medicinal mushrooms just coming in, giving people a new chance to see what's happening for them. And it's different for everybody.

Carli (39:49.688)
I can never hear enough of the testimonials. They make me so happy. And Sachin Patel is such a good human. So if you feel his energy, you look at his work, he's a master at breath work. And you trust him and then he tells the story and it's like, my gosh, this is not just a story. This is someone I know who knows someone. And there's over 3 ,000, I think studies in PubMed about the Rishi. But I have to tell my, I actually have my own personal testimonial. It's not mine, it's from a client. It's so good.

So my client's son was having recurrent fevers. Spike 105, couple days, go down, completely go away. It was like, I think it was cyclical as nearly monthly. And they came to me, what can you do? And I just got this little dude on the reishi. I didn't actually give him the hot chocolate. I don't know why. I just thought of the capsules. He opened the capsules, put it in a smoothie.

and they had gone to virologists, pathologists, I mean every, and they're coming to me. Listen, I'm not a doctor, but I've been doing this for a very long time and I believe in the natural healing of the body and I have lots of tools in my tool belt, but I kept it simple and I got him some immune support with the Reishi. And the Reishi in clinic is so beautiful because of the way you described it. It's like if there's a pie and.

every slice is something different. Rishi is the whole pie instead of just a slice, right? It's not just cognition. It's not just immunology, cardiology. It's the whole pie. And so I just got him on this Rishi and I am not kidding the next month, he hasn't had fevers. And it's just so exciting to be able to help, you know, a little person who just couldn't get answers and how simple it can be. It just, like you said, it kind of created a foundation communication.

And also to feel like I have one of these stories that's billboard worthy. It's like, see, this is not just the internet. This is so real. And it's just, again, instilling the hope for healing, which is, I think everybody needs to hear, you know, a little bit of encouragement.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (41:49.492)
Yes, there's stuff out there that will help and like you said those spores those capsules it doesn't matter you choose the delivery if it's capsules they'll be it if you taught chocolate so be it choose a delivery but I will never ever travel without my rishi spores never know where you're gonna be if you're a mom I never ever make sure I always make sure I have some in my cabinet always because you just never know

Carli (41:58.488)
Right.

Carli (42:13.187)
One more story and then I want you to talk about the sourcing is that I went on a trip for my 40th birthday to Jackson Hole and I usually always drink the King coffee, but I was in celebratory mode. We had lots of early mornings traveling. I had my King with me, but I slipped and I was, and I don't want to say slipped, it's okay to off -road, but I have a sensitive body, right? Let's be honest. That's why I'm here. So I was having some...

quote unquote Starbucks coffee from the hotel. Who knows if that was actually Starbucks and if it was that's no bueno. I was drinking a lot of regular coffee and I had digestive issues when I was there. I was uncomfortable and I came home, did my normal reset where I get back on. I usually, I'm a keto carb cycler, getting into ketosis, doing my supplements, doing all the things, sleeping, right? Letting my body reset and this bloat, this discomfort would not go away. And I was like, what, what is left? I've done everything.

I was still drinking the coffee and my husband was brewing in the morning. So I changed out my coffee and I also did some energetic work. There's an energetic supplement that I like. I just literally rubbed the energy stuff on my belly and I switched to king. That is the only thing and then it went away. Not kidding. There's just, it's kind of like the wine industry. The coffee industry is kind of dark. There's, it's brutal.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (43:28.212)
it's dirty. It's dirty. Yeah. 45 % of coffee out there has mold in it. We have the stats. We actually have the studies behind all of that. There's so much mold in coffee, so much pesticides being sprayed on coffee. It's a really dirty, you know, it's tough. And it was the one product that in my years of practice, I got people off of gluten, I got them off of dairy, I got them off of sugar. The coffee was the biggest pushback. I couldn't, I had 2 % success.

People did not wanna give it up. So company said, look, we're gonna take the habit of people in the love and do, and we're gonna upgrade it. We're gonna actually make it healthier. We're gonna make it alkaline. We're gonna make it nutritious. We're gonna make it friendly to the body. And we're just gonna let people do what they love to do, but we're gonna upgrade it. And the truth is, they're doing a great job.

Carli (43:58.392)
Mm.

Carli (44:17.528)
and it tastes good. It doesn't taste like mushrooms. I get that question all the time. If it tastes like mushrooms, I wouldn't drink it. I love coffee. So I wanted you to talk about, if you could, the sourcing, because I found out there was another mushroom coffee company I was drinking for a long time, and then I found out it was grown in a bag. So can you talk about where this comes from and how they source it? Because the spores are different than other reishi sources.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (44:25.172)
correct.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (44:38.196)
Yes.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (44:42.9)
Yes, yes. So one of the things we learned over time was that everyone loves organic and that's great, but you can grow organic reishi in plastic bags or you can grow reishi in ground cultivation. And this is where when we looked at the company, we realized part of the reason why this brand that I love, the King Coffee is in ground cultivation is because it actually grows in the ground.

as opposed to plastic bags. And if you look at the photos side by side, the ones in plastic bags are very small, they're pale versus the one that are grown in the ground. And the analogy I like to use is like taking a brand new baby born and putting that baby in a sterile room for seven years. And imagine that child never has contact with the world. And then you decide to take them out of the sterile rule and bring them to the mall. Well, they would die because they don't have the immunity that they would need to develop over time.

in being in contact with the world and other things. Well, Rishi is the same way. If you're going to grow it in plastic bags, it's not communicating to the earth. It's not getting the bugs and the dirt and the soil. That's what creates its ability to get stronger and increase that intelligence in order for it to turn around and protect you. So this is where when I meet a lot of naturopaths and people that have already dabbled in Rishi, they're like, yeah, it's okay. And I'm like, well, it's okay because you're not getting the result you want based on the quality. What if we gave you an in -ground cultivated

for sure, like 100 % certified organic, we know that it's pure because we have something called COAs, they're called certificate of analysis, where we're able to actually extract the abstracts and the testing done on our reishi in comparison to some of the top Ganoderma reishi companies out there, we crush the numbers. We crush the numbers in terms of parts per billion, right? So COAs is just the ability to determine how pure it is based on third -party testing as well.

and our numbers came back, bluing out of the water. The company has a patent extraction on their spores. Spores is how the mushroom replicates. So many companies cannot produce spores because spores don't grow on mushrooms grown in plastic bags. Kind of like human beings, right? You cannot be reproductive. You cannot reproduce if your body's not healthy. That's one of the first things we see with women, men that are having fertility issues when there's too much stress.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (47:04.308)
If there's not enough nutrition, if the body is too toxic, it's not going to get pregnant. It's not going to reproduce. Mushrooms are the same. You have a weak mushroom. It could be grown organically, but it's in a plastic bag. It's not strong enough. It's not going to reproduce. It doesn't make spores. Spores are the baby fetuses of the mushrooms. Well, with the in -ground cultivation, our company actually has a lot of spores being produced, but they also were able to figure out how to crack the shell and extract the nutrient. And the reason why is because spores

are supposed to circulate the earth. They have a hard shell, of course, that makes them resistant to snow and resistant to cold temperatures. The company figured out a way to crack that, and that's their patent extraction, which allows the body to then absorb about 90 % of it. It's called bioavailability. So when your body consumes something, that something could be good for you, but if your cells can't extract it and absorb it, well, that's half the challenge, right? So we have very high bioavailability when it comes to the product, which means

All your body parts that are receiving this are actually sucking it in and drinking it in. So now you're getting a quick turnaround, a quick testimonial, quick result than your average brand. So that's the quality of it is the fact that it's certified pure, tested for mold, great COA numbers coming back, crushing the industry standard, plus a patent extraction on the taste and the bioavailability of it, which is why our product tastes like real coffee and not like mushroom soup.

Carli (48:28.952)
It's just so, it's just that every time I learned something about it, I'm like, it just wins every time. It's, it's, it's just covering everything. And didn't something just come out? Is it on their website that shows some comparisons to some of the quote unquote top brands can do? that's the POAs. Okay.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (48:34.74)
It wins every time.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (48:44.628)
That's a COAs. So yeah, I had the honor and the pleasure to find out what those brands were. Now for legal reasons, we're not going to compare ourselves to other brands. We can't do that legally, which is why on the website you're not going to see, you'll see other brands. But some of us know those. But the re -sheet, like if you look at our numbers, so let's just say it has to be tested for parts per billion. Now it's not, everything's pure, but it's not because if it's exposed to the environment, it's got something in it.

Carli (48:51.384)
darn! Okay.

Carli (48:56.888)
Okay, I have an idea.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (49:13.396)
which means it could have parts per billion, parts per billion, mold, mercury, lead, like things like that can show up. Not mold, but I meant like more of the environmental stuff. So this is where a top leading reishi company could have, you know, 80 parts per billion for lead. And that's considered safe because it's so micro small. Still considered pure because it's so micro small. Well, if you look at organos, we came in at instead of 80, we came in at eight, right? So,

our parts per billion are minuscule compared to the top industry brands that are still considered pure and organic. So now we're getting heavy, heavy deep into the analytics and really into the micro fractions of what's in the product because that's what COAs are for, Certificate of Analysis.

Carli (49:59.32)
That's awesome. And I also think about going back to the energy. Do you want to consume something that's energetically grown in a bag? It just has a different frequency to it. I mean, we can talk about the science, but also it's just like, right? I like buying, if I could get it from a farmer's market, there's a different energy to that than getting it in a plastic bag in Trader Joe's. Will I do that sometimes? Sure, but the nutrition's going to be different. The energy's going to be different. So I just think it's a very holistic view of all of it.

It's also convenient and yeah, I think people just need to try it. Some people just refuse to try and switch their coffee and that's fine. But it's like there's also this awesome other option and tea and the spores too. I use the spores clinically all the time. It's blood sugar mainly. It helps me with PCOS also. It's a biofilm disruptor. So the reishi will help.

remove parasites, believe it or not. So it's part of my Parasite Protocol. So I use it clinically a whole bunch, but also just, you know, socially, it's just nice to drink something. When you travel, to not get like, like gassed Asian coffee, I won't do it. I will not do it.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (51:05.716)
personally.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (51:09.3)
Right. Airplane coffee. Do you know what's in those reserves? It's nasty. So you can carry this. It's got a two year shelf life on it, which is amazing. The sachets are really nice and airtight so you don't get mold in it. The company does have an upcycle program. So when you cut the sachets from the bottom up, so you leave the logo intact, you just ship that back to corporate. We actually take those sachets. They give them to third party country, third world countries.

For impoverished women, they make beautiful handbags and we raffle those off. 100 % of the proceeds go back to these beautiful cultures, these beautiful communities that are upcycling the sachets. Yeah. It's called the Bags for Life program. And you know, Carly, I know you're posting the source. Maybe you can post the online store where people can purchase through the link because I get a lot of people that just want to try it. So I tell people, look, free shipping over $50. You are supporting

Carli (51:45.72)
I love that. Okay, good to know. I'm gonna have to get the information ready for the next. Okay.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (52:05.044)
Independent women and men that are actually looking for ways to grow their quality of life in power in communities and still helping the world at the same time. And this is what we do as a community. We educate, we empower, and we give people information for them to just make a better choice. So instead of Tim Hortons, instead of McDonald's, instead of whatever it is that you do, try to drink this exclusively. Let your body tell you. Because I tell people all the time, bodies don't lie.

They're very honest. Your body will tell you, you'll notice a difference probably in your energy levels. Look at your blood values. We have so many people posting before and after blood work. Look at your quality of sleep. Look at your hormone balance. Look at your infection rate. Look at your ability to get colds or cold sores or herpes outbreak. I mean, one in every four person is suffering from that. How many testimonials I get privately that says, I don't get outbreaks anymore. Like this is the feedback we're getting.

So you got nothing to lose, but try it. And I tell people worst case scenario, you get healthier, you save money, you save time. That's your version of Skid Row. Not for you, no big deal. You just go back to your old brand.

Carli (53:14.872)
Yep, absolutely. Those before and after blood work are my favorite, like the hemoglobin A1C, your blood sugar lowering. I'm like, all they did was switch coffee. I just file through those. This is what I do on my free time. Diane, you are so fun to talk to. You're just a soul sister. Thank you for sharing this. It's going to help people. I know whoever decides to bring Rishi into their life is blessed to hear this information. So thank you for your time, especially before you leave the country. I know you're a busy woman.

safe travels and we will see everyone next time on The Wellness Frequency.

Dianne Solano, RNCP, RHOP (53:47.54)
Thanks for joining. Thanks for having me, Carly. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend. Be open. Try the source. Try the coffee. I promise you it'll change your world.