Educated Stoner: Regulating Cardio with Psilocybin Mushrooms

Original essay published by Weed World UK 2023, as part of Sharon’s ongoing series, Educated Stoner. An updated version was published in January 2025 by Skunk Magazine. 

Super sensitive, that’s what my mom called me. HSP is what the therapist said I was, a Highly Sensitive Person.

Also known as an Empath, or someone who feels intense physical pain and empathy for others. It’s been both a blessing and a curse.

We now know, these intense emotional connections also affect our biological health, with stressors pressing on our central nervous and cardiovascular systems, where our heart conducts a symphony - until a proverbial cymbal is dropped.

HSP isn’t a psychological diagnosis, but just another acronym in a series of what I used to refer to as dysfunctions (Spectrum/Processing Disorder, OCD, ADHD, CPTSD, ACA) from a list of quirky characteristics I’ve learned to live with since childhood.

Psychologist Elaine Aron introduced the concept of HSP as a personality type in 1996, stating that HSPs are neurodivergent, meaning our brains process differently than others.

Heartache has been a concurrent theme in my life, and it seems that in the end, my heart has proven to be the weakest link to my lifeline.

Short Circuiting 

At the end of 2021, I began having schematic episodes with high blood pressure, combined with severe symptoms that frightened me.

To give some context, this occurred after more than a decade of living and thriving in homeostasis using nothing but cannabis and other plant-based therapies for myriad ailments.

The symptoms from these episodes were so intense they caused me to end a nearly 30-year run of being on constant deadlines, as I was unable to write for the first time in decades.

Conspiracies vs. Statistics

My knowledge of the beneficial compounds of plants working together synergistically with human biology has taught me that plants alone cannot only prevent serious illness, but can nip it in the bud, so to speak, before an ailment can become chronic or lethal.

That said, I am not idealistic enough to believe that the masses can do away with vaccines and/or pharmaceuticals cold turkey, after literally decades of being led away from the garden of Apothecary (plants as remedy, pre-pharmaceuticals, 1930s), while simultaneously adding empty foods to our biological systems and toxins to our environment, traced through bloodlines for generations.

It would be irresponsible of me to encourage anyone to do away with pharmaceuticals, et al, without encouraging a healthier lifestyle and diet of superfoods.

But, history demonstrates that humans have been encouraged to eat their fruits and vegetables for a very long time, to no avail. The average diet today consists of more meat and potatoes (proteins and starches) than the natural immune system builders that grow from the garden. 

But I digress.

The schematic episodes that led to a diagnosis of myocarditis began shortly after I received the Moderna vaccine(s) in preparation for an extensive farm tour in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle for my series, Weed Traveler for Weed World UK. 

Photo: Sharon receiving her Moderna vaccine prior to her farm tour for her series Weed Traveler for Weed World UK.

Several papers published on the US National Institute of Health’s website report a spike in myocarditis after COVID-19/vaccines were given, with 150 people out of 100,000 presenting with the disease post COVID and/or the vaccine.

Prior to COVID/vaccine, in the course of a normal year, the incidence rate of myocarditis affected 10 to 20 people in 100,000 globally.

Protected from Stroke

My first serious schematic episode came via a vertigo attack that laid me down, just weeks after returning home from my Weed Traveler farm tour.

While it’s not common for vertigo to be in correlation with a stroke, depending on the location of the stroke in the brain, vertigo can be triggered (my diagnosis: vertebrobasilar arterial location, mainly in basilar artery involvement).

Symptoms included lightning bolt flashes around my eyes, dizziness, nausea, and an inability to sit or stand upright.

According to studies post-COVID, the increase of schematic episodes or stroke 21 days after receiving the vaccine increased upwards of 57 percent.

Stroke = High Blood Pressure 

A year and a half after the schematic episodes/vertigo, I found myself suffering from ongoing shortness of breath and fatigue, unaware of what it might be, brushing it off as being over 60.

An MRI showed that I had indeed experienced a severe stroke, followed by high blood pressure and subsequent severe symptoms, with the eventual diagnosis of myocarditis.

The severe symptoms of high blood pressure were textbook, causing chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, blurred vision, and night sweats. 

The episodes slowed me down considerably, and I was not able to write or work in my beloved garden for much of that year. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, myocarditis is described as permanent damage to the heart, typically caused by a viral infection - not just COVID. In fact, myocarditis was discovered as early as the 1600s; named in 1837 by German physician Joseph Friedrich Sobernheim, found to be caused by a virus - any virus.

Severe cases weaken the heart, leading to heart failure and subsequent death. It’s a progressive disease with no treatment, albeit with medications to help keep blood pressure low.

Doing as the Doctors Say

When the severe heart symptoms began, friends and family who are not fully on board with plant-based medicine talked to me as if I were a child, stating, “It’s time to grow up, listen to the doctors, and do what they tell you to do.”

When I presented at the emergency room at Sharp’s Mary Birch, a private hospital in San Diego, California, my pressure registered at an astounding 260/124. 

The staff gathered ‘round, expecting me to have a massive coronary episode at any moment.

The intake person was astonished that I was sitting upright talking to him, as he shared that his numbers were about the same as mine when he was brought in on a stretcher from an ambulance, with saliva dripping out of the corner of his mouth, unable to speak, in full cardiac arrest.

The only explanation I could give was that my purposeful ingesting of chamomile and cannabis concentrates was actually regulating my cardio, even though the high Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) initially spiked my blood pressure.

I explained that I’m a serious cannabis patient with knowledge on dosing, and that I had merely upped my dose of cannabis/chamomile oil(s) as prevention and to calm throughout the episodes; further sharing that these were the remedies I had used for years.

What I did not emphasize was, I smoked that morning as per usual, along with ingesting my oils, and had a couple hits from a pre-roll in the car in the parking lot before presenting to the ER. 

Important to note, I continued to take a 1 mL chamomile concentrate capsule, even while sitting in the emergency room, to calm myself from the ordeal, and to take the edge off the THC that contributed to the temporary spike in my blood pressure.

The ER doctor immediately sent me in for an MRI, suspecting that I had had a stroke prior, causing my blood pressure to soar, with many other symptoms progressively added. This was concerning, as I had always presented with low blood pressure throughout my entire life.

As a sidenote, cannabis patients typically have lower blood pressure, as that’s a side effect of the plant regulating the cardio system.

Studies are conflicting, as high THC can immediately spike blood pressure, but combined with the hundreds of other beneficial compounds within the plant, supporting all of our systems, the plant lowers pressure and regulates overall.

As an example, studies show that high CBD Hemp, derived from cannabis, can lower blood pressure, while high THC cannabis users have been found to suffer from cardiac issues, anxiety, and panic attacks.

The MRI showed that I had indeed suffered a stroke sometime ago. Due to its appearance on the scan, the doctor was surprised I didn’t have subsequent negative side effects (paralysis, speech impairment, etc) and didn’t present to the ER at the time.

I can only surmise that the vertigo attack I‘d had a year and a half prior (weeks after the vaccine and farm tour) was a side effect of the stroke, with subsequent high blood pressure and symptoms progressively getting worse up until the time I presented to the ER.

To be humanly honest, my newly acquired habit of a cannabis infused dirty martini in the afternoons hadn’t helped, as alcohol is inflammatory, and known to spike high blood pressure.

Thinking back to the vertigo attack nearly two years prior, the episode happened in the evening, and I did what I always do when not feeling well - I upped my dose of cannabis/chamomile oil in a few different deliveries and went to sleep (see protocol below).

I had initially taken just one of my (1 mL) chamomile/cannabis oil capsules, as I do nightly to aid in sleep, prevention, and as an immune system builder - but the vertigo episode was so severe it laid me down, and I added a suppository (1 gram) of the same formulation before falling asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I had extreme fatigue, but no other symptoms.

I listened to the doctors and took the pharmaceuticals in an attempt to lower my blood pressure for several weeks, but my severe symptoms never subsided. I was waking up out of breath with dangerously high blood pressure, blurred vision, nausea, and the inability to do anything. In fact, after weeks of this, I found I had lost time and couldn’t remember many days gone by.

Take two shrooms and call me in the morning.

With all my accumulated knowledge of how plants regenerate healthy tissue within our bodies, I never connected the dots between fungi possibly doing the same.

For the past year prior to my heart episodes, I had been occasionally microdosing small amounts of psilocybin mushrooms, successfully treating hormonal depression from the tail end of menopausal symptoms, combined with thyroid disease - a double hormonal whammy. 

But when the heart issues began, I never upped my dose of the mushrooms. Rather, I assumed (as one may with high THC) that the psychoactive effects of the psilocybin might spike blood pressure and/or complicate my symptoms.

I am happy to report that my assumptions were incorrect, and this was not the case. This is an easy assumption, as plants with hallucinogenic properties are assumed to affect our neurological system only, but studies show they are a superfood, and like many other beneficial plants, they address all of our biological systems via the endocannabinoid system (eCS).

One morning, after suffering for weeks, a friend announced she was having a gathering to paint rocks, and I literally said aloud, “F*** it, I’m not taking this pharmaceutical today!”

Rather, I microdosed with just under one gram of fresh-dried psilocybin mushrooms and went off to smoke weed and paint rocks with my tribe.

As the great philosopher Doris Day once said, “Que sera, sera!” If I died of a heart attack by the end of the day or the end of the week, at least I would be happy on my way out. That is honestly the only thought I had in my head that day.

Up until this point, I had been writing about replacing pharmaceuticals with plants for more than a decade, and now  I was feeling the negative effects from taking a synthetic medicine firsthand. It was not good, and I’m used to feeling better after taking my plant-based remedies, not worse. 

Remarkably, by the end of that afternoon, my points had lowered by 30. The next morning, I took another gram, and within 48 hours, my blood pressure was down to normal at 120/80, with all severe symptoms quelled.

Photo: Sharon’s blood pressure returning to normal within 48 hours.

This was after nearly two months of feeling like I was going to die at any moment, causing me to get my affairs in order, with a press release written, a last will and testament drawn up - with instructions for the distribution of my ashes to John Casali’s Huckleberry Hill Farms in Southern Humboldt County, California.

Quality of Life 

When I wrote this initial essay nearly three years ago, I was successfully maintaining my cardio, keeping my blood pressure down, and severe symptoms at bay.

Initially, I was taking a daily dose of psilocybin mushrooms, but then found that dosing with a half a gram a few days a week was enough. 

Due to having to constantly source the mushrooms, I’ve reduced my treatment to one to two a grams a week, depending on the capsules sourced (measured capsules for accurate dosing).

Most importantly, I’ve found that if I go too long without dosing, symptoms return. As evidenced by a last bout after not following my own advice for more than a month. 

I have not had any hallucinatory experiences with psilocybin mushrooms since I was 15 years old, swearing never to do them again. But with microdosing, the strongest effect is an overall feeling of well-being, with my endorphins elevated better and longer than smoking a fine cannabis flower - one of my favorite ways to uplift my mood.

Sharon’s dosing during vertigo/stroke:

Disclaimer: Sharon is not a medical professional. This is what she does after more than a decade of using herself as testing ground for myriad ailments. 

She urges everyone to do their own research, including consulting with a medical professional or someone well versed in plant-based remedies.

1-1 ml capsule cannabis/chamomile oil (alcohol reduction)

1-1 gram cannabis/chamomile oil suppository (alcohol reduction)

1 bowl of flower/smoked in a bong

Topical salve at temples (coconut infusion, mixed plants, including chamomile/cannabis

Chamomile saline eyedrops (anti-inflammatory, relieves pressure)

All recipes on Sharon’s website under Apothecary. Chamomile eyedrops were purchased over the counter (Mexico).

Life with Plants 

I honestly feel that my use of plants to regulate all my systems over the years protected me through many near misses with my health, including the severity of the stroke and staving off a heart attack. I’ve already passed the documented three-year mark since presenting with the disease post-COVID, so I’m on borrowed time.

I continue to take my cannabis/chamomile oil in capsules (1 mL) nightly, and use my chamomile capsules infused with coconut (1 mL) as needed to calm; with my diet leaning heavily in plants, with many different deliveries (tea, tonic, cooking oils, medibles). 

Recipes on my website under Apothecary.

We don’t know what challenges will be handed to us in this lifetime. I honestly don’t know how much longer I will be here, as myocarditis is a progressive disease and my heart will give out when it’s ready. It’s not up to me, I won’t live forever, and I’m OK with that. 

With a lack of oxygen pumping from my heart throughout all of my systems, I suffer from fatigue, and have slowed down in the garden, though I still putter daily.

The schematic episodes I've continued to have via the lightning bolts around my eyes in times of duress are quelled quickly with the chamomile saline eye drops, taking the pressure down.

Whether the mushrooms have regenerated some of my heart muscle or not would only be discovered after death during an autopsy. My use of plant and fungi medicine keeps the inflammation down, and subsequent blood pressure low.

Scar tissue is also a major issue with myocarditis, and if the plants have aided in some healing, the scar tissue would still be causing symptoms. 

My Legacy from the Garden 

If you told me when I was young the focus of my life and the work I do would be on plants in general, especially cannabis and now fungi, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But here I am, well into my 60s, acting as my own guinea pig, going on 14 years now, being helped successfully with plants to the very end. 

For the short time I was on the pharmaceuticals, it broke my heart that I was unable to write. But in the summer of 2024, I began writing my book, Educated Stoner, a compilation of essays that I’ve written for more than a decade, turned autobiography, sharing my successful outcomes using plants, and now fungi, as medicine for serious ailments.

With the misnomer that any reporting of plant-based medicine is considered anecdotal, hopefully, one day, after I’m gone, my work will be acknowledged for what it is, an important record of successful outcomes using plants as prevention and remedy.

Blessings to the advocates, the influencers, the content creators, and the medical professionals who continue to educate themselves and advocate for the plant - and now for the fungus among us, a game changer in many ways.

Thank you to everyone who has allowed me to tell their stories; thanks to everyone who has followed me all these years; thank you for reading, thank you for sharing my work, and for keeping the conversation going.

One thing is certain - my quality of life has been better than it was for the 13 years prior to using plants, when I was on upwards of 10 pharmaceuticals, and still unwell.

Long after I’m gone the plants and fungi will prevail, as they have for centuries. Because you can’t stop the healing, and the truth always prevails.

Fine Print: Sharon is not a medical professional, nor is she a medical or technical writer. She is a storyteller and documentarian from television, and a features writer from mainstream media, interviewing cannabis patients on myriad ailments and disorders, globally, since 2011.

Reference/links:

Emotional connections to biological health:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4449495/#:~:text=Neuroscience%20studies%20showed%20that%20some,role%20in%20happiness%20is%20undeniable.

Highly Sensitive Person (HSP):

https://www.health.com/condition/mental-health-conditions/highly-sensitive-person-empath#:~:text=HSPs%20are%20neurodivergent%2C%20meaning%20their,a%20personality%20type%20in%201996.

Toxins in bloodlines for generations:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9563050/

Spike in myocarditis after Covid:

https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/spikevax

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10286992/

Vertigo with stroke:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10286992/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10337778/

Stroke after vaccines:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10337778/

Discovery and naming of myocarditis after virus in 1837:

https://www.populartimelines.com/timeline/Myocarditis

THC spiking blood pressure:

https://www.healthline.com/health/does-marijuana-raise-your-blood-pressure

Cannabis patients typically have lower blood pressure:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33483174/

Plants regenerate, healthy tissue:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9280033/

Soucy and mushrooms, treat depression:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/202309/how-magic-mushrooms-can-fix-depression?msockid=1c89f683e43166ee14ace00fe5446723

Psilocybin mushrooms as superfood:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8156539/

Heart attack risk after Covid:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/first-wave-covid-19-increased-risk-heart-attack-stroke-three-years-later

Cannabis as anti-inflammatory:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9124761/

Scar tissue and myocarditis:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/myocarditis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352539