(As Transcribed by Mini-Med Minutes Podcast)

 

If you’re listening to this podcast, there’s a good chance you’re interested in health in some way and you’re probably interested in ways on how to make it better.

 

Starting as an engineer, I really look at health as a… I wouldn’t say game, but a system of resource balance…

 

What goes into your system and what goes out of your system.

 

And nutrition is what goes into your system and it’s fascinating that around the world, it’s different for everyone.

 

Different foods grow in different environments and therefore everyone is exposed to a variety of different diets. 

 

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today.

 

Growing up in the US, in a western culture… I’ve noticed that there are some foods that are completely void from our diets… or just take a back seat.

 

And one of those foods… as you can probably guess from the title of the Podcast…are Mushrooms !

 

Fun Fact, and I didn’t know this until recently, but Button Mushrooms, Crimini Mushrooms, and Portobello Mushrooms at the grocery store are all the same mushroom, just at a different stage of its life.

 

But in Eastern Cultures, there’s a wide variety of mushrooms that’s eaten on a regular basis.

 

And we’re going to kick start our Shroom Series with one mushroom that I find very unique and that’s the Lion’s Mane Mushroom.

 

What is Lion’s Mane?

 

And as always, let’s describe the Lion’s Mane Mushrooms and why it’s so interesting.

 

I’m going to butcher these mushroom names but Lion’s Mane’s, also known as Hericium erinaceus is not what you picture in your head when you imagine a mushroom, with like a body and cap.

 

It looks like a mass of cascading white tendrils which supposedly resembles a lion’s mane, hence the name. 

 

It pretty much looks like a mop.

 

It actually does grow in North America and Europe as well Asia.

 

But it has its richest history as traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine to promote digestive health, brain health and overall well being.

 

Buddhist monks have even brewed Lion’s Mane believing it helped with enhanced concentration and mental clarity when they meditate.

 

And it astonishes me to this day that ancient cultures were able to determine a correlation between foods or ingredients to a perceived effect with what I could only imagine as anecdotal evidence… like they’re own personal observation… without large scale studies that objectively measured effects on tens to thousands of people.

 

Or maybe I’m wrong and they did do that? I’m honestly not sure, but nonetheless I do find it incredible that they were able to determine that correlation.

 

But recently, with the advent of, the internet, and the ease or access to information and the boom of E-commerce boosted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the controversy around medications and medical practices as a whole..also due to the pandemic… we’re seeing a lot of information and news about natural products, a lot of which come from cultures in the East.

Lion’s Mane has two compounds and again I’m going to butcher this, called hericenones and erinacines, which have been studied for their neuroprotective properties and are completely unique (as far as I know) to the Lion’s Mane Mushroom. 

 

So in this episode we’re going to talk about why it’s a hot topic and if the hype matches the science.

 

BRAIN BOOST

 

Now that we know a little about Lion’s Mane mushrooms, let’s get into one of the most exciting reasons why this mushroom is gaining popularity: its potential impact on brain health.

 

This mushroom is referred to as the “brain-booster” and for good reason. Those compounds that I mentioned earlier, hericenones and erinacines… they stimulate the production of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). 

 

It does exactly what it sounds like it does. It promotes… the growth… of nerves!

 

It helps the brain regenerate.

 

It helps the brain repair itself.

 

And it even encourages the growth of brand new neurons as well as protects existing ones from degenerating.

 

One of the most compelling studies I’ve come across that talks about its clinical effects was in the Phytotherapy Research Journal, conducted by a Dr. Masatsu Mori in Japan.

 

He used a double-blind, placebo controlled study… (which is the gold standard, which means that both the participants in the study and the researchers didn’t know what any participant was given) to determine if Lion’s Mane Mushroom was effective in people with mild cognitive impairment.

 

…which is oftentimes a precursor to more severe forms of cognitive impairment like Alzheimers, Dementia, etc.

 

Patients were either given the Lion’s Mane as an oral supplement or a placebo over the course of 16 weeks.

 

The results?

 

By week 8, the people who took the Lion’s Mane were beating out the placebo groups in:

1. Mental Recall, where they’re asked to remember a list of items and later recall them
2. General Orientation, like knowing where they are, what day it is, what time it is
3. Basic calculations, simple arithmetic
4. And Language Ability, like naming common objects and their use

 

And once participants stopped using Lion’s Mane, their performance returned to baseline after just 4 weeks… which suggests that you’d have to use it continuously to maintain the brain boost. 

 

Now this study is small. There’s only 30 participants and we definitely need a bigger one to fully determine the scale of effect. It’s very difficult to extrapolate information with such few data points.

 

But I think it’s an excellent starting point to determine the extent to which Lion’s Mane could work at.

 

Aside from studies on the clinical effects from Lion’s Mane, there’s a new study…brand new study… in the Journal of Neurochemistry from just last year that showed that Lion’s Mane increases the size of the hippocampus in mice.

 

….and the hippocampus is what’s responsible for memory, spatial navigation, learning and emotional processing.

 

In the study, they extracted the active compounds of the mushrooms in a few different ways using alcohol or hot water and actually tested each extract approach individually.

 

And the best thing about this study is they have pictures and everybody loves pictures.

 

In the pictures, you can visually see, and it’s very obvious, that the extracts from Lion’s Mane in all extract sample groups resulted in both longer neurites, (which are branches that come off of your neurons that turn into axons or dendrites which are the little roads in you brain), as well as number of neurites… by a factor of anywhere between 2 to like 7 fold. It actually looks quite astonishing in the pictures.

 

The visuals, the statistics, the numbers… do look good.

 

However, this is not a study of the clinical effects which means the most, because ultimately, we want a human to take this extract and actually benefit from them.

 

This study was conducted on mice brains, not human brains, as you could imagine would have moral concerns.

 

And the study was conducted in vitro which means, in a petri dish and not actually in a biological body.

 

So the study wouldn’t necessarily prove that Lion’s Mane Mushrooms work on a human the way it works in a lab. Because humans would take medicine by mouth, it would be digested, it would enter your investments, cross your lumen, entire blood stream, and then attempt to make its way through the blood-brain barrier which is very difficult to cross, in an attempt to grow those brian cells.

 

So you can look at this study…not as proof, but more so an explanation as to why or how people have been experiencing neurological effects from Lion’s Mane Mushrooms for centuries.

 

DIGESTIVE HEALTH

 

Now I know we’ve been talking primarily about the brain because that’s what drew me into this product but it is believed to do other things as well that I’ll touch on briefly.

 

It’s also supposed to help in digestive health.

 

The way it does this is supposedly by increasing the amount of mucus production in your stomach.

 

Because when the mucus of your stomach decreases due to like…a medical condition or use of NSAIDs like Advil or Aleve…it puts you at a higher risk of a stomach ulcer because your stomach acid is interacting directly with your stomach lining without that protective mucus layer.

 

And it’s also supposed to increase the amount of healthy bacteria in your gut as a prebiotic or probiotic effect. And we know that a healthy balance of bacteria is necessary for optimal digestion and immunity.

 

IMMUNE SUPPORT

 

Along those same lines… Lion’s Mane Mushrooms help with immune support.

 

Beta-Glucans, a compound found in Lion’s Mane, are known to stimulate immune activity, like macrophages, T-Cells, natural killer cells that are responsible for identifying and killing foreign pathogens.

 

There’s a study in the Journal of Restorative Medicine from 2017 that found that Lion’s mane increases the production of cytokines, which are inflammatory proteins that help… coordinate your immune response, so your body’s defense mechanisms get to where they need to be.

 

DOSAGE FORMS

 

Now if you’ve seen mushrooms on your social media page, you might have noticed it comes in a variety of different ways right now.. A capsule, mushroom powder, mushroom coffee, in a dropper, as dried food.

 

There’s lots of ways to take it.

 

I know I started off this conversation talking about how it was originally incorporated in the diets of Eastern cultures. I would actually side against taking it that way.

 

If we’re looking to use mushrooms in a therapeutic way, it’s important that we get a consistent dose, every day, for a long period of time and I find it would be difficult to do that if you attempted to cook it, and eat it every day.

 

If you’re die-hard into getting it the most traditional way possible, go right ahead. A soup or a broth would probably be the easiest way to do it.

 

Mushroom coffees, I haven’t tried it personally… yet. But I’ve been told they can taste earthy and don’t have the consistency of what they’re used to. Being in Seattle, those could be coffee snobs, but there’s probably some truth to it.

 

Mushroom powders, I think is a fine choice, you could add it to really anything like a smoothie.

 

The drop extracts are also a fine choice. It’s very quick, already in liquid form, and can again be incorporated into a drink if you wanted. Personally, I would probably just take it straight up from the dropper as a means to convenience.

 

And then traditionally, there’s the regular capsules which is what I would prefer and what I would expect to be the most effective because I think consistency would be less of a factor.

 

You’re waking up in the morning, you’re running late. Either don’t make your mushroom smoothie or mushroom coffee or you just don’t drink the whole thing because you’re too busy, etc.

 

Whereas the capsule… or the dropper, is kind of a one and done deal.

 

Like there’s a reason you go to a pharmacy and they’re not telling you to mix this jar of powdered lipitor into your morning coffee to drink it.

 

So the powdered forms, I look at more of a novelty really.

 

I do think that they’ve definitely increased interest in products like these which could be a good thing and people are excited to mix their coffee or their smoothie in the morning… but the most important part with health and fitness will always be consistency and adherence.

 

And I’m not basing this off anything, this is from my own personal observations and personal experience.

 

If there’s studies or evidence to suggest that powders and coffees are better than traditional capsules, do let me know.

 

And if it is true and if you’re in the business of turning Prozac and Viagra into smoothies, I would love to get in on it.

 

OUTRO

 

Well that’s all I have for you today on the Lion’s Mane Mushroom. This series is planned in coordination with the PharmacistNutrition’s 10X Mushroom Blend… which is a product I’ve helped formulate and it is a capsule and contains the Top 10 Dietary Mushrooms focused in favor of the ones that I find most helpful, Lion’s Mane being one of them.

 

If you’re interested, there is a nearly 30% off sale extending through the month of September. If it’s your first time ordering, there’s a 10% off discount with discount code “10%nutrition” and if you subscribe to the product, there’s another 10% off discount, with… free shipping.

 

If you enjoyed the content today, I encourage you to follow the podcast for sure. If you’re looking for more information on health topics do check out the website at PharmacistNutrition/learn.

 

Again, thanks for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.

 

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