18/04/2024
Benefits of adding Lions Mane Mushrooms to your diet if possible - join me on my journey to recovery.
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9 Health Benefits of Lion’s Mane Mushroom (Plus Side Effects)
Medically reviewed by Adam Bernstein, MD, ScD — By Erica Julson, MS, RDN, CLT — Updated on January 12, 2024
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FAQ
The bottom line
Lion’s mane mushrooms are large, white, shaggy mushrooms that resemble a lion’s mane as they grow. They contain bioactive substances that have many beneficial effects on the body, especially the brain, heart, and gut.
Lion’s mane mushrooms, also known as Hericium erinaceus, hou tou gu or yamabush*take, have both culinary and medicinal uses in Asian countries like China, India, Japan, and Korea (1Trusted Source).
Here are nine health benefits of lion’s mane mushrooms and their extracts, along with dosages, preparation, and side effects.
1. Could protect against dementia
The brain’s ability to grow and form new connections typically declines with age, which may explain why mental functioning worsens in many older adults (2Trusted Source).
Studies have found that lion’s mane mushrooms contain two special compounds that can stimulate the growth of brain cells: hericenones and erinacines (3Trusted Source).
Additionally, animal studies have found that lion’s mane may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain disease that causes progressive memory loss.
In fact, lion’s mane mushroom and its extracts have been shown to reduce symptoms of memory loss in mice, as well as prevent neuronal damage caused by amyloid-beta plaques, which accumulate in the brain during Alzheimer’s disease (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source).
A 2020 study of people with mild Alzheimer’s disease found that supplementation with 1 gram of lion’s mane mushroom daily for 49 weeks significantly improved cognitive test scores compared with a placebo (7Trusted Source).
The ability of lion’s mane mushroom to promote nerve growth and protect the brain from Alzheimer’s-related damage may explain some of its beneficial effects on brain health.
However, it’s important to note that most of the research has been conducted on animals or in test tubes. Therefore, more human studies are needed.
SUMMARY
Lion’s mane mushrooms contain compounds that stimulate brain cell growth and protect them from damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease. However, more research involving humans is needed.