Lion's Mane Evidence, Product Quality, and Cognition

So the next question was submitted from Christian, and Christian says, what are your thoughts about lion's mane supplements and cordyceps? I've heard claims that they are good for brain health, but I am unclear on the evidence. So today we're going to talk about the evidence. So for those of you that are unfamiliar with what lion's mane, cordyceps are, you know, they're sort of common names for like types of mushroom. You know, there's been a lot. We have talked about lion's mane before. So in our Q&As, I think the last time we talked about it was in 2020 Q&A session number 16. But we'll sort of revisit. So sort of background information, lion's mane is a fungus that grows on living or dead broadleaf trees. It's eaten as a food in Japan and China, and it's used in Eastern medicine.

The chemicals of interest in lion's mane are hercenones and ericenones, I think. I don't always get that right, but there are 2 important classes of They're constituents that are isolated from the fruiting body of the mycelium. And they both have been shown to have neuroprotective effects in animals by stimulating nerve growth factor in synthesis. So nerve growth factor is a growth factor in the brain. It also upregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor. So both of these are neurotrophic factors. They play a role in cognitive function. They're they're really important for brain health. I'm not gonna get into all those details 'cause they're animal studies that showed this, but that's kind of where the first buzz was generated. Like, this is where the interest came from.

The other beneficial compounds in lion's mane, and actually in a lot of variety of mushrooms, are the alpha and beta glucans. So these are complex polysaccharides that ultimately are beneficial for the gut microbiome. And I do think that there's obviously there's the gut-brain axis. And so you're— there's always the potential there for a beneficial effect, you know, in the brain when you're having something beneficial happen in the gut as well. So that's kind of some background. I— the— there's, there's some quality concerns that have been raised about particularly lion's mane supplements, I think because they've become so mainstream. That, you know, like ConsumerLab put out, you know, this is— they do a lot of third-party testing and they test a lot of, um, products out there.

And they, they published, uh, you know, one of their product sheets and, um, you know, third-party testing sheets about lion's mane in 2023, finding that products were adulterated, um, because they were prepared, packed, or held under conditions that do not meet good manufacturing practices, whatever all those conditions are. So the manufacturers that were warned were Absolutrix LLC, Our Garden LLC, and Mushroom Wisdom Incorporated. Those were the 3 main manufacturers of lion's mane supplements that did not meet, you know, good manufacturing practices. Generally speaking, I would say unfortunately, you know, the lion's mane supplements found in the US are not standardized to the actual content of those components, the hericenones and ericenones.

So, you know, you may be taking a lion's mane supplement that even is not adulterated, maybe it's not contaminated, it's a better, you know, it's one that's more pure, but still, it's got such a little amount of the active constituents that we're even looking for that it basically doesn't matter. So that's just something to keep in mind when you're going for your lion's mane supplement. ConsumerLab has found that many products on the market are misleadingly labeled as mushroom, although they're actually made with mycelium. So fungus includes a fruiting body and mycelium. The fruiting body is the portion of fungus that is seen above ground, right? So that's considered to be the mushroom. Mycelium is what people think of being as the roots.

So the beta-glucan levels are much higher in the fruiting body than in the mycelium. So you want— again, those beta-glucans are what are really beneficial. They regulate the immune system. And they do it, you know, through a variety of mechanisms, one being through the gut microbiome. So if you're getting this mushroom supplement, again, it comes down to, oh, this is— it's labeled as mushroom, right? So you're thinking it's the fruiting body, but it's actually made with mycelium, right? So I don't know enough about manufacturing of this stuff to know why they would use mycelium instead of the mushroom part. Maybe it's more stable. I don't really know. But That is also important to keep in mind. And the hercinones are more concentrated in the fruiting body.

The ericenones are in the fruiting body and the mycelium. So ericenones are— so if you are getting isolated mycelium, then you probably are getting at least more ericenones than— Sorry, I can't— the name of it is like, I just fumble it all the time. Anyways, you get the point. And the point is that there's a lot of nuance here. And at the end of the day, just buying a supplement, and you're wondering, what, you know, is this doing anything? I don't even know that the evidence is strong to suggest that even if you were getting everything you thought you were getting, if it was even— going to be super, super beneficial. So the good news is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of heavy metal contaminants.

So ConsumerLab did also test a lot of supplements out there for lead and arsenic and cadmium, mercury contamination, and really none of the products they tested exceeded strict limits for those heavy metals. So that's good news. So the cognition component, and this is what a lot of people are interested in, again, the animal studies are kind of what we're really did, you know, generated a lot of interest, and they were just insanely high doses that are completely not comparable to humans. That is important to keep in mind. There have been 2 clinical studies looking at the effects of lion's mane on cognition, and there are mixed results. So the first study, there was an improvement in cognition compared to placebo, which did not show an improvement.

But in the second study, both the lion's mane group and the placebo group showed cognitive improvement, making it difficult to determine the efficacy of lion's mane. So there you have it. At the end of the day, one study that— one clinical study that we're going off of here. And, you know, that's again with like them actually getting the right components, you know, giving the participants the actual active components. There's been some interest in depression so that again, animal studies have shown a lot of great stuff with lion's mane, you know, improving depressive symptoms, increasing norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, anti-inflammatory compounds, like all this stuff. And again, the doses here are the key. They're extremely high and not comparable to human, you know, doses at all.

Now, there has been one human study. It was placebo-controlled, and it found that lion's mane could improve subjective measures of anxiety and depression in menopausal women after about 4 weeks of supplementation. Again, the measurements were subjective, which always sort of makes it a little unclear. But it is, you know, at the end of the day, the placebo group had less of an effect with those subjective measurements. So that does at least, you know, give some confidence. Now, gut health, the disappointing thing here is, honestly, if you're looking for the beta-glucans and alpha-glucans, mostly beta, I would say the best way, the best, um, you know, path to take there would actually just be eating the mushroom because then you're getting the fruiting body, right, which is what's high in the beta-glucans versus the concentrated mycelium powder.

Um, so for gut health, there was one study in humans. It was a clinical study looking, um, looking at GI ulcers, and it found that lion's mane could improve symptoms of ulcerative colitis better than the placebo, but it had no effect on Crohn's disease. Metabolic health, and lots of animal studies, again, suggesting it can improve everything from lipid profiles to glucose regulation, but there's no clinical evidence or human studies to back that up. And the immune system, again, is a very interesting one, one that I'm also interested in. There's no direct human studies looking at lion's mane and immune system effects.

But again, the beta-glucans, which are known to be fermented by the gut microbiome, they're fermented into short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, propionate, acetate, and this then directly affects the immune system. So that again could be something that, you know, a person could just eat the fruiting body of mushrooms and get effects. And by the way, oats are really high in beta-glucans as well. So it's not just mushrooms, not the only source of beta-glucans. So in my summary of just the lion's mane, I would say, you know, it's hard to rule it out. One, there's multiple layers of problems here, right? The first problem is there's not enough evidence. We haven't figured out the right dose of the particularly active constituents.

In lion's mane, particularly for brain health, that can do anything. So there's that one study, and the other study showed no effect compared to placebo, and then there's the animal studies where the dose is just astronomical. So I think identifying, maybe we just need to identify the right dose. That's one possibility, and that just hasn't been done. The other problem is the actual products on the market not having the active components that we need, right? So instead of having a mixture of the mycelium and the fruiting body, it's mostly mycelium. So you're not even getting, you know, one of the really important components to increase nerve growth factor. So a lot of sort of combining problems there.

I don't know at the end of the day that, you know, like out of all the supplements that you're trying to take, if Lion's Mane is going to be the one that's like the— I think CocoaVia is going to have much better effects on the brain than Lion's Mane. That's based on the evidence that I've read so far. That doesn't mean that the right product and the right dose and identifying all those important components won't be beneficial. It just means we haven't— we don't have that data. And so, you're kind of just blindly going, what do I do? Um, so Dustin says Paul Stamets has spent a lot of time in the mushroom world. For anyone who wants to look at that more, I think he has some products too, and he seems more legitimate to talk on this. Yeah, I agree.

Um, I would listen to what Paul, you know, Paul Stamets obviously has done a lot. I mean, that's like his whole world is, is studying these mushrooms. And so, um, If he also has some products, I'm sure he's put a lot of— a lot more thoughtful time into thinking about the fruiting body and the mycelium and the components and what, you know, what, what's, you know, what's important here and, uh, how to, how to isolate them.