Do Mushroom Supplements Work? Immunity, Cancer, Mood, Brainpower

IF YOU want to enhance your immunity, the booming mushroom-supplement business has some thing to sell you.

Makers of mushroom nutritional supplements promote that they can strengthen brainpower and mood, boost immunity, and (whoa now) battle cancer. And they also argue that supplements produced from specified varieties of mushrooms, these kinds of as lion’s mane and reishi have antioxidants and beta-glucan, a fiber that regulates blood sugar, excess weight, and carcinogens.

Some of this is true—sort of.

“Mushrooms do include antioxidants and beta-glucan fiber,”says Brian St. Pierre, R.D., a Men’s Wellbeing nourishment advisor. And mushroom extracts—like those derived from real mushrooms and located in lots of supplements—also have these nutrition.

Still dietitians nonetheless aren’t so sure these pills and powders produce.

Most of the study on mushroom supplementation was done on rodents the number of human scientific tests that exist had tiny sample measurements. So when there’s guarantee, there is no hard details proving supplements can assistance improve your temper or aid your immune system, says St. Pierre.

And some mushroom nutritional supplements comprise only the mushroom root, which doesn’t consist of the beta-glucan-wealthy cap and stem. Even in health supplements built from caps, firms may contain basically a portion of the dosages uncovered to be helpful in those human studies.

Your takeaway: There is not enough knowledge to conclude that mushroom supplements reinforce your brain or body, says St. Pierre. Furthermore, supplements are dear ($35 a bag for reishi), contrary to serious mushrooms, which have reliable study trumpeting their positive aspects.

A edition of this report originally appeared in the July/August 2022 situation of Men’s Wellness.

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