Let me offer the disclaimer at the outset that I have no financial interest of any kind in promoting this or any supplement. There are reputable companies that produce it and disreputable ones (meaning, mostly, that the disreputable ones use only the mycelium and not a more therapeutic combination of the fruiting body and the mycelium).
To avoid any appearance of undue influence on my part, I leave it to you, dear reader, to commit the one mortal sin the priests in the Public Health™ clergy warn against — do your own research.
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Ethics and basic decency require the disclosure of any conflicts of interest, of course, but most pharma-funded research institutions lie on such disclosure forms. I do not. My only interest is in cheap and effective natural interventions that might substitute for, or work in tandem with, a lifetime supply of pharmaceutical expensive drugs riddled with adverse side effects and an early grave.
In that vein, here’s what medical research has to say about the anti-aging, cognition-enhancing benefits of a species of mushroom called Lion’s Mane, so named because of its uncanny appearance to lions’ manes.
Via Journal of Neurochemistry (emphasis added):
N-de phenylethyl isohericerin (NDPIH), an isoindoline compound from this mushroom, together with its hydrophobic derivative hericene A, were highly potent in promoting extensive axon outgrowth and neurite branching in cultured hippocampal neurons even in the absence of serum, demonstrating potent neurotrophic activity.
Mice fed with H. erinaceus crude extract and hericene A also exhibited increased neurotrophin expression and downstream signaling, resulting in significantly enhanced hippocampal memory. Hericene A therefore acts through a novel pan-neurotrophic signaling pathway, leading to improved cognitive performance.
“Neurogenesis” is the term used in technical literature that refers to the development of new brain cells (neurons). This process, contrary to prevailing popular scientific consensus for decades, does not stop in childhood but continues throughout adulthood, albeit with less intensity than in a growing brain.
And certain supplements, in addition to lifestyle practices such as long-term fasting, can dramatically accelerate the process.
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Once again, I’d like to emphasize the importance of selecting a supplement that uses a synergistic combination of the extract of the fruiting body (the cap of the mushroom) and the cheaper-to-harvest mycelium, rather than ones that contain only mycelium.
And, once again, don’t take my word for it; do your own research, and you’ll discover that, if anything, I may have understated the brain benefits of Lion’s Mane.
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