Lion's Mane mushroom and mycelia
Lion's Mane mushroom and mycelia
The lion's mane mushroom is gaining attention around the world for the potential medicinal benefits it offers. Both the lion's mane mushroom and mycelia contain unique medicinal compounds.
The health benefits of lion's mane includes: antioxidative, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antihyperglycemic, and hypolipidemic effects. The mushroom has been studied for it's ability to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, mild cognitive impairment, depression, stroke, neural protective effects following seizure and brain injury, and gastro-protective effects (reviewed in Chon et al 2020; Li et al 2018; Jang et al 2019; Wong et al 2011; Wong et al 2013). Ethanolic extracts of lion's mane mushroom were found to have anti-inflammatory and neuro-protective properties (Kushairi et al 2019), supporting dual-extraction methods for tinctures.
Specific compounds found in lion's mane can stimulate nerve growth factor (NGF) which is responsible for the maintenance, growth, and development of specific neurons. In recent years, studies have focused on isolating and identifying these compounds. The studies on lion's mane mushrooms are largely focused on neurotrophic studies, because these compounds are truly unique in the world of natural medicine and currently there are no cures for many neurodegenerative disorders that lion's mane seeks to defend.
There is a great deal of literature to discover supporting lion's mane use and much more that needs to be done. Remember when doing your research that not one paper should be regarded in it's entirety as the gospel for lion's mane information.
Supporting Literature
Chong et al, 2020; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6982118/
Li et al, 2018; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5987239/
Kushairi et al, 2019; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox8080261
Jang et al 2019; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30781501/
Wong et al 2011; https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2011/580752/
Wong et al 2013; https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/492976/