As Chief Scientific Kook here at Brain Wave, I’m excited to share regular updates about the incredible health benefits of mushrooms. A recent paper (https://lnkd.in/eam2dgKG) published just last year highlights the remarkable effects of lion’s mane mushrooms on cognitive function in individuals over the age of 55. Lion’s mane has the ability to increase nerve growth factor in our brains. Nerve growth factor is a protein essential for the growth, maintenance, and survival of neurons. It’s easy to understand that levels of nerve growth factor are high in our brains when we are young and our brains are growing. Those levels go down as we get older. But lion’s mane can reverse this effect.
In the experiment, participants had to look at a pattern and match it to one mixed in with others. This could be upside-down or flipped around. It was a speed test to see how fast they could do it, and the group on lion’s mane mushroom was much improved compared to the control group after just 8 weeks!
This paper was published in the Journal of Functional Foods, which brings together results of fundamental research on healthy, biologically active foods. This was an 8-week double-blind comparative study involving 33 subjects, randomly assigned to the lion’s mane or placebo group. Simply put, this was a very well-done study with trustworthy results. Stay tuned for more insights on how medicinal mushrooms can transform your health and wellness.
Andy, PhD