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Author & Research Reviewer: Dr. Paul Anderson, NMD

Mushrooms and Health: The Latest Data

Dr. Paul Anderson, NMD

The use of mushrooms, mushroom extracts and mushroom combinations in the care of human health is
literally thousands of years old. There are few agents in the record of human history that can rival the
duration, impact or reputation of mushrooms in medicine. In some ways one may believe that the use of
mushrooms in health care is so well understood that research would have stopped being done long ago. This
is the case, for the most part, in regard to research on many modern pharmaceutical agents (unless a
researcher wishes to try a new indication with an old drug). A very brief search of the data shows many
papers published in the peer reviewed medical literature which are as current as two months ago. In this
review I have chosen four papers published in 2016, and one (which I believe is of note) from the bygone days
of 2014. As one who is involved in research using many “old” agents (and some new) I find that when
communicating with a patient regarding the utility of an agent in their healthcare some mention of active and
positive research on that agent increases their desire to use it and follow the therapeutic plan I have set out.
This review is intended to briefly provide that information for medicinal mushrooms.

While there are plethora of mushrooms and mushroom fractions used in medicine, I am focusing this paper on
those reported on in the five publications mentioned and cited in the references.

Crohn’s Disease:

Therkelsen, et.al. [1] Discuss the Effect of the Medicinal Agaricus blazei Murill-Based Mushroom Extract, on
the Symptoms, Fatigue and Quality of Life in Patients with Crohn's Disease in a paper published this summer.
The results show significant improvement on symptoms, for both genders, in the mushroom treated group.
The patients did not report any adverse effects of the mushrooms. The authors conclude that “Crohn’s
patients with mild to moderate symptoms may have beneficiary effects of [the mushroom therapy] as a safe
supplement in addition to conventional medication.” The effects both of the mushroom in the GI tract as well
as systemically are likely behind the benefits noted. These mushrooms (as many do) exhibit
immunomodulatory effects which are so crucial to the care of people with autoimmunity. In the inflammatory
bowel diseases having both a direct gut effect and a systemic effect (as we see for example with curcumin) is
of great therapeutic benefit.

Malnutrition and Cachexia:

Llauradó G. et.al. [2] Studied oral administration of an aqueous extract from the oyster mushroom Pleurotus
ostreatus enhances the immunonutritional recovery of malnourished mice. I know that mouse studies are not
preferred over human studies. But gaining the mechanistic information one can from an animal study in a

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condition such as malnourishment can “fast track” the trial of a natural agent in humans with the same or
similar condition.

As one who struggles with the treatment of patients with cachexia (mostly secondary to cancer but not
always) any agent that can potentially turn the biology of these suffering patients around is needed clinically.
In cachexia we know that a multi-agent approach is always required, and that the more “at the core” of the
cachexia biology the agent works the more beneficial an addition to the therapy plan it is. The authors make
some very promising discoveries in this respect which (when compared to the biological “faults” created by
cachexia) make this agent worth a trial in cachexic and underweight patients:

Oral treatment with CW-P normalized haemoglobin levels, liver arginase and gut mucosal weight. CW-
P increased total liver proteins and also DNA and protein contents in gut mucosa. Pleurotus extract
provided benefits in terms of macrophages activation as well as in haemopoiesis, as judged by the
recovery of bone marrow cells and leukocyte counts. Moreover, CW-P stimulated humoral immunity
(T-dependent and T non-dependent antibodies responses) compared to non-supplemented mice. CW-
P extract from the oyster mushroom can be used to develop specific food or nutritional supplement
formulations with potential clinical applications in the immunotherapy.

With the caveat that malnutrition and cachexia must be treated in a well-rounded manner it seems to me that
the availability of a potentially strong synergist to nutritional therapies in an aqueous form may be potentially
lifesaving to these patients.

Ganoderma (Reishi) and Cancer:

Jin X, et.al [3] reviewed the role of Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi mushroom) in cancer treatment. As a preface
such reviews need to have their conclusions considered in the context of the “primary question” or endpoint
the review was focused on. This is important as I have seen such reviews used to say “there is no scientific
data to support…” and such a review was cited, only to find out that the review was answering a totally
different question than the “no data” person was speaking of. With this in mind the review was seeking to
answer the question “should Reishi be used as first like therapy in cancer?” This is a pretty tall order for
anything to fill (let alone a mushroom) as the therapy of “cancer” is actually many entities and there are so
many variations related to stage, grade and patient immunity that can affect any therapeutic outcome. That
said the authors conclusions are summarized below:

 The review did not find sufficient evidence to justify the use of G. lucidum as a first-line treatment for
cancer.
 It remains uncertain whether G. lucidum helps prolong long-term cancer survival.
 However, G. lucidum could be administered as an alternative adjunct to conventional treatment in
consideration of its potential of enhancing tumour response and stimulating host immunity.
 G. lucidum was generally well tolerated by most participants with only a scattered number of minor
adverse events. No major toxicity was observed across the studies.
 Future studies should put emphasis on the improvement in methodological quality and further clinical
research on the effect of G. lucidum on long-term cancer survival are needed.

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All or part of the content herein may not be copied and posted elsewhere or used for any other commercial purpose, without the expressed written consent of Emerson Ecologics.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content provided herein is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
 www.emersonecologics.com

It is no surprise that Reishi didn’t have the data to take first place in the therapy of “cancer” – very few agents
could claim that. It is also no surprise that it had excellent safety, enhanced host response and tumor
immunity and was, by the reviewers, recommended for consideration as an adjunct in the care of a person
with cancer.

Mechanisms of Immunological Benefit:

Chang CJ. Et.al. [4] (the eldest paper reviewed from way back in 2014) looked at Ganoderma lucidum
stimulating NK cell cytotoxicity by inducing NKG2D/NCR activation and secretion of perforin and granulysin.
Their conclusion was that Ganoderma in their research showed a cellular and molecular mechanism to
account for the reported anticancer effects of G. lucidum extracts in humans. Of note this was also an
aqueous extract.

This mechanism actually has crossover from oncology effects to infectious disease as well. Perforin and
granulysin are two cytolytic molecules that Natural Killer cell use to kill (hence the name of the cell type) any
cell without “self” surface receptors. This includes things such as cancer cells, virally infected cells, bacteria
and others. Enhancement of natural killer cell function is well established in the basic immunology sciences as
enhancing of the “surveillance” immunity and lowering infections and oncogenesis.

The Form of an Extract Does Matter:

Lu. Et.al. in their paper published this summer “Immunomodulatory properties of medicinal mushrooms:
differential effects of water and ethanol extracts on NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity.” Do make an excellent
point regarding the form of a mushroom extract and its effect on the mechanism and actual immunologic
effect of the agent.

Through the same mechanisms mentioned above [4] these researchers showed that aqueous extracts (note
most papers reviewed above used this form) allow these natural killer cell benefits and alcohol extracts block
it. From the conclusions: “Water extracts enhance NK cell cytotoxic activity against cancer cells, whereas
ethanol extracts inhibit cytotoxicity.” This difference in extraction processes is well known in herbal medicine,
and generally in botanical medicines and herbalism the “method” of extraction is highly respected as to
clinical outcome. This paper and the fact that the majority of the studies presented today used aqueous
extracts enhances the notion that such extracts are likely superior to alcohol extracts in the case of immune
responses of mushroom based agents.

Implications for Practice:

Medicinal mushrooms have a great pool of data supporting their use in modern times. They are also some of
the most treasured agents in health care in the thousands of years of recorded history we have. My common
thought is that if an agent has “stood the test of time” (and we know it to be effective) the science will not
only prove that out but also repeatedly support and elucidate more and more mechanisms explaining the
clinically noted outcomes.

References:

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All or part of the content herein may not be copied and posted elsewhere or used for any other commercial purpose, without the expressed written consent of Emerson Ecologics.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content provided herein is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
 www.emersonecologics.com

1. Therkelsen SP, Hetland G, Lyberg T, Lygren I, Johnson E. Effect of the Medicinal Agaricus blazei Murill-Based
Mushroom Extract, AndoSanTM, on Symptoms, Fatigue and Quality of Life in Patients with Crohn's Disease in
a Randomized Single-Blinded Placebo Controlled Study. PLoS One. 2016 Jul 14;11(7):e0159288. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0159288. eCollection 2016. PMID: 27415795

2. Llauradó G, Morris HJ, Lebeque Y, Venet G, Fong O, Marcos J, Fontaine R, Cos P, Bermúdez RC. Oral
administration of an aqueous extract from the oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus enhances the
immunonutritional recovery of malnourished mice. Biomed Pharmacother. 2016 Sep 5;83:1456-1463.

3. Jin X, Ruiz Beguerie J, Sze DM, Chan GC. Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi mushroom) for cancer treatment.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Apr 5;4:CD007731. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007731.pub3. PMID:
27045603

4. Chang CJ, Chen YY, Lu CC, Lin CS, Martel J, Tsai SH, Ko YF, Huang TT, Ojcius DM, Young JD, Lai HC.
Ganoderma lucidum stimulates NK cell cytotoxicity by inducing NKG2D/NCR activation and secretion of
perforin and granulysin. Innate Immun. 2014 Apr;20(3):301-11.

5. Lu CC1, Hsu YJ2, Chang CJ3, Lin CS3, Martel J4, Ojcius DM5, Ko YF6, Lai HC7, Young JD8. Immunomodulatory
properties of medicinal mushrooms: differential effects of water and ethanol extracts on NK cell-mediated
cytotoxicity. Innate Immun. 2016 Oct;22(7):522-33.

Copyright © 2017 Emerson Ecologics

All or part of the content herein may not be copied and posted elsewhere or used for any other commercial purpose, without the expressed written consent of Emerson Ecologics.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content provided herein is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.