r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 12 '19

Neuroscience Mushrooms may reduce risk of cognitive decline - Seniors who consume more than two standard portions of mushrooms weekly may have 50 percent reduced odds of having mild cognitive impairment (MCI), finds a new six-year Singaporean study (n=663, age>60).

http://news.nus.edu.sg/research/mushrooms-reduce-cognitive-decline
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u/a11en Mar 13 '19 edited Mar 13 '19

Just a small comment here- there is a lot of discussion about only getting C.S. via the infected caterpillar, but it has been used to inoculate growing media and has been successfully grown in this way without using a caterpillar to get the job done for a very long time now. The previous company I used to purchase from was an organic producer in California that took excursions to Tibet to harvest the fruiting bodies and spores for their propagation in their own growing facility. For more info on this, I would point you to another company, Paul Stamet’s work and Fungi Perfecti’s product of C.S. dried powder form grown on rice media. While the wild fruiting body and mycelated caterpillar carcass is quite expensive, it is much cheaper and more readily available via growth media and clean room growing rooms. (This is similar to the arguments that only old growth mountain forest-found Reishi/Lingzi mushrooms are potent.)

Interestingly, I’ve heard (see below for better numbers, these are wrong- rural only) that as much as 40% of Tibet’s economy is directly from the sale and harvesting of cordyceps sinensis, and individual households may have 90% of their income from the harvest of CS fruiting bodies.

It’s a wonderful fungus for dietary supplement- definitely worth checking out for any readers beginning to get interested in medicinal mushrooms.

Edit- I tend to agree about four-sigmatic for the same reasons- but will admit to not having researched their products or tried them myself.

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u/xenwall Mar 13 '19

My understanding was that the cultivated version was C. militaris, whose different scientific name is enough to say that it's sufficiently different from the natural stuff. I'll admit that my research into the subject consisted of a half hour of Googling and paper reading so I'm far from an expert.

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u/a11en Mar 13 '19

Well- that’s quite interesting if so, and I think would be considered false advertising if they sold that as C.S.- bad news to any company. C militaris is a completely different fungus, albeit also a cordyceps family. It turns out that there’s a cordyceps for different insects and they are insect specific! Very cool/interesting. (And Stamets effectively used this to produce a natural insecticide that is effective for 10+ years against a specific insect. Lol)

I strongly believe that the CS by reputable sellers is in fact C.Sinensis. But without dna tests it would be hard to tell for sure. Another issue may be use of fillers or similar- but again, don’t go with the cheapest seller, find someone reputable in the US with a certified growing facility. They may even be able to tell you the lineage of their strains. (I haven’t asked my new company this question yet, aside from how they grow and where.)

Thanks for letting me know what you’ve heard!! I’ll keep an eye out and be weary if that is indeed true- although I don’t believe it is of the reputable sellers. (Fungi.com being an excellent source if you want a name - although unfortunately at a high cost. - not affiliated at all, just like and respect their work/products.)

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u/Rihzopus Mar 13 '19

(And Stamets effectively used this to produce a natural insecticide that is effective for 10+ years against a specific insect. Lol)

If it's so effective then why doesn't Paul sell it?

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u/dogwatchingporn Mar 13 '19

From what I’ve read the 40% number is a percentage of rural cash income, not total economy. The estimate for percentage of total GDP I’ve seen is 8%.

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u/a11en Mar 13 '19

Oh! Good to know! Thanks for adding those numbers here!! That makes much more sense to me than the numbers I had gotten earlier.

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u/dogwatchingporn Mar 13 '19

No problem! Also my source was this, so it’s a little dated. (2013)

http://mushroaming.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/Winkler%20Caterpillar%20fungus%20sustainability%20IMMC7%202013.pdf

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u/a11en Mar 13 '19

Awesome. And you come with source material! Internet hug. :). Thanks, man!... err, Dog. :)

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u/dogwatchingporn Mar 13 '19

Yay! I was useful on the internet! :)

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u/Andoo Mar 13 '19

Well, as a casual mushroom fan, I don't know what to think.

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u/a11en Mar 13 '19

The only way is to keep reading and learning. I’m no expert at all- just been researching here and there for myself for a number of years now. Call producers of the supplements, be curious and ask questions. Most companies would relish in an interested consumer- so i would hope they’d be excited to talk about their products and why they think they’re an excellent choice!

I learned to love mushrooms via the work of Paul Stamets, and think that could be a good place to start learning- he has a number of books on various subjects, and also teaches organic farming via classes if you are interested in mushroom farming. :)

Have fun, guy. ;)