New and Fascinating Science Updates – Part Two
Brain food ~ Lion’s Mane Mushroom
Zhejiang Province, China 1988
The “barefoot” doctor was actually barefoot. He unrolled a rectangular piece of leather at the foot of my bed; I didn’t recognize his instruments as anything vaguely medical. There was something that looked like a plumb bob, except it was very sharp on the pointed end. In addition to a wooden mortar and pestle, the practitioner had various seeds, nuts, plants, dried mushrooms and insects in small glass vials.
I sat on the edge of the bed, hot with fever and barely able to sit up straight as this man wearing Maoist-era blue slacks and shirt arranged his equipment. I had no idea what would happen, yet I had faith that even if his treatment was ineffective, it would pose no real hazard to my health.
After all, this gentleman was an herbal practitioner; no harm intended, no harm done. Could I be wrong in my doubts about the medicinal efficacy of herbs and mushrooms? I carried away from my experience in China the newfound belief that there are forms of effective medicine other than Western medicine.
The barefoot doctor added baijiu, a potent rice liquor, to several botanicals that he pulverized with the pestle; the result was a thick, black, tarry substance. After requesting hot tea from my host/savior, I swallowed the bitter medicine with an Oolong chaser.
I suspected I had some form of food poisoning after accepting and eating some grapes given to me by a young lad; he had likely washed the fruit in the river. I had broken the cardinal rule of visitors who travel abroad to only drink water boiled to kill pathogens.
The doctor had me sit on the edge of the bed, leaning out over a large ceramic basin, and used the “plumb bob” to draw blood from select locations on my neck, head and wrists. He kept his eyes on the blood dripping into the vessel, and at some specific volume, he applied another gooey botanical substance that acted as a coagulant; the bloodletting stopped within seconds.
To my amazement, I started feeling much better within a few hours. Was this simply a placebo effect, or had the ailment merely run its course? It didn’t feel that way, but at this point in my life, I wasn’t completely sold on the efficacy of foraged plants and mushrooms in treating anything serious. I regarded herbal treatments as mostly snake oil, potions, magic elixirs and old wives’ tales.
P.C. Alert: I probably should have said “aging women’s unsubstantiated claims.” I wouldn’t want to offend any old wives out there.
“Herbs have affinities for certain phases of wound healing and different types of wounds. They can accelerate the process of healing beyond what people would imagine.” Matthew Wood
For years afterward, I regretted not knowing the identity of the botanicals used in my treatment. But my eyes were now open to the possibilities of nature-based medicines.
Many of us are reasonably skeptical of supplements and herbal remedies, and with good reason. They are not controlled or tested by the FDA and are often touted by the manufacturers as cure-alls for everything from asthma to cancer.
In an earlier article, we explored research demonstrating that non-human primates use plants and insects to relieve pain and hasten the healing of wounds. That being the case, we can safely assume that all or most Hominidae were using certain species of flora and fauna to treat various injuries and discomfort.
In many articles about medicinal plants and mushrooms, the authors state something to the effect that “People have been using herbal remedies for centuries.” Aye, but a more accurate timespan is in thousands of years.
The Paleo-American who sat on a log and knapped an exquisite Clovis spear point over 12,000 years ago was most certainly practicing herbal and homeopathic medicine. We find many unexpected forms of technologies in ancient Homo sapiens and Neanderthal cultures. Neither species were mindless grunting brutes, contrary to popular belief.
You may remember when climbers found the frozen mummy, Otzi, in the Italian/Austrian Alps in 1991. He had carried a leather medicine bag containing a mushroom called birch polypore, used to treat whipworm and mitigate the effects of Lyme Disease.
Also found in Otzi’s pouch were sloe berries from the European blackthorn used as a health supplement that, in modern jargon, would be called a “superfood” due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
The Chinese were the first known civilization to document medical treatment methods over 3,000 years ago during the Zhou Dynasty. And one of these natural pharmaceuticals was a beautiful mushroom called lion’s mane.
The lion’s mane and its close relatives have caught the attention of neuroscientists in Australia and South Korea. And this is the new and promising research we will be delving into shortly.
But first, an introduction to the lion’s mane, known by mycologists as Hericium erinaceum, aka satyr’s beard, pom pom mushroom, and monkey head, as it’s called in Asia.
Lion’s mane is principally found on broad-leaved tree species such as beech, oak and maple. In Pocahontas County, I start looking for lion’s mane in late summer and early fall. The young mushrooms are snow white and delicious. The long icicle-like teeth give it an uncanny resemblance to a cheerleader’s pom pom.
I went through a half-dozen or so books and guides on mushrooms to prepare for this article, including The Fungal Pharmacy, published in 2011. Most mention that lion’s mane mushrooms are good for brain health, although, until recently there was little scientific research on the claim’s veracity.
Was this belief of earlier cultures based on empirical evidence? Was this pharmacological knowledge passed down from generation to generation? The Chinese have documented herbal remedies for several millennia, so there must have been some form of data collection on medical successes.
Moreover, recent research on this fungal brain food suggests that as a septuagenarian with concerns about dementia, I may never forget my secret honey spots for lion’s mane.
How can that be, you ask?
Recent research (ongoing) on mice at the University of Queensland in Australia and South Korea resulted in smarter mice when fed compounds found in lion’s mane mushrooms. The primary neurotrophic compounds, such as hericenones and erinacines, can cross the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier creates a wall that prevents pathogens from entering the brain through the bloodstream. Unfortunately, the BBB also prevents the delivery of many neurotherapeutics to the brain. This barrier is estimated to exclude all large-molecule neurotherapeutics and 98 percent of small-molecule drugs from passing through the BBB.
The great news about the active compound in lion’s mane is that it not only penetrates the BBB but also dramatically affects the growth rate of dendrites and speeds up the development of new neural pathways.
In mice, this translates to getting through novel mazes faster than the control group and greater recognition of new items in their environment. The bottom line here is that, at least in animal studies, the active compounds in lion’s mane mushrooms improve memory.
South Korea has begun controlled studies on humans to see if the results are the same or similar to that of studies with mice. If human studies demonstrate significant memory improvement, it may greatly impact treating Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
There is a growing interest in forest farming here in Pocahontas County. We are blessed with numerous wild plants and mushrooms that could be cultivated for food and medicine.
If the human-based research on lion’s mane shows promise, entrepreneurs may have opportunities to cultivate lion’s mane for an industry likely to grow exponentially.
In the next episode of For Your Consideration, we’ll use archaeology as a scientific tool to answer the question: were ancient women hunters as skilled as the men?
If you believe that The Flintstones accurately depicted life in the Stone Age, you may get the shock of your life.
Ken Springer
ken1949bongo@gmail.com