can something with a bizarre moniker like monkey's head mushroom really help improve brain function improve mood help with gut health and even help with nerve regeneration of course i'm talking about my personal favorite mushroom of all time the lion's mane mushroom this mushroom is not only easy to grow but it's also a delicious gourmet mushroom and a medicinal powerhouse in this video we're going to be focusing on lion's mane as a medicinal mushroom talking about everything from the history to the medicinal benefits there's a lot of information in this video so i've broken it all
down into chapters which you can access by clicking the links in the description also if you want a comprehensive guide and all of the links to all the research and everything like that make sure you check out the guide which i've also linked to in the description of this video the scientific name for lion's mane is horricium irenaeceus horisium in latin literally means hedgehog which kind of makes sense because this mushroom actually kind of does look like a spiny little hedgehog common names include bearded tooth bearded hedgehog or even pom pom but basically everybody calls
it lion's mane because well it kind of looks like a lion's mane so let's just stick with that lion's mane is not your traditional cap and stem mushroom it has teeth instead of gills which is where it releases its spores lion's mane is a saprophytic mushroom which means it grows on dead organic matter so if you're walking around in the woods you might find it on fallen logs where it's growing right out of the side of the log and lion's mane or relatives of lion's mane are actually pretty common to find even if you can't
find true hurricane erinases growing in your area you can likely find one of its cousins such as hurricane coraloides or one similar and that's quite often what i'll find walking around the woods in our area now to grow lion's mane which is actually pretty easy to do you basically just mimic this natural process so lion's mane can be grown on synthetic logs which is often how it's cultivated commercially or you can grow it on blocks of hardwood sawdust because lion's mane will use up that organic hardwood material and eventually fruit again lion's mane in my
opinion is one of the easiest mushrooms to grow it's not picky at all in terms of conditions and it will quite often produce monstrous bounties so if you wanted to do it yourself lion's mane is actually pretty easy to grow which we will cover in another video but if you want to just skip ahead you can always find a easy to grow lion's mane kit online and just kind of grow it on your countertop lion's mane has been around for a long time and it's been used for a long time and its claim to fame
over the centuries was its apparent ability to soothe the membranes of the digestive tract so traditionally used to combat stomach ailments and digestive issues lion's mane was also considered just a tonic for overall health of course lion's mane also has a long tradition of use for brain health which is what it's most famous for today others point to lion's mane for bolstering nerve growth and repair while also helping with memory and focus [Music] so lion's mane contains a variety of functional compounds but two main players stand out these are aromatic heracenones and diterpanoid ironasines these
are kind of weird names and might be difficult to remember but just remember that lion's mane's scientific name is hericium erenasius so heracenones and erenaseans heresy marinasius i guess latin isn't that bad is it no other food contains this powerful duo which is why lion's mane mushroom is so special erenaseans can do something particularly unusual and amazing they can cross the blood-brain barrier heracenones may also share this ability but further studies need to be done this stealthy superpower is what gives lion's mane mushroom its reputation as a brain booster of the various irony scenes that
have been identified lion's mane fruiting body contains two namely iron acin a and iron acine b so why is this important well it's important because both of these ironasines have been shown to promote the synthesis of nerve growth factor other irony scenes might be fine in the mushrooms mycelium but ironacings don't operate alone the dual action of erenaseans and heracenones together is what most likely fuels this mushroom's brain boosting ability four of the 11 heracenones currently known to science also boost nerve growth factor and all four can be found in the lion's mane fruiting body
nerve growth factor otherwise known as ngf functions exactly as the name would suggest it maintains nerve cell growth and reproduction maintains cellular health and prevents cell death neurotrophic factors make it possible for the brain to heal and repair itself after injury and maintain what is known as plasticity throughout life in other words a nerve growth factor is one of the reasons why you can teach an old dog new tricks or in this case a human your brain never stops reacting to information thought patterns and outside stimuli and ngf helps to strengthen or even create new
and important pathways in the brain but there's a weird catch ngf by itself isn't able to cross the blood-brain barrier now this isn't a problem in healthy individuals whose brains make enough ngf when the brain begins to age however ngf and other neutrophic factors decline that's where lion's mane comes in extracts from the mushroom have the potential to enhance the growth of neurites these projections grow out of the nerve cells and become either axons or dendrites these are the parts of the neurons that allow the cells to communicate with each other more neurite growth means
better communication and better overall brain function there have actually been studies done on lions main for cognition with some pretty interesting results in one double-blind placebo-controlled study 30 adults with mild cognitive impairment were split into two different groups one group was given four 250 milligram tablets of lion's mane three times per day while the other group was given a placebo it found those supplementing with lion's mane actually performed better on cognitive tests at weeks 8 12 and 16 of the study in a 2019 study participants were given cookies including lion's mane mushroom for a period
of 12 weeks the results showed an improvement in cognitive function and prevention of short-term memory deterioration now outside of clinical studies there are people all over the world that report amazing results from adding this mushroom to their life considering what compounds are inside of this mushroom and what these compounds do it makes total sense that people would experience these effects [Music] as mentioned earlier lion's mane is both a delicious gourmet edible and a powerful medicinal mushroom if you can find it at your farmer's market or even better grow it yourself you are going to be
a happy camper now i'm not a cook so tegan usually does this for me but when cooked it is delicious you can slice it up and fry it it's got a really meaty texture you can also add it to soups it's just an absolutely delicious mushroom that you gotta try but if you really want to get the benefits of this mushroom just eating the freshly harvested cooked mushroom might not be your best bet that's because the beneficial compounds of the mushroom are actually locked up inside the tough cell walls of the mushroom fruiting body and
need to be extracted in order to become bioavailable and for our bodies to be able to actually use and benefit from them now this is done through an extraction process which is either hot water extraction alcohol extraction or both dual extracted lions main is best if you want to get all the benefits this is done usually on an industrial scale by taking freshly harvested fruiting bodies drying them powdering them and then performing an extraction like an alcohol extraction or a hot water extraction and then drying them through either spray drying or by just drying in
an oven the end result is a fine powder that can just be sold as a bulk powder that can be encapsulated into capsules or can be added to all sorts of other food products now capsules are definitely the most convenient but you can also find lion's mane in tincture form or in bulk powder form that you can easily add to coffee or smoothies or any other kind of recipe that you might be making you can also find lots of products now that have lion's mane mushroom in them like mushroom coffee or mushroom elixirs or even
you know energy bars that have lion's mane there's lots of different products that have lion's mane as an added functional ingredient the most common dose of extracted lions made mushroom is somewhere between 500 milligrams and 2 grams now this dosage can vary greatly depending on what you're actually taking and what the mushroom supplement is actually made of right because if it's made out of myceliated grain there's going to be a lot of starch in there so the dosage needs to be higher and if it's just powdered fruiting body that hasn't been extracted the dosage would
usually need to be a lot higher as well but again in general for properly extracted lines made mushroom fruiting body it's somewhere between half a gram and two grams so as long as there's an efficacious dose and the lion's mane is properly extracted and made from the right starting material it shouldn't really matter what method you use or how you ingest it now personally i do find a lot of synergistic benefit with lion's mane and coffee together so adding lines made to coffee so it might be worth a try to add a scoop of lines
made into your coffee instead of the traditional cream and sugar so one of the most common questions we get is can you take lion's mane before bed and to be honest i'm not really sure where this comes from because lion's mane in itself does not contain any caffeine and does not have any acute energizing effects unless of course you're mixing it with coffee people do use it for focus and concentration which i guess you'd think would be more associated with daytime activities but these effects are generally felt with consistent use over time so yes although
it is more common to take lion's mane in the morning or in the afternoon you can definitely take lion's mane as part of your nighttime routine lion's mane is a special mushroom and whether or not you just like to grow it you like its culinary attributes or if you like to use it as a brain booster there's really no reason not to like this mushroom if you've had experiences with this mushroom i would love to hear about it so please let me know in the comments below other than that that's it for this video so
thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in the next video
