Let's say you're trying to lose 20 pounds or boost your immunity or increase your ability to fight COVID or even cancer.

Well, the amazing thing is with the right diet, you are well in your way to achieving these vital health goals.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today we discover the power of medicinal mushrooms. And no, I'm not talking about that kind of mushroom. Here's our first story.

Can mushrooms be medicinal? Mushroom-based products make up a sizable chunk of the $50 billion supplement market.

This profitable trade provides a powerful incentive for companies to test the credulity of their customers and sadly unsupported assertions have come to define the medical mushroom business.

For example, companies that market herbal medicines exploit references to studies on mice to promote their mushroom capsules for treating all kinds of ailments.

But if you have a notice, we're not mice. I mean, it wouldn't be surprising if mushrooms have some potent properties after all fungi or where we got a bunch of drugs, not the least of which penicillin and also a cholesterol lowering drug lovastatin and the powerful immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin.

But still don't think a little mushroom could have pharmacological effects. Don't forget they can produce some of our most powerful poisons.

Some kind of look the part like the toxic Carolina falsemerelle, all toadstoolian such, but others have more of an angelic look.

Indeed, literally called the destroying angel, that sits name, as little as a teaspoon can cause a painful lingering death.

So anyway, we should have respect for the pharmacological potential of mushrooms. But what can they do that's good for us?

Well, consuming shittaki mushrooms daily improves human immunity, giving people just wanted to drive shittaki mushrooms a day, about the weight equivalent of 5 to 10 fresh ones for four weeks, resulted in an increase in proliferation of gamadelta tea lymphocytes and doubled the proliferation of natural killer cells.

Gamadelta cells act as a first line of immunological defense and even better natural killer cells kill cancer.

And the shittaki did all this while lowering markers of systemic inflammation.

Oyster mushroom extracts don't seem to work as well. But what we care about is if mushrooms can actually affect cancer outcomes.

Shittakis haven't been tried yet, but Rishi mushrooms have after being used as a cancer treatment throughout Asia for centuries.

Rishi mushroom for cancer treatment. What does the science say?

A man analysis of fiber randomized control trials showed that patients who had been given Rishi mushroom supplements, along with chemone radiation, were more likely to respond positively compared to just chemone radiation alone.

Now, although adding a Rishi mushroom extract improved tumor response rates, the data failed to demonstrate a significant effect on tumor shrinkage when the mushrooms were used alone.

So they aren't recommended as a single treatment, but rather an adjunct treatment for patients with advanced cancer.

Now, response rate just means the tumor shrinks. What we care about is whether or not it actually improves survival or quality of life.

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