Regularly eating golden oyster mushrooms protected heart health and promoted longevity in mice.
Golden oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) – fungi native to parts of Russia, China and Japan – are one of the richest natural sources of an antioxidant called ergothioneine. Studies in humans have shown the compound is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and premature death. These findings rely on observational data, however, so it isn’t clear whether ergothioneine is driving the health benefits.
After a year, the mice had significantly better heart function than those that weren’t fed the mushrooms. For instance, their hearts pumped about 20 per cent more blood, on average, to the body with each contraction. The mice could also run faster and further, and they had lower levels of genetic markers associated with heart failure.
These metrics usually worsen with age, suggesting that golden oyster mushrooms may protect against age-related declines in cardiovascular health. Further analysis showed the fungus probably does so by shielding cells in the heart and blood vessels from damaging inflammatory molecules known as reactive oxygen species.
The serving size was also enormous, equivalent to an 80-kilogram person eating 720 grams of dried mushrooms a day.
Yeah, I’ve been taking 7.2 grams per day of dried golden oyster for months. That’s one scoop and it’s quite a bit. I can’t even imagine trying to eat 100 scoops. It would be a full time job.
Also, this is a good call but my efforts look like they were wasted on this one. I spent most of a day plugging logs with grains spawn because nobody carries plug spawn. Grain spawn doesnt’ work for several reasons and I have proven it once again. It’s a much better source than golden oyster and should like the climate here better, but I’m still not getting plugs.
Actually now that I look at it, if I could get cornucopiae to grow, thats a factor of almost 10 and if we divide by 12, then my 7.2 grams/day would almost do it.
Yeah, it seems every time I look at a study of components in mushrooms the spread is huge. It depends on conditions when and where it’s grown. I should bother the local labs here and ask what it would cost to test mine if I get a big flush next year, or I could check the powder in my freezer. Maybe I’m just eating dust.
Ergothioneine improves healthspan of aged animals by enhancing cGPDH activity through CSE-dependent persulfidation
Highlights
• Ergothioneine enhances lifespan and healthspan in aged C. elegans and rats
• These effects are dependent on CSE-catalyzed H2S production and persulfidation
• Ergothioneine boosts NAD+ levels
• Ergothioneine-induced persulfidation of cGPDH enhances its NAD+ formation
Summary
Ergothioneine (ET), a dietary thione/thiol, is receiving growing attention for its possible benefits in healthy aging and metabolic resilience. Our study investigates ET’s effects on healthspan in aged animals, revealing lifespan extension and enhanced mobility in Caenorhabditis elegans, accompanied by improved stress resistance and reduced age-associated biomarkers. In aged rats, ET administration enhances exercise endurance, muscle mass, and vascularization, concomitant with higher NAD+ levels in muscle. Mechanistically, ET acts as an alternative substrate for cystathionine gamma-lyase (CSE), stimulating H2S production, which increases protein persulfidation of more than 300 protein targets. Among these, protein-persulfidation-driven activation of cytosolic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (cGPDH) primarily contributes to the ET-induced NAD+ increase. ET’s effects are abolished in models lacking CSE or cGPDH, highlighting the essential role of H2S signaling and protein persulfidation. These findings elucidate ET’s multifaceted actions and provide insights into its therapeutic potential for combating age-related muscle decline and metabolic perturbations.
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27:58 shows doubling (almost) of ERG after three months. Supplementation was 25 per elderly patient. (Study had 18 elderly patients as subjects 28:02
28:16 “And in fact, I must apologize, that is a typo. It should be just 25 mg.”
Dosage is doable with oyster mushrooms, at about one tablespoon (mushroom powder) a day. Even shiitake (lentinula edodes) can provide the dosage at two tablespoons powder per day.
Those with the highest amounts include oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp., up to 4 mg/g DM)(306), the golden oyster Pleurotus citrinopileatus with 10·65 mg/g DM(307,308), and shiitake (Lentinula edodes , about 1 mg/g DM), while of those more common outside Asia, porcini or ceps (Boletus edulis , > 7 mg/g DM), stand out.
I weighed my little scooper full of golden oyster (home grown and sun dried) I take every morning. 7.5 grams dried powder. 7.5*10.65= almost 80mg. I’m getting plenty. I think there’s 2 years worth in the freezer, which I’ll need since I tried something that didn’t work last year. Mushroom business is hit and miss like so many other things.
We found that mice fed a HF-SHM (high fact-shiitake) diet had ∼86% smaller aortic lesion area than mice in both HF-C (P < 0.01) and MIX-C (P < 0.01) groups and also expressed 31-48% lower vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 levels (P < 0.05) than all other groups. Similarly, HF-PBM- (high fat-portobello) fed mice displayed a 70% reduction in aortic lesion area in the tricuspid valve only (P < 0.05). Both mushroom-fed groups had lower weight gain and fat mass (P < 0.05) than the control groups.
According to Wu et al. (12), 10% wt:wt mushroom powder in mice will translate to ∼11 g fresh mushroom/kg body weight, which is ∼750 g mushroom/d (10 servings/d) for a person with an average weight of 65–70 kg.
Assuming the powder is one tenth of fresh mushrooms, that is still 75g (five tablespoons) of powder per day. If the effects scale down linearly, then two tablespoons of powder would produce 40% of the benefit. That is a big if.
The full study has a pic of the lesion area.
LF-C low fat control
HF-C high fat control
HF-PBM high fat portobello
HF-SHM high fat shiitake
MIX-C mixed control
Almost 3 inches of rain this week here and high temp and humidity. Mushrooms are blooming like crazy. Embarrassed to say after all the whining I’ve done that most of my cornucopia oysters are blooming. Small so far, but I’m thrilled. This means the mycelium is in there working away. I should get these for years here because these are big logs:
