I must say my mother has been taking a product called “Procera,” which she claims has really helped her cognition. I agree with her inasmuch as I can personally see and attest to such things.
Quick…. Hide them from Biden’s operatives.
You’ve convinced me to try it. Where can I buy this Lion’s Mane Mushroom at? It’s probably sold or known under many different names, as per locality of cultivation.
I just ordered some. By the time it shows up I will probably have forgotten all about it. Second-day delivery, too.
“The analysis found a correlation between fructose, glucose and sucrose (table sugar) and dementia risk. The free sugars in soda, fruit drinks and milk-based drinks were strongly related to dementia risk,”
Correlation is not causation. There could be confounding factors at play, e.g., the elderly who guzzle soda could be less likely to get exercise, and the lack of exercise is the real cause. There are many possibilities.
At 93, Warren Buffett guzzles 5 Cherry Cokes per day and is extremely sharp mentally. Now, that doesn’t prove anything, but many counter-examples that we know in our own lives suggest that the “sugar = brain poison” hypothesis is oversimplified. My own father was a very mentally sharp nonagenarian. He didn’t drink a lot of sodas but he love guzzling apple juice (with a fructose content about 20% higher than a Coke).
I just met a local DFW grower at a market last weekend. Bought some for my older brother.
bfl
Sorry, Lion's Mane's got no chocolate cake in the middle.
JTK hisself and some troublesome tribbles.
One standard issue Lion's Mane mushroom.
The good news they're one of the few 'shrooms that doesn't have a poisonous mimic. If it looks like Lion's Mane, it is Lion's Mane.
And they're easy to grow. I had a spot of contamination in a jar of colonizing grain spawn that I removed with a sanitized spoon. Took it outside and dropped it in the cavity of a sugar maple in my yard that's partially dead. It colonized every bit of the dead tree and sprouted dozens of enormous mushrooms.
No special care, I just dropped in one spoon-full of spoiled grain spawn. Mother nature dealt with the contamination and the mushrooms took control of the tree.
The bad news is growing them to eat won't provide the same therapeutic effect because the beneficial chemicals are only "bioavailable" in extract form.
The extract part is where the news gets worse.
The two most common methods of making a medicinal mushroom extract are with alcohol or with hot water. Alcohol extractions can be done any hi-proof distilled spirits (vodka and PGA are typical choices) and it works just like a solvent to remove paint or glue. The up-side is that the alcohol also serves as a preservative, so you can make one big batch of alcohol extract and so long as it's maintained in properly controlled conditions, it will last indefinitely.
The problem with Lion's Main in particular is the goodies you want for wiring new neural pathways aren't released through alcohol extraction, only through hot water extraction. Brew a tea with them and you're in bidness (but it's not, in my experience, very tasty).
But the bigger problem with hot water extraction is there are no preservatives in it. It ages out in just a few days. Once it's brewed, the only way to preserve it is to freeze-dry it. And the equipment used to freeze-dry a liquid suspension is too spendy for most mushroom hobbyist, so your best bet is to look for a commercial source that sells freeze-dried, powdered hot water extract of Lion's Mane.
Fortunately, it's one of the cheapest commercially-sold mushroom medicinals, so even if you had the inclination to grow them yourself, considering the time you'd invest, how long it takes to produce a crop, and the fact that contamination ruins about 3% of even commercial grower's mushroom crops (the the number is much, much higher for the hobbyist [I lose 10-25%]), there's not much financial incentive in D-I-Y-ing it.
I'm not recommending any sources but my exposure to the topic gives me to believe that the two biggest sellers of hot water extracted powdered Lions' Mane with at least 28% beta-glucans (that's the good stuff for brain health) are Real Mushrooms (dot com) and Fresh Cap (dot com). I have no financial interest in either but I have done business with both and in each case was satisfied with the product.
My preferred sources of info on the matter say both these companies buy their extract from the same third party (which only sells wholesale), so (if my sources are correct) it should be identical product.
These same sources also tell me that alcohol extract of Lion's Mane (usually sold as a tincture) is an absolute hoax. That none of the good stuff for brain health is made bioavailable through alcohol extraction. The odd thing is the majority of Lion's Mane you see sold is alcohol extracted, probably because it's far easier and cheaper to make since that spares them the expense of freeze-drying equipment.
My advice (FWIW) is ONLY buy hot water extract.