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Jan 01, 2024

What Are Mushroom Extract Supplements? Health Benefits, Risks, and More

Edible mushrooms have a long history of being used for purposes other than food.

Edible mushrooms have a long history of being used for purposes other than food. People have been using mushrooms medicinally as far back as 450 B.C., according to the authors of a June 2020 article in Alternative and Complementary Therapies. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in psilocybin mushrooms to treat mental health disorders including depression, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Given the recent interest in mushrooms as a functional food, it's no surprise that mushroom extract supplements have been popping up all over the place — including in coffee. These products claim to do everything from staving off anxiety to fighting cancer.

So, is a mushroom capsule or coffee just what the doctor ordered? Here's what the research, and leading experts, have to say.

Mushroom extract supplements are extracts or powders produced from various types of mushrooms. According to Today's Dietitian, people try mushroom extracts as remedies for a range of conditions, including seasonal allergies, insomnia, cancer, colds, and inflammation.

You can find them in capsules, powders, liquid extracts, mouth sprays, teas, coffees, gummies, and sometimes in combination with other products such as CBD. Some supplements contain extracts from a single type of mushroom, while others combine extracts from several different types of mushrooms.

Some of the common types of adaptogenic mushrooms you’ll see in supplements include:

Whole mushrooms have solid health benefits. "Mushrooms themselves are low in calories and fat and in nutrients we’re told to cut back on, like sodium and sugar," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, the creator of BetterThanDieting.com and author of Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You From Label to Table. "They also provide us with a wealth of nutrients we don't otherwise get. So mushrooms themselves are pretty amazing to add to your diet."

Medicinal mushrooms have been credited with at least 130 different therapeutic applications, according to a report published in Frontiers in Pharmacology in July 2022. But solid research on humans that ties mushrooms to specific health benefits is hard to come by.

"The potential benefits are being studied, and there is some promise, but oftentimes the studies are small, or in animals or cells, and they’re usually short term," says Samantha Cassetty, RD, a registered dietitian based in New York City and the coauthor of Sugar Shock. "So it's really hard to say anything definitively in terms of long-term safety and efficacy."

More research is needed, according to a review published in February 2022 in Drug Discovery Today. That said, mushroom extract supplements show promise in the following areas:

Cassetty says that some mushroom supplements may have prebiotic effects that could shift the microbiome in your gut in a favorable way, and that could play a role in weight management. And the January 2021 book Advances in Probiotics points to edible mushrooms as a promising source of prebiotics. But there are other, better-researched ways to shift your gut microbiome, not to mention lose weight.

"If you want to try [a mushroom supplement], you can add it to your wellness toolbox, but it doesn't replace more proven methods," Cassetty says.

Taub-Dix concurs and points out that you need to focus on your overall diet if you want to lose weight. "Mushroom supplements are a drop in the ocean compared to what else you have to do to lose weight," she says. "It depends on what else you’re eating."

Mushroom extracts and supplements usually process and concentrate the ingredients in mushrooms. "If you look at what was used [medicinally] years ago, it wasn't coming in a jar. It was coming right out of the ground," Taub-Dix says.

It's unclear which types of mushroom extract supplements you might want to take, what the dosage should be, or how long you should take them. "We don't really know how much you need. The research is unclear, so it's a good idea to check with your healthcare provider or dietitian," Taub-Dix says.

And, as with any supplement, you need to be cautious about interactions. "There's always a potential for a supplement to interact with a medication you’re taking or a condition you have," Cassetty says. She doesn't recommend extracts that contain adaptogens for people with autoimmune conditions, for example, since they could stimulate your immune system. For example, one type of mushroom, called reishi, could interact with medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and blood clotting, according to MedlinePlus.

Chaga extract may also trigger interactions. It may improve your blood flow, which could be dangerous if you’re taking blood-thinning medication or have a bleeding disorder. While more research is needed, a report in the ASCO Post in July 2019 noted that chaga extract can boost the effects of anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs.

"I tell people with any supplements, if you’re taking medication or you have a chronic condition, check with your doctor," Cassetty says.

There are no internationally recognized standards and methods for testing fungus products, according to the Frontiers in Pharmacology report. Additionally, products vary significantly in how they're prepared, and it is unknown whether any effects are caused by a single ingredient or a combination of ingredients.

Mushroom extracts come in a range of forms, from pills to gummies to extracts to coffee and more. But no matter what type you come across, like all supplements, they aren't regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the National Institutes of Health. Supplement manufacturers are expected to follow practices that prevent the wrong ingredients or the wrong amounts of ingredients from getting into the product, reduce contamination, and ensure labels are accurate. You can choose supplements that meet independent quality standards from ConsumerLab.com, NSF, or USP. But testing doesn't prove that a product is safe or effective.

"Supplements are not regulated the same way food is, so a bottle of lion's mane could be very inconsistent, with one pill containing more than another," Taub-Dix says.

Mushroom extract supplements show promise in treating a range of conditions, from fighting cancer to reducing inflammation to combating stress. But most of the research performed on mushroom extracts so far has been studied in vitro (using isolated human cells in a petri dish) or in animals. The science is still spotty as to whether these extracts have the same results in humans.

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