Mushrooms are a rich, low calorie source of fiber, protein, and antioxidants. They may also mitigate the risk of developing serious health conditions, such as Alzheimer's, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. They're also great sources of: Selenium. Mushroom also antioxidants have that chemicals that help the body eliminate free radicals. Free radicals are toxic byproducts of metabolism and other bodily processes. They can accumulate in the body, and if too many collect, oxidative stress. This can harm the body’s cells and may lead to various health conditions.
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Among the antioxidant agents in mushrooms are: selenium, Vit.C and Choline. The antioxidant content in mushrooms may help of lung, prostate, breast, and other types of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Mushrooms also contain a small amount of Vitamin D. There is some evidence that vitamin D supplementation may help prevent or treat some kinds of cancer, though according to a 2018 report, the effect may vary from person to person. Choline is another antioxidant in mushrooms. Some studies suggested that consuming choline can reduce the risk of some types of cancer, but at least one other has indicated that it may increase the risk of prostate cancer.. A 2018 review of meta-analyses concluded that people who eat a lot of fiber may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. For those who already have it, fiber may help reduce blood glucose levels. A cup of sliced, raw mushrooms, weighing 70 (g) provides almost 1 g of fiber. Mushrooms, beans, some vegetables, brown rice, and whole-grain foods can all contribute to a person’s daily requirement of fiber.
Scientists at City of Hope were some of the first to discover that mushrooms could suppress growth of breast cancer and prostate cancer cells in cell culture in animals. LONDON — Psilocybin, the psychedelic active compound in magic mushrooms, may be at least as effective as a leading antidepressant drug and could help more patients into remission from severe depression, a small study by British scientists has found. The findings, in the first-of-a-kind head-to-head comparison of psilocybin therapy and the antidepressant escitalopram, suggests the psychoactive ingredient has promise as a potential mental health treatment, the researchers said. “Remission rates were twice as high in the psilocybin group than the escitalopram group,” Robin Carhart-Harris, who designed and led the study as head of the center for psychedelic research at Imperial College London, told a briefing. “One of the most important aspects of this work is that people can clearly see the promise of properly delivered psilocybin therapy by viewing it compared with a more familiar, established treatment,” he said. “Psilocybin performed very favorably in this head-to-head.”
Depression is one of the leading causes of ill health worldwide, and existing treatments are often ineffective or have adverse side effects that lead patients to stop taking them. Carhart-Harris warned that while these findings – published in the New England Journal of Medicine – were encouraging, patients with depression should not try to self-medicate with magic mushrooms. “That would be an error of judgment,” he said. The research involved 59 patients with moderate to severe depression who got either a high dose of psilocybin and a placebo, or escitalopram plus a dose of psilocybin so low as to be classed as non-active and unlikely to have an effect. This design was aimed at ensuring the two arms of the trial were as alike as possible for those taking part. Treatment response, defined as a reduction of at least 50% in depression scores from baseline, was seen in 70% of people in the psilocybin group and 48% in the escitalopram group. Results also showed that remission of symptoms – measured as a score of 0 to 5 at week six – was seen in 57% of the psilocybin group compared with 28% in the escitalopram group.
Carhart-Harris said participants’ reports suggested the psilocybin had a more “fundamental” effect than antidepressants. “I think it’s getting more at the root causes of suffering,” he said. “There’s a kind of epistemic quality to the treatment, a revelatory quality, where people report feeling that they understand more fully why they’re depressed.”
The Imperial team, co-led by David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology, has been exploring the potential of psilocybin for many years. In 2016 they published a small study showing psilocybin could help ease a severe condition known as treatment-resistant depression.
Good to know that Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, are a polyphyletic, informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Copelandia, Gymnopilus,Inocybe, Panaeolus, Pholiotina, Pluteus, and Psilocybe. Psilocybin mushrooms have been continue to be used in indigenous New World cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual context. They may be depicted in Stone Age rock art in Africa and Europe, but are most famously represented in the Pre-Columbian sculptures and glyphs seen throughout North, Central and South America.
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