Lion's Mane (okay, okay - Hericium erinaceus) is, it must be said, a beautiful thing to look at in its natural state, a mushroom that presents as a sort of frozen firework. And this aesthetic speaks to the bomburst of goodness this fungal superfood brings into the body. The big news is the neuroprotection Lion's Mane brings to the party, regenerating damaged nerves in clinical settings, and mitigating some of the more troublesome symptoms of Alzheimer's. Scientists are cautiously optimistic as they delve into understandng the mechanisms by which Lion's Mane works this ganglial magic, its low molecular weight allowing Lion's Mane's neuronal love potion to pass through the blood-brain barrier and get to work polishing the nerve cells' conductive myelin sheaths. To put it as unscientifically as possible. As if that weren't enough, Lion's Mane also does a number on high cholesterol, is a general inflammatory (where inflammation is the root cause of many commonly known and vexing disorders), boosts the immune response, and reduces blood supply to oxygen-greedy tumors. In the richly overgrown neuronal rain forest that comprises healthy brain function, Lion's Mane is surely King of the Jungle.
