Lentinan (shiitake)
Lentinula edodes
Lentinan, the shiitake mushroom's beta-glucan, reduced the attacking T cells and expanded regulatory T cells in mice whose immune system targets their insulin-making cells.
What the evidence shows
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The shiitake cap lowers the fats traveling in the blood - a mushroom prized in Japanese kitchens for the same property that earns its place here.
Lentinan, purified from shiitake, has been an approved medicine in Japan since 1985, and mouse work traces the immune route it takes.
Five trials, 650 patients with advanced stomach disease: adding its beta-glucan to standard treatment cut the risk of dying about a fifth.
Shiitake's beta-glucan kept mice on a fattening diet from losing cognitive ground, working upward from the colon: gut flora shift, inflammation falls, brain growth factor and synapses hold.
Works on the interferon alarm: the body's earliest antiviral signal, raised in the hours before the wider immune system arrives.
Where it appears
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