A preferred mushroom in North America, Lion’s Mane encompasses a vary of medicinal advantages for each folks and their canine — from calming anxiousness to supporting the intestine.
As we discovered How Your Dog Can Benefit from Medicinal Mushrooms, many mushroom species are wealthy in therapeutic properties. Exploring the medicinal advantages they’ll provide our canine provides us one other highly effective device for treating sure illnesses and sustaining wellness. In this text, we’ll concentrate on Lion’s Mane, and the way it may be used to assist canine with anxiousness.
A LOOK AT LION’S MANE
Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) is a highly-prized edible and medicinal mushroom. It goes by a number of different names, resembling hedgehog fungus, monkey head mushroom and pom pom mushroom. I personally just like the identify “pom pom” as a result of this white puffy mushroom appears to be like just like the pom poms on a groomed white normal poodle!
Tip: The mature Lion’s Mane mushroom resembles a mind — and curiously, the mind is the place a whole lot of its medicinal exercise happens.
Lion’s Mane is discovered rising within the wild on outdated or useless broadleaf bushes, however isn’t that straightforward to seek out. Recently, mycologists (individuals who examine and develop mushrooms) have discovered domesticate this mushroom within the laboratory.
Because it’s fairly arduous to seek out in nature, Lion’s Mane is a comparatively new subject for researchers. However, the power to domesticate this mushroom on a big scale for each medicinal and culinary use has considerably added to its present recognition, and to the publication of extra goal analysis research about the way it works. These research additionally give us a glimpse into what Lion’s Mane can do for canine well being.
HOW LION’S MANE IS USED
In conventional cultures that make the most of mushrooms for well being, resembling these of Asia and Eastern Europe, Lion’s Mane has been used as each meals and medication. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Lion’s Mane has discovered functions for GI well being, because it nourishes the intestine. It has additionally been used to assist the spleen, and as an anti-cancer agent.
Tip: Lion’s Mane is taken into account nutritive to the 5 organs of TCM: the Liver, Lungs, Spleen, Heart and Kidney.
Lion’s Mane is thought to advertise wholesome digestion, and has been advisable for gastric and duodenal ulcers in addition to the gastritis that results in ulcers. Its impact on the physique as an entire has been to advertise common vigor and power. Lion’s Mane can be recognized for its results on the nervous system, and is often used for anxiousness, nervous stress, insomnia, weak point and lack of power.
LION’S MANE’S EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN
Recently, Lion’s Mane has been receiving a whole lot of consideration for its impact on mind perform and cognition. This is a comparatively new use for this mushroom, and is expounded to discoveries within the Nineties round its impact on nerve progress issue (NGF). More current medical research have supported this discovery.2
This mushroom has not been clinically studied in veterinary species, however the analysis to this point could be very encouraging concerning its potential usefulness for geriatric senility in canine (additionally known as canine cognitive dysfunction or CCD). A couple of pilot trials by veterinarians utilizing Lion’s Mane to deal with sufferers for CCD have been particularly encouraging. Many animal mother and father are already discovering that Lion’s Mane may be helpful for calming their four-legged relations. There are additionally experiences that when Lion’s Mane is mixed with CBD and different cannabinoids, the 2 work collectively synergistically to create much more profound calming, which is rarely sedative except the hashish additionally incorporates some detectable THC.
One neurological dysfunction in canine that extracts of Lion’s Mane might play a significant position in is degenerative myelopathy (DM). This insidious difficult-to-treat illness is an autoimmune dysfunction affecting the myelin sheath of the spinal wire. This leads to progressive paralysis, beginning on the hind finish and progressing towards the mind.
Tip: DM is pretty just like ALS in people.
Published research discovered that myelin sheath restore occurred considerably extra rapidly in teams that acquired Lion’s Mane terpenoid extracts than it did within the management group. No poisonous results had been noticed.3
Lion’s Mane is a mushroom value attending to know — if not for its nice style, then for its wonderful digestive, cognitive, and common well being advantages. It could also be a lifesaver for older canine who’re getting a little bit “gradual” of their methods. It can even assist with digestive perform, and its capacity to cut back stress and help reminiscence is nice for canine and their folks!
1Spelman Ok, Sutherland E, Bagade A. Neurological Activity of Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceous). Journal of Restorative Medicine, (2017) 6:19-26.
2Hirokazu Kawagishi. Chemical research on bioactive compounds associated to larger fungi. Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry, (2021) Vol. 85, No.1, 1-7.
3Huang H-T, et al. Hericium erinaceus mycelium and its small bioactive compounds promote oligodendrocyte maturation with a rise in myelin fundamental protein. Scientific Reports, (2021) 11:6551.
