Medical Mushrooms?

Sales for producers of fungal extracts are booming. Treatment with various mushroom tinctures are claimed to benefit Alzheimer's disease; Anxiety; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome; Blood pressure conditions; Cancer; Hot flushes; Inflammatory bowel disease; Type 2 diabetes; Wrinkle formation etc. Scientific evidence for these diverse claims is, however, scant and of extremely poor quality (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/29/functional-funghi-can-medicinal-mushrooms-really-improve-peoples-health). Problems with existing 'scientific studies' include the fact that the fungal extracts used are generally complex 'cocktails' of many chemicals. The precise concentrations of possibly active substances can also be extremely variable. The few studies involving actual human subjects, are often carried out by folk working for the companies selling the mushroom extracts. There's, of course, at least a possibility of bias. Existing studies generally use tiny subject numbers and participants know they are being treated with the extract. There's no attempt to do a necessary 'gold standard' double-blind study. Currently, the most interesting studies have looked at the impacts of fungal extracts on cultured human cells. This is a useful starting point. To quote one scientist, however, "extrapolating effects seen in cultured human cells to treatment of serious conditions is beyond absurd". It's certainly likely that more fungal products will eventually prove to have beneficial effects on some human health conditions. It would be rather better, however, if the scientific proof arrived before the sales. Otherwise, this development parallels 'snake-oil' sales.