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09.04.2021

Getting older? Belly button mushrooms improve motor coordination

Elderly people who eat 2-4 common belly button mushrooms every day reduce the chance that they will lose their balance and fall - and might break a bone as a result. This is suggested by an animal study that researchers at the US Department of Agriculture published in 2015 in Nutrition Research.

Belly button mushrooms
Edible mushrooms, like the everyday belly button mushrooms, have countless positive health effects that only the well-informed readers of this free web magazine know about. Mushrooms activate the immune system, keep the skin young, improve cholesterol levels and slow down the aging of the brain.

Fundamental scientists measure the aging of the brain with the rotarod, among others. You can see one below.

Older brains often work slower than young ones, and the more their brains are aged, the sooner lab animals will fall off the rotating axis of a rotarod.

The pharmaceutical industry uses the rotarod to determine with animal studies whether drugs have a sedative of hypnotic effect. The sooner a lab mouse or lab rat tumbles down from the rotating shaft, the greater the sedative of hypnotic effects of a drug.

Conversely, a drugs that enables laboratory animals can balance longer on the rotating axis of a rotarod may be of interest as a stimulant, smart drug or nootropic.

Study
The researchers gave lab rats standard chow for 8 weeks, or feed that consisted of 0.5, 1, 2 or 5 percent respectively of dried mushroom powder. If the rats had been humans fed fresh mushrooms, they would have consumed 42.5, 85, 170, or 450 grams of mushrooms daily.

Results
The rats did not eat less because of the mushroom powder. They also did not lose body weight.

The equivalent of an intake of 42.5 - 85 grams of mushroom increased the time the rats could remain on the axis. You can see thist above. This amount of mushrooms equates to 2 to 4 somewhat larger ordinary belly button mushrooms. You could also get those 42.5 - 85 grams in the form of baby mushrooms or portabellas. All Agaricus bisporus.

Question
Practitioners of disciplines where reaction speed and coordination are relevant, such as martial artists, often find that they slow down as the years climb. Would adding mushrooms to their diet be of interest to them?

Source:
Nutr Res. 2015 Dec;35(12):1079-84.

More:
Edible mushrooms halve the risk of early-stage dementia 27.10.2019
Ergothioneine makes mushrooms healthy for your brain 31.12.2018
Human study: Yambushitake is a brain booster 01.03.208

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