Reishi and Ageing: What a Ten-Month Study Reveals About the Mushroom of Immortality

In our shop, reishi is the mushroom people ask about with a certain reverence. Its old Chinese name, Ling Zhi, is often translated as "the mushroom of immortality". For more than two thousand years it has been associated with longevity, calm and vitality.

Beautiful words. But we always want to know: what does science actually see when it looks closely?

Recently, a study crossed our path that we keep coming back to. It doesn't give easy answers, but it shows why researchers take this glossy, bitter mushroom so seriously when it comes to ageing.

A ten-month study on ageing

In 2021, a team of Chinese researchers published a study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience with a long but telling title: long-term administration of triterpenoids from Ganoderma lucidum mitigates age-associated brain decline in mice (Zeng et al., 2021).

Triterpenes are the compounds that give reishi its unmistakable bitterness. Among them are the ganoderic acids, found almost exclusively in Ganoderma mushrooms.

The researchers followed a hundred middle-aged mice. From the age of eight months, half of them received feed with a reishi triterpene extract added. The other half ate normal feed. The experiment then ran for another ten months, a large part of a mouse's life.

What the researchers saw

The results read like a list of the small signs of ageing, gently held back:

• Eyes: in the control groups, 11% of the males and 14% of the females developed cataracts. In the reishi groups, the researchers found none.
• Skin and coat: the treated mice kept a smoother, glossier coat, while the coats of the control animals became drier and thinner. Under the microscope, their skin was also better organised.
• Brain: the brain tissue of the treated mice showed fewer dying cells. In the females, the telomeres in the brain were longer. Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes, which get shorter as we age.
• Clean-up: markers of autophagy were higher. Autophagy is the process cells use to break down and recycle worn-out parts, a kind of internal spring cleaning that slows down with age.

One striking detail: the female mice generally responded more clearly than the males.

The researchers then looked for the mechanism. They found changes in the sphingolipid metabolism, a family of fats that are important building blocks of brain cell membranes. In separate experiments with mice bred to develop Alzheimer-like features, they identified one specific triterpene, ganoderic acid A, as a likely key compound. They also detected it in the brain after injecting it, suggesting it can cross the blood-brain barrier, at least in mice.

Why extraction matters

The study also contains a practical lesson for anyone choosing a reishi product.

Reishi holds two very different families of compounds. Beta-glucans are water-soluble polysaccharides from the cell walls, the most studied for their interaction with the immune system. Triterpenes, the compounds from this study, hardly dissolve in water. You need alcohol to get them out of the hard, woody fruiting body.

A powder or tea made only with water therefore misses a large part of the triterpenes. An alcohol extract alone misses many of the polysaccharides. That's why we looked for a reishi made with both.

Our reishi: Mind Studio's organic liquid extract

For our Organic Reishi Extract from Mind Studio, the Danish makers use exactly that combination: an ultrasonic-assisted dual extraction with purified water and organic grain alcohol. The water draws out the polysaccharides, the alcohol the bitter triterpenes, and the ultrasound helps the liquids reach deep into the mushroom material.

What convinced us most is that Mind Studio shares a full certificate of analysis from an independent laboratory (Metropolilab, test report 2023-35385). These are the numbers we find most telling:

• At least 38% beta-glucans in the reishi used, measured specifically as beta-1,3/1,6-glucans with the Megazyme method. This matters: many mushroom products on the market report only "polysaccharides", a number that can include ordinary starch, for example from the grain on which mycelium is grown. The Megazyme assay measures the real mushroom beta-glucans separately from that starch.
• Fruiting bodies only: no mycelium grown on grain, no fillers.
• A 10:1 extraction ratio, as specified by Mind Studio.
• Heavy metals far below the limits: mercury at or below 0.05 ppm (limit 1.5 ppm, 30 times lower), cadmium at or below 0.03 ppm (limit 0.6 ppm, 20 times lower), lead at or below 0.05 ppm (limit 0.9 ppm, 18 times lower), and arsenic below 0.5 ppm (limit 0.6 ppm). All measured with ICP-MS.
• Microbiologically clean: fewer than 100 colony-forming units per gram, where the limit is 100,000. Salmonella: not detected.
• EU and USDA organic, non-GMO, and produced under the FSSC 22000 food safety system. Formulated and bottled in Denmark, in violet Miron glass.

One honest note: the 38% describes the reishi used as raw material, not the concentration in the finished liquid. And the certificate doesn't report a triterpene content. Because of the alcohol extraction, they are part of the extract, but we can't tell you how much. We'd rather say that plainly than pretend.

A bitter evening ritual

Mind Studio recommends 2 ml a day, preferably in the evening, about an hour before bedtime, in water or a warm, caffeine-free drink. A 50 ml bottle lasts about 25 days. Expect bitterness: woody, deep, unmistakably reishi. That bitterness is, after all, the taste of the triterpenes.

We like to see it as a small moment at the end of the day. Not a miracle cure, but a ritual rooted in two thousand years of tradition, which science is only now beginning to understand.

Discover Mind Studio's Organic Reishi Extract, or come and taste it in our shop in Hasselt.

This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Reishi is not a treatment for any disease. Are you pregnant or breastfeeding, do you take medication (especially blood thinners, blood pressure medication or medication that affects the immune system), or do you have a medical condition? Talk to your doctor before using reishi.

Sources

• Zeng M, Qi L, Guo Y, Zhu X, Tang X, Yong T, Xie Y, Wu Q, Zhang M and Chen D (2021). Long-Term Administration of Triterpenoids From Ganoderma lucidum Mitigates Age-Associated Brain Physiological Decline via Regulating Sphingolipid Metabolism and Enhancing Autophagy in Mice. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 13:628860. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2021.628860
• Mind Studio Biotech, ReishiULTRA® Organic Liquid Extract, Certificate of Analysis, batch OGLL-KMB-231023 (test report 2023-35385, Metropolilab).