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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

Trial in 41 healthy adults found mixed results for lion's mane over 28 days

Docherty and colleagues · Nutrients · 2023

Original title: The Acute and Chronic Effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Stress and Mood in Young Adults: A Double-Blind, Parallel Groups, Pilot Study.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

One 1.8 g dose made people quicker on the Stroop task at 60 min (p = 0.005). After 28 days, stress showed only a trend down (p = 0.051). Other results showed no change or were slightly negative.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
41 people · Healthy adults aged 18-45
What was tested
1.8 g lion's mane as one dose (tested 60 minutes later) and over 28 days, vs placebo. How often it was taken is not stated.
What it measured
The question itself: memory and thinking
How long
4 weeks
Who has a stake
Company stake
Authors declare no conflict, but Sempera Organics supplied the lion's mane product.
Journal
Nutrients, 2023
Source
PubMed record 38004235. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • –Small: 41 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • –Short: 4 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: memory and thinking.
  • –Company stake: Authors declare no conflict, but Sempera Organics supplied the lion's mane product.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: memory and thinking

    4

    1 benefit, 3 mixed

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    1

    1 no difference

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does lion's mane improve memory?”

Unclear. Only four trials, with mixed results.

Confidence: very low. Based on 6 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 3 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 2 mixed. This one found mixed. It agrees with most of them.

  • Quoted in “What we found”: Only 14 papers exist on this question. Four are human trials of memory or thinking; the two that report size had 30 and 41 people.
  • Quoted in “What we found”: In two other trials, one dose of lion's mane (1.8 g or 1 g) made people faster on some thinking tasks but not on others.
  • Part of the finding “One dose: faster on some thinking tasks”.
  • Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Largest stated trial: 41 healthy young adults.
  • Open item for a person: Docherty Docherty 2023: abstract does not say the 1.8 g was taken daily over 28 days. Check the dose in the full text.

Other papers on the same step

See all 6 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 6 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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