mushroom supplements are a scam

Many mushroom supplements are a scam. The entire supplement industry is filled with scam companies defrauding consumers and just trying to profit as much as they can. Even more than that, brands just have no business being brands. They don't have the scientific knowledge to understand how to formulate or test products. That's no excuse, though. It's the responsibility of the brands themselves to ensure they prove their supplements contain what they say, and if they don't understand it, hire someone that does! It's just a lot more profitable to do what everyone else is doing, and lie to consumers. The Host Defense shit is super crazy to me, because Paul Stamets should know better. He does know better! The data is clear. Let's take a look at some of it.

Here is an HPTLC plate for their Reishi.

Want to guess which lanes are Host Defense? The first two lanes are Ganoderma lucidum reference material. The next two are our Nootropics Depot 1:1 Reishi, then the next two are our 8:1 extract. Then the next three are a sample we were qualifying from a Chinese supplier. Then the three after that are Real Mushrooms Reishi Longevity. Then we get to the final three lanes. Those are the Host Defense brown rice "Reishi" product... What about ganoderic acids? You can probably guess by that HPTLC result, but it really hits home when you see the chromatogram.

Here is the UPLC chromatogram of the Host Defense Reishi for ganoderic acids.

Just look at all those bioactives you are getting! Such a great job they are doing... This pisses me off so much, because I personally know people fighting cancer that heard that mushrooms can help, and went out to buy some. They will try anything they can to fight and live, and then they go and buy shit like this and get SCAMMED! People are fighting for their lives, and trying everything possible to beat it, and then they buy crap like this. Not only is it not going to help them, it's expensive as well. This isn't some possibility, either. I have spoken to multiple people that were fighting cancer and bought Host Defense thinking it would help. Luckily they spoke to me and I could give them the truth. However, how many thousands of other people just go on thinking they are buying something that might help, and then lose their fight? It makes me sick!

Let's look at some more data.

Here is an HPTLC plate for Cordyceps.

Lane 1-2 is the BRM, 3-4 Real Mushrooms, 5-6 is Host Defense, 7-8 is Om/M2.

Here is the UPLC chromatogram for cordycepin.

So you can see this one is better. There is some cordycepin in there, but very low. Let's look at lion's mane.

Here is the HPTLC plate for lion's mane.

This plate is one with a larger sample of products on it, so each one is only a single lane. Host Defense is lane 8.

Here is the UPLC chromatogram for Host Defense's erinacine-A.

The concentration is not listed on the report, but it is very very low. It's 0.0003% by weight. The capsules weighed 479.04mg, which means there is 0.001437mg (1.4 MICROGRAMS) of erinacine-A per capsule. Our Erinamax has 2.5mg Erinacine-A per capsule, for reference. So that's some of the data around Host Defense. It's bad. However, that doesn't mean all mushroom supplements are bad. Let's look at some of our data with our Erinamax.

Here is a UPLC chromatogram for erinacine-A in our Erinamax product.

You can see there is 0.54% erinacine-A, which is the same concentration as the double blind placebo controlled trials on lion's mane mycelium. Some people say, what evidence that erinacine-A is active? Well that's what the studies show.

Prevention of Early Alzheimer’s Disease by Erinacine A-Enriched Hericium erinaceus Mycelia Pilot Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study

Effects of erinacine A-enriched Hericium erinaceus on elderly hearing-impaired patients: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial

There was even a new one last year.

Effect of erinacine A-enriched Hericium erinaceus supplementation on cognition: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study

Then let's look at our Reishi.

Here is a UPLC for ganoderic acids in our Reishi ultra concentrated.

That's 9.8% ganoderic acids. Remember Host Defense? ZERO. This 9.8% is the most potent in the world, and it is not even close. The closest we have found so far in another competitor is around 1.8%.

Here is the UPLC for ganoderic acids in the finished capsules of our 9%.

That's 16.3mg of ganoderic acids per capsule; hundreds of times more than most Reishi on the market. So not all mushroom supplements are a scam. They just need to be properly standardized to the bioactives. The issue is that most brands are not doing that.