Can A Mushroom From Brazil Be The Secret To Brain Health?

Can A Mushroom From Brazil Be The Secret To Brain Health?

If you ever find yourself drowsy during the day, you need to know about adiponectin.

This little-known substance is a protein hormone you already have in your body and it is a key player in regulating blood sugar. When mid-afternoon brain fog hits, it usually means your blood sugar is taking a nose dive. And that could mean you don’t have enough adiponectin in your system.

Why haven’t you heard of this before?

Well, scientists have known for years that adiponectin helps to keep your blood sugar stable because it helps your body to utilize insulin better. But they didn’t know how to raise the levels of adiponectin in your body. And they didn’t know how important it would be to do that – until now.

The Mushroom Connection

For centuries, Asians have prized mushrooms for their healing properties. They have been cultivated as both food and medicine. They didn’t know how the mushrooms had such power, or what the chemical compounds in them might be – they just knew they worked.

In 1960, a Japanese grower and researcher named Furumoto discovered an unfamiliar mushroom species in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which he began to grow. A few years later, he sent it back to Japan to be studied. It was identified as Agaricus blazei by Belgian scientist Heinemann in 1967.

When Mr. Furumoto died, interest in the mushroom, called the Sun Mushroom by the Brazilians, faded away. Then, in the 1990s, Japanese researchers found that this mushroom had anti-tumor effects. They began to export it from Brazil again.

Since then, Agaricus blazei has undergone a lot of research and has been found to reduce weight, body fat and cholesterol levels in healthy people. It has also been shown to help stabilize blood sugar.

How did it do that?

By increasing levels of adiponectin.
The connection was made.
Glucose Levels and Brain Function

When it comes to brain health, glucose levels are everything. Brain neurons can’t store glucose, so they need a steady supply coming in all the time. High blood sugar levels are damaging. But low blood sugar levels leave you running on fumes. So stability is crucial if you want optimum performance from your brain.

This was tested by Ewan C. McNay, a researcher at Yale University, by looking at how rats performed in a maze and watching the glucose levels in their brains. McNay commented, “The brain runs on glucose. Young rats can do a pretty good job of supplying all the glucose that a particular area of the brain needs until the task becomes difficult. For an old rat given the same task, the brain glucose supply vanishes out the window…A lack of fuel affects the ability to think and remember.”

And it gets even more specific than that.

The part of the brain used for learning and memory is called the hippocampus. One area of that section, known as the dentate gyrus, shows up as damaged when memory loss occurs. This is very common in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Now it has been shown, by a study published in the Annals of Neurology, that blood glucose goes straight to the dentate gyrus. Long-term high blood sugar levels are definitely causing brain damage. Lead researcher on this study, Dr. Scott Small of Columbia University Medical Center, comments, “maintaining stable blood sugar levels…could help maintain aspects of cognitive health.”

No doubt about it, steady blood sugar levels are what keep your brain firing on all cylinders all day long. And don’t forget that your brain is pulling energy even when you’re sleeping – that’s when it does maintenance and repair work.

Lessons Learned From the World’s Fattest Mice

An interesting experiment using adiponectin was conducted by Dr. Philipp Scherer at the University of Texas. Mice were programmed to overeat by depriving them of the hormone leptin. The mice ate nonstop and grew to an astonishing five times the size of a normal mouse.

Next, some of the fat mice were put into a sub-group and made to overproduce adiponectin by about three times the normal amount. Of this group, none of the adiponectin mice developed diabetes. And every single one of the control group did.

What was the protective effect of adiponectin?

Apparently, it was the distribution of fat. All of the adiponectin mice had a lot of fat stored just under the skin, but not much in their internal organs, like the liver. And the liver, when it can’t use insulin well, sets off a chain reaction leading to diabetes.

Scherer explained that distribution of fat may determine whether overweight and obesity can lead to diabetes. “It’s a little bit like real estate,” he said, “it’s location, location, location.”

Now we know why not every overweight person develops damage from high blood sugar, but a lot of thin people do. The difference could be adiponectin.

Perfect Blood Sugar Control

It’s only been two years since the first study was done on the Agaricus mushroom to find that it boosted adiponectin levels. But the effect of adiponectin on glucose in the body is well documented.

Clearing excess sugar from the blood can prevent damage from chronically high blood sugar and insulin levels. And keeping blood sugar levels stable also means you will have plenty of brain power and concentration to spare.

The best source of adiponectin I know is the mushroom Agaricus blazei. It’s been right there for the taking for centuries and now we know its special secret.

To Your Health,


Jon Herring
Editorial Director
Total Health Breakthroughs