Researchers tested the effects of White Button mushrooms on mice livers. They found that doing so allowed for improved gut microbes, which allowed for the liver to regulate glucose better, which is a very important sugar. Glucose is very important to people with Diabetes, making this finding very intriguing and important. The researches have only tested the effect of the microbes on mice, but hypothesize that it could possibly help humans. With having better regulation of glucose, insulin could have an easier time doing it’s job. This could be a possible major breakthrough for researchers and people with diabetes. Maybe this disease could be combated or prevented in people all around the world!
Here in New Hampshire and the North East, the snow is finally gone and warm weather is on it’s way. With that being said mushrooms are finally starting to fruit, allowing for us to forage them and gaze upon them. If you find some mushrooms that you want to harvest, leave some to allow spores to be spread, giving you consistent mushrooms in that spot. One of the most prized mushrooms, the morel is finally starting to grow in the area.
Since it’s the beginning of the season you will most likely find them in open areas on slopes. Once the season progresses you will find them near a multitude of types of trees in the forest. Some may forage mushrooms for their own consumption, while others may sell theirs, making a profit. People may even just walk around to look at mushrooms, whatever it may be, happy hunting!
The toxin found in the Death Cap mushroom may be able to kill cancer cells. Researchers/scientists based in Germany took the toxin, known as a-amanitin and attached it to an antibody.
These antibodies allowed for the toxin to get into the body without being detected by the immune system. They tested this compound through mice with multiple different types cancer. In 9/10 of the mice cancer cell growth was slowed and reduced.
This is amazing news hearing that this compound can basically kill cancer cells in mice, but can it work with humans? It would be a huge leap in medicine and science if the compound was regulated and safely tested on humans. If we were able to reach this equilibrium, many lives would be prolonged and even saved.
We all know death caps to be the most poisonous/toxic mushrooms in the world, at least that we know of. The mushroom is known for being a European mushroom, but has seen to be spreading all around the world. The mushrooms have made their way to the United States and now even Australia.
There has been a sudden increase in poisonings in Australia since it’s appearance. They say they have seen the mushrooms since 2002, but cases have increased over the years as the mushrooms spreads more and more. Multiple people have died since 2002, making it a serious concern to officials.
Death Cap Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amanita_sp._2010-10-31.jpg
It is quite amazing to see how a mushroom can travel all around the world and colonize. By now the mushrooms is seen as an invasive species and has become a real problem. Overall I don’t see it to be a huge deal, but also I do at the same time. Firstly anyone that is foraging for mushrooms and knows about mushrooms knows what a death cap is and the potential poisonous and lookalike mushrooms in their area. No one that doesn’t know this information should even consider picking and ingesting mushrooms; stick to your local supermarket or farmers market. On the second hand a lot of tourists can mix up this mushroom for a different species, and children don’t know better unless told so. Overall the problem can be solved through educating the population.
The psychedelic compound fond in magic mushrooms, known as psilocybin has remained to be a very mysterious and unknown compound. Scientists would know much more if the ‘drugs’ weren’t highly illegal in the 50’s-70’s. Lately more research is able to be done on the substances, and rules/regulations are better. Scientists can finally find out the long-term effects as well as short-term effects of psilocybin and the genetic makeup of the compound.
Source: https://bit.ly/2OVs1YG
Many recent studies have been searching for potential impacts on the brain that could relieve mental health issues. Thus far benefits are seen in patients with PTSD and other mental health problems. At Imperial College London researchers gave a dozen people psilocybin in controlled amounts over 3 months. These people all had treatment-resistant depression, meaning normal drugs had no effect on them. But to their surprise the psilocybin showed positive impacts in these people as well.
These advancements in the study of this amazing compound may lead us to a brighter future. More ways to combat mental health problems is an amazing thing. So many people struggle on a daily basis, and for some nothing helps, but this could lead to new possibilities!
Since the beginning of the 21st century, scientists have been questioning the possibility of life on Mars. We know that researchers have found signs of water on Mars, but what about actual living organisms? What’s the chance of seeing a living organisms on a barren and sand-covered planet like Mars?
Photos taken from the NASA Curiosity rover have found potential signs of life, although it currently can’t be proven. Photos directly from NASA show ‘puffball’ like mushrooms in the barren wasteland.
Example of a Puffball Source: https://bit.ly/2OsN9oY
Many scientists and researchers at NASA believe that these are signs of life on Mars, although many are skeptical or the idea. Some believe it to even be a metal, although in the pictures I saw, they surely didn’t look like metal fragments of any kind, since they were almost completely round.
If this comes back to be true, this would be a huge step in space exploration as well as mushrooms. We’d finally have proof of other life forms existing in the universe. Although it is highly probable, we haven’t been able to reach far enough into space with our current technology.
Mushrooms have always been known to have many benefits to the human health. They have lots of proteins and nutrients that you can only get in mushrooms. This is why you see a lot of people the diet eating mushrooms daily in their salads or even with dinner. Upon also helping to treat cancer cells, there has been a new discovery in the scientific field.
In Singapore at the Department of Psychological Medicine and Department of Biochemistry at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, researchers have been testing the cognitive effect of mushrooms on the brain. The thing they focused on was the MCI, or Mild Cognitive Impairment of elderly people age 60 and above. MCI has also been linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s as well as Dementia. Through testing over 600 people over 6 years with over 6 different types of mushrooms, the results have concluded that mushrooms may reduce odds of MCI by ~50% (some species more than others).
This could be a major breakthrough in the medical field as well as the biological field. This information may lead to or help us to reduce the chances of people developing MCI or diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia. They ways mushrooms help to aid the earth and its inhabitants continues to grow and grow with more research.
Many mushrooms foragers and people of the hobby have been limited to forage for mushrooms only on their own private land. Some places, like the White Mountains hear at PSU you can forage a certain amount of mushrooms, but only with a license. This has been an issue for a while where people want to be able to forage on state land. I personally don’t care that much about foraging to complain myself, but for some it’s an issue.
Recently in Rhode Island there has been a bill proposed to allow for foraging on state land, but only for personal use and consumption. This could possibly be the next step for foragers. Although they wouldn’t be able to sell their findings, due to it being state land. If people want to research these mushrooms rather than consume them, would that be covered in this new bill- is that considered “personal use”? Although the bill is quite new it still follows the “leave no trace” guidelines which have been enforced through all state parks and such. The bill sounds solid, but will we see it passed anytime soon? If so, this would be a major breakthrough in the mycology community.
A well-known mushroom to many mycologists and hobbyists is the “Death Cap” mushroom. The mushroom has been known of for a very long time to be the most toxic and deadly mushroom in the kingdom fungi. Luckily, here in the United States we don’t have death caps, although we have the “Destroying Angel”, the death cap’s cousin. Both the mushrooms are in the same genus amanita, which is known to be one of the most inedible groups of mushrooms. Typically people stay away from them, although a few are edible.
In the United Kingdom these death caps have been arising more and more. Luckily in the United States it’s easy to tell if a mushroom’s a destroying angel due to it’s distinct features. Sadly in the United Kingdom, sometimes these mushrooms can be miss-identified as an edible mushroom. In the past ten years, multiple cases of poisonings have arisen in the country. The mushrooms account for a large amount of mushroom related fatalities, and remain to be the most deadly common mushroom to this day. People should not be going out and foraging for mushrooms until they know how to properly identify them. And you most certainly should not be eating a mushroom unless you are 100% sure of it’s identity.
If you are new to my blog, you may like mushrooms, or you might not. I want to go over a few reasons why people dislike or stay away from mushrooms and why you shouldn’t be afraid of them.
Most children in the United States are told to avoid mushrooms from a young age. Their parents tell them they’re dangerous, poisonous, and maybe even evil. Although many countries and cultures enjoy and love mushrooms. The fear or aversion of mushrooms is known as Mycophobia, which had came to North America through colonization. The thing that many of these people don’t know is how important mushrooms are, the benefits they have on humans and the earth, their medical uses, their edibility, and spiritual uses.
Mushrooms are more important to the health of the Earth and humans than most people think. Mushrooms are the biospheres main decomposes of dead plants, wood, and various other biodegradable things. Some even help trees survive through a symbiotic relationship, benefiting the mushroom, the tree, as well as the entire biosphere. A mushroom can then spread spores, allowing for thousands of more mushrooms to thrive, forming more symbiotic relationships, forming a more health biosphere. Although some mushrooms/fungi are parasitic, slowly killing plants, allowing for them to spread. They usually don’t cause any problems, but in some cases, scientists release an invasive species to get rid of the parasitic mushrooms.
With mushrooms helping the world through their natural processes, many people, myself included think that they are beautiful pieces of nature. They can come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And a cool thing to think about is that there’s millions of unknown species, just out there for you to discover on your own. Every time I go out looking for mushrooms or on a walk, I always find new and different species. Now, just because I said you should like mushrooms, that doesn’t mean you need to eat them. I don’t even eat them, and don’t plan on it. Overall, I hoped this short blurb of text may have helped changed your views/ideas on mushrooms!
Here are some mushrooms I found on PSU campus last semester!
