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Lion's Mane Supplements: What the Trials Show for Memory, Mood and Nerves

Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus) is a mushroom eaten as food and contains no psilocybin, though some "nootropic" mushroom gummies listing it have held hidden psilocin, the active form of psilocybin. Trials are small: in 30 older adults with mild cognitive impairment, 16 weeks of mushroom-powder tablets raised thinking scores more than placebo, which fell within a month of stopping (grade C). Healthy-adult and anxiety trials found no clear benefit over placebo (grade C). Rare allergic and lung reactions are reported.

Published How we grade evidenceEditorial policy

Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus), a mushroom found mostly in East Asia, is widely eaten as food and used in traditional Chinese medicine (LiverTox). This guide covers adults taking it by mouth for memory, focus or mood: what the trials found, which form they used, and the reactions on record.

The short version

  • Memory in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (against placebo): thinking scores rose more than on placebo in one 16-week trial of 30 people and dropped within 4 weeks of stopping; a 49-week pilot in mild Alzheimer's disease found better daily-living scores, but not memory scores, on erinacine-enriched mycelium capsules than on placebo. Grade C (Mori 2009; Li 2020).
  • Focus and thinking in healthy adults (against placebo): a single test changed here and there, but overall thinking did not improve in three small trials. Grade C (Docherty 2023; Surendran 2025; Grozier 2022).
  • Anxiety, low mood and sleep (against placebo): no clear benefit in the two trials that compared groups. Grade C (Nagano 2010; Smith 2026).
  • Nerve damage and neuropathy: animal and lab studies only. Grade D (Taib 2026).
  • Rare reactions: single case reports describe an allergic skin rash, anaphylaxis after eating the fresh mushroom, and a severe lung reaction to an extract. Grade D (case reports) (Maes 1999; Muhanna 2024; Nakatsugawa 2003).
Question (who, compared with what)What trials foundSize of effectGrade
Thinking scores (30 adults aged 50 to 80 with mild cognitive impairment, vs placebo)Higher at weeks 8 to 16, lower again after stoppingOne small trial; points not statedC
Thinking and daily living (mild Alzheimer's, mycelium capsules vs placebo, 49 weeks)Better daily-living score than placebo at week 49; MMSE rose within the treated group only, not more than placeboOne pilot; 41 of 49 finishedC
Thinking and mood (healthy adults 18 to 45, vs placebo)One test sped up more than on placebo after a dose; no overall gainTrials of 41, 18 and 24 peopleC
Anxiety (84 women aged 18 to 26 with stress or anxiety, vs placebo)Lion's mane alone no better than placeboAll groups improvedC

Does lion's mane contain psilocybin or make you high?

No. Lion's mane is an edible mushroom used widely as food (LiverTox). A 2026 review of mushroom compounds for mental health counts lion's mane extracts among non-psychoactive natural products sold as supplements, set apart from psilocybin "magic" mushrooms (Gawłowska 2026). The mix-up comes from microdosing: in an observational study of 953 people who microdosed psilocybin, many "stacked" it with lion's mane, some with niacin too (Rootman 2022).

The real risk is the product, not the mushroom. A CDC report from Virginia notes that lion's mane is not a mind-altering mushroom, yet of 5 brands of "nootropic" mushroom gummies bought at gas stations and smoke shops, 3 held psilocybin or psilocin that the label didn't list, and the 2 of those 3 that named lion's mane among their ingredients held psilocin, the active form of psilocybin (Michienzi 2024). If a lion's mane gummy makes you feel high, something else is in it.

Does lion's mane help memory or mild cognitive impairment?

Grade C: small gains in a few small trials; in the one that checked, they faded after stopping. In 30 people in Japan, aged 50 to 80, with mild cognitive impairment (memory and thinking problems beyond normal aging, but not dementia), tablets of 96% dried mushroom powder, four 250 mg tablets three times daily, lifted scores on a thinking scale above placebo at weeks 8, 12 and 16. Four weeks after the tablets stopped, the scores had dropped significantly (Mori 2009). In a 49-week pilot in mild Alzheimer's disease, three 350 mg capsules a day of mycelium enriched with erinacine A gave better daily-living scores than placebo at week 49. The MMSE (a standard memory and thinking screen) rose within the mycelium group but did not differ significantly from placebo. Of 49 people randomized, 41 finished, and five of the authors worked for the company that made the capsules (Li 2020). In 31 adults over 50 who started with normal scores, 12 weeks of a supplement made from the fruiting body raised MMSE scores more than placebo but did not change two other memory tests (Saitsu 2019).

Its grade C rests on small trials of three different products, none repeated; a 2025 systematic review found five randomized and three pilot trials in people (Menon 2025). That matches our memory and brain fog guide. New or worsening memory problems need a medical assessment first; see mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Does lion's mane help focus or brain fog in healthy adults?

Grade C: no clear overall benefit. In 41 healthy people aged 18 to 45, 1.8 g a day (three 600 mg capsules) sped them up more than placebo on one attention test, the Stroop task, an hour after the first dose; after 28 days there was only a borderline trend toward less stress than on placebo, with null and some negative results (Docherty 2023). Among 18 adults aged 18 to 35, a single 3 g dose of a concentrated fruiting-body extract left overall thinking and mood no different from a placebo drink, though people did better than on placebo in a pegboard test of hand dexterity; two of its authors worked for a drinks company that uses lion's mane (Surendran 2025). In 24 college-age adults, 10 g a day baked into muffins for 4 weeks changed neither thinking under fatigue nor fuel use during exercise, against placebo muffins (Grozier 2022).

Does lion's mane help anxiety or depression?

Grade C: no clear benefit over placebo so far. In 30 women, average age about 41, with assorted everyday complaints, four cookies a day made with lion's mane powder for 4 weeks lowered depression scores within that group, but the change did not differ from placebo cookies; only two items on a 40-item complaints list beat placebo, and anxiety merely trended lower (Nagano 2010). In 84 women aged 18 to 26 with stress or anxiety, 28 days of lion's mane powder capsules (1.8 g a day) did not lower the main anxiety score more than placebo. A lion's mane and reishi blend beat lion's mane alone, while scores improved in all three groups, including those on placebo (Smith 2026).

Our lion's mane data page shows grade C, mixed, for anxiety from the 2010 trial alone; the 2026 trial is why this guide says no clear benefit. Computer modeling predicts that a compound in lion's mane extract binds the serotonin transporter, the target of SSRI antidepressants, but that is grade D lab work, not a human result (Mohan 2025). On an antidepressant? Don't stop, skip or swap it; see supplements and antidepressants, supplements for anxiety and depression.

Does lion's mane help sleep?

Grade C: no clear effect in the one placebo-controlled trial. In the 30-woman cookie trial, sleep quality scores did not change differently from placebo over 4 weeks (Nagano 2010). In an 8-week study of 77 adults with overweight on a low-calorie diet, mood and sleep scores improved from baseline on a mostly mycelium supplement, but depression scores did not differ from the diet-alone group, no between-group difference was reported for sleep, and there was no placebo (Vigna 2019). For sleep aids with more trials, see sleep supplements compared and insomnia.

Does lion's mane help nerve damage or neuropathy?

Grade D: animal and lab studies only. A 2026 systematic review of mushrooms for nerve injury found lion's mane aided nerve repair in animals and cells, and called for clinical research (Taib 2026). In diabetic rats, an ethanol extract raised pain thresholds and lowered blood sugar (Yi 2015). No trial has tested lion's mane for neuropathy in people; see diabetic neuropathy.

Mycelium or fruiting body: which form did the trials use?

Products come from the fruiting body (the mushroom you can cook) or the mycelium (the root-like threads it grows from). In a lab analysis, the mycelium made compounds called erinacines and fruiting-body samples had none detectable; the authors work for a mushroom supplement maker, as their conflict-of-interest statement says (Doar 2025). The trials split the same way: fruiting body in the cookie, older-adult and single-dose trials (Nagano 2010; Saitsu 2019; Surendran 2025), mycelium in the Alzheimer's pilot (Li 2020). The memory-trial tablets, the 1.8 g capsule trials and the muffin trial did not say which part was used (Mori 2009; Docherty 2023; Smith 2026; Grozier 2022), and the overweight-adult study used mostly mycelium (Vigna 2019). A result for one form says little about another, and none of these trials used gummies or mushroom coffee.

How much lion's mane did the trials use, and how long does it take?

Adult trials used 1.8 g a day of capsules for 28 days (Docherty 2023; Smith 2026), twelve 250 mg tablets a day for 16 weeks (Mori 2009), three 350 mg mycelium capsules a day for 49 weeks (Li 2020), and 10 g a day in food for 4 weeks (Grozier 2022). No official upper limit exists for lion's mane. In the memory trial, the gain showed by week 8 and had dropped significantly 4 weeks after stopping (Mori 2009). Taking several products? Check your stack.

What we'd skip

  • Lion's mane instead of a memory assessment or dementia care: the gains in mild cognitive impairment came from one 30-person trial and dropped within a month of stopping (Mori 2009).
  • Lion's mane in place of anxiety treatment: in the largest anxiety trial, lion's mane alone did no better than placebo (Smith 2026).

Safety and interactions

  • Common side effects: in the 49-week Alzheimer's pilot, three people on the mycelium capsules (and one on placebo) quit because of stomach discomfort, nausea or skin rash (Li 2020). A 2025 systematic review lists stomach discomfort, headache and allergic reactions among possible side effects, which it says often go unrecorded (Menon 2025).
  • Mushroom gummies with hidden drugs: in the CDC report above, 5 people, one of them a 3-year-old, needed hospital checks after eating gummies labeled as containing another mushroom, Amanita muscaria; the adults had a racing heart, confusion, anxiety or sleepiness, and nausea. Separate lab tests of shop gummies, including ones listing lion's mane, found unlabeled psilocin (Michienzi 2024). Avoid "nootropic" or "legal psychedelic" mushroom gummies sold in smoke shops, and keep all gummies away from children.
  • Allergic and lung reactions (rare, single case reports): a case report describes allergic contact dermatitis, an itchy skin rash, from handling lion's mane at work (Maes 1999). An ALS evidence review describes one case of anaphylaxis (a severe whole-body allergic reaction) after someone ate the fresh mushroom (Muhanna 2024). A man of 63 developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, a sudden severe lung inflammation, after taking an extract sold as a diet food; a lab test showed a strong immune reaction to it, and he recovered with high-dose steroids on a ventilator (Nakatsugawa 2003). If mushrooms have caused you a reaction before, ask a clinician first.
  • Liver: LiverTox, the US government's liver-injury database, says lion's mane has not been linked to liver enzyme rises or to clinically apparent liver injury (LiverTox). In one case report, a woman with bowel cancer had liver injury on a powder of lion's mane plus another mushroom (Agaricus blazei); it improved once she stopped, and the authors blamed the Agaricus (Strobbe 2025). With liver disease, or during cancer treatment, ask your care team first.
  • Blood thinners such as apixaban (Eliquis) or warfarin: in lab tests, hericenone B, a lion's mane compound, reduced platelet clumping in rabbit and human platelets (Mori 2010), while a hot-water extract left clotting tests (PT and INR) unchanged (Poniedziałek 2019); both are grade D lab work. No studies have tested lion's mane with apixaban, warfarin or other blood thinners. Ask your prescriber or pharmacist; see the blood thinners guide. Before an operation, tell your surgical team (supplements to stop before surgery).
  • Diabetes medicines (metformin, insulin, tirzepatide): extracts lowered blood sugar in diabetic rats (Liang 2013; Yi 2015), and no studies have tested lion's mane with diabetes medicines. If you add it, test your blood sugar more often and let your prescriber know.
  • Other medicines: no studies have tested lion's mane with SSRIs such as sertraline or escitalopram, with levothyroxine, gabapentin, atomoxetine, lisdexamfetamine or hormone therapy, or with blood pressure medicines, and no trial has tested it in people with high blood pressure. Ask your pharmacist before combining.
  • Upper limit: none has been set; adult trials used about 1 g to 10 g a day, for up to 49 weeks (Li 2020; Grozier 2022).
  • Pregnancy: there are no human studies. Use it only if your midwife or obstetric team says so.
  • Breastfeeding? Ask your midwife, doctor or a lactation specialist, who can check what passes into breast milk.
  • Children: there are no trials in children; ask your child's doctor.

When to see a doctor

  • Call 911 for throat or face swelling, wheezing, trouble breathing or a spreading rash after a dose (possible anaphylaxis), and for sudden confusion, face droop, arm weakness or slurred speech (possible stroke).
  • Call 911 or Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) for hallucinations, a racing heart, confusion or heavy sleepiness after a mushroom gummy, or if a child eats one.
  • Same day for new breathlessness, cough or fever while taking a lion's mane product, or for low blood sugar signs (shaking, sweating, confusion) on diabetes medicine.
  • Soon for memory problems that are new, worsening or worrying those around you; numbness, burning or tingling in your hands or feet; yellow skin or eyes; or unusual bruising or bleeding on a blood thinner.
  • Thoughts of harming yourself: call or text 988 (US) now.

Don't stop a prescribed medicine on your own; ask the prescriber or pharmacist. Pregnant? Follow your midwife or obstetric team. Under 18? A clinician should advise you.

FAQ

Does lion's mane contain psilocybin or make you high? No. It is an edible mushroom eaten as food, and a 2026 review classes its extracts as non-psychoactive. The confusion comes from microdosing routines that combine psilocybin mushrooms with lion's mane, and from "nootropic" mushroom gummies: a CDC report found hidden psilocybin or psilocin in 3 of 5 brands tested, and the 2 that listed lion's mane held psilocin.

Does lion's mane really work for memory? The evidence is thin (grade C). In one 16-week trial of 30 older adults in Japan who had mild cognitive impairment, thinking scores rose more than on placebo but fell again within 4 weeks of stopping; in healthy adults, trials found no clear overall gain.

Does lion's mane help anxiety? Not clearly (grade C). In 84 women aged 18 to 26 with stress or anxiety, lion's mane alone did no better than placebo over 28 days, and in a trial of 30 women, depression scores did not change differently from placebo.

Does lion's mane thin your blood? Only lab studies have looked: one compound reduced platelet clumping, while an extract left clotting tests unchanged. No studies have tested it with blood thinners such as apixaban (Eliquis) or warfarin; check with your prescriber or pharmacist first.

Is lion's mane safe? Trial side effects were mostly stomach discomfort, nausea or rash. Rare case reports describe allergic reactions and one serious lung reaction to an extract; LiverTox has not linked it to liver injury. No human studies cover pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Sources

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