Lion’s Mane: Brain and Nerve Growth
In one landmark human trial, participants with mild cognitive impairment who took Lion’s Mane extract over 16 weeks showed significantly improved performance on cognitive scales compared to placebo.
Further recent trials using concentrated, fruiting-body extracts showed improved scores on executive function tasks in healthy adults.
Mechanistically, Lion’s Mane contains erinacines and hericenones, which stimulate nerve growth factor (NGF) synthesis, working via pathways like JNK/c-Jun activation.
In vitro studies also show these compounds promote neuronal outgrowth, dendrite branching, and synaptic plasticity.
What to expect / when to take:
Best used in the morning or early day, when you're engaging in mental tasks, learning, or creative work.
Over 4–16 weeks, many users report improvements in focus, mental clarity, memory retention, and “flow” states. (Effects tend to accumulate gradually.)