The Last of Us

The nerd in me loves this kind of mainstream mushroom exposure. I'm here to bring you the key facts of the Cordyceps mushroom and what it offers in terms of health benefits.

Cordyceps fungus was made mainstream thanks to an award-winning video game called 'The Last of Us', first released in 2013. 10 years later and the video game has been transformed into a TV series increasing the famous fungus’ audience to non-gamers. The video game and TV series plays on the fungus’ ability to sprout out of insects, however in real life, the fruiting body sprouts out of the mummified insect host, not humans. Found in the Qinghai-Tibetan region, Cordyceps has a high specificity to its host and environment, and it’s been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for millennia. Though due to its high specificity, and the growing demand for its use not just medicinally, but also for athletic performance, it has fast become an endangered species. Cordyceps is known to be the most expensive raw material used in TCM. A changing climate is also reducing the volume of the annual harvest.

Cordyceps; in Latin cord – meaning ‘club’ and ceps – meaning ‘head’

Cordyceps is often thought of as a parasite but there is contention over this categorisation, with many researchers countering that the fungus has a symbiotic relationship with the host. The mushroom may offer its energy-boosting properties to the host during its growth. When the host insect dies this instigates a reproduce-or-die process whereby the fruiting body protrudes from the organism. This makes more sense from an evolutionary perspective as parasitic behaviours would inevitably result in the death of the mushroom’s host which is not an intelligent way to thrive or evolve in the natural world.

Cordyceps is only found cohabiting in the larvae of an insect, it thrives in mineral-rich soil, a very specific atmosphere, and a low temperature, all of which help the fungus produce what is known as secondary metabolites. It’s these secondary metabolites that confer the healing properties, which is very difficult to replicate in a lab. Cultivated Cordyceps still offers good healing properties, but the wild species is highly sought after as its thought the mushroom from its original source is supreme in quality.

Cordyceps contains all the essential amino acids (check out my Instagram post ‘What are good quality proteins?’), vitamins E, K, and B1, B2, and B12. Cordyceps also contains immunosuppressant, cyclosporin, a compound used in modern medicine to help treat inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and in organ transplants. As with most mushrooms, Cordyceps also contains beta-glucans; a fibre that may help with reducing cholesterol absorption, support heart health, and may help the immune system fight off infections.

Its been used in TCM to help with respiratory, pulmonary, liver, kidney, and cardiovascular diseases, low libido and high blood lipids. It’s also used as an adjunct to chemotherapy. Perhaps its most well-known health property is its ability to help with weakness and fatigue. In the West, it is most often used as an energy-boosting intervention for both athletes and the elderly. Cordyceps seems to increase cellular ATP use (ATP is the energy currency in the body), and perhaps increased oxygen availability - the fungus does indeed grow at high altitudes! This differs to caffeine, amphetamines and ephedrine of which energy is perceived in the central nervous system, but these compounds do not increase ATP usage like Cordyceps does. In addition, the mushroom also regulates blood sugar metabolism.