Is more lion's mane better?

More is better is a claim about the shape of a curve: the four dose-response shapes every supplement a lifter takes belongs to, and why the shape is the whole answer

Is more lion's mane better is a question that assumes a line, because more is better is a statement about the slope of a dose-response curve, and the first thing to do with it is draw the four shapes such curves take, since each shape gives the question a different answer. The first shape is linear: the effect rises with the dose and keeps rising until a harm sets in, which is the shape of alcohol's effect on reaction time and of most toxins, and the only shape where more is simply more. The second is the plateau, which is the shape of the two supplements a lifter takes with the best evidence. Creatine saturates the muscle's stores at 3 to 5g a day and a tenth gram beyond saturation is excreted as creatinine; protein's effect on muscle gain rises to about 1.6g per kilogram of bodyweight a day and then flattens, so that the fortieth gram of a shake builds what the thirtieth built, which is nothing extra. On a plateau, more is not better and not worse, merely more expensive. The third is the threshold: a vitamin does nothing at all until it corrects a deficiency, then nothing again across a wide safe range, then harm past its upper level, so that B12 lifts cognition in a deficient person and leaves a replete one exactly where they were. On a threshold curve, more is better only for the person below the threshold, which a blood test identifies. The fourth is the inverted U, the shape of caffeine, whose benefit to alertness and to a lifter's rate of perceived exertion rises to about 3mg per kilogram, roughly 200mg in a 70kg lifter, and then reverses, with tremor, anxiety and a worse session beyond 6mg per kilogram. On an inverted U, more is better and then more is worse, and the top of the curve is the dose. Every supplement with a human evidence base sits on one of these four shapes, and the shape is what tells a lifter whether a second scoop, capsule or tablet is a purchase or a waste or a harm.

The reason the shape is the whole answer is that the same words, more is better, are true on the rising half of an inverted U, false on a plateau, conditionally true on a threshold and true until the harm on a linear curve, and a lifter who does not know which curve a substance sits on cannot know what more means for it. The curves are drawn from dose-comparison studies: the creatine plateau from trials giving 3, 5 and 20g, the protein plateau from a meta-analysis across intakes, the caffeine inverted U from trials giving 3, 6 and 9mg per kilogram and finding the same performance gain at the first two and the side effects at the third. A dose-response curve needs at least two doses to have a direction and three to have a shape, and the next section counts how many lion's mane has.

Lion's mane's curve is a single point: the one positive dose, the one other dose that draws no line with it, what the toxicology does and does not say, and the three honest moves

Lion's mane has had one human dose with a positive result attached: 3g a day of fruiting body powder, as four tablets, for sixteen weeks in 30 Japanese adults aged 50 to 80 with mild cognitive impairment, where a cognitive scale separated from placebo at week eight, widened at twelve and sixteen, and fell back during a four-week washout, with no serious adverse events. That is one point on the graph, at 3g, in one population, on one outcome. The only other human dose is the young-adult pilot's 1.8g, given once with a faster Stroop at sixty minutes and daily for four weeks with no clear effect, and this point does not sit on the same graph as the first, since the outcome, the population and the duration all differ, so it cannot be joined to the 3g point to make a line. No study has given two doses of lion's mane to the same kind of people on the same outcome, which is the only experiment that draws a direction. The mushroom's dose-response curve is therefore a single point with no line through it, and the question is more better has no evidential answer in either direction: 4g has never been compared with 3g, 1g has never been compared with 3g, and a lifter who doubles the capsule is adding a second point to a graph nobody has drawn, with no way of reading the result off a single person's week. The nearest thing to a slope is the extract arithmetic, which is a conversion rather than a curve: a 5:1 extract labelled 1500mg mushroom equivalent sits near half the studied 3g of powder, and a second capsule sits near it, but matching the point is not the same as knowing what lies on either side of it.

What the toxicology says is only about the ceiling. Rodent studies at grams per kilogram for 28 and 90 days found no organ change, which places the harm end of any curve far above anything a capsule delivers and is the one reason a second capsule is unlikely to hurt; it says nothing about whether the second capsule helps, because toxicology measures damage rather than benefit, and the human tolerability record, no serious adverse events across the trials, is a record for the doses used rather than for doses above them. So the three honest moves follow from the shape of the evidence rather than from a guess at the shape of the curve. The first is to match the one studied point as nearly as a labelled extract allows, which a stated 5:1 extract with its mushroom equivalent on the label makes a matter of reading. The second is to hold it there, since the point is where the tolerability record lives and where the one result was found. The third is to refuse to spend the difference, because a second capsule a day doubles the cost of a 120-day tub to buy a position on a line whose direction is unknown, and the money is better placed on the plateau substances whose curves are drawn, creatine and protein, where a lifter knows exactly what the next gram does. The worked example, {FLLM}, sits on the one studied point at 13p a day for 120 days, a stated 5:1 fruiting body extract labelled 1500mg mushroom equivalent per capsule, UK made, independently lab tested, with no claim and no suggestion on its label that a second capsule buys anything, which is the only honest thing a label can say about a curve with one point on it.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Is taking more lion's mane better?

By the evidence, nobody knows, because more is better is a claim about the slope of a dose-response curve and lion's mane has a single point on its curve rather than a line: one positive human dose, 3g a day of fruiting body powder for sixteen weeks in older adults with mild impairment, one other dose of 1.8g in young adults on a different outcome, and no study that has ever compared two doses against each other; a second capsule adds a point to a graph nobody has drawn, and a lifter cannot read the direction of the line off their own week.

What are the four shapes a dose-response curve takes?

Linear, where more keeps giving until a harm sets in, the shape of alcohol and most toxins; plateau, where creatine saturates muscle stores at 3 to 5g and protein stops building past about 1.6g per kilogram, so more is merely more expensive; threshold, where a vitamin helps only until a deficiency is corrected and harms past its upper level, so more helps only the person a blood test finds below the line; and inverted U, where caffeine helps to about 3mg per kilogram and worsens tremor, anxiety and the session beyond 6mg per kilogram, so the top of the curve is the dose.

Is it safe to take two lion's mane capsules a day?

Safe by the ceiling evidence, since rodent toxicology at grams per kilogram for 28 and 90 days found no organ change and places the harm end of any curve far above two capsules, and the human trials at up to 3g a day recorded no serious adverse events; but toxicology measures damage rather than benefit, so safe to take and better to take are different questions, and the second has no answer; the exclusions still stand at any dose, pregnancy, breastfeeding, fungal or mould allergy, under-18s, and a pharmacist's check on anticoagulant, antiplatelet, diabetes and immunosuppressant medicines.

How much lion's mane did the studies use?

The sixteen-week trial in 30 adults aged 50 to 80 with mild impairment used 3g a day of fruiting body powder as four tablets, the young-adult pilot used 1.8g as a single dose and then daily for four weeks, and the menopausal cookie study used powdered fruiting body baked into cookies at about 2g a day; a 5:1 extract labelled 1500mg mushroom equivalent per capsule sits near half the 3g powder dose by the label's own arithmetic, and the extract-to-powder conversion is a conversion rather than evidence that any particular dose works better than another.

Where should a lifter spend the money a second capsule would cost?

On the substances whose curves are drawn, because there the next gram has a known effect: creatine monohydrate at 3 to 5g a day sits on a plateau with the largest evidence base in sport nutrition, and total protein at about 1.6g per kilogram of bodyweight a day sits on a plateau for muscle gain; both have authorised or well-supported effects, both cost pence a day, and neither asks a lifter to guess the direction of a line, whereas a second lion's mane capsule doubles the cost of a 120-day tub to buy a position on a curve with one point on it.

Sources

1. The dose-response literature in nutrition and pharmacology: responses follow one of a few shapes, linear, plateau, threshold or inverted U, with caffeine inverted U, creatine and protein plateau at saturation, and vitamins threshold then upper level, and a curve can only be drawn from at least two doses, so that an intervention tested at a single dose has no dose-response relationship at all. PubMed record
2. The mushroom processing literature: hot-water extraction of dried fruiting bodies typically yields on the order of a tenth of the starting mass as dried extract, the basis of the common 8:1 to 12:1 ratio band. PubMed record
3. Mori K, Inatomi S, Ouchi K, Azumi Y, Tuchida T. Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Phytotherapy Research 2009;23(3):367-372. PubMed record
4. The Hericium erinaceus tolerability literature: human trials at grams-scale daily doses of fruiting-body preparations reported no serious adverse events, with mild gastrointestinal complaints and rare allergic reactions the reported issues, and a long history of the species as food. PubMed record

Related answers

• Lion's mane vs caffeine: which is better?
• Lion's mane fruiting body vs mycelium: which is better?
• Lion's mane vs creatine: which is better?
• Is ashwagandha or lion's mane better?
• Lion's mane powder vs capsules: which is better?
• Lion's mane vs coffee: which is better?