Fungi Friday's - April 22, 2022
Issue #28
Hey there Fungi Friday fam,
It’s your favorite day of the week — and not just because we made it through another long week of work and are finally to the weekend. Everything is starting to get real for the boys over at Iowa Fungi. As you’re reading this, our first batch of blue oyster mushroom spores should be arriving. One more weekend of work to finish out the incubation chamber this weekend and we are full speed ahead! Hoping to have plenty of updates (and maybe even a few pictures) of the outfit for you next week. Exciting times!
But for now, let’s get on to the stories!
The Danish Morel Project
The first feature of the week is actually not a new news story at all, but instead a link to a fascinating website documenting a project that’s been ongoing since 1977. Many of you are probably familiar with morel mushrooms, and some of you might even know that this time of year in the midwest is peak morel hunting season, but for the vast majority of the world, morels only happen to grow in the wild. At least that was until 2005, when a few labs around the world, the Danish Morel Project being one of them, were finally able to replicate morel growth in a controlled environment and since then, have been working to optimize their results even further.
This really is a fascinating website for anyone moderately interested in morels (or fungi as a whole). To be honest, I feel like even I have only skimmed the surface of all of the content, but I do plan to keep going and recommend you do too! Whether it be to study up on what it takes to optimally grow these treasures, or to simply learn more about morels and mushrooms in general, I bet you’ll find it interesting.
7 Potential Health Benefits of Mushrooms
I know what you must be thinking by now… another week, another “health benefits of mushrooms” article. I know, I know… but this one in particular I found interesting as its claims have been medically reviewed, and quite honestly mushrooms are all the rage in health circles right now.
That being said, if you aren’t looking to read all about the same old, same old… here’s a little TLDR for you:
Mushrooms Support Immunity and Bone Health
Mushrooms May Promote Gut Health
Mushrooms Are Good for Your Blood Pressure
Mushrooms Have Been Linked With Cancer Prevention
Mushrooms May Promote Longevity When Substituted for Red Meat
Mushrooms May Boost Brain Health
Certain Psychoactive Mushrooms Are a Possible Treatment for Mental Health Conditions
That all being said, there are some really good details, accompanied by a plethora of links to studies backing these claims, so I do still recommend checking out the article!
We may finally know how magic mushrooms help fight depression
And for our final feature of this week, we’ll go ahead and bring an article that actually expands upon #7 above. In a newly released study out of the United Kingdom, researchers believe that not only does psilocybin improve depression, but they also are finally beginning to believe they understand WHY!
According to the study, “Psilocybin creates a liberating effect in the brain, the study authors write, breaking it out of the rut of depressive thinking.” The reason for this is believed to be that a psychedelic experience actually rewires the brain, inducing additional brain activity and reconnecting parts of the brain. This reconnection between different brain networks is supposedly a potential therapy for depression. As with any good study on the brain though, this revelation mostly has just led to more questions, as there is still so much we don’t know. Overall, has been and should continue to be a fun area to monitor… and you know as the cool stories are released, we’ll be sure to bring them to you!
Want even more? Here are some other interesting, mushroom focused reads of the week:
As always, thank you for reading this weeks edition of Fungi Friday’s! If you enjoyed what you found, please feel free to forward to friends also interested in the Fungi Community!
Connect with me on Twitter @BowTiedMushroom
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