Agaricus Blazei

Agaricus blazei, also known as Royal Sun Agaricus, is a type of mushroom with a long history of use as a traditional medicine in many places around the world. This mushroom is often used as a supplement for improving the immune system and fighting tumor growth. This article is about the main benefits of Agaricus blazei, its potential side effects, the best time to take it, and more.

All of the potential benefits mentioned below are dose-dependent. As with other adaptogenic mushrooms, there is a sweet-spot dose that allows you to get most of the benefits without causing meaningful side effects or tolerance buildup in the body. We will discuss the best dosing protocol later in this article.

Major benefits

Improved immune system – 1.8 grams of Agaricus extract daily for 12 weeks was able to increase natural killer cell activity in healthy individuals. An increase in T-cells was also noted. Both of these findings suggest that taking the mushroom can be helpful for improving immune health.

    Anti-cancer properties – An extract of Agaricus blazei was able to inhibit the growth of human liver cancer cells in vitro. Polysaccharides in this mushroom may inhibit tumor cell proliferation and induce tumor cell apoptosis. Whether or not taking the mushroom as a supplement can protect a person from cancer and slow down tumor growth in humans is yet to be determined but the research we have available shows promise.

Minor benefits

Reduced inflammation – Taking 1.8 grams of Agaricus blazei extract resulted in a reduction of the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP).

Improved blood sugar levels – Most mushrooms, including Agaricus blazei, can positively affect blood glucose levels because of their polysaccharide content. This potential benefit mainly applies to diabetics and people with unhealthy blood sugar levels.

Improved cholesterol levels – Agaricus blazei may improve cholesterol levels by lowering LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol but more studies are necessary to prove this.

The side effects below are dose-dependent. The risk for them increases (often linearly but sometimes exponentially) as you increase the dose. Some of the side effects only apply to very high doses.

Nausea – This side effect is most common when people take the mushroom on an empty stomach.

Diarrhea – Just like nausea, diarrhea caused by the supplement can usually be prevented by taking the mushroom with food.

Toxicity – As an adaptogenic mushroom, Agaricus blazei acts as a mild stressor on the body. That is usually a great thing as it allows your body to adapt to specific forms of stress and become more resilient. However, stressing the body too much can be counter-productive and cause multiple side effects, including toxicity. While acute toxicity is extremely rare, taking high amounts of this mushroom could lead to chronic toxicity and cause some health problems over time. To prevent chronic toxicity or the buildup of tolerance, it is best to stay below 2 grams of extract a day unless you have a great reason to take more.

Contamination – If growing conditions are not properly controlled, Agaricus blazei can be contaminated with bacteria, molds, and other potentially harmful microorganisms. The mushroom can also be contaminated because of poor harvesting, processing, and packaging practices. Some growers also use fungicides, chemical compounds designed to kill or prevent the growth of other fungi. Many fungicides can have detrimental effects on human health. Choose the brand you get mushrooms and mushroom supplements from wisely.

You should probably avoid taking the mushroom if you:

are allergic to Agaricus blazei or mushrooms in general

have liver disease (the mushroom might make the symptoms of the liver disease worse)

experience a severe adverse reaction after taking the mushroom

are pregnant or breastfeeding (while it may be safe to take the adaptogen during pregnancy or breastfeeding, it can act as a stressor and should likely be avoided during this period)

suffer from an autoimmune disease (adaptogenic mushrooms can stimulate the immune system, which can worsen symptoms of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus or multiple sclerosis)

are on a tight supplement budget (there are more cost-effective supplements on the market for most people)

You should consider taking the supplement if you:

don’t suffer from any autoimmune disease but wish to improve immune health

experience high levels of inflammation

have a high budget for supplements and are willing to experiment with a variety of them (Agaricus blazei appears safe and is unlikely to do more harm than good in most people)

Because Agaricus blazei can be considered an adaptogenic mushroom, it acts as a mild hormetic stressor on the body, which allows your body to adapt and become more resilient in the long term.

As with other adaptogens, a higher dose does not necessarily lead to bigger benefits. Instead, there appears to be an inverted U-shaped dose-response pattern. In other words, you want to find a sweet-spot dose that allows you to get the benefits of Agaricus blazei without putting too much stress on the body or quickly causing the body to develop tolerance to the mushroom.

The sweet-spot dose typically ranges anywhere between 1-1.5 grams of mushroom extract daily. This amount should provide most of the benefits without meaningful side effects.

The higher end of this range usually provides slightly more benefits in the short term. If you plan to take the mushroom for a longer time (multiple months or years), the lower end is probably a better way to go since you’d develop tolerance faster if you were to take higher doses.

While higher doses are generally safe, taking more than the sweet-spot dose daily would be counter-productive as your body would develop tolerance rather quickly. Additionally, very high doses can put too much stress on your system and cause some health problems if you take the supplement for a prolonged period.

Just like with most other adaptogens, it is best to cycle Agaricus blazei and stay off of it for about 2 days per week to reset your tolerance. This will allow you to keep getting the benefits in the long term.

Keep in mind that the effects of this mushroom are cumulative. Therefore, you must take it for at least 2-4 weeks to notice the benefits. But again, cycling the mushroom and not taking it at least twice a week is necessary to prevent tolerance in the long term.

The main bioactive compounds in Agaricus blazei are fat-soluble so to maximize the absorption, take this mushroom with a meal.

It is usually better to take this mushroom in the morning. However, taking this supplement at night is not necessarily a bad idea so feel free to experiment with different times of the day.