Can the mushroom-derived nutrient ergothioneine prevent dementia?

Delaying age-related diseases: Can the mushroom-derived nutrient ergothioneine prevent dementia?
Distinguished Professor Barry Halliwell
host: Kamil Pabis, PhD, co-organized by VIVA foundation

As we sit in this room, we are all breathing oxygen (O2), a gas essential for life for efficient energy production from our food. Yet oxygen has a dark side; some of it makes reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as oxygen radicals, which can damage our body tissues, a factor that contributes to age-related diseases, especially dementia. ROS are not all bad, they help protect against infectious disease via the process of acute inflammation (keeping us alive) yet as we age inflammation isn’t controlled properly and the extra ROS cause more damage that contributes to age-related diseases. ROS levels in the body are controlled by antioxidants, many of which we make ourselves but others come from the diet. Most attention has been paid to vitamins C and E, polyphenols and carotenoids. Consuming diets rich in these compounds correlates with better health, but high doses of them as pure compounds in supplements have had little effect in delaying dementia and other age-related diseases in properly-controlled human clinical trials; supplements cannot replace the effects of a good diet. Interpreting correlational studies as causation is often done, but fraught with danger.
In the past ten years we have studied a diet-derived antioxidant that has been almost totally ignored, namely ergothioneine (ET). It is found in many foods, but the major source is mushrooms. Our work has demonstrated that ET is likely very important in maintaining brain health and delaying or preventing dementia and other age-related disease, and pilot clinical trials support this. Evidence is growing that ET is a “longevity vitamin” to support healthy ageing, but rigorous clinical trials are needed to prove this. Its effectiveness may be due to its many additional mechanisms to protect our organs, in addition to a