The legendary lingzhi mushroom has been shown to have another potential therapeutic function: to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease.
Lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum), or reishi in Japanese, is a medicinal fungus used clinically in many Asian countries to promote health and longevity. Lingzhi has been shown to have an effect on prostate cancer and breast cancer. Together with a special TCM formula, lingzhi can help sooth arthritis pain.
According to the researchers at the University of Hong Kong, synaptic degeneration is a key mode of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Recent studies have shown the loss of synaptic density proteins in each individual neuron during the progression of Alzheimer's. It was recently reported that ¦Â-amyloid could cause synaptic dysfunction and contribute to Alzheimer's pathology.
How does ¦Â-amyloid relate to Alzheimer's? Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. The neuropathology of Alzheimer's is characterized at first by the deposition of extracellular amyloid plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, and later by the loss of neurons and their processes.
Alzheimer's disease is expressed by excessive deposition of the ¦Â-amyloid peptide (¦Â-AP) in the central nervous system. Cognitive impairment appears to be most closely correlated in time with the loss of neurons and neuronal processes.
A correlation between lower synapse density and greater proximity to ¦Â-amyloid plaques was found in a Jan 2007 study.
One study said that antibodies against ¦Â-Amyloid can slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. ¦Â-amyloid is a major histopathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (National Institute on Aging 1997). It is associated with age-related cognitive decline, neurotoxicity, and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles.
In this study, the Hong Kong researchers reported that aqueous extract of lingzhi significantly attenuated A¦Â-induced synaptotoxicity by preserving the synaptic density protein, synaptophysin.
This group of researchers seem to believe that studies on anti-aging herbal medicines like lingzhi and gou qi may open a new therapeutic window for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
