Chaga and Lion's Mane: Taking Both

Quick answer

No trial has tested chaga and lion's mane together, and no official source names a problem with the pair. What differs is how much is known about each. Lion's mane was tested in people at about 3 g a day of fruiting body powder. Chaga has no trial on its own, and its kidney cases involved daily powder.^1,2,3

Key facts

The lion's mane trials that found a difference used about 3 g a day of fruiting body powder for 12 to 16 weeks. No study has set an amount for chaga.^1,2,4
At least three people developed kidney damage after months or years of daily chaga powder, at 3 to 15 g a day where the amount was given.^2,3,5
Chaga is the one that carries oxalate: 3 g of powder a day supplies about 420 mg, against 200 to 300 mg in a typical day's diet.²
Our Mushroom Complex gives 266 mg of lion's mane, a fraction of the roughly 3 g in the trials, and does not print the chaga share of the 266 mg blend that chaga shares with five other mushrooms.^1,2

What is known about the pair

We looked for a human trial that gave chaga and lion's mane together and found none. We also found no statement from an official source about the pair, and no measurement of whether one changes how the body takes up the other. Everything below comes from what is known about each mushroom alone.

The two records are built from different material. Lion's mane has roughly ten small human studies, some with a placebo group, so its picture is thin but rests on trials. Chaga's record in people is mostly case reports, which describe what happened to individuals and cannot show how often anything happens.^2,6

What each has shown in people

Lion's mane carries one graded finding. It sits at the lowest grade we use, and it comes from adults over 50, not from the younger adults in several other trials.

May support memory and thinking test scores in adults over 50 at about 3 g a day of fruiting body powder; not shown in younger adults*^1,4,7,8,9

Early evidence

Two small Japanese trials. In 30 adults aged 50 to 80 whose memory and thinking had been assessed as mildly below normal for their age, about 3 g a day of fruiting body powder for 16 weeks raised scores on a cognitive scale more than placebo at weeks 8, 12 and 16, and the gain faded within 4 weeks of stopping. In 31 adults over 50, 3.2 g a day for 12 weeks gave a slightly higher result than placebo on one screening test and no difference on two others. In younger adults, 10 g a day for 4 weeks changed nothing measured, and single doses of 1 to 3 g gave mixed results.

Amount studied: About 3 to 3.2 g a day of fruiting body powder for 12 to 16 weeks

Chaga carries none. The only human work we found was a single dose of an herb mixture that was one fifth chaga, which cannot say what the chaga did, and a laboratory test on blood cells in which no one took chaga.^10,11

NIH's LiverTox notes that the brain effects seen in cell and animal studies have not been shown to any great extent in humans.¹²

Fruiting body, mycelium, powder or extract

Both mushrooms reach the shelf in more than one form, and the form matters for a different reason in each. With lion's mane, the trials that found a difference used the fruiting body, the part people cook and eat. With chaga, the question is powder or extract, because every published case of kidney damage involved powder.^1,3

The fruiting body is the part of the mushroom that is cooked and eaten. Hericenones come from it, and it is the form used in the trials of about 3 g a day.^1,8,13

Water and alcohol extracts of chaga from Finland, Russia and Thailand all contained oxalic acid as their main organic acid, the most in a Russian water extract.¹⁴

Starch is a polysaccharide too, so a total polysaccharide figure on a label is not the same as beta-glucan. Beta-glucan tests measure total glucan and subtract starch and glycogen, which are measured separately.¹⁵

Do the amounts add up?

The two share no nutrient with an upper limit, and no upper limit has been set for either mushroom. So there is no total to exceed. The amounts that matter are separate ones: how much lion's mane you take, and how much oxalate the chaga brings.^2,7

Amounts and reports, one mushroom at a time^1,2,3,4,7,12
	Lion's mane	Chaga
Daily amount in trials with a result	About 3 to 3.2 g of fruiting body powder, for 12 to 16 weeks	No trial of chaga on its own
Highest daily amount tested	10 g for 4 weeks, in college-age adults	None tested
What was reported	Mild stomach complaints in under 10% of people in longer trials	Kidney damage after 3 to 15 g of powder a day, for 3 months to 5 years
Oxalate figure	None in the sources we read	2.8, 11.2 and 14.2 g per 100 g in three companies' powders

What's in ours

Our Mushroom Complex already holds both mushrooms, so taking our Lion's Mane as well counts lion's mane twice, which is the overlap flagged above. In the Mushroom Complex label, lion's mane has a row of its own at 266 mg, while chaga sits inside a shared blend row. Because the chaga amount is not printed, we cannot say how a serving compares with the grams of powder in the case reports.^1,2

Kidney, allergy and who should ask first

Oxalate nephropathy, kidney damage from oxalate crystals, has been reported in at least three people who took chaga powder every day for months or years.^2,3,5

A 69-year-old man who took 10 to 15 g of chaga powder a day, with 500 mg of vitamin C, for three months developed acute kidney injury. His kidneys recovered after dialysis and steroid treatment.³

At 0.14 g of oxalate per gram of powder, 3 g of chaga a day supplies about 420 mg of oxalate, and 9 g about 1,260 mg.²

Stomach discomfort, nausea or diarrhea, reported by under 10% of people in longer trials.^12,16

Rare: a severe immune reaction in the lungs. A 63-year-old man in Japan developed acute respiratory distress syndrome that doctors linked to a lion's mane extract he had been taking. Tests showed a strong reaction to the extract, and he recovered with steroid treatment on a ventilator.¹⁷

Both mushrooms have a laboratory finding about platelets. A lion's mane compound called hericenone B blocked platelet clumping in rabbit and human platelets, and a peptide purified from chaga did the same in laboratory tests and in mice. Neither has been tested with a blood thinner in people, so taking both stacks two cautions that no study has settled.^18,19

Do not take chaga if you have kidney disease or have had kidney stones, unless your kidney doctor agrees²
Ask first if you take vitamin C supplements, which are another source of oxalate, or have taken chaga daily for months³
Ask first if you take a blood thinner or antiplatelet medicine, or have surgery planned^18,19
Ask first if you take insulin or another medicine that lowers blood sugar: chaga lowered blood glucose in mice²⁰
Do not take lion's mane if you have had an allergic reaction to it or to another mushroom^6,17
Ask first if you are being treated for cancer, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18

Questions people ask

What are the benefits of chaga and lion's mane together?

None has been shown for the pair. Lion's mane has one finding, graded early, about memory and thinking test scores in adults over 50 at about 3 g a day. We found no trial of chaga on its own in people.^1,4,10

Should chaga and lion's mane be taken at different times of day?

No source we read tests it. The lion's mane trial of 1.8 g a day had people take their capsules each morning after breakfast, and no study sets a schedule for chaga.⁸

Can you take chaga and lion's mane every day?

Daily use of the two together has not been studied. Daily chaga powder is where the kidney reports come from, so ask your doctor first, especially if you have kidney problems or take vitamin C.^2,3

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Sources

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This page is information, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your own situation.