Can You Take Chaga and Reishi Together?

Quick answer

We found no trial of chaga and reishi together, and no official source names a problem with the pair. Each brings its own risk: chaga's oxalate has been linked to kidney damage after 3 months to 5 years of daily powder, and reishi is a possible rare cause of liver injury. Chaga has no benefit shown in people.^1,2,3

Key facts

At 14.2 g of oxalate per 100 g of powder, 3 g of chaga a day supplies about 420 mg of oxalate, more than a typical day's diet of 200 to 300 mg.¹
LiverTox gives the usual amount of reishi as 500 mg to 3 g a day and rates it a possible rare cause of liver injury.³
Both grow on trees, and both are sold as powders, extracts and tea.^2,3
In a 2026 warning letter, FDA said a company's marketing of chaga and red reishi extracts with research on illness made them unapproved drugs.⁴

What is known about the pair

We found no trial that gave people both. Neither has an official source on medicine interactions either: LiverTox's reishi chapter names none, and LiverTox has no chapter on chaga. So the useful questions are about each mushroom's own risks, and those risks differ.³

Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) is a fungus that lives as a parasite on birch and other trees.²

Reishi is a large, reddish-brown mushroom with a fan-shaped cap that grows at the base of trees or on stumps. Because it is rare in the wild, it is cultivated on logs, sawdust or wood chips.³

In a March 2026 warning letter, the FDA found that a company had marketed its chaga extract, along with turkey tail and red reishi, by citing research on illness, which made them unapproved new drugs.⁴

What each has shown in people

Their evidence is uneven. We found no trial of chaga on its own in people, so no chaga benefit is graded. The only human studies we found tested an herb mixture that was 20% chaga, or blood cells in a dish. Reishi has one early finding, for a purified extract rather than the whole mushroom.^5,6,7

A purified reishi beta-glucan may raise counts of some immune cells in healthy adults*^7,8,9,10

Early evidence

In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in healthy adults aged 18 to 55 (157 enrolled, 135 finished), 200 mg a day of a purified reishi beta-glucan for 12 weeks raised counts of several kinds of T cells and natural killer cells more than placebo. It did not measure whether people fell ill less often, and a company paid for it. A trial in young children who ate a yogurt with reishi beta-glucans found a similar rise. Whole reishi did not show this: 1.44 g a day for 4 weeks, and 4 g a day of an extract for 10 days, left immune measures unchanged in small trials.

Amount studied: 200 mg a day of purified reishi beta-glucan, for 12 weeks

LiverTox notes that none of reishi's claimed benefits has been demonstrated in adequately sized, properly controlled human trials.³

Chaga and reishi as tea

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.¹¹

Reishi has a distinctly bitter taste. It is used in cooking and to make herbal tea, but its main use has been in traditional Chinese medicine.³

None of the chaga sources we read measured the oxalate in a cup of chaga tea. Water extracts still had oxalic acid as their main organic acid, so brewing does not leave it behind.¹¹

The two side by side

Chaga and reishi compared^1,2,3,7
	Chaga	Reishi
Benefit graded in people	None	Early, for a purified beta-glucan at 200 mg a day
Usual amount	No safe daily amount established	500 mg to 3 g a day, per LiverTox
Main safety concern	Oxalate and kidney damage	Rare liver injury
When harm was reported	3 to 15 g of powder a day, for 3 months to 5 years	Usually 1 to 2 months after starting
Our Mushroom Complex	Inside a shared blend of six mushrooms; chaga amount not given	266 mg of extract from the fruiting body

What's in ours

Our Mushroom Complex contains both. Its label gives reishi a row of its own and lists chaga as one of six mushrooms sharing a blend, without the chaga share, so we cannot say how much chaga a serving gives. We make no claim for either.

Kidney, liver 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.^1,2,12

Chaga powders from three companies held 2.8 g, 11.2 g and 14.2 g of oxalate per 100 g.¹

Rare cases of liver injury have been reported, usually 1 to 2 months after starting reishi, with tiredness, nausea, stomach pain, poor appetite, dark urine or yellowing of the skin and eyes. Most people recovered within 1 to 3 months of stopping, but one woman died.³

In two of the reported liver cases, the trouble began after the person switched to a powdered reishi product.³

One pattern runs through both: the reported harm involved powders. Every published case of kidney damage from chaga involved powder taken daily, and two of the reported reishi liver cases began after a switch to a powdered product.^1,2,3,12

Two cautions overlap. Chaga lowered blood glucose in mice and a chaga peptide slowed platelets in laboratory tests, while laboratory and animal studies suggest reishi may lower blood sugar, and a trial in people found no change in clotting tests. These cautions rest on laboratory and animal work, not on cases in people.^3,13,14,15

Do not take chaga if you have kidney disease or have had kidney stones, unless your kidney doctor agrees¹
Ask first if you take vitamin C supplements: the man in one chaga kidney case also took 500 mg of vitamin C a day²
Ask first if you have liver disease, and stop reishi if you notice dark urine, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or unusual tiredness³
Ask first if you take insulin or another medicine that lowers blood sugar, or a blood thinner, or have surgery planned^13,14
Ask first if you are being treated for cancer, or are pregnant or breastfeeding

Questions people ask

What are the benefits of chaga and reishi?

Few have been shown. We found no trial of chaga on its own in people. Reishi has one early finding, a rise in some immune cells with a purified extract, and LiverTox says none of its claimed benefits has been shown in properly controlled trials.^3,7

Can you drink chaga and reishi tea every day?

Daily chaga is where the reported harm lies: the published kidney cases involved daily powder for 3 months or longer, and no one has measured the oxalate in chaga tea. Reishi liver cases usually began 1 to 2 months after starting. Ask your doctor first, especially if you have kidney or liver problems.^1,2,3

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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.