Lion's Mane and Reishi: Taking Both

Quick answer

No trial has given people only lion's mane and reishi, and no official source names a problem with the pair. The nearest evidence is a six-fungus blend at about 4 g a day. One handling difference is documented: a 3 g dose of reishi extract peaked lower and later with breakfast than on an empty stomach.^1,2

Key facts

A 3 g dose of reishi extract taken after breakfast gave a lower, later peak of ganoderic acid A than the same dose on an empty stomach.²
LiverTox rates lion's mane an unlikely cause of liver injury and reishi a possible rare one, so the liver caution belongs to reishi.^3,4
Reishi has more trials by count, 17 pooled in 2025, but every finding was rated very low certainty. Lion's mane has roughly ten small studies.^5,6
Our Mushroom Complex gives 266 mg each of lion's mane and reishi extract, while our Lion's Mane gives 1,000 mg of lion's mane.^4,7

What has been tested together

We found no trial that gave people only lion's mane and reishi. The nearest thing is an exercise study of a six-fungus capsule that held both, along with a Cordyceps militaris mycelium, king trumpet, shiitake and turkey tail. The report does not give the share of each fungus, and a supplement company paid for the work, so it cannot show what these two add together.¹

No official source we read describes a medicine, nutrient or supplement problem for the pair. Neither mushroom's LiverTox chapter, as read for the two ingredient files, names an interaction, and we found no NCCIH page on either.^3,4

Two different early findings

The two mushrooms were tested for unrelated things, so there is no outcome on which they could add up or cancel out. Each carries one finding, graded early.

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*^7,8,9,10,11

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

A purified reishi beta-glucan may raise counts of some immune cells in healthy adults*^12,13,14,15

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

The reishi finding belongs to a purified beta-glucan, not to the whole mushroom, and the lion's mane finding belongs to adults over 50. Neither crosses to the other group.

A 2025 pooled analysis of 17 randomized trials in 971 people rated the certainty of every reishi finding as very low.⁵

Breakfast or an empty stomach

Taken on an empty stomach, ganoderic acids from a 3 g dose of reishi extract appeared in the blood within 5 to 10 minutes and peaked at about 30 minutes. Their levels then halved in under 40 minutes.²

Taken straight after breakfast, the same dose gave a lower, later peak of ganoderic acid A with the same total absorbed, but ganoderic acid F stayed too low to measure in most of the 12 men.²

In a 28-day trial of 1.8 g a day, people took three 600 mg capsules every morning after breakfast.¹⁰

This is the only handling difference between the two that a study has measured, and it is narrow. The reishi study followed two bitter compounds in the blood of 12 men and tested no effect of reishi, so it cannot say whether a lower peak matters. No lion's mane trial measured blood levels in people. In rats, one erinacine was highest in most tissues after 8 hours. A shared breakfast slot is therefore a choice no study has compared.^2,16

Reading the two labels

The lion's mane label gives its polysaccharide share as a percentage, and the reishi row in the Mushroom Complex gives only 266 mg of extract with no beta-glucan figure. That matters because the reishi trial finding used 200 mg a day of a purified beta-glucan, a figure no label of ours states.^12,17

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.¹⁷

What's in ours

Mushroom Complex carries both mushrooms in one serving, at 266 mg each, so adding our Lion's Mane on top doubles up on lion's mane. The roughly 3 g a day used in the lion's mane trials, and the 500 mg to 3 g that LiverTox gives as the usual amount of reishi, are both above what the Mushroom Complex gives of either.^4,7

Liver, platelets and who should ask first

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.⁴

LiverTox rates reishi a possible rare cause of liver injury (category D) and notes that many reported cases were poorly documented, with other causes not always ruled out.⁴

Stomach discomfort, nausea or diarrhea, reported by under 10% of people in longer trials.^3,18

Headache and allergic reactions are listed as possible side effects in a 2025 systematic review, which notes that side effects often go unreported.⁶

Platelets are the one shared question. A lion's mane compound slowed platelet clumping in laboratory tests, while 1.5 g of reishi a day for 4 weeks changed no clotting or platelet test in 40 healthy volunteers. The warfarin label adds that few well-controlled studies have tested herbal products with warfarin, and asks for more frequent INR checks when one is started or stopped.^19,20,21

Ask your doctor first if you take a blood thinner or antiplatelet medicine, or have surgery planned^19,21
Ask first if you have liver disease, and stop reishi and call a doctor if you notice dark urine, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or unusual tiredness⁴
Ask first if you take medicines that suppress the immune system, because a purified reishi extract raised some immune cell counts in a trial¹²
Do not take either if you have had an allergic reaction to lion's mane, reishi or another mushroom^6,22
Ask first if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, being treated for cancer, or under 18

Questions people ask

Do lion's mane and reishi work together?

Nothing we read shows that they do. No trial gave people just the two, and the single finding on each one's own is graded early and concerns a different outcome.^7,12

Which has more research, lion's mane or reishi?

By count, reishi: a 2025 review pooled 17 randomized trials in 971 people and rated the certainty of every finding very low. Lion's mane has roughly ten small human studies, two of them in adults over 50 that found a small difference on at least one test.^5,6,7

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

Daily use of both together has not been studied. Lion's mane trials ran up to 16 weeks at about 3 g a day, with one mycelium product given for 49 weeks to older adults under medical care, and reishi trials ran 1 to 24 weeks. Reishi liver cases usually began 1 to 2 months after starting, so ask your doctor first if you have liver problems.^4,5,7,18

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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.