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Best Mushrooms for Gamers

Article at a Glance:

  • Gaming presents unique health concerns for casual and competitive users relating to concentration, memory, energy, vision, musculoskeletal health, and stress.
  • Functional mushrooms offer antioxidant properties that can improve gaming performance.
  • Compounds in Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane mushrooms are linked to enhanced energy, physical performance, focus, and memory.
  • Support your health in front of and away from the gaming screen with our vegan Lion's Mane and Cordyceps gummies.

The gaming world challenges your cognitive performance, visual acuity, response time, coordination, and stress management skills. Functional mushrooms offer benefits related to all these areas and may help you take your gaming to the next level. Whether you're a casual hobbyist, aspiring professional, or established esports gamer, here's all you need to know about how functional mushrooms can support your passion.

Gaming and Health

Whether you play on a phone, tablet, computer, or gaming system, gaming comes with unique health concerns. Here are the main areas that require your A-game:[1]

Brain Health

Gaming challenges cognitive performance in many ways, from demanding intense focus and concentration for extended periods to remembering the precise locations of objects and/or the layouts of gaming worlds. It also challenges your communication skills, reaction time, and ability to strategize as the game unfolds.

Energy

Gaming requires stamina, especially if you’re playing competitively or in a tournament. Physical or mental fatigue can hurt your performance and make it harder to reach your goals. 

Vision

Staring at screens for extended periods can strain your eyes and make it uncomfortable to keep playing. Gaming screens are also a source of blue light. Prolonged exposure to blue light has been linked to impaired sleep and oxidative damage that causes changes to vision.[2]

Muscle and Joint Health

Repetitive motions made with a gaming controller can place extra stress on thumbs, wrists, and elbows. Overuse can create inflammation, and some gamers may experience pain or stiffness in these body parts from overuse.[3]

Stress

Like any competitive sport, gamers may experience stress when the stakes are high, or they're trying to rank up. Too much stress can impact brain health, energy, and overall performance and interfere with a gamer's focus and skill.[4] 

Functional mushrooms fit the bill for all of these concerns and more. Let's explore which varieties are most beneficial for gamers' needs.

Best Mushrooms for Gamers

Functional or adaptogenic mushrooms have long been used in Eastern medicine to improve quality of life. Bioactive compounds in functional mushrooms are being studied for their health benefits and have been found to possess strong antioxidant activity.[5][6]  

Potent antioxidants may help counteract oxidative stress and support a normal inflammatory response. For gamers, this means functional mushrooms may help protect eyes from potentially damaging blue light and improve everyday aches from using your controllers. 

Functional mushrooms are also considered adaptogens, which are natural substances that help your body handle stress. Stress support can be helpful for gamers to keep up energy and concentration.

Here are some additional benefits unique to certain mushroom species:

Cordyceps for Energy and Endurance

Researchers believe Cordyceps mushrooms can enhance exercise performance by stimulating the production of ATP, or adenosine triphosphate.[7]

ATP provides energy to cells, and all forms of physical activity increase the need for ATP. When plenty of ATP is available to fuel exercise, blood flow increases, and oxygen becomes more available.[8] All three — energy, blood flow, and oxygen — are needed to support endurance and reduce fatigue.

Although some electronic games require more physical exertion than others, you need steady energy and stamina for competitive gaming and marathon sessions.  

Lion’s Mane for Cognitive Performance

For optimal performance, gamers need to be mentally sharp, and Lion's Mane is your best bet to support brain health.

Compounds in Lion’s Mane have been found to stimulate the production of nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).[9][10][11] These two proteins promote the growth of new and stronger brain cells.

Researchers found individuals and lab animals who supplemented with Lion’s Mane performed better on cognitive function assessments and had better memory.[12][13] 

The bottom line? Healthy brain cells = better gaming performance.

Bottom Line on Mushrooms for Gamers

How can you apply all the benefits functional mushrooms have to your gaming? Try Fungies® functional mushroom gummies. They’re quick and easy to take, delicious, and available with Cordyceps or Lion’s Mane extracts so you can target your specific areas of concern.

Pick up a bottle or two today and experience the wonder of functional mushrooms in front of and away from the screen.

References

  1. Yin, K., Zi, Y., Zhuang, W., Gao, Y., Tong, Y., Song, L., & Liu, Y. (2020). Journal of sport and health science, 9(6), 485–488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2020.04.006
  2. Ouyang, X., Yang, J., Hong, Z., Wu, Y., Xie, Y., & Wang, G. (2020). Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie, 130, 110577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110577
  3. Tholl, C., Bickmann, P., Wechsler, K., Froböse, I., & Grieben, C. (2022). BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 23(1), 678. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-022-05614-0
  4. Aliyari, H., Sahraei, H., Daliri, M. R., Minaei-Bidgoli, B., Kazemi, M., Agaei, H., Sahraei, M., Hosseini, S. M. A. S., Hadipour, M. M., Mohammadi, M., & Dehghanimohammadabadi, Z. (2018). Basic and clinical neuroscience, 9(3), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.29252/nirp.bcn.9.3.177
  5. Venturella, G., Ferraro, V., Cirlincione, F., & Gargano, M. L. (2021). International journal of molecular sciences, 22(2), 634. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020634
  6. Anusiya, G., Gowthama Prabu, U., Yamini, N. V., Sivarajasekar, N., Rambabu, K., Bharath, G., & Banat, F. (2021). Bioengineered, 12(2), 11239–11268. (Link)
  7. Choi, E., Oh, J., & Sung, G. H. (2020). Mycobiology, 48(6), 512–517. (Link)
  8. Jäger, R., Roberts, M. D., Lowery, R. P., Joy, J. M., Cruthirds, C. L., Lockwood, C. M., Rathmacher, J. A., Purpura, M., & Wilson, J. M. (2014). Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 11, 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-11-28
  9. Lai, P. L., Naidu, M., Sabaratnam, V., Wong, K. H., David, R. P., Kuppusamy, U. R., Abdullah, N., & Malek, S. N. (2013). International journal of medicinal mushrooms, 15(6), 539–554. (Link)
  10. Ryu, S. H., Hong, S. M., Khan, Z., Lee, S. K., Vishwanath, M., Turk, A., Yeon, S. W., Jo, Y. H., Lee, D. H., Lee, J. K., Hwang, B. Y., Jung, J. K., Kim, S. Y., & Lee, M. K. (2021). Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters, 31, 127714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2020.127714
  11. Saitsu, Y., Nishide, A., Kikushima, K., Shimizu, K., & Ohnuki, K. (2019). Biomedical research (Tokyo, Japan), 40(4), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.2220/biomedres.40.125
  12. Ratto, D., Corana, F., Mannucci, B., Priori, E. C., Cobelli, F., Roda, E., Ferrari, B., Occhinegro, A., Di Iorio, C., De Luca, F., Cesaroni, V., Girometta, C., Bottone, M. G., Savino, E., Kawagishi, H., & Rossi, P. (2019). Nutrients, 11(4), 715. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040715

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