Human research on mushrooms and heart health is mixed. Some small trials on oyster mushroom and shiitake found improvements in cholesterol or blood sugar, while larger reviews and reishi trials found no consistent effect on blood pressure or cholesterol. No mushroom, food, or supplement can replace medicine, diet changes, or a doctor’s care for a heart condition.
This guide compares the human evidence for oyster mushroom, shiitake, reishi, and maitake, and separates what has been tested in people from what has only been tested in animals or lab dishes.
Warning signs that need immediate medical attention
No mushroom or supplement is a treatment for a heart emergency. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a blood pressure reading above 180/120 mm Hg is dangerously high and needs immediate care. Call 911 if you have a sudden, severe headache, trouble breathing, or sudden severe pain in the chest, back, or abdomen. Heart attack signs include chest pressure or pain that does not go away, shortness of breath, nausea, or pain spreading to the arms, jaw, neck, or back. Stroke signs include one-sided face drooping, arm weakness, and slurred speech. Call 911 right away if you notice any of these signs in yourself or someone else.
How the four mushrooms compare
Here is a quick look at what human studies have actually tested, before the species-by-species detail below.
- Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus): The most encouraging human data of the four. Small trials found lower total and LDL cholesterol, and some found lower blood pressure. A systematic review rated the overall evidence quality as low, mainly because the trials were small.
- Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): Mixed human results. One placebo-controlled trial of a shiitake beta-glucan extract found no significant change in cholesterol after eight weeks. Cholesterol-lowering effects are stronger and more consistent in animal studies.
- Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum): The most-tested of the four in controlled human trials, and the least supportive for cholesterol or blood pressure. A 16-week randomized trial and a pooled analysis of 17 randomized trials both found no significant effect on blood pressure or lipid levels.
- Maitake (Grifola frondosa): The least human data of the four. Cholesterol and blood pressure effects come almost entirely from rat studies. No adequately sized randomized human trial has confirmed these effects for heart-related outcomes.
Oyster mushroom: the most encouraging early human data
A systematic review of eight clinical trials on oyster mushroom and cardiometabolic health found that several trials reported lower fasting or after-meal blood sugar, along with decreases in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, or triglycerides. Some trials also found a drop in blood pressure. Body weight did not change in these studies. The reviewers rated the risk of bias as high or unclear in most trials, due to small sample sizes and reporting weaknesses, and called for larger, better-designed trials.
One 21-day trial gave 20 healthy adults a daily soup with 30 grams of dried oyster mushroom or a placebo tomato soup and measured cholesterol changes. A separate 8-week trial in adults with HIV who had high cholesterol from antiretroviral therapy gave 15 grams of freeze-dried oyster mushroom daily; non-HDL cholesterol did not change significantly, but HDL (“good”) cholesterol increased modestly. Researchers believe the effect may come partly from beta-glucan fiber and a naturally occurring compound related to the way statin drugs work, though this mechanism has mainly been studied in animals, not confirmed in people.
Shiitake: strong animal data, thinner human data
Shiitake contains eritadenine, a compound linked to lower cholesterol in multiple animal studies dating back decades. In humans, the picture is less clear. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial gave adults with mild high cholesterol a daily beta-glucan-enriched extract from shiitake (3.5 grams of fungal beta-glucans) for eight weeks. The researchers found no significant difference in cholesterol or lipid-related measurements between the shiitake group and the placebo group, either compared to baseline or compared to each other.
A separate randomized trial tested shiitake-containing nutrition bars in people with borderline high cholesterol, using a similar double-blind, placebo-controlled design over several weeks. Shiitake has also been studied in combination with other ingredients, such as a shiitake, red ginseng, and aronia berry mixture tested in a 12-week trial for insulin resistance in prediabetic adults, which makes it hard to isolate shiitake’s individual effect on heart-related outcomes from that trial alone.
Reishi: the best-tested mushroom for cardiovascular claims, with the least support
Reishi is the mushroom with the most randomized controlled human trials on cardiovascular risk factors, and the results are consistently unsupportive of blood pressure or cholesterol claims. A 16-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 84 adults with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome tested reishi, reishi plus cordyceps, or a placebo. The trial found no significant effect on blood glucose or any of the other cardiovascular risk factors measured.
A more recent pooled analysis (meta-analysis) combined 17 randomized controlled trials and 971 participants. It found small reductions in body mass index, creatinine, and resting heart rate, and an increase in one antioxidant enzyme. It found no significant effect on blood pressure, lipid profile (cholesterol and triglycerides), fasting glucose, inflammation markers, or liver enzymes. The National Library of Medicine’s consumer drug information resource similarly lists reishi as possibly ineffective for high cholesterol based on the current evidence.
Maitake: mostly animal evidence so far
Maitake’s reputation for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure comes largely from older studies in rats, including work showing blood pressure and lipid changes in genetically hypertensive rats fed shiitake or maitake. Human research on maitake has focused more on blood sugar and immune markers than on cholesterol or blood pressure, and a published clinical review noted that while animal and preliminary data point toward possible benefits for metabolic syndrome features like blood pressure and cholesterol, no adequately sized randomized human trial has confirmed these effects. Until larger human trials exist, maitake’s cardiovascular claims should be treated as unconfirmed.
What about mushrooms as a food group generally?
A systematic review that pooled 22 studies (11 experimental trials and 11 observational studies) on mushroom consumption and cardiometabolic disease, mostly involving button and oyster mushrooms, found limited evidence that mushroom consumption improved triglycerides and a marker of inflammation called hs-CRP, but not other cholesterol measures, blood sugar control, or blood pressure. The observational studies found no association between mushroom consumption and death or illness from cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, or type 2 diabetes. Most of the studies reviewed were rated as having a “poor” quality of evidence, which is why the review’s authors described the overall evidence as limited rather than established.
The nutrients behind the claims
Several of the compounds behind mushroom heart-health claims are ordinary nutrients that already have an established, if modest, role in cardiovascular health when eaten as part of an overall diet:
- Potassium. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes that potassium supports proper heart function, and that getting too little potassium can raise blood pressure. Most people in the United States fall short of recommended potassium intake. Mushrooms, like many vegetables, can contribute some dietary potassium, though this is a general nutrient fact about potassium rather than mushroom-specific research.
- Beta-glucans. These are fibers found in the cell walls of mushrooms. Researchers believe beta-glucans may help lower cholesterol by binding it in the digestive tract, similar to how oat and barley beta-glucans work, but the direct clinical trial results for mushroom beta-glucans on cholesterol have been mixed, as shown in the shiitake trial above.
- Eritadenine. This compound, found mainly in shiitake, has repeatedly lowered cholesterol in animal studies. Human confirmation is still limited.
Evidence limits you should know about
- Most human trials are small, often fewer than 40 people per group, which makes it hard to detect modest effects or rule out chance findings.
- Trial lengths are usually 3 to 16 weeks. Heart disease develops over years, so short trials cannot show whether any change affects long-term heart disease risk.
- Reviewers rated the risk of bias as high or unclear in most oyster mushroom and general mushroom-consumption trials.
- Many trials use concentrated extracts, powders, or beta-glucan-enriched preparations at doses far higher than a typical food serving, so food-level and supplement-level evidence should not be treated as interchangeable.
- Reishi has the most rigorous human testing of the four mushrooms covered here, and its trials are the ones that most consistently found no cardiovascular benefit.
Who should use extra caution
Talk with a qualified clinician before adding concentrated mushroom extracts or supplements to your routine if any of the following apply to you:
- You take cholesterol-lowering medicine (such as a statin), blood pressure medicine, or a blood thinner.
- You have diabetes or take medicine that affects blood sugar, since some mushroom compounds have been studied for glucose effects.
- You are pregnant or breastfeeding.
- You have a mushroom or mold allergy, or a compromised immune system.
- You are scheduled for surgery, since some mushroom compounds may affect bleeding or blood sugar.
Mushrooms used as food are not automatically the same as concentrated extracts or supplements, which can deliver much higher doses of active compounds.
Frequently asked questions
Can eating mushrooms lower my cholesterol? Small human trials on oyster mushroom and shiitake have found modest cholesterol changes in some cases, but a broader review of mushroom consumption studies found no consistent effect on LDL or total cholesterol. The evidence is not strong enough to treat mushrooms as a cholesterol treatment.
Is reishi mushroom good for blood pressure? The largest and most rigorous human trials on reishi, including a 16-week randomized trial and a meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials, found no significant effect on blood pressure.
Which mushroom has the best human evidence for heart health? Of the four covered here, oyster mushroom has the most consistently positive small human trials for cholesterol and, in some trials, blood pressure. However, reviewers rated the overall evidence quality as low due to small, short trials.
Can I stop taking my cholesterol or blood pressure medicine and use mushrooms instead? No. Never stop or change a prescribed medicine without talking to the clinician who prescribed it. None of the mushroom research described here was designed to test mushrooms as a replacement for medical treatment.
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. It does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition, and it is not a recommendation to use any mushroom or supplement. Evidence differs by species, preparation, dose, and population, and much of what is known about mushrooms and heart health still comes from animal or laboratory research rather than human trials. See our evidence grading and source policy for how we rate the strength of studies like these, and our medical disclaimer for the full scope of what this site does and does not cover. If you take medicine for your heart, blood pressure, or cholesterol, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are being treated for a health condition, ask a qualified clinician about personal risks before changing your diet or trying a mushroom supplement.