We need to talk about the mushrooms

Back up to when you said, 45% less chance of cancer? Also: near-death. And 7 other things worth your time.

Two things to talk about today: living longer, and near-death experiences.

First, the living longer part—or at least not getting sick.

Last week, I linked to a study in the “7 other things” section at the end of one of the newsletters. I think it’s worth another look. Bottom line up front:

A review of 17 cancer studies published from 1966 to 2020 and encompassing data from more than 19,500 cancer patients found that people who ate 18 grams of mushrooms every day—that’s about 1/8 to 1/4 cup—were 45% less likely to develop cancer—any type of cancer.

If you’re like me—a bit of neophyte in this area—you might ask yourself:

Wait, why did all these cancer studies track the patients’ consumption of mushrooms, of all things?

The answer, of course, is that it’s not novel to suggest mushrooms might be associated with less cancer risk (although the 45% figure is striking).

Here’s Djibril M. Ba, a graduate student in epidemiology at Penn State College of Medicine, who was involved with the study:

“Mu…