Eating mushrooms may protect against depression
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Mushroom consumption may decrease risk for oxidative stress and depression, according to results of a population-based study published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
“Previous studies that have examined the associations between mushroom consumption and depression were limited to only small clinical studies,” Djibril Ba, PhD, MPH, and John P. Richie, PhD, both of the department of public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, told Healio Psychiatry. “Thus, our aim was to determine if mushroom consumption was associated with lower odds of depression in a large nationally representative database.
“Mushrooms contain minerals such as potassium and the amino acid ergothioneine, which may lower anxiety and depression risk,” Ba and Richie added. “Ergothioneine is a potent antioxidant that can only be obtained through dietary sources.”
To the researchers’ knowledge, no observational studies had previously investigated associations between mushroom consumption and depression. They aimed to address this research gap by analyzing data on up to 2 days of 24-hour dietary recall from 24,699 participants (mean age, 45.5 years) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005 to 2016. Participants answered the Patient Health Questionnaire, with scores of 10 or higher signaling depression. Further, the researchers used multivariable logistic models, which adjusted for potential confounding factors.
Results showed a weighted prevalence of depression of 5.9%. A total of 5.2% of participants consumed mushrooms. Those in the middle tertile of mushroom intake (median intake = 4.9 g/d; n = 16) had lower risk for depression compared with those in the lowest tertile (adjusted OR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.16-0.6). Those in the highest tertile did not differ (median intake = 19.6 g/d; adjusted OR = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.47-1.78; n = 22).
“These findings provide a possible rationale for a novel dietary approach for treating or preventing depression,” Ba and Richie said. “However, additional clinical trials are needed before specific recommendations can be made.”