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Edible mushrooms are a versatile functional food and have been touted as a way to preserve youth, longevity and overall health for centuries. Now nutrition researchers from Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University are finding that they may even help boost the immune system and reduce inflammation, especially in the colon. Keith R. Martin, ASU assistant professor in nutrition, along with his Penn State colleagues, experimented with various types of mushrooms, from the more common white button to the exotic like shiitake and oyster, to see what sort of effect they had on the immune system. Their paper was published in late February in BMC Immunology, a peer reviewed online journal. "We found that the white button mushroom seemed to be the most effective in boosting the immune system, which is good because they are the most affordable," said Martin.

White button mushrooms appear to boost immune function It appears that a little fungus may be good for what ails you. That's the conclusion of a new study that found that eating white button mushrooms may boost the immune system and protect against infection. If the research, done on animals, translates to people, it could raise the health-benefit profile of the fungus, which also contains high concentrations of the super-antioxidant ergothioneine, which protects cells from damaging free radicals. "This is the first published study showing the effect of white button mushrooms on immune function," Dayong Wu, a scientist in the Immunology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts and lead author of the study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Nutrition, told NutraIngredients.com. The research also suggests that the mushroom may boost both innate and acquired immune system health. The innate immune system, the one you're born with, is the body's first line of defense. The acquired immune system revs up if a pathogen makes its way past the innate system and customizes the immune response to target the invader.

The results of a year long clinical trial examining the effects of mushroom supplementation in patients with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) have recently been presented at congress. Dr. Jose Silva Couto and Dr. Daniel Pereira da Silva of the Cervical Pathology Unit of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Coimbra, Portugal presented their findings at the 20th European Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in Lisbon Portugal. This study provides a promising set of results and demonstrates proof-of concept for the question as to whether immunonutrition supplements can be successfully used to improve HPV status in patients.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2009) - New research from Trinity College Dublin published in this month's Annals of Surgery points to a potentially significant advance in the treatment of patients undergoing major cancer surgery. The study was carried out by the oesophageal research group at Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital. A randomised controlled trial showed omega-3 fatty acids given as part of an oral nutritional supplement resulted in the preservation of muscle mass in patients undergoing surgery for oesopahageal cancer, a procedure normally associated with significant weight loss and quality of life issues.

Ginger inhibits cell growth and modulates angiogenic factors in ovarian cancer cells. Rhode J, Fogoros S, Zick S, Wahl H, Griffith KA, Huang J, Liu JR. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007 Dec 20;7:44. PMID: 18096028 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-7-44

The April issue of the journal Cancer Prevention Research published the results of a trial conducted by scientists at Tokyo University of Science, the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and Johns Hopkins University which determined that the isothiocyanate sulforaphane, a compound that occurs in high amounts in broccoli and its sprouts, helps suppress infection by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), the bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers and many cases of stomach cancer. The trial is the first to demonstrate an effect for broccoli against H. pylori in humans.

Docosahexaenoic acid suppresses arachidonic acid-induced proliferation of LS-174T human colon carcinoma cells. Habbel P, Weylandt KH, Lichopoj K, Nowak J, Purschke M, Wang JD, He CW, Baumgart DC, Kang JX. World J Gastroenterol. 2009 Mar 7;15(9):1079-84. PMID: 19266600

Phospholipase A(2) activation as a therapeutic approach for cognitive enhancement in early-stage Alzheimer disease. Schaeffer EL, Forlenza OV, Gattaz WF. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 Jan;202(1-3):37-51. Epub 2008 Oct 14. PMID: 18853146 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-008-1351-0

Arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid supplementation increases coronary flow velocity reserve in Japanese elderly individuals. Oe H, Hozumi T, Murata E, Matsuura H, Negishi K, Matsumura Y, Iwata S, Ogawa K, Sugioka K, Takemoto Y, Shimada K, Yoshiyama M, Ishikura Y, Kiso Y, Yoshikawa J. Heart. 2008 Mar;94(3):316-21. Epub 2007 Jun 25. PMID: 17591648 doi:10.1136/hrt.2006.113159

Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis. Raghuwanshi A, Joshi SS, Christakos S. J Cell Biochem. 2008 Oct 1;105(2):338-43. Review. PMID: 18655192

Ecological Studies Of Ultraviolet B, Vitamin D And Cancer Since 2000. Grant WB, Mohr SB. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Mar 6. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19269856 doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2008.12.014

Vitamin D and cancer. Ali MM, Vaidya V. J Cancer Res Ther. 2007 Oct-Dec;3(4):225-30. Review. PMID: 18270398 DOI: 10.4103/0973-1482.38998

ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2009) - According to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 75 percent of Americans do not get enough Vitamin D. Researchers have found that the deficiency may negatively impact immune function and cardiovascular health and increase cancer risk. Now, a University of Missouri nutritional sciences researcher has found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with inflammation, a negative response of the immune system, in healthy women.

Serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha concentrations are negatively correlated with serum 25(OH)D concentrations in healthy women. Peterson CA, Heffernan ME. J Inflamm (Lond). 2008 Jul 24;5:10. PMID: 18652680 doi:10.1186/1476-9255-5-10 Conclusion Serum 25(OH)D status is inversely related to TNF-α concentrations in healthy women, which may in part explain this vitamin's role in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases. Results gleaned from this investigation also support the need to re-examine the biological basis for determining optimal vitamin D status.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2009) - Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.

Albert et al. Vitamin D: The alternative hypothesis. Autoimmunity Reviews, 2009 doi:10.1016/j.autrev.2009.02.011 

Protective Effect of Total Carotenoid and Lycopene Intake on the Risk of Hip Fracture: A 17-Year Follow-Up From the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Sahni S, Hannan MT, Blumberg J, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Tucker KL. J Bone Miner Res. 2009 Jan 12. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19138129 DOI: 2009:10.1359/jbmr