Cordyceps for Skin: Are There Proven Benefits?

Cordyceps mushrooms have been used for millennia in herbal remedies and Chinese medicine, but just how useful is it?

The use of cordyceps has definitely exploded in the last few years, with it swiftly becoming one of the leading new types of natural medicine. But what kind of benefits do these mushrooms really offer?

And can cordyceps mushrooms help a person’s skin?

What Are Cordyceps?

The word “cordyceps” is appearing all over the place in health food stores and online, but just what does it exactly mean?

Cordyceps are a group of mushrooms and are really the broad name for a genus of several hundred different varieties of mushrooms that all share a unique trait; they all develop using the body of insects.

The mushrooms form by invading insect bodies to derive their nutrients and the fuel for their growth. This is why cordyceps mushrooms tend to have a really peculiar and particular shape, as they have formed around the body of the insect.

Studies are still being published right now about how helpful these mushrooms are. However, people all over the world, most noticeably in China, have been using these mushrooms for millennia.

One of the main reasons for taking cordyceps mushrooms in these parts of the world is as an anti-inflammatory, as well as to help rejuvenate skin and fight against aging.

But how does this work?

What Benefits Could Cordyceps Mushrooms Have For The Skin?

It might seem strange to imagine eating a mushroom or even applying a topical made from that mushroom. However, it does indeed appear that cordyceps mushrooms could have all kinds of exciting benefits to the skin.

One of the most well-researched aspects of cordyceps mushrooms that we currently know about is their ability to help protect against UVB damage.

UVB is the most dangerous of the two types of ultraviolet radiation that emanates from the sun. It is the principal cause of both sunburn and skin cancer. Studies have shown that UV radiation is incredibly dangerous when we are not protected against it and results in tens of thousands of deaths from cancer every year.

A study published by Hailun He et al. for the Journal of Biomed Pharmacother found that cordyceps mushrooms have the ability to help protect our skin against the damaging effects of UVB.

While the science is still definitely in its early days, as that study was carried out only on cell samples and not on proper human subjects, it is still very promising.

There is also some good evidence that a particular type of cordyceps mushroom, cordyceps militaris, can help to prevent melanoma, the most common type of skin cancer.

Furthermore, some scientists claim that cordyceps mushrooms could help act as an antioxidant, which may help protect against the effects of aging in the skin. While that is undoubtedly more difficult to properly quantify, taking cordyceps mushrooms could help to not only smooth wrinkles in the skin but de-emphasize stress lines and help prevent aging.

It might seem far-fetched that a mushroom could not only protect against sun and skin cancer but also help slow down aging. However, the western world may have simply been ignoring the potential benefits of this uniquely interesting fungus. Natures Rise is one place people are going to find these products.

Final Thoughts on if There Are Any Proven Benefits to Cordyceps for the Skin

The trouble with trying to learn more about and understand folk medicine is that, most of the time, it is considered incredibly skeptical. Western medicine doesn't tend to look very kindly on things that they did not develop themselves.

However, as we gradually become more open-minded as a society, we begin to accept more and more the benefits of previously unconventional medicines.

There is still a lot of research on the potential benefits of cordyceps mushrooms, and it might be many years before we really understand correctly all of the things they can be suitable for.

In the meantime, there is some really promising evidence that cordyceps mushrooms can help protect against certain forms of cancer and help protect against skin damage and fight back against the effects of aging.

Should we be using cordyceps mushrooms right now? While it is good to await scientists' conclusions for years to come, there is nothing wrong with also trying it out for yourself.