Mushrooms as Functional Foods for Ménière’s Disease

Abstract

Food, not nutrients, is the fundamental unit in nutrition, and edible mushrooms are fungi that supply unique biological bioactive compounds, different from plant or animal origin, which significantly impact human health status. However, to date all these concepts are interpreted in different ways, with rapidly increasing knowledge on nutrition, medicine, molecular biology, and plant biotechnology changing the concepts of food, health, and agriculture. The bioactive elements conveyed by foodstuffs as nutrients or non-nutrients interfere with human metabolism and have influence on health, aging, and well-being. The influence of edible mushrooms on medicinal interventions has been known and studied for many years and their latest role in neurodegenerative disorders has been recently investigated, while their significance on many other diseases has been well demonstrated. Despite considerable research, the etiology and pathogenesis of Ménière’s disease remains controversial and undefined, although usually associated with allergic, genetic, or trauma sources, and with viral infections and/or immune system-mediated mechanisms. With treatment still unknown, our attention is towards the eventual impact of complementary dietary interventions, synthesizing the recent knowledge of some edible mushrooms and preparations on Ménière’s disease, which is a lifelong condition that can develop at any age, but most commonly emerges between 40 and 60 years of age. It is demonstrated that the oral administration of a biomass preparation, with 3 g/day of the mushroom Coriolus versicolor for 2 to 6 months, on some 40 human Ménière’s disease patients reduced systemic oxidative stress and cellular stress response, decreased the number of crises and their duration, and the frequency of symptoms, improving the clinical grading of tinnitus severity.