Could Medicinal Mushrooms Have a Role?

We hear a great deal about “boosting” the immune system. But our immune system doesn’t simply need to be stronger.

It needs to be balanced.

A healthy immune system has the extraordinary job of recognising potential threats, mounting an appropriate response and then knowing when to calm that response down again. Too little immune activity may leave us vulnerable to infection. Too much—or an immune response directed towards the wrong target—can contribute to chronic inflammation and autoimmune processes.

Increasingly, researchers are investigating what happens when this intricate regulatory system becomes disrupted. One particularly fascinating area of research involves Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), immune dysregulation and multiple sclerosis (MS).

And emerging research into medicinal mushrooms raises another interesting question: could their immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective compounds eventually have a supportive role within this much bigger picture?

Your Immune System Is a Balancing Act

Our immune system has two interconnected branches. Innate immunity provides our rapid, first-line defence against potential threats. Adaptive immunity is more specialised. It involves cells including B cells and T cells, enabling the body to target particular threats and develop immunological memory. But neither system works alone. There is constant communication between immune cells, chemical messengers and tissues throughout the body. The aim isn’t maximum immune activity. It’s appropriate immune activity.

The immune system needs to distinguish between something genuinely dangerous and something harmless. It must destroy infected or abnormal cells while protecting healthy tissue. And once a threat has passed, mechanisms are needed to bring the inflammatory response back under control.

This is why I prefer to talk about supporting or regulating immune function, rather than simply “boosting” it.

Epstein-Barr Virus: The “Mastermind of Immune Chaos”

Epstein-Barr virus is extraordinarily common. Around 90–95% of adults worldwide carry EBV. After the initial infection, the virus isn’t necessarily eliminated from the body. Instead, EBV can establish a lifelong latent infection, particularly within B cells. In most people, the immune system keeps this under control. However, EBV has developed sophisticated mechanisms that allow it to evade immune surveillance and persist within its host.

Researchers have described ways in which EBV can interfere with both innate and adaptive immune responses, affecting processes including:

• antiviral signalling
• T-cell and natural killer cell activity
• inflammatory signalling
• programmed cell death
• B-cell behaviour
• the transition between viral latency and reactivation

One scientific review describes EBV as the “mastermind of immune chaos”—a striking phrase, but one that captures the complexity of the relationship between this virus and our immune system.

EBV and Autoimmune Disease

EBV has been associated with several autoimmune conditions. That doesn’t mean that EBV alone causes autoimmune disease. Most adults carry the virus and the overwhelming majority will never develop multiple sclerosis or many of the other conditions with which EBV has been associated. Instead, researchers are investigating a much more complicated interaction involving persistent viral infection, immune regulation, genetics and environmental factors.

Multiple sclerosis has become an especially important area of this research.

What Are Researchers Finding About EBV and Multiple Sclerosis?

Recent research has looked not only for the presence of EBV in people with MS, but at what the virus and immune system appear to be doing.

A 2026 study compared 77 untreated people with multiple sclerosis with 40 healthy participants. Researchers investigated EBV activity alongside the expression of immune-related genes. They found evidence of greater EBV dysregulation in the MS group. EBV RNA was detected more frequently and, when viral DNA was detectable, viral loads were higher in people with MS. But perhaps even more interesting was what researchers observed within the immune system.

There were changes in genes associated with:

Inflammation

Antiviral responses

T-cell activity

B-cell survival

Immune-cell signalling and migration

Researchers identified a molecular signature connecting EBV activity with altered inflammatory and immune pathways. Again, this does not demonstrate that EBV alone causes MS. What it does add to is our understanding of how, in susceptible individuals, difficulties controlling a persistent virus may become intertwined with immune dysregulation and inflammation.

When Immune Dysregulation Reaches the Nervous System

This brings another important piece of the puzzle into focus: neuroinflammation.

Inflammation isn’t inherently bad. It’s an essential part of our defence and repair systems. But persistent or poorly regulated inflammation within the nervous system can contribute to damage. Research into neurological consequences associated with infections has identified several processes of interest, including:

• neuroinflammation
• oxidative stress
• mitochondrial dysfunction
• abnormal protein aggregation
• damage to neuronal integrity

And this is where another emerging area of research becomes particularly interesting.

Medicinal Mushrooms and Neuroprotection

A recent scientific review published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy explored the potential role of edible and medicinal mushrooms in protecting neurological health in the context of infections.

Researchers highlighted several species, including:

Reishi – Ganoderma lucidum

Lion’s Mane – Hericium erinaceus

Chaga – Inonotus obliquus

Shiitake – Lentinula edodes

alongside Tremella, Auricularia, Pleurotus and Agaricus species.

Medicinal mushrooms contain a wide variety of biologically active compounds, and researchers are particularly interested in their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. These actions are relevant because oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are among the mechanisms through which infections may contribute to neurological damage.

Immunomodulation Rather Than Immune “Boosting”

This research also brings us back to where we started. Medicinal mushrooms are frequently marketed as “immune boosters”. That’s an enormous oversimplification. Many mushroom-derived compounds are being investigated for immunomodulatory effects. Modulation is different from simply stimulating something. It refers to influencing or regulating immune activity. That distinction becomes especially important when we’re talking about people with autoimmune conditions.

If an immune system is already responding inappropriately, indiscriminately making it “stronger” isn’t necessarily desirable.

What researchers want to understand is whether particular compounds can influence specific inflammatory, oxidative, immune or neurological pathways—and under what circumstances those effects might be useful.

What About Lion’s Mane?

Lion’s Mane is perhaps the best-known medicinal mushroom associated with neurological health. Its bioactive compounds have attracted considerable research interest because of their potential effects on neuronal health and neurotrophic pathways. The new review includes Lion’s Mane among a much broader group of mushrooms being investigated as potential sources of neuroprotective compounds. However, this does not mean we currently have evidence that Lion’s Mane treats EBV or multiple sclerosis.

That’s an important distinction.

The exciting part is the biological mechanisms being investigated: inflammation, oxidative stress, neuronal protection and immune signalling. These may eventually help researchers identify new supportive or therapeutic approaches.

But this remains an evolving field.

Reishi, Chaga and Shiitake

Other mushrooms included in the review have different profiles of bioactive compounds.

Reishi has been extensively investigated for polysaccharides and triterpenoids with potential immunomodulatory, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.

Chaga contains numerous compounds being studied for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Shiitake, which many people think of simply as food, also contains biologically active polysaccharides and other compounds of scientific interest.

This is one of the things I find particularly fascinating about medicinal mushrooms. Rather than containing one isolated “active ingredient”, mushrooms are biologically complex organisms containing numerous compounds capable of interacting with different physiological pathways. Understanding those interactions—and determining which genuinely translate into benefits in humans—is the challenge researchers now face.

So, Can Medicinal Mushrooms Help With EBV or MS?

At present, we need to be careful with that question.

The research I’ve discussed here does not establish medicinal mushrooms as a treatment for EBV or multiple sclerosis. The recent mushroom review instead explores their potential as sources of bioactive compounds that may influence some of the mechanisms associated with infection-related neurological damage, particularly oxidative stress, inflammation and neuroprotection.

That’s interesting. But it’s not the same thing as demonstrating clinical effectiveness in people with EBV or MS. For somebody living with an autoimmune condition, supplements—including medicinal mushrooms—should therefore be considered individually, particularly alongside medication or other treatment.

Supporting the Terrain

What all of this research illustrates beautifully is why health rarely comes down to one intervention. Our immune system interacts with our nervous system, gut microbiome, nutritional status, hormones, environment, infections and numerous other factors.

• Sleep matters.
• Nutrition matters.
• Movement matters.
• Stress matters.
• Gut health matters.
• Micronutrient status matters.
• And individual health history matters.

Rather than looking for something that simply “boosts” immunity, we need to understand the terrain in which that immune system is operating.

• Why is inflammation occurring?
• What is influencing immune regulation?
• Is the body receiving the nutrients it needs?
• How well is somebody sleeping?
• What is happening within their gut microbiome?
• What other stressors is the body managing?

Those answers won’t necessarily be the same for two people with the same diagnosis. And that’s why personalised nutrition and naturopathic approaches look at the whole person rather than simply the name of a condition.

From Immune Chaos to Immune Balance

EBV provides a fascinating example of just how sophisticated the relationship between viruses and our immune system can be. The growing research surrounding EBV and multiple sclerosis is helping scientists understand how persistent infection, inflammation and immune dysregulation may interact. At the same time, research into medicinal mushrooms is uncovering an extraordinary range of compounds with potential antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and neuroprotective properties. There is still much we don’t know. But perhaps the emerging science points us away from the old idea that health simply requires a “strong” immune system.

A healthy immune system needs something far more sophisticated.

It needs to recognise.

Respond.

Regulate.

Recover.

And ultimately, find its way back to balance.

Further Reading

Neuroprotection in the age of emerging infections: the untapped power of medicinal mushrooms