Reishi and Autoimmune Health: What Dr. Josh Axe Says About the King of Mushrooms

Health educator Dr. Josh Axe has been vocal about reishi mushroom's role in autoimmune health, and it's worth digging into what's actually behind that claim.

Reishi has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 2,000 years, earning it the nickname "King of Mushrooms". According to Dr. Axe's own published research summary, studies have repeatedly shown that reishi's antioxidant compounds help strengthen the body's defences against a wide range of conditions, including autoimmune disorders, alongside cancer, heart disease, allergies and infections.

Why reishi and autoimmune health keep coming up together

The mechanism Dr. Axe points to is reishi acting as an "immune modulator." Rather than simply boosting immune activity across the board, it helps regulate it, bringing an overactive or imbalanced immune system back towards homeostasis. That distinction matters for autoimmune conditions specifically, where the issue isn't a weak immune system but one that's misfiring against the body's own tissue.

The compounds behind this are the same ones we talk about with our own Reishi: beta-glucans, triterpenes and polysaccharides. Triterpenes in particular are linked to calming an overactive immune response and reducing inflammation, while polysaccharides support the immune system's regulatory function rather than just its raw activity.

Where this lines up with what we've always believed

We've built a big part of our range around Love Reishi, our wood-grown Reishi powder sourced from the northern mountains of China and tested top tier by an independent lab in Oregon, because we've long believed there's more to this mushroom than a general "wellness" ingredient. Seeing a health educator with Dr. Axe's reach single out the autoimmune angle specifically is a useful bit of validation for something we've believed since we started working with Reishi.

Worth saying clearly

None of this makes reishi a treatment for autoimmune disease, and it isn't a substitute for medical care if you have one. If you're managing an autoimmune condition, talk to your doctor before adding any new supplement to your routine. What the research does suggest is a genuinely interesting mechanism: immune modulation rather than immune stimulation, and it's part of why reishi keeps coming up in this conversation, from Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners to modern health educators like Dr. Axe.

Try it for yourself

We work with Reishi in two different forms, sourced and tested differently for each: our Reishi Tincture, wood-grown and made in Estonia, for a few drops in the evening; or our Reishi Powder, wood-grown in the northern mountains of China and tested in Oregon, to stir into a tea or hot chocolate.

You can read Dr. Axe's full breakdown of reishi mushroom benefits on his site.