Ergogenic and Anti-fatigue Activity

There is a correlation between the activity of lowering the sense of tiredness and the reinforcing and ergogenic effect, which may be defined as an improvement in a person's physical efficiency. Cordycepin is the primary bioactive component in C. militaris that has the potential to induce ergogenic effects (Shweta et al. 2023). Cordycepin's ergogenic effect can be traced back to its physiological role as an indirect antecedent of ATP and NO (Sharma et al. 2014; Lu et al. 2019). Dudgeon et al. (2018) showed that healthy young adults (aged between 19 and 34) who consumed a mushroom blend including C. militaris had greater athletic endurance, a longer time to fatigue, a higher VO2max and a lower blood lactate percentage (VO2max is the maximum or optimum rate at which the heart, lungs, and muscles can effectively use oxygen during exercise, used as a way of measuring a person's individual aerobic capacity).

Cordyceps is in regular use today by most high-altitude mountain climbers. Cordyceps supplements are also in widespread use by professional athletes in the United States (Holliday 2017).

References:

• Tuli HS, Sandhu SS, Sharma AK. Pharmacological and therapeutic potential of Cordyceps with special reference to Cordycepin. 3 Biotech (2014) 4(1):1–12.
• Qin P, Li XK, Yang H, Wang ZY, Lu DX. Therapeutic Potential and Biological Applications of Cordycepin and Metabolic Mechanisms in Cordycepin-Producing Fungi. Molecules (2019) 24:2231.
• Kumar A, Komal, Abdullah S, Shweta. A brief review on the medicinal uses of Cordyceps militaris. Pharmacological Research - Modern Chinese Medicine (2023) 7:100228.
• Dudgeon WD, Thomas DD, Dauch W, Scheett TP, M.J. Webster MJ. The effects of high and low-dose Cordyceps militaris - containing mushroom blend supplementation after seven and twenty-eight days. American Journal of Sports Science (2018) 6:1-7.
• Holliday J. Cordyceps: A Highly Coveted Medicinal Mushroom. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. (2017) D.C. Agrawal et al. (eds.), Medicinal Plants and Fungi: Recent Advances in Research and Development, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the World 4.