@Mauritio i found a study matching nearer Peats dose, shows it very effective for giving a protective effect in stress at ~ 1ml human amount 0.05ml/kg rats. so i guess that amount would be helpful like u mentioned with an oncoming cold (helpful to prevent inflammation & oxidative stress extremes)

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2021/4475968

• We found that low-dose alcohol (0.05 g/kg, i.p.) ameliorated {acute stress} AS-induced renal dysfunction and histological damage. Low-dose alcohol also attenuated AS-induced oxidative stress and inflammation, presenting as reduced malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide formation, increased superoxide dismutase and glutathione activity, and decreased myeloperoxidase, interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 levels
  Moreover, low-dose alcohol alleviated AS-induced apoptosis by downregulating Bax and cleaved caspase 3 protein expression

Stopped the stress induced cell death, h2o2 oxidative stress increase, neutrophil infiltration, in very "small" amounts,
pretty good ay

maybe small amounts diluted could be good for colitis

Crossing open field test (exploration )

0.7ml/kg in mice (~5ml <10ml human but maybe best to go a bit lower closer to 1st study adjusting for mice ability to react less to it)
gave peak protective effect in stroke
1.4ml/kg started losing the effect . In mice , who could be more resilient to overdoing ethanol
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00006/full

@Mauritio might give it a go on the low end

at least a big part of the effect of those mice studies looks like from increasing their movement a lot,

so human rodent differences aside if u arent suddenly moving a lot more from it i dont think the effects gonna be similar. maybe the protective effect on the low end could give some of the gains there outside of the movement

With the theoretical maximal oxidation rate of alcohol being 0.1 g·kg−1·h−1 of lean body mass (Schutz 2000), it is unclear to what extent alcohol ingestion prior to exercise can alter exercising substrate use. https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/59/2/agad079/7425522

@Mauritio might tip over there and the toxicity / inflammatory reactions could shut down the metabolic effect, its even different between species in rodents (or different in the brain alcohol is metabolised different there i think),
e.g 1 of the studies showed 0.25ml/kg fed to rats boosted metabolism in their brains, but going to 1ml/kg didnt boost metabolism & lowered brain metabolism below controls. maybe someone's tested low amounts like 5ml on humans would be cool if there was similar metabolic effect co2 production etc

~18ml ethanol didnt show antioxidant capacity in humans (beer didnt give much effect either) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955286399000777
(ethanol stimulated polyphenol absorption. but beer polyphenols have estrogenic effect from the hops)

@CrumblingCookie not aware of the narratives but human toxicity dose was 270mg & 400mg so didnt need that higher dose
some polyphenols chelate copper more than iron , copper can be damaging in high amounts but also vital for mitochondria so if someone over focuses on eliminating it their mitochondria suffers
(TSH starts to rise in some studies that use 100s of milligrams of some polyphenols too , maybe binding too much iron copper zinc so they cant be used for regular functions enough. i guess copper is especially vulnerable because lower amounts / intake. e.g too much quercetin is detrimental to complex IV activity in mitochondria alongside ceruloplasmin :

Quercetin is an iron & copper chelator
it lowers ceruloplasmin 50% , injected in mice at 50mg/kg mice dose
, In the present study a decreased activity of Complex IV in mice treated with quercetin is clear. This is well correlated with decreased levels of ceruloplasmin. {copper protein}
Our previous research [30] exposed that mild copper deprivation in mice is correlated with a decreased protein expression and activity of Complex IV at the level of OXPHOS supercomplexes along with a decrease in the ceruloplasmin levels

@Mauritio looked into that a few days ago because great outcomes in rodents but would be very high amounts for a human going by effects,

(rodents are probably a lot more resilient to ethanol than humans, i think they're better adapted probably because of eating high amounts of fermented fruit on the ground vs primates who pick a lot with smaller ethanol amounts)

ray said 1 tea spoon for protective effects (diluted, ~3ml - 4ml) (cognitive protection on lower end brain atrophy on higher

full reply at the bottom https://www.reddit.com/r/raypeat/comments/1hrc3pf/comment/m5u70mo/

@BeefEnjoyer
(idk how relevant but 10,000iu is excessive, 1000iu should be enough thats 10x)

can be a fix there potentially , here's a relevant post

https://www.dinet.org/forums/topic/25217-excessive-salivation-anyone/
had hypersalivation for 4 years. I finally figured out that my high daily dose of vitamin d (5000 iu) was causing it. No doctor ever figured that out because there is no literature to support that. my salivation returned to normal about 3 days after I reduced the dose to 2000 iu. however, during those 4 years, I successfully managed my hypersalivation with the following products

{2 people in this thread mentioned vitamin D} {magnesium has some interplay with vit D that could make vitamin D problems worse, posted info on that in a thread here, which fits with this persons experience too)
The only thing I've been able to relate it to in the past is sometimes I might have taken too much magnesium. At those times I would back off of magnesium and the problem would clear up. However, this time I am not taking magnesium but still have the problem. I have been taking my prescription vitamin D

might be worth a test stopping all vit d intake for a time and not getting a lot of UV for it to be sure
(i would try stopping for 2 weeks considering 10,000iu vs 5000iu, letting it reset decently. my twitching from vit D took a few weeks of stopping to lower.
also being in calorie surplus during this is important so you're not releasing a lot of vit D from lipolysis , + i personally would go a step further to make the test extra solid & pause exercising for the same reason until satisfied with whether its helped things or not https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nbu.12369)

, then if it helps maybe re-adding vit D lower e.g 500iu initially

but if no effect from doing a proper test for a few weeks
more info on saliva secretion & hypersalivation
https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2060/107/2/article-p195.xml

there's human trials

cognitive improvement
https://www.ls-corporation.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ergothioneine_congitive.pdf

and over 1 year, with people aged > 60
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.08.24310085v1.full.pdf

at 6 months, and still gaining at 12 months

. Following ET intake, an increase in Z-scores was observed in RAVLT assessments (immediate and delayed recalls), which evaluates learning ability and memory (Figure 4a&b). In contrast, no significant increase was observed in Z-scores across all NCA components, in the subjects given the placebo.
Block design scores, which assess visual-motor coordination and problem-solving skills, declined over time in both ET and placebo groups (Figure 4g). Although not measured at baseline, Z-scores of SDMT (written format) in the ET group showed a trend to increase from visit 7 to visit 14 (Figure 4i)

(at 4 weeks visit 1 ergo group also had a better lymphocyte-neutrophil ratio)

Another good one ,
gives weight to ergo as the main compound in mushrooms that gives the main cognition improving effects vs b-glucans

giving mice deficient diet for 5 weeks
then refeeding 3x a week for 2 weeks (2mg/kg or 20mg/kg)

discrimination index (DI), an indicator of learning and memory ability
restored by either amount (and higher than controls) , took 2 weeks

(smaller amounts likely work the same too just with a longer buildup , amounts build to 4 weeks its half life)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10847428/#Sec2

something interesting is their hippocampal levels didnt restore to controls at 2mg/kg vs 20mg/kg by 2 weeks, but still got the effect. i wonder how much mice usually get & where from. ive seen adding 0.5mg/kg bw to normal mice diet gave behavioral improvements in another study posted here

neurogenesis

@DavidPS

**But there's a potential problem getting it through mushrooms, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8329194/#Sec2 mushrooms antagonistic to androgen receptor
they stop DHT increasing androgen receptor in multiple tissues & can lower vs controls in some tissues

ive noticed a flat mood effect from mushrooms before
heq low amounts 1g-1.5g of white button mushroom water extract (so probably not the ergo, likely b-glucans which are found in way higher amounts)

(the beta glucan content has effects ~250mg here , closely matching white button https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11467013/#ctm270048-sec-0070)

shiitake has 1g/10g cooked b-glucan

here a b-glucan lowered estrogen in the prostate where elevated (normalized in prostate and also normalized low testosterone / AR doi: 10.1039/c4fo00472h ) there's an anti androgen receptor effect pretty potent across tissues by earlier study though using mushroom water extract

mainly because of the high beta glucan content

Here white button mushroom lowered AR in vitro, but in the mice tumors in vivo AR expression didn't lower, even tho tumors shrank (at least short term) (tho its not healthy tissue like the 1st study showed)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8542389/#S17

*maybe a supplement is best if doesnt also include the mushroom powder.
or taking 2g spirullina , if dont respond well to androgen reducing stuff

--
also for ppl eating, wondered if microwaving destroys the ergothionine, nope all ergothioneine stays intact
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/fstr/25/1/25_115/_pdf/-char/en
Best not to boil them 2/3 of the ergothioneine gets drained
Roasting is good and frying should be ok too can pour the fat into the food

@Korven some benefits at low dose but its toxic in the 100s of miligrams over time, supplement doses
(& ironically low copper makes mammals more vulnerable to it)
(similar thing to high dose quercetin probably, where its chelating too much copper over time for diet to match. plus the ROS damage from excess)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25975988/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5943924/

But not great to go high copper to prevent that as can cause other problems from the excessive copper , "low" mg doses of catechins should have some benefits