Energy and endurance
Cordyceps
Cordyceps
Cordyceps is a slender orange mushroom that has spent decades in the sports nutrition conversation, largely because of what athletes reported rather than what the label promised. The human trials that exist have mostly measured exercise performance, which makes them unusually easy to read.
What the research shows
Summaries below describe what each study measured and reported. None of them used a Mello product, and none of them is a claim about what Mello will do for you.
Randomised human trial
Effect of Cs-4 (Cordyceps sinensis) on exercise performance in healthy older subjects
Chen S and colleagues. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2010.
View on PubMed (opens in a new tab)Twenty healthy adults aged 50 to 75 took Cordyceps or placebo three times a day for 12 weeks, with maximal cycle ergometer testing before and after. The Cordyceps group's metabolic threshold rose by 10.5 per cent and its ventilatory threshold by 8.5 per cent. The placebo group showed no significant change, and neither group changed on VO2 max.
Randomised human trial
Cordyceps militaris improves tolerance to high-intensity exercise after acute and chronic supplementation
Hirsch KR and colleagues. Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2017.
View on PubMed (opens in a new tab)Twenty eight participants took 4 g a day of a mushroom blend containing Cordyceps militaris or a maltodextrin placebo, with cycle ergometer testing at one and three weeks. Nothing separated the groups at one week. At three weeks the researchers reported higher VO2 max and longer time to exhaustion in the mushroom group and not the placebo group. Ten people completed the three week arm, so the later result rests on a small number.
How it shows up in Mello
Cordyceps is one of the six mushrooms in the extract blend listed on the pack. It carries a faintly savoury note that disappears entirely once there is milk in the cup. The studies below used Cordyceps preparations that differ from ours in species, dose and form, so read them as background on the ingredient rather than as results you should expect from Mello.