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While MGN-3 has been taken off the market, AHCC, a lesser known product name with the same ingredients has replaced MGN-3.
Boosting the immune system’s ability to fight disease, at a lesser cost with AHCC.
What is AHCC?
Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC) is a mushroom extract that has been tested as an immune enhancing, liver protective and anti-cancer agent. AHCC was developed in Japan in 1989, and most of the studies with this compound have been conducted in Japan.
AHCC is a blend of Shiitake and other mushrooms, grown in a liquid medium. Natural fermentation is used to break down the large polysaccharides produced by the mushroom into smaller (and therefore more biologically active) molecules.These molecules have an alpha-1,4 glucan structure.
Active Hexose Correlated Compound was the best-selling product (in its category) in Japan in 1999 according to the Japanese trade magazine Health Life Business.
Oral use of this compound supports Natural Killer Cell function, enhances Cytokine product and optimal T-cell and Macrophage activity.
About AHCC
The most exciting and promising research for preventing and treating dread diseases such as cancer, hepatitis, and even smallpox and anthrax, is in the field of natural immune enhancement. While drugs can work for acute problems, the pathogens can quickly develop a resistance to specific drugs and again attack the body, often with an increased vengeance.
Drugs also can cause healthy cells to be damaged, resulting in toxicity and weakened immune function. The body’s immune system is capable of attacking and destroying any unhealthy germ or virus that attacks it, without the risk of the organism developing a resistance to it, and without damaging normal cells and tissues.
Since 1986, the AHCC Research Association has been examining and discussing the effects of AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compound) on cancer, hepatitis, and ailments involving immune dysfunction.
Research is now underway at more than 150 institutes, including national research centers and university hospitals in Japan and the US.
Each year since 1994, over 300 medical doctors and researchers have gathered in Sapporo, Japan for the AHCC Research Association symposiums.
AHCC has much more research than the similar product MGN-3 from Lane Labs, and the research is independently done, with no conflict of interest among its researchers (the researcher for MGN-3 earned money from each bottle sold). AHCC has 500 mg of active ingredient per capsule, twice what the MGN-3 product has, which means a lower cost to the patient. AHCC, not MGN-3, is the most popular mushroom-based extract used in Japan and the world today for immune support.
Research and Studies
- Studies in mice show AHCC:
- Enhances resistance to infection
- Enhances natural killer cell activity
- Protects the liver from injury induced by toxic or anti-cancer agents.
- Potential as an immune enhancing agent in the therapy of opportunistic infections.
- Reduces breast cancer metastasis in mice when used with chemotherapy agents.
- Studies in humans show AHCC:
- Has protective effects on the liver in cases of liver injury, cirrhosis, or hepatitis.
- Improves the prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
- AHCC Dosage:
- Many of the studies in humans have used dosages of AHCC of about 3 grams a day.
AHCC Research Update
Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Immunology, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. J Appl Physiol. 2004 Jun 11
Active Hexose Correlated Compound Enhances the Immune Function of Mice in the Hindlimb-Unloading Model of Space Flight Conditions.
Hindlimb-unloading is a ground-based model that simulates some of the aspects of space flight conditions including lack of load bearing on hindlimbs and a fluid shift to the head.
It has been shown that treatment with Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC) restores resistance to infection in mice maintained under hindlimb-unloading conditions. The present study was designed to clarify the mechanisms by which AHCC enhances resistance to infection in this model.
We hypothesized that oral administration of AHCC will enhance the function of the immune system, which could lead to the increased resistance to infection observed in this model. AHCC or the excipient was orally administered to mice and the function of the immune system was assessed in spleen and peritoneal cells isolated from those groups.
The results of the current study showed that, administration of AHCC for one week prior to and throughout the 2nd day of hindlimb-unloading period enhanced the function of the immune system assessed by spleen cell proliferation and cytokine production in spleens and nitric oxide and cytokine production in peritoneal cells.
These findings suggest that AHCC can be used as a potent immune enhancer especially in cases where the immune system is suppressed by any condition including diseases such as HIV infection and cancer.
Study Concludes AHCC Enhances Resistance To Infection
National Space Biomedical Research Institute Studies AHCC In Simulated Space Flight Conditions
RYE, NY — Results of a National Space Biomedical Research Institute study conducted at Morehouse School of Medicine suggest that oral administration of Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)® can increase resistance to infection. The purpose of this study was to determine if AHCC could ameliorate or prevent the deleterious effects of hindlimb-unloading on resistance to infection and immune response.
Results of this study suggest that oral administration of AHCC improves the overall condition of the host resulting in increased resistance to infection.
In this present study, AHCC was orally administered to mice to determine if the treatment could decrease immunosuppression and mortality of mice maintained in the hindlimb-unloaded model infected with the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common bacteria that effects people with weakened immune systems.
The results showed that administration of AHCC by gavage for one week (1g/kg body weight) prior to suspension and throughout the ten-day suspension period yielded significant beneficial effects for the hindlimb-unloaded group including: 1) decreased mortality 2) increased time to death and 3) increased ability to clear bacteria. The results suggest that AHCC can decrease the deleterious effects of the hindlimb-unloading model on immunity and resistance to infection.
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute is a unique, scientific partnership with NASA that engages academic, industrial and government researchers, and the resources of the nation’s leading biomedical research institutions, in a team-based effort to reduce the significant health risks associated with human space travel. The Institute’s goal-directed, cost-efficient research program impacts both the safety of human space travel and the quality of life on Earth.
