Mushrooms & bone health

Since ancient times mushrooms have been consumed by humans not only as a part of the normal diet and a delicacy because of their highly desirable taste and aroma but also because they have medicinal properties. Romans considered mushrooms to be the Foods of the Gods and the Chinese declared them to be the Elixir of life.
As for the bone health, the main nutrients affecting building the bones are Clacium and Vitamin D.
Calcium plays a key role in numerous cellular processes, such as maintaining membrane potential and controlling hormonal secretion, cellular proliferation and differentiation.
An adequate intake of calcium, and of other essential nutrients, has long been established to be necessary for the development and maintenance of bone tissue.
Vitamin D, known as the “sunshine vitamin" plays a vital role in calcium metabolism and bone mineralization. Most of the foods which are normally consumed by humans are deficient in vitamin D and, especially, the vegetarians are at risk of vitamin D deficiency disorders.
Clinically, vitamin D deficiency has been proven to be associated with cancers and heart diseases and obesity and diabetes and arthritis.
Although mushrooms are deficient in vitamin D2; earlier researchers have found them to be a rich source of ergosterol.
Therefore they could be used to supplement vitamin D2 in the diets of those populations at risk of vitamin D deficiency symptoms e.g. vegetarians or individuals allergic to fish.
Osteoarthritis is becoming a more common problem than ever before.
Osteoarthritis is the loss of joint cartilage, so that instead of the cartilage at the ends of the bones rubbing as the joint moves, the bones of the joint rub directly on one another.
The fiber of mushrooms is chitin. Like chitin, cartilage is primarily acetylglucosamine. Glucosamine which is a normal constituent of glycosaminoglycans in cartilage matrix however, often athletes and older people begin to lose cartilage faster than they replace it.