SCIENCE REVIEW
What Does Digestion Actually Do To Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, and Reishi?
We reviewed the research on functional mushroom compounds, digestion, and buccal absorption. Here's what actually happens between swallowing something and your body being able to use it.
"Digestion wastes most of your supplement" sounds like the kind of claim that belongs in an ad, not a research summary.
But strip away the marketing language, and there's a real question underneath it: what happens to something between the moment you swallow it and the moment, if it ever comes, that your body can actually use it?
That question has real, well established answers. Here's what the research shows.
SWALLOWED COMPOUND
→
STOMACH ACID + DIGESTIVE ENZYMES
→
LIVER FILTERING
→
WHATEVER'S LEFT REACHES YOUR BLOOD
This happens to a wide range of things you swallow, not just functional mushrooms.
Step 1:
Understanding What Happens When You Swallow Something
Before looking at Lion's Mane specifically, it helps to understand a basic fact about how your body works: not everything you swallow reaches your bloodstream intact.
Anything you swallow has to survive stomach acid and digestive enzymes, then pass through your liver, which breaks a lot of it down before it ever reaches your blood. Researchers sometimes call this first-pass metabolism, but simply put: your liver filters out a lot of what you swallow before your body can use it. It's a well documented limit on swallowing things in general, medications included, not just mushrooms.1
This is exactly why buccal and sublingual delivery, absorbing something through the tissue of the mouth instead of swallowing it, exists as an alternative. It skips your stomach and liver entirely.1
Route
Buccal, absorption through cheek tissue
Bypasses
Gastric degradation, hepatic first-pass metabolism
Why It Matters
Compounds reach the bloodstream without being broken down first
Established Use
A documented route for a range of fast-acting medications
Citation 1
Step 2:
What This Means For Lion's Mane Specifically
Lion's Mane contains hericenones, compounds concentrated in the fruiting body and studied for their role in nerve growth factor production and cognitive support.2 A 16-week study using 3g/day of fruiting body extract found improved cognitive scores in adults compared to placebo.2
Like a lot of things you swallow, hericenones run into the same stomach and liver problem described above. Whether Lion's Mane is eaten raw, cooked, encapsulated, or dissolved into coffee doesn't change that basic mechanism. The delivery route does.
Supported by the research
Swallowing something means your stomach and liver break down a lot of it before your body can use it.
Buccal absorption is a documented way around that.
Lion's Mane's hericenones are studied for cognitive support.
Not established by this research
No study has measured an exact percentage of Lion's Mane lost to digestion.
No study has measured a specific multiplier (e.g. "10x") between swallowed and buccally absorbed Lion's Mane specifically.
Step 3:
The Rest Of The Stack
Lion's Mane isn't the only researched ingredient in Flow. Here's what the human research shows for the other three.
Cordyceps
DesignDouble-blind, placebo-controlled trial
PopulationHealthy elderly adults, age 50-75
MeasurementAerobic capacity and exercise threshold
ResultSignificant improvement vs. placebo after 12 weeks
Trial population was older adults, not general adults.
Reishi and Sleep
DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
ResultReishi supplementation associated with improved sleep quality
Reishi and Stress
DesignRandomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
PopulationAdults with neurasthenia, a condition involving fatigue and stress-related symptoms
ResultReishi extract eased symptoms compared to placebo
TeaCrine® has its own separate research base: an 8-week safety study found no signs of tolerance build-up at regular use, meaning the body doesn't need increasing amounts to feel the same effect the way it can with caffeine.6
Step 4:
What We're Claiming, And What We're Not
Because this page is built around research, it's worth being explicit about where the evidence actually supports our claims and where it doesn't.
We're not claiming a specific percentage of any ingredient is destroyed by digestion. No study has measured that number for these compounds.
We're not claiming a specific multiplier, like needing some fixed number of times more raw mushroom to match a pouch.
We are saying that your liver and stomach break down a lot of what you swallow before it reaches your blood,1 that buccal absorption is a documented way around that,1 and that Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, and Reishi each have real human research behind their benefit claims.2345
That's a narrower claim than "digestion wastes most of your supplement." It's also one we can actually stand behind.
Digestion and first-pass filtering
SWALLOWED→STOMACH ACID→LIVER→BLOODSTREAM
Cheek tissue to bloodstream
MOUTH→CHEEK TISSUE→BLOODSTREAM
Built Around The Delivery Route, Not Just The Ingredient List
Flow, a new American-manufactured functional mushroom pouch brand, is designed to be held against your gums and cheek rather than swallowed. Every ingredient, Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, Reishi, TeaCrine®, and methylcobalamin B12, absorbs through the same buccal route described above.
Flow Functional Ingredient Key
Clinical ingredient categories, presented without lifestyle photography.
Lion's ManeCognitive Support
CordycepsEnergy, Stamina, Blood Flow Support
ReishiStress and Sleep Support
TeaCrine®Smooth Energy
Methylcobalamin B12Energy Metabolism
The Data On Actual Use
Research on these ingredients and on buccal absorption explains the "why." Real-world usage data speaks to how people report it working in practice.
More than 103,000 people have tried Flow to date. In a 2026 post-purchase customer survey, 87% of respondents reported better energy throughout the day.7
This is a self-reported survey result, not a controlled clinical trial, and should be read as exactly that. But directionally, it suggests the format is landing the way it was designed to.
103,000+
People have tried Flow to date
87%
Reported better energy throughout the day
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1Buccal/mucosal delivery bypassing first-pass metabolism and gastric degradation. Candidate source: Recent Advances in Development of Buccal Formulations, PubMed 40461915. 2Docherty et al., Nutrients 2023, 15(22):4842 3Chen et al. 2010, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16(5):585-590, DOI 10.1089/acm.2009.0226. Trial population was healthy elderly adults (age 50-75), not general adults. Flagged above. 4A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) and sleep quality. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2023;29(4):307-316, DOI 10.1089/acm.2022.0366 5Tang et al. 2005, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide extract in neurasthenia. Journal of Medicinal Food 8(1):53-58, DOI 10.1089/jmf.2005.8.53 6Taylor et al. 2016, JISSN, 8-week non-habituation safety study 7In a self-reported 2026 Flow post-purchase customer survey
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.