( CNN ) -- Paul Stamets was shy as a child ; he could n't look people in the eyes , so he stared at the ground . And that , he says , is where he found mushrooms . Today , that shyness has faded , but mushrooms are even more of a focal point . Stamets is one of the most prominent proponents of using mushrooms for medicinal purposes . Besides traveling the world to look for exotic mushrooms , he also lectures about them and runs a mushroom supplement company with his wife called Fungi Perfecti . When he spoke at TEDMED in October , he even wore a mushroom -- his hat is made from birch polypore , which is also thought to have medicinal uses . Why are n't mushrooms being used more often for medicinal purposes ? Despite documented use of mushrooms in other cultures ( for instance , ancient Greece ) thousands of years ago , Stamets says some people have a fear of mushrooms -- mycophobia -- because the fungi are ephemeral and powerful . They have the power to feed you , make you high or even harm you , but they do n't last very long . `` People 's paranoia is a reflex of their not understanding something that 's so mysterious , '' he said . `` I was always attracted to that which was forbidden , and these were forbidden fruits . '' Stamets is n't the only one who 's excited about mushrooms . George Hudler , a professor in Cornell University 's Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology , does n't like the taste of them , but thinks there 's a lot of potential for mushrooms ' healing properties . `` In the next 10 years , we 'll just see an incredible expansion of our awareness of chemicals in mushrooms , hopefully even their use in conventional medicine , '' says Hudler , who teaches a course on mushrooms at Cornell and once had dinner with Stamets . You might know of only a handful of mushroom types , but there are more than 150,000 species of mushrooms , Stamets says . Still , only 14,000 have been identified , and Stamets and colleagues are still looking . In Hudler 's view , shiitake mushrooms have the longest track record of research in health benefits . Chemicals in them may stimulate the immune system and lower cholesterol . White button mushrooms found in salad are also high in vitamin B complex , and the antioxidant properties of mushrooms could protect against heart disease and cancer . And even hallucinogenic mushrooms are proving to have clinical uses . Psilocybin , one of the psychedelic compounds in `` magic '' mushrooms , may have uses for depression , a study recently suggested . There has also been research showing that healthy people given this drug in an experimental setting report having life-changes experiences and positive effects from them that last up to 25 years . The research on all these mushrooms is still preliminary , so there 's no way to say for sure that mushrooms are going to add years to your life . But Stamets points to his mother as a living example of how useful mushrooms may be . Patty Stamets , 86 , had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2009 , and doctors gave her three months to live . But after a year of turkey tail mushroom supplement in addition to the standard drugs Taxol ( paclitaxel ) and Herceptin ( trastuzumab ) , she had no detectable cancer . Still , it 's not clear that the mushrooms were the whole story . Turkey tail mushrooms may have some ability to boost the immune system , but there 's so much unpredictability about cancer that it 's hard to say how much they did on top of the standard medications , Hudler said . He thinks that trying experimental mushroom supplements to potentially help treat cancer is worth considering , but not without a physician 's consultation . Stamets himself eats mushrooms three to four times a week , and he recommends that everyone else do the same . Always cook mushrooms to get their immune-boosting benefits , he says . Cooking also destroys any toxins that may be present in edible mushrooms such as shiitake and morels ( but not poisonous mushrooms such as death caps ) , Hudler notes . Stamets likes his mushrooms crispy brown . `` These are functional foods , '' he says . `` It 's a misconception to think of them as drugs . ''
David Stamets says he believes people are afraid of plants because they are powerful . David Hudler says he thinks there 's a lot of evidence for plants ' healing properties . Even hallucinogenic mushrooms are proving to have clinical uses , research continues .