Medicinal mushrooms have long been used in Asia as an energy tonic to help promote longevity and overall health. Amongst the many types of medicinal mushrooms, including Maitake, Cordyceps, and Shiitake, Reishi is one of the most versatile medicinal mushrooms.

Medicinal mushrooms have been shown to improve specific immune markers and contribute significantly to healing processes by stimulating the body’s immune system. They contain high concentration of fiber and act as prebiotic, antioxidant, and antibiotics. They hold anti-hyperlipidemic, hypotensive, and hypoglycemic ability in addition to helping many health conditions such as asthma, ulcers, and kidney inflammation.

Furthermore, medicinal mushrooms are potent antagonists that helps diminish the formation of cancerous cells and compounds.

Beating cancer with the help of medicinal mushrooms

Many of the medicinal mushrooms, including Chaga mushroom, Maitake mushroom, Ganoderma mushroom, and Cordyceps mushroom, contain cancer-preventive and cancer-fighting actions. Research has focused on the polysaccharides with beta 1,3 glucan linkages.

Indole-3-carbinol is a nutrient found in large quantities in cruciferous vegetables. It is a potent antagonist of breast cancer, reducing formation of cancerous compounds from hormones and participating in blockage of cancer cell progression. - The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know About Chinese, Western, and Ayurvedic Herbal Treatments by Alan Keith Tillotson, Ph.D., A.H.G., D.Ay.

Cordyceps

like many other medicinal mushrooms has been traditionally cooked into soups in Asia for its nutritive and tonic properties. Like other medicinal mushrooms CS is rich in polysaccharides, the primary immune modulators as well as being rich in vitamins and minerals. Cordyceps is best taken as either a water extract (tea or soup) or a high quality powder can be mixed into juice or water, or even into yoghurt or applesauce.

It is important to get high quality, properly prepared and processed Cordyceps product to ensure that you will get the most benefit from this healing mushroom. As with any other product of this nature, seek the guidance of a health care professional.

The constituents in medicinal mushrooms, such as CS, have few drug interactions and can often be used safely along with conventional therapies. Always discuss the use of herbal medicines with your doctor.

Potential benefits of Cordyceps sinensis

Studies show the following actions and effects of the water extract of Cordyceps sinensis: (CS):

The polysaccharides in CS have been shown to have immune stimulating and anti tumor activity.
CS had been shown to inhibit the growth of several cancer cell lines.
CS has also been shown to protect the liver and kidneys from toxic side effects of chemotherapy.
CS has been shown to potentiate and enhance the activity of some chemotherapy drugs.
CS has been shown to promote Cell Death (induce apoptosis). Normal cells will self destruct (undergo apoptosis) when the cell is damaged. Cancer cells fail to do so. CS has been shown to induce apoptosis or normal cell death in cancer cells in many studies and suggests that CS might be a valuable adjunct therapy for cancer patients.
CS is a potent antioxidant, thus protecting cells from free radical damage. Free radical damage is thought to be a primary factor in the aging process. Additionally when DNA (genetic material) in the cells is damaged, risk of cancer increases. CS has been shown to enhance the production of Glutathione and SOD, protective, natural antioxidants produced in our cells to protect against free radical damage and oxidation.

CS demonstrates anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is a factor common to many diseases, including cancer.
CS has been shown to increase the production of Natural Killer (NK) cells. NK cells are primary protective cell in our natural innate immune response is active against both tumor cells and viral cells.
CS has also been shown to possibly inhibit metastasis and the spread of some cancers. Inhibiting metastasis therefore could prolong life for cancer patients.
Some studies have shown that CS prevents metastasis by inhibiting angiogenesis, the process by which tumor cells make new blood vessels, allowing tumors to grow in size.

CS has also demonstrated anti-viral and antibacterial properties.

Maitake and Turkey Tail

Other mushroom extracts that have been shown to have clinical effectiveness against human cancers are D-fraction extracted from the Maitake mushroom, and extracts from the Split Gill, Turkey Tail and Reishi mushrooms. In 1998, Maitake Products received FDA approval for an Investigational New Drug Phase II pilot study of Maitake mushroom extract in the treatment of advanced breast and prostate cancer.

There is also some evidence that the consumption of mushrooms in the diet may ward off cancer. - You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi

As with many of the medicinal mushrooms, Shiitake has been shown to be of benefit as an adjuvant cancer therapy. It has been shown to improve specific immune markers (including natural killer cells, tumor necrosis factor, T-helper cells, and a variety of interleukins), and patient outcomes.

Reishi

..is one of the most versatile medicinal mushrooms. It has long been used in Asia as an energy tonic to promote longevity and overall health.

Studies indicate that Reishi is an antioxidant and contains polysaccharides and other compounds that may boost the immune system. Reishi is taken to counter bacteria and viruses and has shown promise as an agent to help prevent or treat cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other conditions. Russian researchers at the Cancer Research Center in Moscow have had positive results using Reishi extracts to boost the immunity of cancer patients. - The Health Benefits Of Medicinal Mushrooms by Mark Stengler

Chaga

There have been 150 species of medicinal mushrooms found to inhibit the growth of different types of tumors, especially cancers of the stomach, esophagus, and lungs, but Chaga seems to stand out from the rest. I learned about this mushroom from herbalist David Winston, who told me it has been used traditionally to treat different forms of cancer in Siberia, Canada, Scandinavia, the United States, and Russia. Chaga is a fungal parasite that draws its nutrients out of living trees, rather than from the ground. - The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know About Chinese, Western, and Ayurvedic Herbal Treatments by Alan Keith Tillotson, Ph.D., A.H.G., D.Ay.

~ ~ ~~

Enjoy mushrooms in salads, soups and stir-frys. Powdered mushrooms in pill form are also very effective.

As a special note, in order to be effective, it seems that mushroom extracts must be aqueous—i.e., extracted with hot water. Those that are extracted using rice or alcohol tinctures are not effective biologically. But a generally reliable source of aqueous extracts of medicinal mushrooms is JNS Natural Products, Inc. (www.jhsnp.com).

>> To order organic Reishi or Cordyceps supplements, Contact me. <<

Read more here.

Because of Chinese and Japanese research and use, there is more documentation on Asian medicinal mushrooms than on almost any other CAM product.

Actions: Anti-tumor, Anti-microbial, Immunomodulating, Anti-oxidant. Also recently discovered to be anti-malarial.

Coriolus versicolor(turkey tail) mushroom is particularly interesting because it contains the protein-bound polysaccharide K (PSK). There are 600+ articles in PubMed on this topic, including 60+ clinical trials and 40+ RCTs. PSK is approved as an adjunctive cancer treatment in Japan.

PSK is said to fight cancer and halt tumors by inhibiting the growth of cancer cells and “stimulating a host mediated response.” PSK also promotes the body’s own “Natural Killer Cells” to strengthen and kick-start the immune system.

PSK is frequently combined with chemotherapy to increase cancer survival rates.

A $2.25 Million NIH Study Confirms Turkey Tail Mushrooms’ Power Against Breast Cancer

Recently, the National Institute of Health (NIH) approved a $2.25 million-dollar study conducted jointly with Bastyr University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Washington. Researchers analyzed the impact of Turkey Tail mushrooms on the immune systems of patients with breast cancer.

Dr. Cynthia Wenner is one of the principal investigators on the NIH study. In an interview with Bastyr University’s Bastyr Magazine, she said, “As an overall goal, we’re trying to discover if this mushroom will help stimulate the human immune response to breast and prostate cancers.”

The study — which used mushrooms provided by Stamets’ company, Fungi Perfecti, LLC — confirmed that the mushrooms definitely stimulate the immune system and can even correct deficits in the immune systems of patients, all without the toxicity and side effects that are so common with more traditional treatments.

In a large trial published in the British Medical Journal in 2004, the addition of PSK increased the effectiveness of tegafur, a 5-FU ‘prodrug,’ on colorectal cancer. ( A ‘prodrug’ is an agent that is metabolized into an active drug in the human body.)

The overall five-year survival was 72.1 percent in the chemo-alone group vs. 81.8 percent in the PSK-added group. Among stage III patients, disease-free survival was 32.1 in the chemo alone group vs. 60 percent in the PSK-added group. Overall survival was 46.4 percent in the chemo-alone group vs. 74.6 percent in the PSK-added group (a gain of 28.2 percent).

PSK was found to prevent the recurrence of lung metastases. Adverse effects were mild. PSK capsules taken with this oral form of 5-FU “reduced recurrence in stage II and III colorectal cancer, and increased survival in stage III.”

Cancer-Killing PSK

Paul Stamets : In June of 2009, Stamets received shocking and distressing news from his mother: her right breast was 5 times the size of her left, due to 6 walnut-sized lymph nodes. The swelling and the enlarged nodes turned out to be caused by cancer. By the time of her examination and diagnosis, Stamets’ mother already had stage IV breast cancer, and it had already metastasized to her liver.

The oncologist at the Swedish Breast Cancer Clinic at the University of Washington said that Stamets’ mother had the second worst case of breast cancer she’d seen in 20 years of practice. After predicting that Stamets’ mother had only 3 to 6 months to live, the oncologist told both mother and son about an intriguing new study using Turkey Tail mushrooms to cure cancer.

Stamets’ mother tried the mushrooms (along with the drug Ariceptin). Fast forward 7 months later… Paul declared, “As of February 2010, she was virtually cancer-free”.

There arenumerous other articles in the peer-reviewed literature on this topic. Even the conservative Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center acknowledges the utility of PSK. Yet, inexplicably, this excellent natural product remains little known to most oncologists in English-speaking lands.

Bottom line

For people with cancer, there is little reason not to add PSK to their regimen. One reputable version comes from JHS Natural Products. Their PSK is a dehydrated hot water extract, which is 36 percent beta 1-4, 1-3, 1-6 glucan (i.e., the protein-bound polysaccharide with the greatest anticancer potential).

References:

~ Be Well. ♥