Mushrooms: Supplements 101
Mushrooms are a valuable food and medicine, but which ones are best? Are they safe during treatment for cancer? What’s the proper dose? Do they really affect immune function? Tina & Leah discuss all of this and more from a practical- and as always-naturopathic perspective.
The use of mushrooms dates back thousands of years. As a food, mushrooms add nutrients like vitamin D, B vitamins and even protein to your diet. As a medicine, all mushrooms contain components that help support proper immune system balance.
In addition, each mushroom (shitake, reishi, turkey tail, cordyceps, lion’s mane, maitake, and even button!) has its own action on the body that helps support energy production, brain health, lung/ kidney function, etc, etc.
In this episode, Tina & Leah discuss the do’s and the don’ts when using mushrooms during and after treatment for cancer. Tune in, we guarantee you’ll hear something useful. Or your money back!
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Links we mentioned on this episode and other cool stuff:
Immune effects of mushrooms in cancer care. Integr Med
Mushrooms for cancer US Dept Veterans Affairs
Medicinal Mushrooms PDQ National Cancer Institute
Health Benefits of mushrooms International J of Microbiology
Eating more mushrooms is associated with lower cancer risk Advances in Nutrition
Mushrooms make vitamin D from sunshine Nutrients
Reishi and Turkey Tail improve life for those with cancer Frontier in Pharmacology
Anatomy of a mushroom (illustrator’s site) Jamie Green
Mushroom tutorial Brandeis University
Reishi benefits as complementary treatment Cochrane Database Syst Rev
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01:02 - Introduction
05:08 - Immune modulation, different than stimulation
05:41 - Mushrooms for autoimmune conditions?
06:20 - Isolates versus whole mushroom
07:57 - What part of mushrooms is medicinal?
11:05 - Coffee & mushrooms?
12:04 - Mushroom cells are tough
13:20 - Polysaccharides (ex: beta glucan)
13:48 - Back to coffee and mushrooms...
15:53 - Leah's tips on taking mushrooms
17:40 - Which mushrooms for which cancer?
19:56 - Cordyceps
21:57 - Why studies in dishes are not so useful
24:29 - Mushrooms in rotation
25:02 - What dose do you take?
27:36 - For those with sensitivity/allergies to mushrooms...
29:00 - Are there any treatment interactions?
30:26 - Cautions and contraindications
31:15 - Influence on blood sugar (glucose)
32:32 - Immunosuppressive drugs
34:03 - Leukemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma
34:54 - Mushrooms as blood thinner
37:01 - What is AHCC?
39:06 - In summary...
40:40 - Winding down