Reishi mushroom is a fungus that some people describe as “tough” and “woody” with a bitter taste. The fruiting body (above-ground part) and mycelium (filaments connecting a group of mushrooms) are used as medicine.
Reishi mushroom is used for boosting the immune system; viral infections such as the flu (influenza), swine flu, and avian flu; lung conditions including asthma and bronchitis; heart disease and contributing conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol; kidney disease; cancer; and liver disease. It is also used for HIV/AIDS, altitude sickness, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), trouble sleeping (insomnia), stomach ulcers, poisoning, and herpes pain. Other uses include reducing stress and preventing fatigue.
In combination with other herbs, reishi mushroom is used to treat prostate cancer.
Benefits of Ganoderma
The benefits of Ganoderma a wide an varied. Ganoderma works on the body at a cellular level to improve ones health and general wellbing.
Cardiovascular Benefits
Ganoderma Lucidum has been shown in some studies to inhibit platelet aggregation and reduce blood pressure. In studies of people with hypertension, researchers found blood pressure was significantly reduced over two-weeks' time with Ganoderma (Reishi) supplementation.
Immune Benefits
Ganoderma Lucidum is commonly prescribed by practitioners for long-term immune system support. In studies involving patients with advanced tumors, the patients were given Ganoderma Lucidum for thirty days. Researchers found a marked immune-modulating effect as demonstrated by an increase in T lymphocytes and decreased CD8 counts. Patients also reported reduced side effects due to chemotherapy or radiation as well as post operation recovery.
Blood Sugar Balance
Studies have shown Ganoderma Lucidum to have a blood sugar lowering effect. Much of this activity appears to be due to polysaccharides known as Ganoderans A, B, and C.
It appears there are three main mechanisms behind this hypoglycaemic effect. This includes Ganoderma Lucidum's ability to elevate plasma insulin levels, to enhance peripheral tissue utilization of glucose, and to enhance liver metabolism of glucose.
Anti-inflammatory Effects
Studies have shown that hot-water extracts of Ganoderma Lucidum have anti-inflammatory effects. One study found that 50 milligrams of Reishi powder had comparable effects to 5 milligrams of hydrocortisone.
Liver Protector
Ganoderma Lucidum is commonly used for its hepatoprotective (liver protective) action. One study of patients with hepatitis B and elevated liver enzymes (SGOT/SGPT) and bilirubin were given Reishi for three months. Significant reduction in SGOT and SGPT were noticed within one month. After three months all values were within normal range.
Oxygenation
One of the unique uses of Ganoderma Lucidum is for altitude sickness. Reishi appears to reduce altitude sickness by oxygenating the blood. This benefit was studied in Asian mountain climbers that ascended mountains as high as 17,000 feet with minimal reaction.
Ganoderma has been known for centuries for alkalizing and oxygenating the body to establish the foundation for a lifetime of good health, removing the basis for osteoporosis, arthritis, adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, and many other degenerative conditions including cancer. No disease can survive in a super oxygenated environment. When your body has sufficient oxygen, it thrives. Ganoderma is a super herb which rapidly oxygenates your body and automatically adjusts your PH to a healthy balance at the cellular level.
Weight Loss: Oxygen is a necessary component for burning fuel. the more you oxygenate the body, the higher your metabolism. That means weight loss
Ganoderma is backed up with evidence-based documented research in reducing cholesterol levels and easing allergy-related inflammation of the airway. Often used as an immune stimulant by people with cancer (as well as HIV), Ganoderma has been shown to strengthen immunity as well as combat cancer-cell proliferation. Powerful anti-aging and immune boosting properties
Benefits of GANODERMA for specific health conditions include the following:
Alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver . Reishi helps to prevent alcohol-induced fatty liver and cirrhosis. It is beneficial for people in earlier stages of alcoholic liver disease who have not yet experienced severe loss of liver function.
Bronchitis and yeast infection. Reishi stimulates the maturation of immune cells known as macrophages, which engulf and digest infectious bacteria. This prevents secondary infections from developing into cases of chronic bronchitis. Mature macrophages also are active against yeasts, making reishi a valuable treatment for yeast infection.
Fibroids (uterine myomas). Reishi keeps the uterine lining from making both basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), a chemical that promotes fibroid growth, and histamine, a chemical that causes inflammation.
High blood pressure. There is evidence that reishi can lower both blood pressure and blood-cholesterol levels. Scientists at Oklahoma’s Oral Roberts University found that compounds in reishi reduce the flow of nerve impulses through the sympathetic nervous system, the portion of the nervous system activated by emotional stress. Russian scientists screening mushrooms as potential cholesterol-lowering drugs have found that reishi extracts stop the accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries of laboratory animals. Two controlled clinical studies have investigated the effects of reishi on high blood pressure in humans. Both found it could lower pressure significantly as compared with a placebo. The subjects with high blood pressure in the second study had not previously responded to medications.
Stress. Eastern physicians have recognized for centuries that reishi can reduce emotional outbursts during long-term stress. Exactly how reishi does this has not been studied, but it is likely due to the herb’s effects on the central nervous system. Additionally, doctors at the Hijitaki Clinic in Tokyo have found that reishi helped to decrease physical pain dramatically in two people with neuralgia and two other people with shingles (herpes zoster). This quality may also help stop emotional outbursts.
Prevents and fights cancer: Reishi stimulates the body’s production of interleukin-2, which fights several types of cancer, and it contains compounds called ganoderic acids, which act against liver cancer. Reishi counteracts the suppression of red and white blood cells that can result from cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Neosar) treatment by stimulating the creation of protein in the bone marrow. In 1931, Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for the connection he discovered between oxygen and cancer. His studies showed that the number one cause of cancer is a lack of oxygen in the cellular environment. Warburg determined that cancer cells are anaerobic, meaning they thrive in an oxygen-depleted environment. Conversely, cancer cells cannot live in an oxygen-rich environment. Warburg also wrote about oxygen’s relationship to the pH of cancer cells and the body’s terrain. He said that cancer maintains a lower pH, as low as 6.0, due to lactic-acid production and elevated CO2. Warburg believed that higher pH (more alkaline) meant higher concentrations of oxygen, and vice versa. What Warburg discovered for cancer is true for all degenerative disease. Oxygen and a healthy pH balance are the foundational keys to a healthy body.
