Page 75#17. Fungi and Mushrooms
This Is Beyond Diet!
Fungi and mushrooms are related to herbal medicines but not quite the
same. The fungi are a remarkable group of organisms that don’t need light
to synthesize their own food. What we call mushrooms and toadstools are
simply the visible fruiting bodies on what is a much larger organism, covering
sometimes up to hundreds of square feet, called the mycelium.
The medicinal properties of mushrooms have been known since ancient times.
Now modern science backs up virtually all that has been claimed for mushrooms
and fungi. They are immune modulators, anti-viral, antibacterial and anti-
cancerous. There are several fungi that you need to be aware of with strong
anti-tumor properties. Probably the most important for cancer patients is the
Turkey Tail fungus and possibly the most well-known is the Shiitake.
Broadly speaking the edible fungi can be divided into those with culinary merits
and those which are purely medicinal. There is some overlap; for example, the
shiitake mushroom is a well-known Japanese delicacy and has now spread to the
West.
Shiitake stimulates the immune system about a hundred times more than the
common white button mushroom. Maitake does much more to aid the immune
system than morels, portobellos and chanterelles etc. The very tasty oyster
mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is enjoyed for its antibacterial anti-viral blood
pressure moderating and cholesterol reducing qualities.
The key to the effectiveness of mushrooms is a substance called beta glucan,
a large and complex polysaccharide (sugar chain) known to be an effective
antitumor agent. One of the first clinical experiments with beta glucan took place
in 1975. Dr Peter Mansell of the National Cancer Institute tested beta glucan as
a treatment for malignant melanoma, one of the most dangerous forms of cancer
known. He injected beta glucan into the melanoma nodules and noted with
satisfaction that they were “strikingly reduced in as short a period as five days”
and in some instances “resolution was complete”.
Note that yeast beta glucan, commonly sold via MLM networks, is largely
ineffective. They love to quote the science but this, if you look closely, is always
experiments on the mushroom beta glucan and is NOT applicable to the products
they sell (I have a saying: there is science, damned science and then MLM
science!)
Mushrooms contain more than just beta glucan, of course: amino acids such