Reishi Insights
WHAT IS REISHI AND WHAT MAKES IT A POTENT PLANT?
Reishi is a potent medicinal mushroom that has over 400 nutritional compounds all relaying various health benefits, earning its name as the mushroom of “immortality”.
Reishi is one of the top ‘tonic’ medicinal mushrooms used to support long-term, sustained health, longevity and renewed vitality. As a “tonic herb” it is a powerful contributor to overall health and vitality and should not just be prescribed for an illness, rather it should be incorporated into your daily diet to reap its various benefits. Reishi has been revered in Asia for over two thousand years as an ‘elixir of immortality’ due to its many health benefits and has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years for its cognitive and immune-boosting properties.
As an adaptogenic mushroom, it helps the body manage the negative effects of stress. It supports hormonal and other stressors in the body and may restore these imbalances to their natural, healthy state of optimal functioning. Reishi mushroom also has over 400 nutritional compounds that are beneficial for our health. This includes antioxidants that transform cell-damaging free radicals, beta-glucans which lowers our “bad” LDL cholesterol levels and have the unique ability to strengthen the body’s immune system and response, by improving the functioning of our white blood cells and increasing our pathogen-fighting white-blood-cell count.
DISCLAIMER
• Always check with your healthcare practitioner before using medicinal foods/superfoods such as mucuna during pregnancy or with prescribed medication
HEALTH BENEFITS & NUTRITIONAL POTENCY OF REISHI
Let’s look at how the reishi mushroom works & what it does for the body.
Reishi is a restorative adaptogen which fine-tunes the body’s functional systems to work in harmony with each other.
- Balances stress and enhances sleep
- Powerful adaptogen which can restore hormonal imbalances, promote calmness and combat the effects of stress
- Immune support for a more resilient immune system
- Renewed vitality
- Combats inflammation and improves recovery from exercise
- Inhibits candida growth
- Antifungal & antibacterial
- Maintains healthy testosterone levels
- High in antioxidants which detoxify the body and transform cell-damaging free radicals
- Supports gut health
- Promotes weight-loss
Broad-spectrum nutrition: Mushrooms are a source of low carbohydrate food and are especially helpful for managing energy levels as they offer valuable nutrients to the body, including protein, enzymes, B vitamins (especially niacin), and vitamin D2. Apart from being a low-calorie ‘energy boosting’ food source, reishi offers broad-spectrum nutrition as it contains over 400 nutritional compounds.
Boosts the immune system: Reishi contains long-chain polysaccharides, particularly alpha and beta-glucan molecules which have a modulating effect on our immune system. This means reishi has the ability to promote the production of immune cells to prevent diseases. It is also an effective anti-fungal and anti-bacterial that easily breaks down notoriously impermeable biofilms of candida.
Weight-loss, gut health & anti-inflammatory: Reishi contains hundreds of biologically active molecules that promote gut health by nurturing the good but bacteria in the gut microbiome. One of these compounds is Ganoderma lucidum Peptide, which is responsible for its potent antioxidant capacity and for transforming cell-damaging free radicals. It also contains polysaccharides and triterpenes that combats inflammation. Triterpenes also protect the body against viruses, fungal and microbial infections, and have been shown to improve the digestive system for more effective weight loss. Triterpenes enhance the lining of the digestive system to improve nutrient absorption and help reduce bad bacteria whilst encouraging the growth of good bacteria. All of this results in better digestion, which leads to better energy conversion and nutrient absorption of food. Since these active compounds also nourish good gut bacteria, it improves overall gut health and therefore strengthens your immune system and encourages a healthy weight.
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HOW TO USE REISHI
Reishi mushroom has an earthy, slightly bitter or umami flavour. By adding reishi mushroom powder to any dish will not only add flavour to it but also enhance its nutrient density and health benefits. You can add reishi to raw dishes as well as cooked. To sweet dishes or savoury dishes. It is quite versatile.
Reishi works best blended into hot drinks or liquids. Try adding it to soups, lattes, coffee, smoothies and baked goods.
Dosage
Organic Reishi Mushroom Powder
- Maintenance: 1 teaspoon daily (or up to 5g)
- Therapeutic use: 2 teaspoons daily (or up to 10g )
Recipes
Reishi Peanut Butter ‘n Chocolate Potion
A longevity & energy booster.
Medicinal Mushroom Immuni-tea
A powerful immune-boosting medicinal mushroom, chocolate tea
MORE INSIGHTS & SCIENCE ON REISHI’S HEALTH BENEFITS
- Reishi mushrooms are large, glossy polypore mushrooms native to Asia.
- Ancient Chinese medicine celebrates reishi mushrooms for their ability to strengthen heart function, increase memory and detoxify the body.
- Chinese medicine practitioners use reishi to treat a variety of conditions, including asthma, dizziness, insomnia, and irregular heartbeat.
- Reishi mushrooms have powerful immune-boosting, neuroprotective effects and have been shown to support neurogenesis.
- Recent studies have indicated that reishi is capable of maintaining healthy modulation of cytokines (the interaction and communication between cells). Cytokines are crucial in controlling the growth and activity of our immune system cells and the body’s anti-inflammatory response.
- In Chinese, the name lingzhi represents a combination of spiritual potency and essence of immortality and is regarded as the “herb of spiritual potency,” symbolising success, well-being, divine power, and longevity.
- Reishi is one of the richest sources of terpenes known.
- Terpenes are considered the strongest anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour compounds found in nature. Terpenes have the ability to dissolve, dissipate, and decompose used cellular matter, hence reishi’s innate ability to do a similar breaking-down and dissipating action in the body.
- Reishi fits the classic definition of an adaptogen. It has a dual-direction activity which means, for example, it improves the functioning of the immune and organ systems, whether they are deficient or excessive. It doesn’t stimulate the liver, the kidneys or the overall system; rather, it regulates them. It doesn’t stimulate or suppress the immune system: it is an immuno-modulator. Reishi’s broad range of abilities to repair the function of one person’s liver, while increasing the function of another’s lungs, or kidneys, or skin, or mental function, seems less unusual if we understand it as an adaptogen.
- “Reishi is remarkable for its diversity of genes coding for cytochrome P450 enzymes. These enzymes not only afford this species a broad arsenal for producing secondary metabolites for digesting nutrients, but may also confer benefits to human health such as enhancing the degradation of toxins and free radicals and increasing the liver’s metabolic efficiency. The variety of these enzymes, among more than 400 active constituents that have been found, indicates to me that mushrooms such as Reishi are like miniature pharmaceutical factories that can produce hundreds of medicinally-interactive compounds.” – Paul Stamets
Reishi has been proven to:
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- effectively treat various liver disorders
- improve chronic kidney dysfunction
- improve recovery time for herpes outbreaks
- decrease urinary tract infections in men with enlarged prostates
- inhibit liver tumours and prevent metastasis
- prevent chemically-induced liver fibrosis
- inhibit leukaemia cells from forming
- protect against pathological changes in Parkinson’s patients
- protect against radiation and chemotherapy toxicity
- treat Sjögren syndrome
- speed healing of stomach ulcers
- have anti-diabetic effects
- have anti-ageing effects
- suppress the growth of prostate cells thus preventing enlargement
- reverse resistance to drug sensitivity and drug resistance in those with lung cancer
- prevent inflammatory responses
- treat and prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis
- increase the death of leukaemia cells
- inhibit such viruses as HIV and Epstein-Barr
- have anti-cancer effects including those in the bladder, prostate, liver, ovarian, breast, and melanomas
RESEARCH:
http://https//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21887458
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29199568
https://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/reishi-mushroom
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