Health & Wellbeing Podcast #32

Medicinal Mushrooms are growing in popularity all over the world, and not without reason. Medicinal and functional mushrooms are showing a huge amount of promise when it comes to improving our health and wellbeing. You might have heard of some of the more common mushrooms like Shiitake and Reishi mushroom, but there’s a whole heap of mushrooms with different benefits.

I was privileged to have a mushroom expert on the podcast – Jeff Chilton, founder of one of the leading medicine mushroom companies, Nammex.

Jeff is a wealth of knowledge and is very passionate about quality of mushroom supplements, something which we talked a lot about in this podcast. On top of that, he’s also a very lovely man, and patiently waited while I had to look after baby Lara a few times in the podcast, or while airplanes flew over (it was a noisy day then it seems!).

We spoke about the different properties of medicinal mushrooms, why it’s important to grow medicinal mushrooms organically, some of the quality issues that we face in choosing medicinal mushroom supplements, and Jeff shares a trick that we can do at home to tell if our mushroom supplements are quality or not.

Did you Know – Your Mushroom Supplements could contain grains.

Did you know that there are many types of mushroom supplements sold that contain grain? In a cost saving measure some companies will grow the mushrooms on grain. The mycelium (like the tiny roots of the mushroom) will spread throughout the grain and when it comes time to harvest, both the mycelium and the grain is taken. It’s virtually impossible to separate the grain from the mycelium, but not all companies are transparent with this. In some analysis it’s found that the chemical components of the supplements match the profile of the grain – so you’re essentially taking a glorified grain supplement.

Thankfully there’s an easy way to tell if your supplement contains grains – Jeff tells you how to do this in the podcast.

The Podcast

Click here to listen on Soundcloud, or via the embedded player below.

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Understanding Mushroom labels

Fruiting body refers to the part of the mushroom you see growing – usually that’s the cap and stem.

Mycelium is the cobweb like root structure that grows below the surface. This may be referred to on supplement labels as hyphae, mycelium or myceliated grain.

Another phrase that may be used is ‘full spectrum’, meaning that the mushroom contains both mycelium and fruiting body. To be truthful companies should detail the percentage of fruiting body contained in their supplements, and should not use the term full spectrum if the mushroom is grown on grain.

Benefits of Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional chinese medicine for centuries. There’s countless types of mushrooms used medicinally, but there are some select mushrooms which have been studied, and these are the more popular ones.

The benefits they show vary depending on the mushroom, and usually take a few days-weeks to achieve their effect.

There are so many types of medicinal mushrooms, but these are some of the more popular ones and their reported actions.

Shiitake

Lentinula edodes

• Immune tonic
• Anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial
• Can be used in cooking
• Lowers blood cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Potential anti-cancer activity

Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

• Immune tonic
• Adaptogen – helps the body cope with stress
• Calms the nervous system
• Supports good sleep
• Brain tonic
• Strengthens heart Qi
• Potential anti-cancer activity
• Can reduce allergies

Lion’s Mane

Hericium erinaceus

• Brain tonic
• Supports the nervous system, including nerve repair
• Supports stomach health and helps to heal stomach lining
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-microbial

Chaga

Inotus obliquus

• Anti-oxidant
• Immune modulator
• Balances blood sugar levels
• Supports pineal health
• Improves sleep
• Anti-viral
• Anti-fungal

Cordyceps

Cordyceps sinesis CS-4, Cordyceps militaris

• Adaptogen – improves the bodies ability to cope with stress and reduces fatigue
• Improves athletic performance
• Tonic for the new mothers
• Improves mental clarity
• Helps recovery after a big infection/illness
• Lung and cough tonic
• Sexual tonic

I find this mushroom so interesting I’m dedicating a whole blog post to it – I’ll add the link here when it’s up in a week.

Jeff’s links:

www.nammex.com

realmushrooms.com/

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