Shiitake mushrooms deliver the goods in the battle against cancer
BY SUZY COHEN Dear Pharmacist
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Dear Pharmacist, I’m not a fan of
fungus, but I’ve heard that shiitake
mushrooms are good for cancer. What
do you think?— C.E., Boston
Shiitake, known botanically
as Lentinula edodes, are seriously
great for immune function.
These mushrooms have
been used for centuries and
have a safe history of healing.
Chinese medicine traditionally
uses mushrooms to enhance qi
(pronoucned “chee”), which
refers to your vital life force.
Shiitake extracts definitely
support immune function, but
they also appear to have antiviral
(even influenza), antibacterial
and antifungal effects. The
2009 study published in Complimentary
Therapies in Clinical
Practice had data to show
that shiitake had “extensive
antimicrobial activity against
85 percent of the organisms
it was tested on, including 50
percent of the yeast and mould
species in the trial.” This study
even compared it to ciprofloxacin,
a popular antibiotic.
Researchers isolated a
substance called “lentinan” in
shiitake that sparks your immune
system to do a better job
at getting rid of cancer cells.
Researchers conclude that lentinan
helps “prolong the survival
of patients with advanced
gastric cancer.” In another
Japanese study, published in
Cancer & Chemotherapy, July
2012, researchers looking at
shiitake’s effects on liver cancer
suggested that the mushrooms
“might be used for alleviating
side effects of chemotherapy
and preventing the progression
of liver cancer for patients with
chronic hepatitis.
Shiitake is active against the
hepatitis B virus, so you might
say this is a liver-loving mushroom
in many ways. It protects
the colon, too.
Shiitake mushrooms taste
good. I add them to my jasmine
rice along with pure saffron,
turmeric, onions, grapeseed
oil and garlic. Yum! There are
excellent supplements/extracts
of shiitake sold at healthfood
stores, and you can also
buy multi-tasking formulas
that contain several different
medicinal mushrooms. Those
are a little harder to find, but
two good ones are MycoPhyto
by Econugenics or Mushroom
Optimizer by Jarrow.
info@dearpharmacist.com
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