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Mushrooms: Supplements 101
Mushrooms: Supplements 101
Mushrooms are a valuable food and medicine, but which ones are best? Are they safe during treatment for cancer? What’s the proper dose? Do …
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Aug. 24, 2022

Mushrooms: Supplements 101

Mushrooms: Supplements 101

Mushrooms are a valuable food and medicine, but which ones are best? Are they safe during treatment for cancer? What’s the proper dose? Do they really affect immune function? Tina & Leah discuss all of this and more from a practical- and as always-naturopathic perspective.

The use of mushrooms dates back thousands of years. As a food, mushrooms add nutrients like vitamin D, B vitamins and even protein to your diet. As a medicine, all mushrooms contain components that help support proper immune system balance. 

In addition, each mushroom (shitake, reishi, turkey tail, cordyceps, lion’s mane, maitake, and even button!) has its own action on the body that helps support energy production, brain health, lung/ kidney function, etc, etc. 

In this episode, Tina & Leah discuss the do’s and the don’ts when using mushrooms during and after treatment for cancer. Tune in, we guarantee you’ll hear something useful. Or your money back!

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Links we mentioned on this episode and other cool stuff:

Immune effects of mushrooms in cancer care.  Integr Med

Mushrooms for cancer US Dept Veterans Affairs

Medicinal Mushrooms PDQ National Cancer Institute

Health Benefits of mushrooms International J of Microbiology

Eating more mushrooms is associated with lower cancer risk Advances in Nutrition

Mushrooms make vitamin D from sunshine Nutrients

Reishi and Turkey Tail improve life for those with cancer Frontier in Pharmacology

Anatomy of a mushroom (illustrator’s site) Jamie Green

Mushroom tutorial Brandeis University 

Reishi benefits as complementary treatment Cochrane Database Syst Rev

Shiitake led to an allergic reaction in 2 people J Allergy Clin Immunol

Links below for  info on individual medicinal mushrooms. Memorial Sloan Kettering

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Chapters

01:02 - Introduction

05:08 - Immune modulation, different than stimulation

05:41 - Mushrooms for autoimmune conditions?

06:20 - Isolates versus whole mushroom

07:57 - What part of mushrooms is medicinal?

11:05 - Coffee & mushrooms?

12:04 - Mushroom cells are tough

13:20 - Polysaccharides (ex: beta glucan)

13:48 - Back to coffee and mushrooms...

15:53 - Leah's tips on taking mushrooms

17:40 - Which mushrooms for which cancer?

19:56 - Cordyceps

21:57 - Why studies in dishes are not so useful

24:29 - Mushrooms in rotation

25:02 - What dose do you take?

27:36 - For those with sensitivity/allergies to mushrooms...

29:00 - Are there any treatment interactions?

30:26 - Cautions and contraindications

31:15 - Influence on blood sugar (glucose)

32:32 - Immunosuppressive drugs

34:03 - Leukemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma

34:54 - Mushrooms as blood thinner

37:01 - What is AHCC?

39:06 - In summary...

40:40 - Winding down