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3 Types of Mushrooms that Can Mash Cancer
Mushrooms have been used for untold centuries for medicinal purposes. High blood pressure and diabetes have been treated with mushrooms in traditional Chinese medicine and European cultures have long since used their own indigenous mushrooms to improve health. Perhaps mushrooms are best known for their cancer fighting abilities. Read also about cancer casuing foods. Although almost every mushroom has this ability, some are more efficient than others when it comes to kicking cancer to the curb. In particular, 3 mushrooms are at the top of the anti-cancer list.
Reishi
These age old mushrooms have been grown and cultivated for their medicinal properties in China for more than 2,000 years. They are famous for their anti-cancer abilities. Chinese medicine has been using dried reishi mushroom powder as a type of chemotherapy. Even some modern day pharmaceuticals add reishi extracts to their anti-tumor medications. Studies have shown that long term use of this mushroom can prevent tumor growth by increasing antioxidants in the blood and enhancing the immune system. One study done in Indianapolis by the Cancer Research Laboratory at the Methodist Research Institute showed that reishi mushrooms blocked the movement of breast cancer and prostate cancer cells in persons with cancer.
Note: Unlike other mushrooms, reishi have a hard, wood like texture and are difficult for the stomach to digest. Reishi is absorbed more easily when taken in an extract form.
Shiitake
This mushroom is native to Asia and is the second most commonly grown edible mushroom in the world. Studies done with animals have discovered that it contains anti-tumor effects as well as inhibits viruses and lowers cholesterol. A compound found within these mushrooms, lentinan, is believed to be responsible for stopping or slowing the growth of tumors. Human studies have shown that when cancer patients were given lentinan that it prolonged the life of patients with stomach and colorectal cancer. Shiitake mushrooms have been researched for their anti-cancer compounds since at least the 1960’s. Even though you will find this mushroom for sale fresh or dried, for medicinal purposes, it’s best to take the extract form of this mushroom in a capsule form.
SEE ALSO: A Secret Spice That Can Add Years to Your Life
Maitake
This brown mushroom likes to grow at the bottom of oak trees in both North America and Japan. Unlike other mushrooms, this specimen can grow to a size of more than 50 pounds! That would make this the granddaddy of mushrooms! Ongoing research with human patients who have cancer have shown that a component of this mushroom, called the MD-fraction, has the capacity to quash tumor growth. A report out of Japan states that people who had breast, lung, or liver cancer had a 58.3 to 68.8 per cent improvement in their conditions and those with brain or stomach cancer had a 10 to 20 per cent improvement when given maitake mushroom extracts during an extended research period. These types of reports give credit to the maitake as a super cancer fighting agent.
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