Cordyceps medicinal mushrooms may be—or at least should have been—the one thing that ex-sports celebrity Lance Armstrong should have had in common with doping for his professional cycling career-gone-banned, and his Foundation for cancer support and personal battle with cancer. Is it possible that Cordyceps could have provided a helping hand in solving his problems and boosted his career? After all, if three Chinese athletes who broke world records, openly revealed that they used Cordyceps as legal doping, how could they have helped Armstrong?
Lance Armstrong started competing since age 16 till age 39 when he announced his retirement (Feb 16, 2011)—due to his use of performance-enhancing drugs, had been charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and was banned for life. Armstrong said that he felt the punishment was too severe. He had won the Tour de France seven times in a row, prior to this, and told Oprah Winfrey on OWN network televised video that he didn’t believe he could have won all of those cycling races without the drugs… little did he know Cordyceps could have stepped in as a natural and healthy alternative!
Why Cordyceps is a healthy alternative to EPO drugs for enhancing athletic performance
Is it possible that Lance Armstrong could have enhanced his athletic performance by supplementation of the medicinal mushroom Cordyceps? It is possible, according to the opinions of three female Olympian runners from China who broke not just one but five world records! After being tested for anabolic steroids—which proved negative—the women admitted they had only used Cordyceps as their sole performance boosting supplement. Had Lance Armstrong used this as part of his daily regimen, perhaps it would have helped him in the seven Tour de France wins he actually won illegally.
Would the USADA have allowed Cordyceps medicinal mushrooms to be taken by Armstrong? The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report had originally exposed him due to three witness statements as part of a doping scheme on his USPS (U.S. Postal Service) cycling team. However, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s official rules state that Cordyceps can be used in professional competition because it has benefits to health and a reliable safety record.
Cordyceps is claimed to be one of the “most valued medicinal fungi in all Chinese medicine” according to Health Book Summaries, which also produced these quotes under their title 20 Things You Need to Know About Cordyceps:
“Cordyceps, originally only grown in Tibet and used solely by the Imperial family, were the secret natural performance enhancer used by Chinese Olympic athletes when the nation reentered the games,” says Dr. Steven R. Gundry, in his book Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution: Turn Off the Genes That Are Killing You – And Your Waistline – And Drop the Weight for Good
And, “Cordyceps is one of the most valued medicinal fungi in all Chinese medicine, and also one of the most expensive. Cordyceps is widely employed to treat upper respiratory problems, impotence, weakened immune systems, and by athletes to increase endurance,” states Jon Barron in his book Lessons from The Miracle Doctors: A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimum Health and Relief from Catastrophic Illness
Cordyceps sinensis, according to a Chinese doctor, has been used in ancient China for thousands of years and has “a wide variety of health benefits, especially in the area of improving energy, endurance, stamina, speedy recovery and longevity … [and] athletes consuming cordyceps sinensis were able to recover from strenuous training much faster than normal, allowing them to train harder and still keep at their peak performance.”
One has to question, with these kinds of statements, along with the three Chinese women runners who took Cordyceps regularly and consequently won the five world records, if Lance Armstrong had not indeed made the biggest mistake of his life since ultimately the illegal drugs cost him his entire career. It also nearly cost him his life…
Cordyceps has anticancer properties that may have helped Lance Armstrong
Could it be that Lance Armstrong could have helped educate those fighting cancer at his “sixth child,” the Lance Armstrong Foundation (should he spread the word about Cordyceps anticancer properties?), as well as when he fought his testicular cancer (1996-1997), via the use of this medicinal mushroom?
Lance Armstrong’s health and life was at stake in the mid-1990’s after he started the doping. Aside from the health benefits and performance-enhancing properties, Cordyceps also has anticancer properties, which may have aided Lance Armstrong when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. By then he had a 50/50 chance of surviving since it had spread to both his lungs and brain. Chemotherapy helped, but one has to question his health status when he was doping and what kind of role that played in the development and his personal battle with cancer.
As of this writing, Lance Armstrong is 41 years old; he could have died over a decade ago due to cancer (thank goodness for modern medicine!). One has to ask after years of self-abuse due to doping with EPO, however, about how his health is today and whether the anticancer effects of Cordyceps, along with the wellness factors and immune boosting processes within the body could help keep him healthy from this point forward and into old age?
A study done on healthy elderly subjects (age 50-75 years) showed that after Cs-4 (Cordyceps sinensis) was administered for 12 weeks, their metabolic and ventilator thresholds increased, which suggests that Cordyceps supplementation not only improves performance in exercise for older people, but also contributes to overall wellness.
Cordyceps could also help prevent cancer from returning. More importantly, it can get rid of existing carcinoma according to the Key Laboratory of Cell Engineering of Guizhou Province in China. In a study they did, an isolated culture from Cordyceps jiangxiensis (a traditional Chinese medicinal mushroom), the results showed potent effects against human gastric cancer and lung cancer, with a six-fold stronger cytotoxicity as compared to cisplatin (chemotherapy drug). It was chemotherapy that helped Lance Armstrong defeat his testicular cancer. Cordyceps has anticancer effects that occur naturally within the edible fungi, and promotes health.
The conclusions are not entirely known as to whether Cordyceps medicinal mushrooms may have helped Lance Armstrong in the past—to enhance his athletic performance to win the seven Tour de France cycling races, or to prevent or treat his cancer—but it is clear that the broad range of health benefits for overall well-being, energy and endurance, longevity, and anticancer effects, certainly could not hurt him at this point on into his future! Most of the damage has been done, and he is on his way to starting his life over since delivering his public apology, and reversing his former lifestyle. We would love to see Armstrong take advantage of the great health benefits that Cordyceps could provide him from here on out. Perhaps he will, one day, read this article and speak with his doctor (as should any reader) and consider adding Cordyceps this diet and/or supplementing his daily regimen with this amazing medicinal mushroom!
(Please note that we have recently launched our sister site, Amino Acid Information Center at http://aminoacidinformation.com. Please visit the site to find out about amazing health benefits amino acid supplements can provide!)
References:
http://www.oprah.com/own_tv/onc/lance-armstrong-one.html
http://undergroundhealthreporter.com/the-benefits-of-cordyceps-energy-and-endurance#axzz2IPJzzuD2
http://www.acupuncture-victoria.com/cordyceps/
http://www.healthbooksummaries.com/20_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Cordyceps.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3110835/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22782880
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