Sometimes the most popular things in society are because they’re good, and sometimes it is because they are… well… just popular! Three of the most well used (from being grown, picked, cooked, and eaten) and promoted medicinal mushrooms in the media, including Fox News, are shiitake mushroom, reishi mushroom, and maitake mushroom. Why?
So are these fungi so well promoted because of popular news sites like Fox News or because there is more information and they are easily grown or harvested according to sources such as mycology (the study of fungi/mushrooms) websites? Either way, these big three “important” mushrooms evidently have some mighty properties that is boasted about them, including anticancer constituents, being antiviral, antioxidants, antibacterial, antitumor, and a host of other claims.
But this is not new information since a host of clinical trials and studies have been covered on many medicinal mushrooms’ properties here at the Medicinal Mushroom Information Center news site, including other amazing mushrooms like Lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus: good for improving memory and depression), cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis: good for exercise endurance, and liver disease), and so on. Even Fox News knows this…
Kris Kilham has discussed three of the major or most commonly known medicinal mushrooms on the Fox News website. Kilham, a claimed “medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.” He also writes for Fox News on mushrooms of all types. So why choose shiitake, reishi, and maitake?
Here’s a little of what Chris Kilham covered on Fox News regarding each of these:
Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) on Fox News – a “heavyweight mushroom” for general health problems, contains polysaccharides lentinan, K-2 (fights the flu), and Beta glucan (anti-viral and anti-tumor), boosts immunity, protects against radiation/chemotherapy, lowers cholesterol, reduces arterial plaque and lowers blood pressure.
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) on Fox News – used for two millennia in traditional Chinese medicine, reishi promotes longevity and even spirituality. It also is claimed to fight tumors due to polysaccharides, is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and helps Hepatitis. Reishi protects the liver from toxins, treats bronchitis, and reduces arterial plaque for heart-health.
Maitake (Grifola frondosa) on Fox News – Christ on Fox News does mention that maitake is not as famous as shiitake and reishi, but does fight against HIV (but doesn’t kill the virus), and may, in fact, outdo shiitake and reishi in its immune-boosting activities. It also has amino acids, enzymes, sterols, glycosides, polysaccharides, vitamins and minerals, and other compounds that are medicinal, which help fight breast cancer and skin cancer. Furthermore, it reduces high blood pressure and helps blood sugar levels (such as for diabetics).
It is true that, like Fox News, we’ve covered many of these amazing health benefits of shiitake, reishi, and maitake, including other studies where these mushrooms were tested and were found supported by medical science to have these incredible compounds, which help support health and wellbeing.
However, what is “popular” is sometimes because people are talking about it, and so more people go out and buy mushroom kits to grow their own shiitake, or they take reishi supplements, or they run to the store to buy some maitake for their soup. Between my friends and myself, we have done all of them, but is it because we follow the lead on stories like Fox News? Not everyone thinks so. The health benefits and immune-boosting properties may be a more important factor than mere popularity.
My own parents, long before Fox News started considering medicinal mushrooms as entirely newsworthy, were taking a medicinal mushroom complex, which they still take a today—a full decade later. They just smile and nod at what Fox News might say, because they know firsthand that they have not had a single cold or flu since they began taking the medicinal mushroom supplements. By the way, they are in their upper 70’s in age, and swear that when they started taking the mushrooms—including the big three covered earlier—that is when their annual colds and flu ended for good.
So for them, at least, as well as many others we’ve met, boast that mushrooms are documented and believed to stand on their own, regardless of why they seem or appear popular. Perhaps, just perhaps, Fox News and other media sites are not why medicinal mushrooms are popular… perhaps it is not even the thousands of clinical trials that support the claims… perhaps their amazing properties that bring health benefits simply stand on their own. After all, they have for thousands of years around the world.
The author of this story is a freelance contributor to National Nutraceuticals’ online news portals, such as Amino Acid Information Center at http://www.aminoacidinformation.com and Vancouver Health News at http://www.VancouverHealthNews.ca. National Nutraceuticals, Inc. also owns and operates a third health news portal focusing on medicinal mushrooms at http://medicinalmushroominfo.com, plus our newest portal at http://todayswordofwisdom.com.
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Reference:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/29/chaga-potent-immune-enhancing-fungus/
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