Ganoderma Extract Benefits of Red Reishi Mushrooms
Ganoderma extract comes from Ganoderma, also known as Reishi mushroom. Health benefits from the red Reishi mushrooms include being used as vitamins to boost the immune system. Its benefits are already known in the traditional Asian medicine for more than 2,000 years.
Yes, that's right...thousands of years! But this medicinal mushroom extract and its benefits are being studied in the Western world only during the last 30 years.
Health institutions in the West are now advancing researches and studies on Ganoderma mushrooms for its healing properties and potentials to build up the immune system. These institutions include the Cancer Research UK (CRC), the City of Hope National Medical Center in California and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Results of various studies done show a lot of good news.
According to the CRC's report "Medicinal Mushrooms and Cancer", Ganoderma extract can be a possible source of new anti-tumor agents.
Therapeutic Benefits of Ganoderma Extract
The following are some of the known beneficial effects of Ganoderma extract on your health...
1. Anti-tumor properties
It prevents oncogenesis - the process in which a normal cell turns abnormal and eventually, malignant.
It induces and promotes apoptosis or the spontaneous death of an abnormal cell.
2. Works against viruses and bacteria
Reishi mushroom helps in the prevention of Hepa B and influenza A viruses because of its capacity to build up the immune system.
3. Regulates and enhances immune system activities
Ganoderma extract acts as an immune system supplement. It activates the various immune responses in your body. For other immune system supplements, see Spirulina and Vitamin C.
4. Antioxidant properties
5. Protective effect on liver
6. Protects your body against radiation damage
If you are undergoing radiation therapy for your cancer treatment, exposure to high levels of radiation can compromise your immune system. Taking Ganoderma extract is beneficial to you because it will help build up the immune system.
7. Regulates blood pressure
8. Decreases lower urinary tract symptoms
9. Anti-hormone activity
Ganoderma extract can inhibit the enzyme - aromatase - that makes estrogen and the enzyme - 5-alpha reductase - that produces androgen.To understand why Ganoderma mushroom shows such therapeutic effects, see what this red Reishi mushroom contains in What is Ganoderma.
Implications of the Use of Ganoderma or Reishi Mushroom on Cancer Prevention
In 1971, the late U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, which waged war against the disease by finding a cure. Almost 39 years later, the war is still not over. There is still no cure. Victory is not even in the horizon.
Big shots in the field of research such as the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society now acknowledge the importance of awareness on prevention of the disease. They now advocate prevention through a healthy lifestyle.
Also, the use of medicinal mushrooms such as Ganoderma extract to complement conventional medicine is being explored more extensively.
The Cancer Research UK is already aware of the use of mushrooms in the Far East as vitamins to boost the immune system and "as a source for the generation of pharmaceutical-grade medicines to treat a wide variety of diseases, including tumors."
If you already have cancer, what benefits do you get from taking Ganoderma mushroom extract?
It builds up your immune system because it stimulates the different immune cells - T-cells, natural killers (NK), macrophages - to protect your healthy normal cells.
Prevention of tumor spread or metastasis
Prevention of formation of blood vessels in cancer cells. These blood vessels help provide nutrients to the tumor.
If you are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy, taking Ganoderma mushroom extract can either significantly decrease, or totally eliminate painful side effects -- such as hair loss, sore throat, nausea, inflammation of the stomach -- of both treatments.
This is if Ganoderma mushroom extract is taken before, during and after the treatment.
Plus...a study done by Cancer Research in the U.K. states "Ganoderma suppresses adhesion and migration of highly invasive breast and prostate cancer cells."
Also, I have a personal experience with how Ganoderma can help someone with cancer. My Dad has Stage 2b lung cancer, one of the most aggressive types.
He underwent radiation but he hated the negative side effects and so after only 3 sessions, he chose not to continue with the treatment. He opted to take Ganoderma supplements instead.
Last December 2009, his doctor was surprised that his tumor stayed the same size when he was first diagnosed.
For thousands of years, the phenomenal healing and cancer prevention potential of Reishi mushroom benefits people in Asia. It's about time that Ganoderma extract gets a chance to prove its worth in mainstream medicine.
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