In Asia, medicinal mushrooms have played a prominent role in good health for over 2,000 years.The West is finally catching on to what the East has known for centuries: that mushrooms are potent disease-fighters that can boost health and help deflect disease. What’s even more fascinating, is that many of the micronutrients in certain mushrooms can actually slow down the aging process!
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Mushroom Science, originally named "JHS Natural Products", who started selling their product sonly to health practitioners, recently introduced them directly to consumers. Mushroom Science is the only U.S. Company offering hot water extracted mushroom supplements that match the potency and quality of the preparations used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. These are some of the best internal anti-aging supplements that you can find!
First a few general rules: mushroom supplements should always be taken twice a day, morning and evening, on an empty stomach.
Healthy Skin, which uses Tremella Mushroom, also called Silver Ear Mushroom, with its large loose lobes, is used in Asia as a Qi and immune tonic and highly sought after as a skin tonic to banish wrinkles. Rumor has it that Concubine Yang (719-756) kept perpetually young taking it. Science has proven that the polysaccharides in the mushroom help us produce hyaluronic acid, found in many expensive skin creams.
Increased Energy- Stress can lead to our adrenal glands going ballistic, producing copious amounts of cortisol, which causes exhaustion. Cordyceps mushroom has been used as a stimulant and aphrodisiac by Tibetans for centuries and recent science has shown promise in its anti-cancer properties too! One of its components, adenosine, helps fight adrenal fatigue and adrenal depletion, and thus increases energy levels and stamina. Moreover, it may promote respiratory health by helping relax the bronchial walls and is used by some to treat respiratory diseases such as asthma.
Memory and Concentration- Chinese culture holds this mushroom in such high regard that it was reserved exclusively for Emperors. The ancient herbalists promised “nerves of steel" and "the memory of a lion” to the privileged few who could chow down on this restricted fungi.Along with supporting immune health, the other unique health benefits attributed to Hericium erinaceus (also called Lion's Mane Mushroom)extracts are what researchers call “Neural Nourishment”. While studying this mushroom for anti-dementia, Japanese scientists found that it stimulated nerve growth factor in the brain. A study on rats in 2005 showed that some compounds in the mushroom, like threitol, D-arabinitol, and palmitic acid may have antioxidant effects, may regulate blood lipid levels and may reduce blood glucose levels, which is also great for weight loss. This mushroom’s medicinal properties extend even to boosting the body’s immunity, stimulating the production of both interferon and white blood cells.
REFERENCES
Coriolus
Bau, Y., Fungi Pharmacopoeia. Kiniko Press, p. 198-200 (1980)
et al. Materia Medical of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Eastland Press, Seattle, p. 338-39 ( 1993).
et al. Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) Standards of Analysis, Quality Control, and Therapeutics. American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. p. 19 (Sept. 2000).
