Re-introduction to an Ancient Friend

Boletus Champignon Delicious

I want to talk to you about mushrooms. Yep, that’s right - the fungus among us. More importantly, I want to talk about how and why medicinal mushrooms, like those offered by MyShroom®, could transform your health and wellbeing. I’m not going to make a bunch of promises you’ve heard before a million times and I’m going to do my very best not to bore you. We are going to go through a lot of science but I promise it’s going to be fun and totally worthwhile so stick with me! 

So let’s just dive right in, shall we? We’re going to get to the science but first I feel it’s important to take a quick trip through history. Our ancestors have used mushrooms as medicine for thousands of years. Greek and Asian physicians as well as a shamanic tribal communities, such as native americans, have been using various mushrooms to solve a wide array of ailments.  People have been using the powerful benefits of certain mushrooms for well over 5000 years. On a side note - the largest living organism on Earth just happens to be a 2000 year old mycelium in Oregon. Mycelium is the unseen body that connects plants and trees in a rich and complex network and mushrooms are the fruit that grow above ground and release spores. In fact, mycelium likely made life on land even possible in the first place but may also share a common ancestor WITH US. Fungus is actually more related to us and the rest of the animal kingdom than it is to the plants we tend to often (mistakenly)  relate them with in our minds. All along the evolutionary path of life on this planet, mushrooms have been there - silently recycling waste and dead organic material and providing all life with a wealth of natural, holistic pharmaceutical properties where anyone can reach them. Remember THAT the next time you or someone you know complains about mushrooms on their pizza! These things are absolutely ancient!

Fungus needs many of the same things that we do to survive. For example, unlike plants, mycelium needs oxygen to survive. It is for this reason that we can find so many benefits by including mushrooms in our dietary and supplemental routines in the same way our ancestors did in order to survive in an age before an out-of-control, for profit, pharmaceutical industry. By the way, if you happen to think “Well now we have all these man made medicines. Why should I turn to a fungus to maintain my health?”, you should know that most of those man made drugs target specific symptoms of disease - not the disease itself. These drugs accomplish this by shutting down a part of your body to relieve the symptom and triggering a chain of unwanted side effects as a result. Medical mushrooms, and other natural medicines, on the other hand approach disease holistically by supporting important bodily processes and providing an all natural cocktail of chemical goodness our body wants. Certain mushrooms are a great source of vitamin D for instance (which can help to prevent flu) but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! There are so many ways in which mushrooms support our health.   

Because mushrooms “eat” their food by secreting enzymes to break down and digest nearby food around it, they are PACKED with enzymes! Our bodies create their own enzymes for breaking down the food we eat but they often are inefficient at breaking it down completely and so much of the actual nutrients in our food passes unabsorbed. Add to that the fact that certain foods are commonly difficult for the body to sufficiently break down such as lactose or the sugar in beans (which is why they notoriously make you fart!) and it’s easy to see why dietary supplements rich in enzymes like mushrooms are so amazing! Just being able to fully absorb the nutrients in your food alone is a game changer (assuming you eat nutrient dense, whole foods and not processed junk). 

Another way in which mushrooms can greatly benefit our wellbeing is something called “beta-glucans”. No, they aren’t an alien race from your favorite sci-fi series you try to pretend you’re ‘too cool’ for. Without getting too overly complicated, beta-glucans are highly specific sugars (complex, not simple which means they’re the good sugars) that can bind to receptors on our body’s cells and cause them to start mass producing proteins. You’ve likely heard the phrase “proteins are the building blocks of life” at least in passing in high school biology class. What does that mean exactly? Well, proteins can be broken down into amino acids which can basically be used by the body to do whatever it most needs at a given moment. An influx of proteins could mean anything from repairing damage or building new tissues to increasing mental focus and endurance and reducing fatigue. Some mushrooms have even caused cancer cells to create proteins that triggered apoptosis in the cell. In other words the protein causes the cancer cell to kill itself. Quite the opposite of Jim Carey belting Third Eye Blind’s “I wish you’d step back from that ledge my friend” in Yes Man -- but in a good way… F@$# cancer.

In the same way that mycelium creates a symbiotic communication network with the trees and other plants it connects with, the proteins released as a result of the mushroom’s chemistry create a symbiotic network between cells within the body to fine-tune the creation and sharing of aminos, enzymes and nitric oxide which targets free radicals. How’d they get so radical? Was it the internet? Who knows, but mushrooms know the key to sorting them out. What’s more, certain sensors activate dilation of blood vessels making it both quicker and easier to move this oh-so-good chemical soup around your inner temple.

Remember, fungi breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, just as humans do; the mushroom cell needs and uses the same basic building blocks as ours.  Fungi therefore contain all the essential amino acids, nucleotides, transition metals, vitamins, (including B12, C, niacin, D, L-ergothioneine) and a large contingent of enzymes to make the process work. 

The mushroom blends created by the scientists at MyShroom® consist of selectively bred hybrid strains unavailable to commercial food growers and supplement producers. The strains were developed in research labs with proprietary organic substrates and were cultivated in a strictly controlled sterile environments. Mushrooms are an ancient living life form that contain an astounding array of beneficial components. Specific mushroom varieties and blends have evolved alongside animals, and we are consuming this whole food, reaping the benefit of chemistry that was explicitly designed for a complete healthful life. MyShroom® has simply taken it to the next level!

Join me in a couple of weeks as we go further down the rabbit hole and explore more in depth the various pathways in the body on which these blends act, the unique constituents of the hybrid strains created by MyShroom® scientists and specifically how they affect certain common (and uncommon) diseases as well as how they act to prevent them. If you are really into this stuff and want to get right into the really technical science behind it, check out the wealth of information provided by Quantum Health Discoveries Research Institute here: https://www.quanthealth.org/.