http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-09-07/entertainment/27074705_1_cancer-patients-pilot-study-patients-function

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=119460

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ucla-study-finds-magic-mushrooms-curb-anxiety-advanced/story?id=11568335

I hope y'all find this interesting!

After finding the first Chaga they were easy to find. I usually find them on Black and Yellow Birch. I read that when harvested off Black Birch it has the highest concentration of beneficial chemicals. I have been drinking Chaga tea ever since. I find that it relieves my arthritic pain and is the best remedy for an upset stomach. It is a better antacid than anything I can find in a drugstore. I feel overall better when I drink Chaga.

Another surprising thing about this fungus is no mushroom guide shows the actual fruiting body of this mushroom, instead they show the canker which is an indicator that the tree is infected with Inonotus obliquus. I asked, on a forum, why the fruiting body was not shown for this particular mushroom in the mushroom guides. I was told that it was very hard to find. I decide to find one and photograph it. The hardest part was to find someone who could confirm my find. I outline my quest on my web site here:

http://www.mushroomhunter.net/fbquest.htm

This morning I saw a post by M... that had some pics of what appear to be oyster mushrooms and noted that 2 of the groups in the photo had fruiting bodies neatly stacked one above the other in the way that Hypsizygus generally fruits. I havent found Hypsi in a couple of years so I went to Michael Kuo's mushroomexpert.com to look at his entry for Hypsizygus to refresh my memory. The link to the entry is here: https://www.mushroomexpert.com/hypsizygus_tessulatus.html

but to save everyone the trouble of going to look Im going to paste what Kuo said there about medicinal mushrooms. He said:

" Regarding the putative "medicinal" properties of this mushroom: I am sorry to put it this bluntly, but this mushroom is not going to cure your cancer, nor any other ailment you may have—and if someone has sold you a product based on the assumption that it will, you have purchased some snake oil from a witting or unwitting charlatan. The only health benefits associated with consuming species of Hypsizygus result from the exercise involved with hunting for them in the woods. There is no legitimate scientific support for the idea that mushrooms are medicinal in any specific, eat-them-to-get-better way. None. There is only pseudoscience, bad science reporting in the mainstream news media, and very wishful science reporting in the alternative health media. For further information, see Nicholas Money's "Are mushrooms medicinal?" (2016). "

So of course I found Nicholas Money's "Are mushrooms medicinal?" (2016) on the internet and actually read what the guy had to say. If you are into medicinal mushrooms then you also should read this because he essentially says nobody has actually proved anything about the usefulness of mushrooms in curing anything. He also takes a pretty big swing at Paul Stamets and his company Fungi Perfecti. The link to this piece is here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878614616000180

enjoy.

Thanks,

I find that the best approach to herbal medicine is in understanding what chemicals a plant or plant's specific part is made up of.  This is how herbal medicine works, and mushrooms are no different.  Claims of cancer-curing "properties" are vague at best.  However, if the mushroom acclaimed to have cured cancer has a good concentration  of known cancer-fighting compounds, then we're on the right track to understanding what's really going on.

Medicinal mushrooms are no more 'bad science' than herbal medicine is.  The problem is hype and misinformation on both sides of the debate.  I have seen "Herbal Healing" books that make the strangest and wildest claims bordering on myth and legend, with no supporting evidence.   I've also seen WebMD articles that make wild claims about how dangerous an herb is to use, then when I follow their sources they're citing magazine articles, or isolated studies of the effects of mega-dosing on a single chemical compound, which happens to be one of dozens of compounds contained in this plant, which means that you will never consume enough of this plant's extract or infusion to rival the doses of a single compound used in the study that produced negative health effects- but they're still going to cite this study to make a baseless claim that drinking a cup of tea might destroy your liver, or some other nonsense.  Always investigate the citations, folks!  Any site can summarize a source's information however they want as long as they cite it.
A good herbal book or resource will break each herb down into its chemical components, which are the keys to understanding its medicinal applications.  It's true, not a whole heck of a lot of research has been done in the realm of the chemical composition of millions of species of flora.  It's an under-appreciated field, in my opinion.  You can essentially pick apart an herb's medicinal properties, not unlike a medication's, by identifying it's chemical activity and modes of interaction with the body.  After all, many medications are comprised of concentrated compounds found originally in healing herbs, molds, and fungis.

So, I was thinking- maybe this thread could be livened up with some factual foundations!  Does anyone know of some good resources for reports on the chemical constituents of various mushrooms?  Common, popular, or otherwise?  If we could compile some resources here, it would help to shed light on the reality of mushroom medicine and help to better educate folks :)

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/578959/shaman-santa/

Some say to steep the grounds in hot water for 5 mins, but I have always boiled the grounds on high for at least 1 hour, to get more constituents out. The longer you boil, the more bitter the brew. However, if it’s too strong, just dilute it with water. After boiling for an hour on high, I pour the brew through a cheese cloth. You can save the grounds in the fridge, and reuse them several times, until the water stops changing colour. 

How do you brew your tea? Do you have any unique recipes? Chai tea lattes? Ice cream? 

Can you see the 75lb hunk of chaga in the tree? Look close.

 My husband and I have been identifying mushrooms for the past several years. finally, this year we felt comfortable enough to ry some and learn about their health benefits as we go. 

I joined this group because I'd like to conduct a survey type research project specifically on trametes versicolor (turkey tail) and immune system health benefits. Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll formulate my survey and send out -if it is approved. I was booted off a BC forum because I asked if anyone would be interested in participating in a survey

I will need  30-200 participants.  I do not have a facebook account, so if there are other forums or groups who would participate, please let me know.

A little background from me. I am a stay-at-home-mother, wife, nurse and nature lover.  We are homeschooling our young children (ages 5 and 3) and I'm wrapping up my bachelor's degree in healthcare management this spring. We are part of a homeschooling group called Wild + Free where we spend several hours per week outdoors exploring nature regardless of weather. It's wonderful! My father used to hunt mushrooms when I was a child. I have fond memories of eating fresh morels and am excited to share that with my children, come spring!

Coriolus versicolor (formerly Trametes versicolor, Polyporus versicolor) is a mushroom which grows on tree trunks. This mushroom has long been treasured in the East; in Japan it is known as kawaratake (“mushroom by the river bank”), and in China it is called Yun Zhi or “cloud fungus.”

In Japan around 1965 a chemical engineer investigated Coriolus versicolor for its anticancer constituents after observing his neighbor’s life-threatening cancer was cured after taking Yun Zhi.

I'm starting this thread so I can make updates when I start on what I'm using and the results.  I already have a lot of information from Paul Stamet's book and various online sources.

“Researchers have also indicated that whole maitake has the ability to regulate blood pressure, glucose, insulin, and both serum and liver lipids, such as cholesterol, triglycerides, and phospholipids, and may also be useful for weight loss.”

All I know is that I feel better after a glass of Maitake tea.

Guill, have you any information on medicinal properties of this mushroom?

http://dl.begellhouse.com/download/article/30e4e1021c1fecff/IJM%200703%20(357-359).pdf