Important report on Chaga

[Dave W]

I just read an article in FUNGI Magazine Winter 2020 issue about the presence of oxalic acid in Chaga (Inonotus obliquus). Oxalic acid is a substance that can possibly contribute to health threats including formation of kidney stones. The article also claims that calcium binds to oxalic acid to form calcium oxalate, which does not accumulate in the kidneys and instead is eliminated in feces. The upshot of this appears to be that consuming large amounts of Chaga, especially when one's diet does not include foods high in calcium, may pose health threats. I assume research will continue. For the time being, I assume that daily consumption of significant amounts of Chaga tea --especially if one does not consume calcium rich foods-- is not recommended. 

[JOHNY]

Interesting, but people need to use common sense with any food or drink. 

Micro-managing your diet based on theoretical concerns of future harm creates anxiety and mental distress. So much anxiety, that the harm inflicted by worrying about we eat is worse than the rare medical consequences predicted.

On the other hand if you are someone with frequent Calcium Oxalate kidney stone you probably should pay attention to Oxalate consumption

From the Cleveland Clinic:  The more oxalate that is absorbed from your digestive tract, the more oxalate in your urine. High-oxalate foods to limit, if you eat them, are:

• Spinach
• Bran flakes
• Rhubarb
• Beets
• Potato chips
• French fries
• Nuts and nut butters

[TimG]

There has been one documented death attributed to the oxalic acid b a person who used Chaga tea. Besides, the only way to get any nutrients from chaga is to cut the living mycelium part  of the fungi from a live tree. Conks from dead tree have nothing active.  The dried conk does not have active ingredients. I had to do a lot of searching on the net to find any reputable studies on the oxalc acid amount in Chaga.  The preceding  was taken from a scientific paper and condensed.

The Oxalic acid on some food is not able to be digested by the body.  As in many chemicals in fungi and other sources, some can be  obtained by water while others take other methods to obtain. Only the water digestible Oxalic ones may be harmful and form kidney stones.

I'd never cut a living tree  for something that has no PROVEN health benefits.

[Fingered Candlesnuff]

Should people be consuming this at all then?

[Dave W]

Personally, I think it's best to act on the side of safely. 

What I've read suggests that dietary habits and/or physical disposition of the individual may have something to do with oxalic acid being a threat. There needs to be more research on the use of chaga. 

My wife started using chaga a few years ago --in the form of a double water/alcohol extract.. She thinks it has helped her. In fact a couple years ago she experienced her first cold-free winter in memory, and she credits the chaga. But, in light of the questions surrounding oxalic acid, she has cut back on how much of it she uses (a few drops in her tea but not daily). 

[TimG]

I think that everyone should use moderation in the ingestion of many foods, supplements, minerals, etc that make scientifically unsubstantiated claims of improved- "whatever they hype." Many foods have both good and bad chemical compounds, but out body can handle many of the so called bad ones but not all of them.  If only a tiny fraction of supplements found in drug stores, organic food stores whole food stores etc did just a fraction of what the hype is I don't think anyone would ever get sick and we'd all live to be 100 years old or more. In the past few years I've learned a lot about how our body can or can't use some nutrients,etc in common foods. Take the above mention Spinach: It has Iron and also oxaltes. They tend to bind to each other as well s the oxalates bind to calcium. The type of iron in spinach is not able to be used by the body except for  about 2 to 20%. However one can use extra vitamin C to make more of the iron able to be used. One can also pair it with other iron rich foods to get better absorption. This info opened my eyes since I found out aobut the adsorption since I always was told that spinach had lots of Iron and it was something I really liked. I sill like it since it tastes so  good. 

I've suffered for much of my adult life with chronic pain, high blood pressure and hereditary high cholesterol. I've tried many medicines over the years and  a true allergy to one but have many with undesirable side effects. I've tried 4 types of stains for my cholesterol but all gave me terrible cramps. Try having a cramp that lasts for hours. Some have even had muscle tissue damage due to statins. Some research has shown that some may get liver and kidney damage from the consumption of too may oysters mushrroms which contain the statin Lovastatin. The damage from the use of oysters was proven in studies on rabbits but matched symptoms in residents in the area.
Would this stop me from eating the occasional nice fresh batch of oyster mushrooms? NO. However I would even think about any tincture. etc made from them.
I'm pretty ware of knowing whether a newly prescribed medicine is actually helping me or if I have side effects. There's one that have what I call a time/space effect. Each spring I hunt morels in the Shenandoah area and have driven some of the same good country roads for now close to 390  years. This medicine made me feel as if I was going much faster than I really was and made me feel like I was too close to the road edge and made me hog the middle of the road. This doesn't work well with oncoming traffic or having locals back up  being me from going to slow. This wasn't a terrible side effect but the medicine also didn't help with my pain as it does with some.

If anyone wants the latest research and studies on many foods, minerals, etc, just type the name i.e. Tumeric and then NIH. The National Institute of Heath provides the most applicable studese of the latest info on many foods, etc. By the way Tumeric by itself doesn't do much but by combining it with a chemical from black pepper some studies have shown it can help with inflammation.
Try looking at "antioxidants, NIH"  Just use good judgement when using any supplement or eating too much of any food or use of any supplement. Even whether you are male or female can make a difference in how some foods, supplements act on one's body. 

Someone wrote that they've used a certain supplement for over 10 years and haven't had a clod in that time. I haven't used that or any fungal or herbal supplement and haven't had a cold in over 20 years. S
So, did his sues of that supplement help him??? I think that many older (ugh- I grudgingly admit I'm one of the oldsters) people don't get many colds since we've developed antibodies against many of the causes. There are 2 types of virus that cause colds.