Medicinal Mushroom Weight Loss Diet Nutrition Tips Guide

Medicinal Mushroom Varieties With Healing Properties

By Veronica Tripplethorn

Only a few short years ago, there were very few products on the market that were derived from mushrooms. Yet within the past few years there have been a number of news stories and articles written on the subject of medicinal mushroom properties.

The Orient brought us ginseng, which became a very popular product with its many different uses. Chinese medicine has known about the healing agents of the reishi mushroom for years, so there is a good chance that their use may become as popular as ginseng.

According to mushroom history, some of the oldest recorded uses were as remedies against intestinal parasites, as well as being used to stop bleeding and cauterizing wounds. The mushrooms used were polypores, named because they have pores rather than gills underneath the heads. No known species of the polypore fungi are poisonous and they are normally found to grow on trees, both alive and dead.

Polypores Are Very Fibrous And Woody

With a few exceptions, polypores are considered inedible because they are very fibrous and woody. But as a natural remedy this medicinal mushroom can be used as a health product in the form of poultices, extracts and teas.

Native American traditions tell about using the different kinds of fungi to combat diseases such as smallpox and others that appeared along with the arrival of Europeans. These include species like the reishi, turkey tail and chaga mushroom varieties, as well as the now very rare and endangered agarikon.

Agarikon Mushrooms Used In Ancient Greek Times

The Agarikon is the oldest of the organic mushrooms used as medicine in historic European literature. As far back as 65 B.C., a Greek physician by the name of Dioscorides recorded the species in the Materia Medica as a natural remedy used to fight tuberculosis.

More recently, K. Grzywnowics wrote an article claiming that according to Polish medicine, agarikon tea had been traditionally used for such things as a long life elixir, for lung conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and to help stop open bleeding and to clean wounds.

Three Main Species Of Medicinal Mushrooms

Although mushrooms have started to become more utilized in the West, it is nothing compared to the almost adored status they enjoy in the East. There are at least three main species of medicinal mushrooms from Asia that certainly need to be included in any articles with a review of medical mushrooms.

The first one is the reishi, which has been used extensively in China and Japan as an immortality mushroom for over two millennia. The second medicinal mushroom is the cordyceps variety, which has not only been used to improve physical prowess, but as an aphrodisiac as well.

Finally, there are the shiitake mushrooms, which have been cultivated as a gourmet product, even in the West for about a thousand years. This variety it is also one of the most widely researched of the mushrooms and has been used as an antibiotic.

Please Note: All information given on this site is for general information purposes and is not to replace any medical opinion or medical diagnosis given by a qualified medical doctor, a dietitian/nutritional expert or any other medical expert, as individual circumstances may vary. Please see your medical doctor, before any action is taken to alleviate symptoms.

This Article was about Medicinal Mushroom.

About the Author:
Veronica Tripplethorn is an author of health, nutrition, dieting and weight loss articles including Celiac Disease, Holistic Health, Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet, Massage Therapy.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles coming soon.

More Facts About Mushrooms...

Can you grow your own medicinal mushrooms?
You can absolutely grow your own medicinal mushrooms. It is going to take some work but not nearly the amount it takes to grow other vegetables.

You can buy starter kits that will contain the spores and the materials you need to help them grow. One thing you have to keep in mind is that mushrooms tend to grow in moist, dark climates. So if you have a spot that is out of sunlight and can remain cool then you can easily grow your own medicinal mushrooms.