Mushrooms for Healing
Some mushrooms are good to eat and some are poisonous. But did you know mushrooms are being used to prevent diseases like cancer, and clean up oil spills?
For centuries the medicinal properties of mushrooms have been useful, espe-cially in the Far East. The Japanese claimed that the shiitake mushroom can be used to cure cancer, senility and many other health problems and dysfunctions. Studies over the past 40 years have found that shiitake mushrooms can boost the immune system and help prevent cancer. Similar properties have been found in the Reishi mushroom and several other types of mushrooms. Extracts from spores of the shiitake mushroom have proven effective in treating the flu.
Paul Stamet is renowned for his research in using mushrooms for healing the earth as well as people. He has discovered that mushrooms can be used to clean up oil spills and restore soils that have been contaminated by toxins such as dioxin. Stamet believes mushrooms are on the planet to help heal it. His work with mushrooms extends into pest control and treating life-threatening diseases. His successful use of the fungi to control carpenter ants could revolutionize the pesti-cide industry with a natural way to control pests.
Another promising use of mushrooms is being conducted in a California hospital in a study using Oyster mushrooms as a treatment for AIDS patients who have developed high cholesterol and high tryglyceride levels as a result of taking a drug used in highly active anti-retroviral therapy.
Stamet's work with mushrooms shows us that by living in harmony with na-ture and observing how nature works, we can find the medicine we need to heal ourselves and the planet.