Turkey Tail for Prostate and Breast Cancers

As we have already mentioned on this site, Turkey Tail is THE most common medicinal mushroom you will find growing on dead hardwood trees.

Polysaccharide-K

Trametes versicolor - Turkey TailsTurkey Tail has also been long studied as an anti-cancer medicine as it contains Polysaccharide-K, or PSK – which is sold commercially as anti-cancer drug “Krestin” in Asia.  It has been used to treat a variety of different cancers but I am going to concentrate here on its effectiveness against 2 very common ones – namely prostate and breast cancers.

Curing Stage 4 breast cancer

Mycology expert, Paul Stamets’ 86-year old mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer – the 2nd worst case of breast cancer her oncologist had ever seen.  It had already metastasized to her liver and sternum and she was too old to be operated on or given radiation or chemo.

Fortunately she had a forward-thinking doctor, who told her about a medicinal mushroom that had been proving to be very successful in treating cancer patients – Turkey Tail!  Patti Stamets was, of course, already familiar with these – and she started taking the Turkey Tail capsules that her son produced, along with 2 conventional anti-cancer drugs.

Within 7 months there was hardly a sign of any cancer and within a year, Patti was completely cancer-free.  Quite some recovery!

As with Patti, many patients take Turkey Tail alongside conventional or other alternative cancer treatments – depending on the individual’s choice – with much success.

PSK works by arresting the growth of tumours and preventing them from metastasizing and stimulating the production of the body’s own Natural Killer (NK) cells, thereby fortifying and “kick-starting” the immune system.  This can be particularly useful when the patient is undergoing chemotherapy, when the NK cells plummet due to the toxicity of the treatment.

National Institute of Health study

Towards the end of 2012, a study was approved by the National Institute of Health in the States, regarding the effect of Turkey Tail on the immune systems of patients with breast cancer or prostate cancer.  It took a while to get approval as the FDA wanted to know what the “mechanism of action” in the Turkey Tail mushroom was – a difficult thing to quantify when working with a natural herb made up of many different chemicals and with its own intelligence and multiple “mechanisms of action”!

The study, using mushrooms provided by Paul Stamets’ company, Fungi Perfecti – concluded that Turkey Tail definitely does stimulate the immune system and can certainly boost a severely depleted immune system of a chemo patient.

Polysaccharopeptide and prostate cancer stem cells

Turkey Tail - destroyer of prostate cancer stem cells??

Turkey Tail – destroyer of prostate stem cells??

Another study, carried out by the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, has shown Turkey Tail to be effective on prostate cancer stem cells in mice.  Whilst I have yet to find anyone able to give me a sound scientific or humanitarian reason as to why mice (or any other animals for that matter) should be used to find a cure for human diseases, one has to hope that now that the mice have suffered enough they might have the guts to try this out on an actual prostate cancer patient and see if it does the same thing!  Apparently it was another polysaccharide – Polysaccharopeptide (PSP) that particularly targeted the prostate cancer stem cells in question.

All in all things are looking good for the use of Turkey Tail in cancer treatments.  Known as Yun Zhi in Chinese medicine and being a substance with such a long history of traditional use (this is a 5000 year old system of medicine!) it will also be very hard for Big Pharma to patent it.

And if they do, then that’s nothing that a quick forage in your nearby forest can’t sort out!

Would love to hear about your experiences with Turkey Tail mushroom.  Please leave a comment below – thanks!

 

 

 

 

How to avoid the coffee “jitters” by using Superherbs

If you’re an avid coffee drinker, you will probably be all too familiar with the “jittery” feeling you can get after drinking that one cup too many…

Toxic coffee

Coffee beans - GuatemalaThere are many theories for this – often related to coffee’s effects on the adrenal glands, but also possibly dependent on the toxicity of the coffee being consumed.  Conventionally-grown coffee is one of the most widely-sprayed crops in the world and, contrary to what conventional coffee suppliers may have you believe, these are not destroyed by the heating process.

So, surely the answer then is to buy organic coffee?  Unfortunately, organic coffee, not being covered in toxic, mould-resistant chemicals, has no defence against developing mycotoxins (moulds) during the drying process – resulting in a toxic mix of  T2 toxins, ochratoxins, vomitotoxins and rubratoxins.

There are certain coffee suppliers that now promise to have processed an organic coffee bean in such a way that it is free of such mycotoxins as well as, of course, chemical pesticides.  There are also ways of adding beneficial fats to your coffee such as grass-fed butter and coconut oil, that also reduce coffee jitters and anxiety, as they coat the myelin sheaths of the nervous system, vital for strong nerves (and therefore less anxiety).

Building your stress defence shield

hand with pen drawing the chemical formula of DopamineBut there is something further you can do in order to build a strong stress defence shield, rather than break it down – as all stimulants are wont to do.

If taking in any stimulants such as coffee or cacao, it is vitally important to also take an anti-stimulant at the same time.

To fully understand why this is necessary, and the role anti-stimulants play in the body, we need to look at neurotransmitters and how healthy levels of these “push” the stress away from the body.  This then makes it impossible for the body to succumb to that stress, which in turn leads to disease.

Healthy levels of serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline/norepinephrine and adrenaline/epinephrine are needed in order to build such a stress defence mechanism.  Stimulants deplete these levels, whilst anti-stimulants build them up, thereby eliminating the adrenal “hit” normally associated with coffee and cacao, as well as neutralising the acids in such substances.

Make friends with these superherbs

There are several superherbs that act as anti-stimulants:-

1)  Mucuna – this is a legume and is possibly the fastest-growing plant on earth – maybe the original inspiration for Jack and The Beanstalk?!  It is an incredibly vital plant and contains every single neurotransmitter – but is especially rich in L-dopa, the precursor to dopamine.  Dopamine gets worn down by overuse of stimulants such as coffee, cacao, alcohol and marijuana.  Mucuna has a delicious toffee-like flavour when added to hot coffee or a warm cacao drink and is a very potent anti-stimulant.

2)  Ho Sho Wu – or Fo-Ti – a Chinese tonic herb, is another anti-stimulant.  Best added to coffee or cacao and blended well together, Ho Sho Wu is one of the most well-known longevity and youthfulness herbs and can increase sperm count, benefit the lower back and knees, stimulate the thymus gland and increase the production of superoxide dismutase – one of the body’s most potent antioxidant enzymes.

Wild Red Reishi on our doorstep!

3) Reishi – wonderful reishi also has strong anti-stimulant qualities, possibly connected to its “Shen”-building properties, which bring calmness and tranquility to those who consume it regularly.

4) Chaga – can be added to any stimulant, but chaga goes particularly well with cacao.  They complement each other perfectly and Chaga, as well as being an incredibly potent superherb in its own right, will also act as a very powerful anti-stimulant as well.  Personally, we prefer to use the Reishi that grows on our doorstep, however – because it makes more sense to us to take the mushrooms and the unique medicine they offer that is tailor-made for those living in its local environment, than one that is far more suitable for those living in its unique part of the world.

So… enjoy that cup of coffee or cacao smoothie by all means… but be sure to remember to add an anti-stimulant too!

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