Mushrooms and Their Magic Healing Powers
Mushrooms are not a plant, and also not an animal. They are a part of their own intelligent kingdom. I’ve always been astonished by mushrooms since I was a young girl. I connected mushrooms to the magical world of fairies and trolls, I saw the magic in them, always. My connection to mushrooms grew and evolved as I got older; they were no longer homes of fairies, they were healing and saving lives.
For thousands of years, ancient cultures all over the world have been using the essential healing properties of mushrooms without any side effects. Medicinal mushrooms have given us many important pharmaceutical medicines from penicillin to the first statin drugs and several anticancer treatments. Actually about 40% of western medicines today utilize mushrooms.
A movie that has really stuck with me is Fantastic Fungi. In this documentary Paul Stamets, a renowned mycologist who dedicated his life’s work to educating the modern world about the healing powers of mushrooms cured his mother’s cancer after being told she was too old to receive radiation therapy. The doctor recommended a clinical trial of Turkey Tail mushrooms at the Bastyr Integrative Oncology Research Center. She started taking eight Turkey Tail mushroom capsules a day and went on to live an additional 10 years with absolutely no detectable tumors.
As humans, we share almost half of our genetic makeup with mushrooms and are affected by a lot of the same diseases and problems as mushrooms. Therefore, we can easily take advantage of the special immune-enhancing benefits and other survival methods that they build for themselves.
One of the most popular mushrooms used in the modern health community is Lion’s <ane. At TCR we love to enjoy Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee to get our daily dose of Lion’s Mane in. Studies show that lion’s mane may help with Alzheimer’s Disease, anxiety, depression, high cholesterol, inflammation, and Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, Lion’s Mane is said to strengthen the immune system, stimulate digestion, and protect against cancer.
In conclusion, I think it’s safe to say that although maybe the magic doesn’t live in my childhood imagination it actually thrives in the real, physical world.
