Siberian Immortality

Mushroom chaga is a survival story

Siberian Immortality, Health, Healthy Living Magazine

“He could not imagine any greater joy than to go away into the woods for months on end, to break off this chaga, crumble it, boil it up on a campfire, drink it and get well like an animal. To walk through the forest for months, to know no other care than to get better! Just as a dog goes to search for some mysterious grass that will save him…”

— Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Clonal plant colonies and endoliths at the bottom of the sea might outrank trees as longest lived organisms on the planet; yet, a wide range of trees consistently ranks at the top, some species such as brittle cone pine having been dated over 5,000 years of age and an olive tree at Ano Vouves, on the Greek island of Crete, at 2,000 annum. Trees have a banking system for their most potent immune chemicals that they store and use as needed. They save their essence in the form of phytochemical-rich dense outgrowths called chagas from which they draw extra sustenance when battles for survival flare.

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Siberians, when they discovered chaga (Inonotus obliquus), called the medicinally rich dense growth “Gift from God” and “Mushroom of Immortality.” The Siberians who ingest chaga tea daily live longest. In The Cancer Ward, one of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s characters used the mushroom with positive effect. In China chaga is “King of Plants.” Chaga is a survival success story.

Immune Brain Bank

Chaga is the back and forth controller/delivery system for trees, detecting problems and sending phytochemical compounds back into them when they are sick. Chaga is an immune brain. It supplies to the tree (and the human body) sterols, phenols, enzymes, melanin, lanostanetype triterpenoids, minerals and vitamins. Chaga is inoculated by arborists and researchers into trees themselves to get them over their own sicknesses.

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The fungus is used in folk medicine in Russia, Poland and most of the Baltic countries as a cleansing and disinfecting measure and as decoctions for stomach diseases, intestinal worms, liver and heart ailments and cancer treatment. Medical and scientific studies document that chaga’s strengths can be conferred upon the human body—and that they range from anti-inflammatory and anticancer to anti-allergic.

As recently as April 2013 in International Immunopharmacology, the inhibitory effect of chaga mushroom extract was shown to prevent anaphylactic shock by reducing immunoglobulin E (IgE), meaning it is anti-allergic besides being immune stimulating, antiinflammatory and anticancer. The oral administration of chaga “significantly reduced the total IgE levels in mice… Therefore, our results suggest that the chaga mushroom extract may be used as an anti-allergic functional food.”

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Chaga prevents herpes infection, working differently than the nucleoside analog drugs, interfering with membrane docking. At Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, China, the material meant to be infected “exhibited marked decrease in herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection.” The mechanism of anti- HSV activity occurs in the early stage of viral infection through inhibition of viral-induced membrane fusion.” Preventing the virus from latching onto the cell membrane “could effectively prevent HSV-1 entry,” say the researchers. They add that this action “is different from nucleoside analog antiherpetics.”

And chaga prevents colitis—or inflammation of the colon, says research from the National Cancer Center, Republic of Korea. To determine the effects and mode of action of chaga, an extract was given to mice with dextran (DSS)-induced colitis. Chaga “suppressed edema, mucosal damage, and… pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by DSS in colon tissues…it might be a useful supplement in the setting of inflammatory bowel disease.”

The anticancer effect of chaga on cell proliferation was assessed in a range of cancer and normal cells. Chaga fraction prepared from dried fruiting bodies was subjected to anticancer evaluation in human lung, colon and brain cancer cells. “Chaga fraction elicited anticancer effects which were attributed to decreased tumor cell proliferation…. Of note is the fact that it produced no or low toxicity in tested normal cells. The data presented could open interesting paths for further investigations…as a potential anticancer agent.”

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Concentrating the tree’s resources, chaga mushroom supplements contain B vitamins, flavonoids, phenols, minerals and enzymes. “It is also one of the world’s densest sources of pantothenic acid, and this vitamin is needed by the adrenal glands as well as digestive organs,” says chaga expert Cass Ingram, DO, author of The Cure is in the Forest (Knowledge House 2010). “It also contains riboflavin and niacin in significant amounts.” In particular, it is rich in special pigment-like phenols known as chromogenic complex. “Chaga can be up to 30% chromogenic complex by weight. The chromogenic complex is highly protective for all tissues and is only found in chaga.”

Antioxidant Defenses

Dr Ingram adds that, “In the cream base this chromogenic complex is highly protective of the skin. Rubbed on the skin it even helps people develop a tan, because it contains the pigment melanin, the same pigment responsible for dark-colored skin.”

Besides being a source of copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and iron, chaga produces superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant enzyme used by the body to reduce free radical damage. “Tests performed on North American Herb & Spice’s wild chaga prove that it contains some 10,000 to 20,000 active SOD units per gram,” says Dr Ingram. “This is an exceedingly high amount, far higher than that found even in typical SOD pills. The typical SOD pill contains from 200 to 2,000 units per serving. So the difference is considerable. Plus, the type in pills is virtually impossible to absorb, while the wild chaga type is well-utilized by the body.”

Chaga is available in several forms: sublingual emulsified drops; chaga-birch bark tea (with purple maca); ready-to-drink beverages; chocolate-like syrups; and face or body creams.

References

Anticancer effects of fraction isolated from fruiting bodies of Chaga medicinal mushroom, Inonotus obliquus (Pers.:Fr.) Pilát (Aphyllophoromycetideae): in vitro studies. Int J Med Mushrooms 2011;13(2):131-143.

Lemieszek MK, Langner E, Kaczor J, Kandefer-Szerszeń M, Sanecka B, Mazurkiewicz W, Rzeski W. Mishra SK, Kang JH, Kim DK, Oh SH, Kim MK. Orally administered aqueous extract of Inonotus obliquus ameliorates acute inflammation in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012 Sept 28;143(2):524-532. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2012.07.008. E-pub 2012 July 20. Pan HH, Yu XT, Li T, Wu HL, Jiao CW, Cai MH, Li XM, Xie YZ, Wang Y, Peng T. Aqueous extract from a Chaga medicinal mushroom, Inonotus obliquus (higher Basidiomycetes), prevents herpes simplex virus entry through inhibition of viral-induced membrane fusion. Int J Med Mushrooms 2013;15(1):29-38.

Yoon TJ, Lee SJ, Kim EY, Cho EH, Kang TB, Yu KW, Suh HJ. Inhibitory effect of chaga mushroom extract on compound 48/80-induced anaphylactic shock and IgE production in mice. Int Immunopharmacol. 2013 Apr;15(4):666-670. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2013.03.015. E-pub 2013 Mar 25.