A Brand New Super Nutrient!

There’s an exciting new concept in supplements that’s out-performing other immune-supporting nutrients like crazy.

Whether you have an immune disease or just get sick frequently, this may be just what you need.

The new concept consists of growing medicinal mushrooms on herbs. The mushrooms take on some of the properties of the herbs on which they’re grown, and the result is an enhanced super nutrient that’s being used successfully for cancer and other immune problems. In the future, additional mushroom/herb combinations will be designed to target specific health problems. For now, we have one excellent example of a new, exciting type of supplement.

Growing medicinal mushrooms on medicinal Chinese herbs is a blending of ancient wisdom and current scientific information. It’s a new technique that creates a whole food with specific enhanced therapeutic qualities. It makes sense biochemically and energetically since the body can’t heal itself without both the proper nutrients and the energy to support and detoxify. This supplement does both.

My interest in medicinal mushrooms began nearly two years ago after writing an article on the subject. I began adding them to my personal supplement program and by-passed nearly every cold, flu, and bout of bronchitis I was exposed to. The few times I was sick, it was for a single day. This was a minor miracle. All my life, a simple cold progressed to bronchitis and/or pneumonia.

At that time, I heard about a project in its infancy consisting of growing medicinal mushrooms on a base of therapeutic herbs and organic rice rather than on the rice alone. It was thought that this process would increase the potency and benefits of both the herbs and medicinal mushrooms, creating a new type of beneficial nutrient. And it does.

This project is a result of the meeting of two extraordinary men: David Law, of Gourmet Mushrooms (a company that grows medicinal mushrooms for supplement companies), and Isaac Eliaz, MD and acupuncturist. David Law has an inquiring mind that never stops looking for new ideas and information. Dr. Isaac Eliaz is a well-respected physician and acupuncturist who has successfully used medicinal herbs and mushrooms for some of his cancer patients.

David spoke with Dr. Eliaz about the potential benefits of growing medicinal mushrooms on herbs and the two men joined their talents to create a totally new classification of nutraceuticals (nutritional products that act like pharmaceuticals without their side effects). Because both of these men are personal friends of mine, they allowed me to be the first to talk about this product.

The whole is greater than the sum of its two parts
A whole food supplement out-performs one that emphasizes a single ingredient because it contains co-factors and “minor” nutrients that haven’t yet been studied or understood. Any of these could be responsible for the supplement’s safety and effectiveness. When a single nutrient is emphasized, the natural balance is lost. The result is often a “natural” supplement that acts like a drug. It may work, but it can more easily upset your body’s natural balance and lead to side effects. Mushrooms grown on herbs provide two types of whole foods that combine into one enhanced whole-food product.

A lesson from the yew tree
Taxol is a potent — and expensive — anti-cancer substance found on the bark of the Pacific Yew tree that unnecessarily threatens the extinction of these trees. You see, taxol doesn’t come from the Yew tree itself. Recently, Andrea and Don Stirele, along with Gary Strobel, of Montana State University, made a startling discovery. They found that taxol is actually manufactured by a fungus that grows on Yew trees!

The Yew tree provides nutrients needed by this fungus, but it is the fungus that contains the active anti-cancer ingredients. In exchange for its food, the fungus produces a substance like a fungicide or insecticide that protects the trees from infectious diseases. The Yew tree provides mushrooms with raw materials, and the fungi are the factories that process these raw materials into another product.

This is true for other medicinal mushrooms. Mushrooms grow on, and eat, dead tissues. In nature, they grow in soil rich in decomposed leaves and other materials. Cultivated medicinal mushrooms need nourishment, also. The quality of their food determines their beneficial qualities.

Like the fungus on Yew trees, mushrooms can increase the potency of other compounds and create new ones. The rate at which mushrooms grow, the amount of heat they generate, and the quantity of food they eat, all factor into their beneficial qualities. Many medicinal mushrooms are grown on simple carbohydrates, like brown rice. These carbohydrates help make immune-enhancing compounds. But when you feed the mushrooms on a base of brown rice and medicinal herbs, their growth increases by 30 percent!

A supplement made from mushrooms grown on herbs is more potent, and less expensive, than if the mushrooms and herbs were taken separately.

Pairing mushrooms with Chinese herbs
Dr. Eliaz is a creative-thinking, science-based medical doctor well versed in Chinese herbs. He designed a proprietary blend of Chinese herbs with the ability to increase the immune system, reduce cancer, detoxify, and act as adaptogens (nutrients that help restore the body’s natural balance). Each medicinal mushroom is grown separately on a base of these Chinese herbs, then harvested, dried, and blended into the final formula. This formula, MycoPhyto Complex, is currently being studied at Dr. Eliaz’s clinic, Amitabha Medical Clinic & Healing Center in Sebastopol. You can order it from Advanced Bionutritionals at 800-728-2288.

MycoPhyto Complex has been found to work well with many cancer patients. Dr. Eliaz, along with a number of other doctors and acupuncturists, is evaluating the formula for a widening number of conditions including chronic fatigue, hepatitis and other viral infections, and congestive heart failure. I expect to hear of more applications for this new and unusual process, along with new formulas designed to target specific ailments. I’ll keep you posted on this in the future.

One early observation found that cancer patients on chemotherapy were dramatically less fatigued after using this formula. When they stopped taking it, their fatigue returned.

Medicinal mushrooms enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation while removing the toxic debris left in their aftermath. In my opinion, anyone who uses toxic pharmaceuticals of any kind should take a strong formula of detoxifying herbs and mushrooms to avoid future problems caused by any remaining toxins.

How medicinal mushrooms work
Mushrooms help you detoxify, but detoxification doesn’t have to make you tired if you are being strengthened at the same time. Medicinal mushrooms strengthen the body by acting like sponges, absorbing and removing chemotherapy agents, pharmaceutical drugs, heavy metals, and other toxins. Many herbs are also tonifying. Some are used as food for the mushrooms in this formula.

Because they bind to heavy metals, like mercury, make sure any mushrooms you take are grown organically with water tested for heavy metals. Some mushrooms grown in China contain high amounts of heavy metals from the water used in their growing process and could do more harm than good.

Some mushrooms, like shiitake and Coriolus v., help chemotherapy or radiation treatments work better. They also strengthen the immune system and act as anti-tumor agents while destroying small tumors that may never grow into dangerous cancers. They also increase resistance to stress, enhancing overall health.