Mycotherapy: healing medicinal mushrooms

Mycotherapy, or use mushrooms to feel good. It is a holistic discipline that suggests the use of the active ingredients of medicinal mushrooms for the purpose of strengthening the immune system and improving health of the body or to keep it good if it already is. Let's see better what it is and the perplexities that surround it. Not all therapies are applicable to all problems and it is important not to send misleading messages.

Mycotherapy: treat yourself with mushrooms

This branch of herbal medicine is from Chinese origin and very ancient. There is talk of millennia ago as the first clues of its existence were found in an engraving in south-east Algeria, in a cave.Until recently, the Mycotherapy has always been associated with Traditional Chinese Medicine, only in recent decades has the West also decided to take it into consideration and commercial products are emerging that have aroused interest. One can approach Mycotherapy but adequately informing oneself about what its real potential are. No magic mushrooms!

Mycotherapy: opinions

As we just said he is alone in the 70s that the West began to open up to Mycotherapy taking note of how mushrooms have in some cases been a sort of "longevity secret" for certain populations considered to be among the longest-lived on the planet. Research is ongoing, nothing has yet been ascertained and there are no proven medical theories that attest to this link between fungi and long life. On the other hand, it is evident that they exist medicinal mushrooms able to rebalance multiple points in the body.Phytotherapeutic products with mushroom extracts sare marketed in the form of powder, capsules or tablets. We find them proposed as supplements that act on specific parts of the body even though there are experts who remain skeptical about the effects that can be obtained.In Europe, healthy mushrooms are not allowed as drugs, in fact, and remain as ingredients of food supplements, in China and Japan, and in the East in general, they are much more central to the daily diet and we find them on the plate not only of those who believe in Mycotherapy but also of those who love their taste and are used to eating them as we are with tomato. In these areas, it has been taken for granted for millennia that mushrooms are healing foods.Taking the hypothesis into consideration, Europe has entrusted a group of experts with the task of evaluating and analyzing the efficacy and safety of phytotherapeutic products for several years already. In Italy, a reference in this sense can be theItalian mushroom growers association (AIF) but there are also various naturopathic schools, such as the Bologna Nature Center, which offer mycotherapy courses.

Reishi mycotherapy

One of the best known and most used mushrooms in mycotherapy is the Reishi, called Ganoderma lucidum. It is usually recommended because it protects the skin from aging, strengthens the immune defenses in allergies, strengthens memory and balances the two cerebral hemispheres. Always the Reishi in Mycotherapy fights hepatitis and rheumatoid arthritis and is considered the fungus of longevity.Other fungi known in mycotherapy are for example theAuricularia (auricula-judae) which balances stress, Coprinus comatus which fights diabetes, constipation and hemorrhoids, Hericium erinaceus, which protects the stomach, Maitake (Grifola frondosa), excellent for digestion and for burning fat. The Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) is instead used against intestinal swelling o for cases of hypercholesterolemia, arthrosis, viral diseases, flu, eczema and tumor pathologies

Mycotherapy in oncology

Exist conflicting opinions as regards the application of Mycotherapy in this sector. The important thing is that the mushrooms do not replace the treatments that the doctor who is following us indicates to us as essential. Instead, we can mean the Mycotherapy as a way to restore health by recovering homeostasis, exploiting his multiple effects on appetite, digestion, psyche, cholesterol, diabetes, angiopathies, allergies.

Mycotherapy: contraindications

Many are well aware that not all mushrooms have beneficial effects on the body, even if edible. Often they should be eaten well cooked and occasionally. The mushroom toxins they are "alkaloids" and some of them in high doses are highly toxic.If you liked this article keep following me also on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, InstagramYou may also be interested in:Where to collect mushroomsGo for mushroomsShiitake mushrooms

Video: Can Mushrooms Heal Your Brain? (August 2022).