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Reishi Mostly
a medicinal mushroom. Reishi
is used as a daily tonic to maintain and improve good
health, increasing longevity, in the treatment of cancer
and resistance to and recovery from diseases.
It is rarely found in nature, and has been used as a herbal medicine for more than 4,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine, making it the oldest mushroom known to have been used in medicine.
Lingzhi is the Chinese name (or Japanese: 'Reishi') for one form of the mushroom Ganoderma Lucidum. 'Lingzhi', in Chinese, means "herb of spiritual potency", and because of its multiple health benefits and absence of side-effects, it has attained an unparalleled reputation in the East as the ultimate herbal substance. It is said that for thousands of years, lingzhi was the most sought-after herb by mountain sages and emperors and empresses of China and Japan. Lingzhi has now been added to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and Therapeutic Compendium.
In nature, Lingzhi grows at the base and stumps of deciduous trees, especially maple (National Audubon Society; Field guide to Mushrooms,1993). Only two or three out of 10,000 such aged trees will have Lingzhi growth, and therefore its wild form is generally rare.
Lingzhi is nowadays effectively cultivated and sold in many Asian markets. Western health shops often stock extracts of Ganoderma Lucidum, labeled as 'lingzhi'; however, they sometimes belong to another type of the same family of mushroom, which do not have the full range of medicinal effects.
The "Seng Nong's Herbal Classic", a 2000-year old medicinal Chinese book, considered today as the oldest book on oriental herbal medicine classifies 365 species of roots, grass, woods, furs, animals and stones into three categories of herbal medicine:
- The first category, called "superior", includes herbs effective for multiple diseases and are mostly responsible for maintaining and restoring the body balance. They have no unfavorable side-effects.
- The second category comprises tonics and boosters, for which their consumption must not be prolonged.
- The third category must be taken, usually in small doses, and for the treatment of specific ailments only.
Lingzhi ranked number one of the superior medicines, and was therefore the most exalted medicine in ancient times.
Numerous studies of lingzhi, mainly in China, Korea, Japan and the United States, has shown its effectiveness in the treatment of a very wide range of diseases and symptoms. But the studies have not given any explanation of how it does so, because none of its presumed and known active components taken alone have produced results as powerful the intake of lingzhi itself. Its effectiveness applies to diverse areas, and thus it is well-nigh difficult to classify each of them and to conduct research separately in each area. It is perhaps more comprehensible at this time, to explain lingzhi's "miraculous powers" from the traditional Chinese medicine point of view.
In the West, scientists have traditionally separated and classified each disease meticulously, and have specialized in each of them to such a degree that it seems as if each disease is autonomous and standing alone. Oriental medicine, resulting from knowledge accumulated through 4,000 years of human observation, asserts that health can be maintained by sustaining the right balance within the body and that diseases can be cured by restoring this balance through nutrition, including medicinal herbs, exercise and mental peace. Traditional oriental wisdom believes that a disease is but the mere tip of an iceberg, the result of the underlying imbalance of the body which must be restored.
Observations have shown that lingzhi has relatively little side-effects and can be consumed in high doses, in parallel with other medications. Its main properties are the cleansing of blood, enhancement of the immune system and the lessening of nervous tension. These properties are conducive to normalizing and balancing the body, and as a result, lingzhi is able to cure a multitude of diseases from within.
Lingzhi has been found to strengthen the respiratory system and to have a healing effect on the, and is particularly beneficial for individuals with asthma, cough and other respiratory complaints. At least one population study conducted in the 1970s confirms this claim. When more the 2,000 Chinese with chronic bronchitis took lingzhi syrup, 60 to 90% felt better within two weeks and reported an improved appetite, according to an article entitled, Medicinal Mushrooms, written by Christopher Hobbs, and published in Herbs for Health, Jan/Feb 97.
In Japan, after daily injections in mice with cancer it was reported that tumors in 50% of the animals had completely regressed within 10 days.
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