Let's say you're
trying to lose 20 pounds or boost your immunity or increase your ability to fight covid, or even cancer. Well, the amazing thing is with the right diet. You are well on your way to achieving these vital health goals. Welcome to the nutrition facts podcast. I'm your host. Dr. Michael Greger. Today. We discover the power of medicinal mushrooms and no, I'm not talking about that kind of mushroom. Here's our first story.
Can mushrooms be medicinal mushroom. Based products make up a sizeable chunk of the fifty billion dollar supplement Market. This profitable trade provides a powerful incentive for companies to test the credulity of their customers and sadly unsupported. Assertions have come to define the medical mushroom business. For example, companies that market herbal medicines exploit references to studies on mice to promote their mushroom capsules for treating all kinds of ailments, but
You haven't noticed we're not mice. I mean it wouldn't be surprising if mushrooms have some potent properties after all fungi or where we got a bunch of drugs, not the least of which penicillin and also, a cholesterol-lowering drug Lovastatin and the powerful immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine still, don't think a little mushroom could have pharmacological effects. Don't forget, they can produce some of our most powerful poisons, some kind of looked the part like the toxic.
Carolina false morel all Toadstool, lie and such but others have more of an Angelic. Look indeed literally called the destroying Angel, that's its name as little as a teaspoon can cause a painful lingering death. So anyway, we should have respect for the pharmacological potential of mushrooms. But what can they do that good for us? Well consuming shiitake mushrooms daily improves.
Immunity giving people just one or two dried, shiitake mushrooms a day about the weight equivalent of five to ten, fresh ones for four weeks resulted in an increase in proliferation of Gamma Delta T lymphocytes and doubled. The proliferation of natural killer cells. Gamma Delta cells act, as a first line of immunological defense and even better. Natural killer cells. Kill cancer. And the shiitake did all this while lowering markers of. Systemic inflammation. Oyster mushroom extracts.
Don't seem to work as well. But we care about is if mushrooms can actually affect cancer outcomes. Shiitakes haven't been tried yet. But reishi mushrooms, have after being used as a cancer treatment throughout Asia for centuries, reishi, mushroom for cancer treatment. What does the science say? I'm an analysis of five randomized, controlled trial, showed that patients, who had been given reishi, mushroom supplements, along with chemo and radiation were more likely to respond positively.
Ugly compared to just chemo and radiation alone. Now, although adding a reishi mushroom extract, improved tumor response rates, the data failed to demonstrate a significant effect on tumor shrinkage, when the mushrooms were used alone. So they aren't recommended as a single treatment, but rather an adjunct treatment for patients with Advanced cancer. Now response rate just means the tumor shrinked. Oh what we care about is whether or not it actually improves survival or quality of life.
We don't have convincing data suggesting reishi, mushroom products, improve survival, but those randomized to Rishi, were found to have relatively better quality of life. So that's a win, is far as I'm concerned. What about other mushrooms? Although whole shiitake mushrooms, haven't been tested yet. There's a compound that's extracted from shiitakes called Lenten in, which is said to have completely inhibited. The growth of a certain kind of sarcoma in mice, but in actuality it only worked in one single string.
Mice and failed in nine others. So, are we more like than 90% of mouse strains in which it didn't work. We need human trials and we finally got them. There are data. I nearly 10,000 cancer patients who have been treated with the shiitake. Mushroom extract injected right into their veins. What did the researchers find woof? Find out next?
A regular intake of mushrooms is said to make us healthier fitter and happier and help us live longer. But what is the evidence for all that? Mushrooms are widely cited for their medicinal qualities? Yet, very few rigorous. Human intervention, Studies have been done. There is a compound called, Lenten extracted from shiitake mushrooms to get about an ounce. You have to distill around 400 pounds of shiitakes. That's like two thousand cups of mushrooms, but then you can inject.
The compound into cancer patients and see what happens. The pooled response from a dozen small clinical trials, found that the objective response rate was significantly improved when Lenten was added to chemotherapy regimens for lung cancer. Objective response. Rate means like tumor shrinkage, but we really care about is survival and quality of life. Does it actually make cancer patients, live any longer or any better? Well, those in the Lenten and group suffered less chemo related toxicity to their gut and bone marrow, so,
So that alone might be reason enough to use it. But what about improving survival? I was excited to see that Lenten and evidently could significantly improve survival rates for a type of Leukemia, and adding Lenten increased average, survival and reduced cachexia, which is like cancer Associated muscle wasting and improved cage Side Health. Wait, what? Damn it this was improved survival for brown Norwegian rats. So that's so called clinical benefit. Only applies.
If you're a veterinarian, a compilation of 17, actual human, clinical studies did find improvements in one year survival and advanced cancer patients, but no significant difference in the likelihood of living out, two years, even the compilations of studies that purport, that Lenten offers a significant advantage in terms of survival are talking about statistical significance. Once in an improved Survival by an average of 25 days. Now, 25 days is
25 days, but we should evaluate claims made. By companies about the miraculous properties of medicinal mushrooms, very critically Linton has to be injected intravenously. What about mushroom extract supplements, you can just take yourself shiitake. Mushroom extract is available through the internet for the treatment of prostate cancer for approximately three, hundred dollars a month. So it's got to be good. Right, men, who regularly mushrooms do seem to be a lower risk for getting prostate cancer. And
And apparently just because they eat less meat or more fruits and vegetables in general. So why not give a shiitake mushroom extract a try? Because it doesn't work in effective in the treatment of clinical prostate cancer. The results demonstrate that complementary and alternative medicine Claims can actually be put to the test water concept. Maybe it should be mandatory before patients spend large sums of money on unproven treatments or in this case a dis proven treatment.
What about God's? Mushroom? Also known as the mushroom of life or reishi. Mushrooms, conclusions. No, significant. Anti-cancer effects were found not even a single partial response. Maybe we're overthinking it, plain white button. Mushroom extracts can kill off prostate cancer cells, at least in a Petri dish. But but so could the fancy God's mushroom, but that didn't end up working and people, you don't know, if plain white button, mushrooms work or not until you put it.
A test. What I like about this study is that the researchers didn't use a proprietary extract. They just used regular whole, mushrooms, dried and powdered the equivalent of a half cup to a cup and a half of fresh white button. Mushrooms a day. In other words. It's totally doable amount. They gave them two men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. What that means is the men had already gotten a prostatectomy or radiation in an attempt to cut or burn out all the cancer, but now it's back and growing as
Dance by a rising PSA levels, an indicator of prostate cancer, progression of the 26 patients, who got the button mushroom powder for appeared to respond me. They got a drop in PSA levels by more than 50 percent. After starting, the shrooms patient to was my favorite. He had an exponential increase in PSA levels for a year. Then he started some plain white mushrooms, and boom. His PSA levels. Drop down to zero and stays down. Similar type responses with patient one.
Patient for had a partial response before his cancer took off again and patient, three appeared to have a delayed partial response. Now, in the majority of cases, the PSA levels continue to rise. Not dipping at all. But even if there's only a 1 in 18 chance, you'll be like these two with a prolonged complete response that continues to date. We're not talking about weighing the risks of some toxic chemotherapy for the small chance of benefit. Just eating some inexpensive easy tasty, plain white.
Shrooms every day. Yes. The study didn't have a control group. So would may have just been coincidence. But post prostatectomy patients with Rising. PSAs are almost always indicators of cancer progression. Hey, what's the downside? I mean, these two patients. Their PSA levels became undetectable suggesting that the cancer disappeared altogether, they'd already gone through surgery. Gotten their primary tumor removed along with their entire prostate already went through radiation. Try to clean up any cancer, that remained in.
At the Cancer appeared to be surging back on till that is they started a little plain mushroom powder?
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