Inside This Trailer You Will Learn:

There’s more to mushrooms than what you get on your pizza and what you would find Channing Tatum eating in 21 Jump Street.

We also have a class of fungi called medicinal mushrooms.

Mushrooms have been used as medicine for thousands of years. Even the “Greek physician Hippocrates, circa 450 bce, classified the amadou mushroom (Fomes fomentarius) as a potent anti-inflammatory and for cauterizing wounds” (1).

In fact, 40 percent of our modern day pharmaceutical drugs are derived from fungi (2). What’s maybe even a little more wild is that 92 percent of plants depend on mushroom mycelium to survive, when only 25 percent of the earth’s entire biomass is fungi.

Backing up slightly, mushrooms are in their own kingdom. We have six accepted kingdoms:

Animalia
Plantae
Fungi
Protista
Archaebacteria
Eubacteria

We thought for the longest time that mushrooms were a part of the plant kingdom, but as evidence emerged it became clear they needed their own kingdom. Believe it or not, they share more similarities with animals than they do with plants.

Animals and fungi are a part of the same superkingdom - Opisthokonta.

But maybe the most crazy statistic is that we share ~85 percent of our hominid ribosomal RNA and ~50 percent of our DNA with fungi.

How crazy is that?! Who knew we were so closely related to mushrooms, lol.

Because of these similarities, there are so many health benefits that medicinal mushrooms can give us. Let’s take a look at them…

Medicinal mushrooms have two main types of benefits for humans, adaptogenic and immunomodulating properties:

Adaptogenic

These are naturally occurring nontoxic substances that protect the body from stress by stabilizing and optimizing its physiological functions (hence the prefix, adapt-). They help us to adapt to life’s stressors (3).

There are many plants and fungi that are very well known for their adaptogenic properties - reishi mushroom, cordyceps mushrooms, holy basil, and ginseng root to name a few (4, 5, 6).

In regards to adaptogenic mushrooms, they will adapt their healing properties to whatever your body needs specifically at any given time in order to restore you to peak functionality.

Immunomodulating

These are very similar to adaptogens but these only pertain to your body’s immune system - which makes these particularly beneficial for autoimmunity.

In the case of a common cold, let’s say, your immune system tends to get overrun with viruses or bacteria. These immunomodulators can help to boost your NK cell activity, helping to fight the infection (7).

In regards to autoimmunity, your immune system is essentially on hyperdrive attacking your body’s own tissues. These immunomodulators can help to calm that attack down (8).

You can think of immunomodulators like cruise control in your car. You can take your foot off the gas and your car will always find its way back to its desired set point.

Other Compounds in Medicinal Mushrooms

There are many other compounds in medicinal mushrooms, both water-soluble and fat-soluble compounds that need to be properly extracted so we can utilize them in our own bodies.

Here is a list of a few:

Polysaccharides - these are water-soluble compounds which are made up of many (poly) chains of complex carbohydrates (saccharides). These are one of the compounds that act as an immunomodulator (9).
Beta-glucans - these are a specific type of polysaccharide with immense immunomodulating properties (9).
Terpenoids - these are also called terpenes, which are a class of fat-soluble compounds with scientifically proven anticancer, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. They play a powerful role in balancing the body’s hormone levels, but their most notable roles are their anti-inflammatory benefits (10).

Let’s Meet Your Favorite Medicinal Mushrooms

There’s more than 1.5 million species of fungi in our world that we know of. But today I want to lay out the 4 most common ones that we have sound data on for some of the benefits I talked about above. Let’s take a look at them now:

Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) - known as the “Queen of Mushrooms”, reishi is best used for promoting better sleep, helping to modulate stress, and cure seasonal allergies. It’s been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for at least two thousand years, with the first known reports documented in Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) (11).
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) - known as the “King of Mushrooms”, chaga is best used for warding off the common cold, helping to improve the health of your skin and hair, and lowering inflammation levels. When it is dual-extracted, chaga contains the world’s highest source of antioxidants that we now about, containing an ORAC score of over 113,000 (12). The first recorded use dates back to 17th century Russia where it was widely used to cure everything from cancers to gastrointestinal issues (13).
Cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) - often referred to as “cordy-sex”, this medicinal mushrooms helps you not only to perform better athletically, but also in the bedroom, too. It’s been shown to increase energy and alleviate asthma or bronchitis symptoms (14, 15). It’s first documented use dates back as far as the Tang dynasty in AD 620 (16).
Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) - this mushroom earned its name due to the fact it looks similar to the mane of a lion. It’s best known for its ability to improve memory, boost concentration, and protect your nervous system (17). Some of its other incredible documented benefits include protecting against dementia, relieving symptoms of depression and anxiety, speeding up recovery of the nervous system, protecting against ulcers in the digestive tract, may reduce heart disease risk, helps to manage diabetes, and may help to fight cancer (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24).

Other amazing medicinal mushrooms that we did cover in this article are ones such as:

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)
Maitake (Grifola frondosa)
Turkey Tail (Coriolus versicolor or Trametes versicolor)
Enoki (Flammulina velutipes)
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus or Pleurotus populinus)
Tremella (Tremella fuciformis)

If you want to get the benefits of all these amazing medicinal mushrooms in one delicious elixir, I recommend this 10 Mushroom Blend here.

The Power of Dual-Extraction

To get all these amazing benefits of the medicinal mushrooms, they absolutely need to be dual-extracted. This is, of course, a two-step process which involves a hot water and alcohol extraction method.

First, the alcohol extraction pulls out the fat-soluble compounds (creating a tincture), and second, a hot-water extraction method pulls out the water-soluble compounds from the fungi (creating a decoction).

The alcohol extraction method needs to be at least 80% proof and last 3-6 weeks to release the terpenoids.

The hot-water extraction method needs to be 170-212 degrees F and held there for 12-24 hours to release their polysaccharides.

As you can see it’s a lengthy process to get these compounds for their benefits. The hot-water extraction method is crucial for getting the immunomodulating benefits out of the mushrooms, so individuals suffering with autoimmunity want to make sure to consume a mushroom product that has been hot-water extracted.

The alcohol extraction method is great for activating the adaptogenic properties of the mushrooms. So if you are someone who has high amounts of stress then consuming medicinal mushrooms that have been alcohol extracted is crucial.

The best thing to do is consume mushrooms that have been dual-extracted so you gain all the benefits the mushrooms have to offer!

That’s why I’m a huge fan of Four Sigmatic! They not only dual-extract all their medicinal mushrooms but they mix them into products you’re probably already consuming like coffees, teas, protein powders, chocolate, and more.

But you don’t need to worry about the taste. They don’t actually taste like mushrooms! They taste like your normal everyday products you know and love to consume. Just this time, they’re seriously upgraded!

You can use code ‘CRAIG’ to save epic discounts on all their products every time you make a purchase. My personal favorites are their Reishi Hot Cacao, Probiotic Coffee, and Peanut Butter Protein powder.

Be sure to watch the video to learn more and leave me a comment in the community section at the bottom of this page. Do you know someone that has autoimmune issues or gets cold often? Send them this article and be sure to enroll in my Ultimate Autoimmune Reset™!