Health Benefits of Reishi Mushrooms

Have you heard of Gano coffee? It is an instant coffee mixed with the powdered extract of the medicinal Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum). In Chinese Medicine, Reishi is often called Lingzhi. Ganoderma coffee beans are infused with the type of mushroom, or fungus, known as Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) and is very popular in traditional Chinese medicine.

C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, American neurosurgeon, pioneer in pain management and Founder of the National Institute of Holistic Medicine, has recommended Gano coffee to support body health.

Reishi mushroom is a fungus important in China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries for its health-promoting effects. Reishi is an immune-stimulant that has been used by patients with HIV and cancer. Research on reishi extracts were shown to support the immune system, is a kidney protective, has anti-inflammatory properties, and is also liver protective. Clinical studies demonstrate Reishi’s benefits in lower urinary tract symptoms in men, and mild antidiabetic effects, while improving dyslipidemia.

While it is known that the human body can develop a tolerance pharmaceutical medicines and they lose their effectiveness after a time. Reishi can be taken daily with no build-up of tolerance.

It improves the functioning of the body in many ways. It is a great stress reducer, possessing the ability to help boost energy or help one get to sleep depending on the needs of the body.

Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma Lucidum) can be useful for many different health conditions. It enhances disease immunity. This mushroom is a very valuable health tonic and is known to normalize the organs of the body; as an herb it is classified as an adaptogen. An adaptogen helps improve body functioning.

Reishi is a stress reducer with the ability to respond to the body’s needs. It boosts energy or helps one get to sleep depending on your needs. Reishi restores the body’s natural energy levels, reduces high blood pressure, and lowers triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood). It helps a person suffering from colds and coughs. Reishi is very well known for its ability to help the liver function.

Research shows individuals with liver disease treated with Reishi mushrooms display health improvements. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who received Reishi mushroom extract have reduced treatment side effects, such as hair loss and fatigue. Many individuals have taken Reishi as a preventive and a treatment for cancerous tumors. Some people recovering from transplant surgery have reduced risk of organ rejection. Taking Reishi mushroom lowers your bad cholesterol (LDL) and keeps it from building up on artery walls.

Uses of Reishi Mushroom

•    Enhance the immune system

•    Treat high blood pressure

•    Treat hepatitis

•    Improve blood circulation

•    Treat anxiety

•    Treat bronchitis and asthma

•    Treat insomnia

•    Remove toxic matter from the body

•    Help calm the mind

•    Prevent and treat cancer

•    Treat cardiovascular disease

•    Protect against heart disease

•    Protect against infectious disease

•    Offer relief as a powerful antihistamine

•    Treat arthritis

•    Improve memory, concentration and focus

Chinese and Japanese herbalists have recommended Ganoderma Lucidum for insomnia. Overtime, long-term use effects a significant promotion of slow wave sleep. In China, Reishi is used for a number of psychiatric and neurological afflictions, including diseases especially involving the muscles, anorexia, and the debility due to lengthy illness.

In Japan, Reishi mushrooms have been effectively used to treat mental health issues caused by environmental stress. An eight-month study of Alzheimer's disease patients, Reishi mycelium demonstrated a significant improvement in functioning.  In China, Reishi is used for its muscle relaxing and analgesic (pain-inhibiting) effects. A study of Ganoderma Lucidum (Reishi) alleviated anxiety in 18 of 20 patients after four months' use. It is calmative but is not narcotic or a hypnotic.
 

Cancer research studies of Ganoderma Lucidum have been largely done in Japan, it has been scientifically proven to have an anti-tumor effect. It has an anti-allergy action that is the subject of ongoing research in both China and Japan. Studies showed Reishi extract significantly inhibits different types of allergic reactions against asthma and contact dermatitis. Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 1990, found that Ganoderma Lucidum can be effectively used for treating stiff necks, stiff shoulders, conjunctivitis (inflammation of the fine membrane lining the eye and eyelids), bronchitis, rheumatism, and improving the immune system without significant side-effects.

Reishi helps eliminate various western medication toxins (antibiotic, pain killers and anti-inflammatory medicines) from the body. This strong detoxification effect helps to maintain your body’s balance. The elemental Germanium in Reishi helps to enhance your blood stream ability to take in oxygen by more than 1.5 times, increases metabolism, and slows down aging.

Reishi mushrooms are found growing on decaying tree stumps across East Asia and North America. They come in six colors, however the red variety is used in alternative medicine.

Scientific research is ongoing. These mushrooms fight the oxidation process, which causes cells to die. Eating reishi mushrooms does not interfere with Western cancer treatments.

Reishi is generally considered too bitter for cooking. Typically, in Alternative and Traditional Chinese Medicine, these mushrooms are dried and powdered to make teas. Ganoderma is also readily available commercial mixed with coffee.

http://www.healthline.com/health/reishi-mushroom-key-to-immortality

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-905-REISHI%20MUSHROOM.aspx?activeIngredientId=905&activeIngredientName=REISHI%20MUSHROOM

http://www.nanobiotechresearch.com/the-benefits-of-ganaderma-lucidum

https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/reishi-mushroom

http://www.herbslist.net/reishi.html

Learn to Control Trigger Point Pain

I have always had some kind of body pain. As a child I thought everyone had the same level of pain—that is just life. So I did not question it or seek any kind of answer for my body pain. My parents were stoic people whose attitude was nothing could be done about pain—just keep working.

I remember going for my first massage and the therapist began talking about trigger points. I was so surprised and pleased to find that by working with the trigger points I was significantly improved. I had much less muscle tension and pain, circulation and flexibility were improved, and my attitude was hopeful. Chronic pain saps the joy from life; I was so happy to find I could find relief.

It took me along time to realize I could be working with these trigger points myself between trips to the massage therapist. I believe in being self responsible and proactive about my health. I believe in a Mind/body/Spirit outlook to life, therefore every physical, or emotional trauma we have creates a feedback loop between the mind and body with tension and knotted muscles.

When you work to eliminate your trigger points use this time to release the knotted emotions you have buried in your body. For example, if a bully hit you when you were a child, the memory of that incident is located in your body where you were hit and it has an associated link in your mind. The mind-link might include associated feelings of anger, fear, insecurity, or helplessness.

Trigger points can result from muscle trauma (from car accidents, falls, sports- and work-related injuries, etc.), muscle strain from repetitive movements at work or play, postural strain from standing or sitting improperly for long periods at the computer, emotional stress, anxiety, allergies, nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, and toxins in the environment. A single event can initiate a trigger point causing you to suffer the effects for the rest of your life.

Trigger points can be created by a slip and fall, or a motor vehicle accident at speeds as slow as 5 mph.  Muscle injury doesn’t even require landing a near fall is adequate to activate a trigger point. The referred pain often feels like an oppressive, deep ache and movement can sharpen the pain. Referred myofascial pain can be as intense as pain from surgery. In fact myofascial pain can mimic a heart attack.

Many of us have debilitating low back pain that has completely altered the way we live our lives. The body's instinctive reaction to a harmful "event" was to protect itself by altering the way you move, sit, or stand, which puts abnormal stress on your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. Over time this created strength and flexibility imbalances in your muscles, as well as postural dysfunctions throughout your body. The most common place for a trigger point is in the muscle of the lower back called the quadratus lumborum located just above your hips. As the quadratus lumborum became increasingly dysfunctional the position of the pelvis was altered. The pelvis dysfunction creates abnormal spinal curvature thereby putting abnormal pressure on the disc, which over time begins to bulge. As this condition progressively worsens, one’s overall quality of life decreases often leading to Depression.

Trigger points may produce symptoms as diverse as dizziness, earaches, sinusitis, nausea, heartburn, false heart pain, heart arrhythmia, genital pain, and numbness in the hands and feet, restless leg syndrome, tooth pain, workout plateau, painful menses, or irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, neck and jaw pain, low back pain, sciatica, tennis elbow, and carpal tunnel syndrome. They are the source of joint pain in the shoulder, wrist, hip, knee, and ankle that is often mistaken for arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, or ligament injury.

Myofascial pain syndrome is a chronic pain disorder. In myofascial pain syndrome, pressure on sensitive points in your muscles (trigger points) causes pain in seemingly unrelated parts of your body. This is called referred pain. (Definition by Mayo Clinic staff)

A trigger point is a hypersensitive spot in a muscle. "Referred" pain means that trigger points typically send their pain to some other place in the body, which is why conventional treatments for pain so often fail. A stimulated trigger point usually produces pain referred in a predictable pattern away from the trigger point, which can also cause contractions in muscles called taut bands. Triggered taut bands cause the dysfunction of the joints. 

"There is no substitute for learning to control your own musculoskeletal pain," says Dr. Simons. "Treating myofascial trigger points yourself addresses the source of that kind of common pain and is not just a way of temporarily relieving it." Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons, authors of The Trigger Point Manual, references research indicating trigger points are the primary cause of pain at least 75 percent of the time and are a factor in nearly every painful condition.

A trigger point is about the size of a mustard seed. The technique is to put sustained pressure on trigger point for a set period of time on a regular basis. There are various techniques that are relatively simple. The technique is to apply sufficient deep sustained pressure applied to the "knotted-up area." By working with the Trigger Point you will create soft tissue release that allow ins increased blood flow, a reduction in muscle spasm, the break-up of scar tissue, and help eliminate toxic metabolic waste. Also the body will experience a neurological release reducing the pain signals to the brain. This neurological release allows the neuromuscular system to remember and restore its proper function.

These factors that effect the length of time needed to completely release a trigger point include: number of trigger points you have, how long you have had your trigger point, how effective your current treatment is, and how consistently you can administer or receive treatment. It is impractical to see a massage therapist frequently enough to get a trigger point to release.

To learn more about trigger points and how to work with them I suggest Dr. Jonathon Kuttner excellent educational website. Here are a few of things you'll learn here: A. Trigger point reference chart. http://triggerpointcharts.com/  B. An instructional Video http://lifeafterpain.com/vault/treat-your-triggers/finding-triggers/

This website contains charts that will help you isolate where the trigger point is and where the pain to.  This page contains 26 trigger point referral chart thumbnails. To view a single chart, position your cursor over the image and click once. If you know which part of the body whose charts you want to view, click on its link below to go directly to that group of charts. http://www.webmanmed.com/painrefer_files/trigptcharts.html

Working with trigger points is not a cure all. However with consistent attention, eliminating trigger points diminishes pain and truly enhances one’s quality of life. Self-empowerment is essential to mind/body/spirit well being. You can do this for yourself now.

http://healing.about.com/od/therapies/a/triggerpoint.htm

http://www.triggerpoints.net/

http://www.myorehab.net/articles/article-archive.htm