Reason #739 to consume chaga: it may be effective against colon cancer.

That’s what a new study, published in Nutrition Research And Practice (2015), is suggesting. An alcohol extract of chaga (Inonotus obliquus) inhibited the reproduction and DNA synthesis of human colon cancer cells.

According to the researchers, “I. obliquus could be used as a natural anti-cancer ingredient in the food and/or pharmaceutical industry.”

Of course, there aren’t too many studies corroborating these findings, and this particular study wasn’t even performed on a single human being. We’re not petri dishes for crying out loud! Might as well dismiss the findings all together, eh?

Well, no. With a plethora of research showcasing chaga’s diverse suite of medicinal actions, and with a long, rich history of traditional use, common sense and intuition should start to tell us something…

…and guess what that is?

Credit: Holger Krisp, Ulm, Germany

I’d like to begin this article with 2 very important statistics:

The chance of an American man developing cancer in his lifetime is 1 in 2.

The chance of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime is 1 in 3.

Pause and think about that for a moment…

…no really.  Think about it.

How did we get here?  Is it bad luck that plagues our species?  (Interestingly enough, a recent study suggested that the majority of cancer cases are due to bad luck, 1)

To me, that seems just a bit nutty, though I’ll leave it at that for now.

Browsing the scientific literature, it’s apparent that numerous variables are involved in cancer development, including pesticides, asbestos, synthetic chemicals in our food, genetics, cell phone exposure, and weight.  The list goes on (2).

Needless to say, many Americans will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime.  And many will take action by seeking conventional medical treatment.  Fair enough.

This is not a website telling people what they should or should not do regarding their health.  I write articles that provide information based on evidence.  What people do with this information is up to them.

Having said that, there’s a mushroom that individuals with cancerous conditions may find interesting…

Read the rest of the article at Wild Foodism

Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) gets all the love, and for good reason: it’s got some fine medicine indeed.

But what if we can’t find chaga, or what if we are interested in protecting its existence in the wild? Well then, we can look to the birch polypore as a useful alternative.

You see, the birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) is a fairly common mushroom that generally grows on dead birch trees. I encounter it quite frequently in the forests of Pennsylvania, especially in the winter months.

Interestingly, it contains many of the same medicinal compounds as chaga, notably the triterpenes.

For example, the birch polypore possesses betulin, betulinic acid, and lupeol, and while its content of betulin is much lower than that found in chaga, it contains a significantly greater concentration of lupeol than chaga in certain extracts. Lupeol is a compound that may be useful in treating inflammation and cancer (Saleem 2009).

The birch polypore also contains an anti-inflammatory/anti-microbial compound not detected in chaga, known as taraxasterol (Jasicka-Misiak et al., 2010).

It seems that medicinal diversity is essential for optimal health, and cycling between chaga and the birch polypore (instead of relying solely on chaga) can benefit not only the health of the forests, but our personal health as well.

If you don’t implement your own medicinal strategy, you’ll be prescribed someone else’s … and theirs most likely won’t be anywhere near as effective as a preventative plan chosen by you with intention and care.

The chaga fungus (Inonotus obliquus) constitutes a large portion of my medicinal strategy. Used for centuries in traditional Siberian medicine, it has been gaining a lot of popularity in the Western world. Scientific research repeatedly reveals that chaga possesses anti-tumor, anti-cancer, and immunomodulatory activities. Because of this, and because it grows in the birch forests of Pennsylvania, I have made wild-harvested chaga a medicinal staple.

This is a photograph of an alcoholic extraction of chaga, created on November 22nd and pulled 6 weeks later on the January full moon. Included in the extraction are fresh vanilla beans for enhanced flavor.

Remember, there’s more to health than the food we eat and the exercise we get. And although we most likely were never taught this in the high school health education classroom, a personalized medicinal strategy is also imperative for optimal health.