If you’re like most people, then mushrooms maybe aren’t the first thing you think of when you think about immune health.
Of course, if you’re a little more in the know, then you realize that high quality mushroom extracts can offer you potent immuno-modulating effects. Cordyceps, reishi, and lions mane can all help support the health and function of the immune system.
But the most potent immune mushroom tonic of all is hands down chaga mushroom extract. In this blog, I’ll talk about how chaga’s immune benefits function from a traditional chinese medicine (TCM) perspective as well as what modern science has to say about chaga. Lastly, we’ll discuss the benefits of a high quality dual extract of chaga, compared to the other lesser forms of chaga on the market today.
Chaga for Immunity and Qi | A Traditional Perspective
In traditional chinese medicine (TCM), chaga is classified as a powerful qi tonic because it is known to aid the wei qi. Wei qi is also called the surface defense qi. The difference between two individuals exposed to the same pathogenic influence and one of these individuals becoming sick is the integrity of their respective wei qi.
The wei qi or surface defense qi protects the immune system from external pathogenic influences such as environmental toxins, and drastic weather fluctuations. The wei qi also regulates the body's ability to appropriately open and close the pores in the body, in order to defend oneself from pathogens while still being able to vent heat.
By tonifying our qi, consumption of potent qi tonics like chaga or reishi are instrumental in defending the immune system from external pathogenic influences such as cold, germs, flus and viruses. Never underestimate how helpful it is to supplement an herb that is able to replenish and support this vital life substance.
Chaga the Immune Booster | Recent Scientific Research
As often seems to be the case, science is continuing to find evidence that supports the claims made for chaga by traditional chinese medicine. Studies have found that chaga has antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-proliferative effects, and even “affords cellular protection against endogenous DNA damage” and oxidative stress.
So how does chaga achieve its famous immune-boosting effects? It’s thought to do so because of its rich makeup of betulin, melanin, polysaccharides, and other chemical constituents. One 2010 study found that:
“Chemical investigations show that I. obliquus [chaga] produces a diverse range of secondary metabolites including phenolic compounds, melanins, and lanostane-type triterpenoids. Among these are the active components for antioxidant, antitumoral, and antiviral activities and for improving human immunity against infection of pathogenic microbes.”
One such compound found bountifully in chaga is betulinic acid, which offers its own range of immunity and protective benefits; one study says:
“BA and/or its derivatives exhibit a wide variety of biological and pharmacological activities, including anti-human immunodeficiency virus, antibacterial, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, antinociceptive, anti-herpes simplex viruses-1 (HSV-1), immune-modulatory, antiangiogenic and anticancer activity”
It seems clearer and clearer that chaga is jam packed full of rare medicinal compounds that can take our immune system and overall health to new levels.
Choose A Chaga Dual Extract for Pure Potency
As with many products on the herbal market, the quality of chaga and its method of extraction varies widely from vendor to vendor. Much of what you find in health foods stores and the ‘bigger’ ‘cheaper’ name brands of mushroom supplements is merely ground up raw mycelium, which is barely even digestible, let alone bioavailable.
To reap the full rewards of chaga, it's important to get an extract from a quality source. In the new Hyperion Herbs Chaga Dual Extract, whole pounds of chaga are distilled down into a single pound of extract, and made into a delicious powder that is easily added to the food or beverage of your choice.
Choosing high quality extracts means you are getting the fragile and rare medicinal compounds that this mushroom is prized for, and that they are actually bioavailable and digestible!
Check out the new Chaga Dual Extract in the Hyperion Herbs store! You can learn more about chaga here.