For many years, the Chaga mushroom has been used throughout Eurasia, where it was acknowledged for its healing effects as „the gift of God“ and „the queen of plants.“
The curing properties of „the queen of plants“ were so obvious so that even in the Middle Ages it was familiar with the curing power of the fungus. In the manuscripts from the 11th century, Prince Vladimir Monomahu healed the lips tumor with the chagas’ help.
However, in the Middle Ages, the medical mushroom was forgotten – until the 20th century, when Dr. Maslenikov began to investigate its effects.
Dr. Maslenikov lived in the small town of Alexandrov near Moscow. For many years he treated the local population and noticed that among his patients there were never cancer patients. Maslenikov began to explore the habits of the locals and found out that for saving they do not buy black Russian tea, but they make a chaga beverage drink.
He had experimented with chagas’ tinctures and teas until he thought the most effective recipe.
The city of Alexandria has become a pilgrimage place for oncological patients. The patients came to Dr. Maslenjik’s from the whole Soviet Union, lived in the tents and waited for days – just to come to the miracle recept.
Many patients have recovered, as it is evidenced by the vast archives of the doctor. One of the recovered patients was Solzhenitsyn, who wrote Maslenik’s letter, and received the fungus and a recipe for tea. The author has learned of the miraculous mushroom, which grows on a birch, from other cancer suffering patients.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent nine years in a Siberian camp. In solitary confinement, Solzhenitsyn became very ill. The doctors diagnosed him with gastric cancer in the third and fourth stages.
The prisoner had a surgery, and after a short treatment, he was released from the camp. Because of the worsened condition, Solzenjicin went to Tashkent at the Department of Cancer Institute of Medicine. During conduction of radiotherapy, Solzenjicin independently made himself and Chaga tea.
After that, the Russian writer lived for half a century and died in the 90’s. For his books, in which he told the truth about the life in the camp detention, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize. The Chaga fungus has become very attractive when the writer mentioned it in the book „The Cancer Department“.
Chaga mushroom(lat. Inonotus obliquus) most commonly spreads and rises on the birch and it looks like a burned bark of a tree full of furrows and protuberances. In fact, the chaga represents a tumor of a tree, but it is just a cancer medicine for humans. It literally destroys the tree because it extracts the most significant nutrients from it.
The fungus is the „storehouse“ for medicinal substances, minerals and vitamins. It rises in forests throughout Korea, Russia, North America and Europe, like in Eastern Europe, sucking all the healthy supplements and eventually leading to a complete drying of the tree itself.
Fighting for survival, the tree that is attacked from chaga secretes various materials, which actually feed this mushroom-parasite. That’s why the mushroom is a powerful source of many microelements.
The fungus increases for up to 20 years on a host tree. The chaga is usually round or oval, reaching up to half a meter in diameter, a thickness of 15 centimeters and a weight of up to five kilograms. The outside is viewed as black or dark brown, and from the inside, it is essentially brighter and has brownish-yellow tones.
The wild chaga is „picked“ after a number of years of parasitization on the birch tree. Only then the amount of medicinal substances comes to a high level, so much needed for the endangered health of all of us. Through this long period of „maturation“, the medicinal elements from the fungus have become extremely small molecular structures that allow rapid and complete absorption into our body.
Chaga mushroom nutrition and benefits
This exceptional medical mushroom contains over 200 nutrients. Research has detected that the chaga is full of medical and almost miraculous, biologically active substances, some of which no other plant contains. It is rich in amino acids, balance materials, enzymes, trace minerals (manganese, copper, germanium selenium, zinc, iron, , etc.), minerals:, calcium, potassium,, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin K, B1, B2, B3, D2 or ergosterol that other plants do not have. Furthermore, it is an effective base of several types of polysaccharides, betulic acid, beta glucan, triterpenes, (including lanosterol), inotodiol, sterols, saponins, trametenic acid, melanin.
However, the most important ingredient is beta-lactic acid, which is responsible for preventing invincibly todays’ disease – cancer.
Chaga is a natural fighter against almost all kinds of tumors due to the beta-lactic acid, which prevents cancer and destroys carcinogenic cells, while not touching the healthy units.
Chaga is very effective, analogous to testimonials and studies of Russian medicine, against cancer of the breast, ovary, uterus, prostate, lung, stomach, pancreas, brain and thymus, leukemia and all kinds of melanomas and lymphomas.
Chaga, by its powerful anti-inflammatory action and mechanism of apoptosis, destroys deformed cells. The most dominant weapon of this mushroom is the chaga acid, which, analogous to the Russian scientists, normalizes the metabolism and treats all the organs of the human organism.
It is also helpful as an element to conventional chemotherapy agents because it relieves their side reaction and strengthens immunity.
The wild chaga is so popular because it has antioxidant content, but there is not a surprising nutritional profile. The list of nutritional values of this fungus show that is poor in calories, it does not contain fat, sugars and carbohydrates, and it has a lot of fibers.
Around five grams of chaga contains:
- Calories – 5 grams
- Fat – 0 grams
- Fiber 5 grams
- Sugar – 0 grams
- Protein 1 gram
Chaga is the strongest known antioxidant. Plants such as aronia and goji berries are not nearly as close to their antioxidant values. It takes the first place on the ORAC scale, which measures the parallel of antioxidants in foods.
SOD enzyme is the most significant enzyme of our body and it acts as a cellular antioxidant (a free radical fighter).
It keeps us from premature aging, tumors and cancer, heart and blood diseases, chronic muscular and joint pain, high blood pressure, digestive problems, diabetes, poor circulation, kidney and liver disease, increased fat, allergies, pulmonary diseases, all skin diseases, prostate problems, etc.
Antioxidants play an important role in taking care of the body from the negative reaction of free radicals and oxidation. The SOD level is reduced by aging. SOD enzymes are part of the Chaga mushroom, where they play a crucial role in surviving cells during host invasion (birch).
Unfortunately, as the years pass, in our body there is less and less that crucial enzyme and we need it more than ever.
Chaga mushroom as an adaptogen
The mushroom is an authoritative adaptogen, which means it works against stress, which causes 90 percent of all diseases. Adaptogens strengthen people with adrenal fatigue. It helps the body to adapt to the new conditions caused by everyday stress. Let us not forget that in modern conditions of life, stress is the cause of many diseases.
Adaptogens do not target at some organ or certain disease, but they establish a balance of the entire organism. It is known that the adaptogenic mass was widely used in the folk medicine of Siberia, China, Altai, Tibet, and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Soviet authorities have once advised sportsmen and, especially cosmonauts, to use adaptogens to boost physical and mental abilities. Furthermore, this Siberian parasitic mushroom is also a biogenic stimulant.
Chaga mushroom for arthritis and psoriasis
Russian pharmacists also made creams from this fungus for joints and veins. They also developed a microcapsular system that allows the ingredients of the tissue to easily penetrate the skin and act directly in the wrist itself, or in the very heart of the disease. In this way, the drug not only relieves pain and stops the muscle contraction, but also encourages the body to expel salts and toxins from the joints, which passively slows down their aging and destruction of cartilage tissue. Reports from several clinics from the Russian Far East, more precisely from the coastal town of Vladivostok, state that they have succeeded in the complete treatment of psoriasis and arthritis with the use of this fungus.
Chaga mushroom and skincare
An important number of components contained in the chaga can help your skin look solid. Of the most interesting we distinguish melanin. Melanin helps darken the skin and it is a great shield in protection against devastating UV rays. The mushroom is a shelter against burns and gives the skin a shine. The chaga is consisting of betulin. With its help, the fungus has antiviral and antibacterial effects. Even it allows the development of new strong cells of the skin. Different components derived in the chaga also contain beta-glucan. Melanin, betulin, beta glucan also help in the fight against wrinkles. Chaga tea can also be used externally directly on the skin, but also orally. There are creams made from the mushroom for skin care.
Chaga mushroom, tuberculosis, asthma, insomnia and stress
The chaga that grows on the larch, the most famous deciduous conifer, is practically the same fungus, only by growing on a different surface and it draws from its host different healing properties. So, the chaga from a larch is an excellent tool against excessive sweating of tuberculosis patients. This mushroom from the deciduous conifer also helps with disturbances and insomnia. The fungus can also, but rarely, be settled on the tree of cedar and Siberian Fir. In this case, it helps with cotnagious diseases, bronchitis, and colds, lowers elevated temperature and facilitates breathing. The mushroom is also of a great help to asthma sufferers.
Chaga mushroom and immune system
The wild chaga helps in strengthening the immune system by provoking the creation of some resistant cells, involving T-lymphocytes and interleukin 6. These elements are necessary for the regulation of the immune system and its fight facing viruses and bacteria. The chaga extract can provoke lymphocytes in the spleen, which has a face to face decisive reaction on the resistant structure and its functioning.
Chaga is a natural biomodulator, for which beta-glucans are most deserving. They not only stimulate the body’s resistant function but can also slow them down when they are too active. This mushroom can thus alleviate adverse side effects of pharmaceutical preparations, slow down the weakening in resistant function that comes with age, the effects of autoimmune diseases and, in general, can help us to more successfully face the stress of modern life.
Chaga muhsroom strengtens heart and circulatory system
The heart health is supported by the antioxidants – beta glucan and betulinic acid to manage the cholesterol. Betaulinic acid reduces cholesterol by decreasing LDL levels (bad cholesterol), while beta-glucan reduces the intake of cholesterol from food.
Oxidative stress is a major factor in high blood pressure. Research detects that people who have high blood pressure are prone to cardiovascular diseases like strokes, heart attacks, and other. Antioxidants that are part of the Chaga mushroom have a reaction in decreasing the high blood pressure.
Chaga mushroom and diabetes
Although no further research is done on humans, research in rats has shown that the mushroom helps to decrease blood sugar in rats. Rats are genetically modified to be obese and have diabetes. They consumed mushrooms for 8 weeks and their blood sugar levels decreased.
Chaga mushroom and antivirus properties
It looks like the wild chaga has strong antivirus properties, at least as far as some viruses are concerned. One scientific reasearch in 2015 has presented that chaga has an antiviral effect on type 1 HIV virus. The Chaga fungus also works well when it comes to a virus that causes hepatitis C. The fungus decreases the contagious effects of hepatitis C virus, so that this fungus is safe to be one of the major ingredients of anti-virus drugs over the next few years.
Chaga mushroom relieves inflammation
One animal study has detected that the chaga extract relieves inflammation caused by ulcerative colitis. Scientists have determined that the chaga extract can put an end to the condition because it prevents the work of biochemical substances that are conditioned by the transmission of inflammation. These biochemical agents make the condition much more intense and stimulate the inflammatory response of the organism.
Animal testing has shown that mushroom unquestionably improves physical capacity. Polysaccharides from the chaga cause the glycogen from the muscles and liver to be used much better, and the level of lactic acid in the muscles decreases, resulting in less fatigue and improved capacity.
Cultivated and wild Chaga mushroom
For the perception of the positive effects of the chaga fungus, the researchers sometimes use the cultivated chaga. Wild chaga and cultivated chaga have a different composition in therapeutic properties, depending on the conditions in which they are grown. The cultivated chaga is only a few weeks old, while the wild chaga takes 3 to 5 years before it is picked. The cultivated chaga does not fight for survival while fighting for survival is the main goal of the wild chaga, and therefore the benefits of it are much greater than in the cultivated chaga.
Harvesting Chaga
The recommended time for picking this mushroom is autumn when temperatures drop below 5 ° C. It can also be taken during winter when wood is in winter rest and then the fungi are full of healing ingredients. After harvest, the mushrooms are put to dry for several days and then are ground into powder. The powder is also recommended to leave a day – two to completely dry, and after that, it may start to be applied.
How to use this mushroom?
The wild Chaga is ready to use as a supplement, in the form of capsules, tablets or tinctures, and you can buy it by health food stores or via the Internet. The chaga coffee is less acidic, and it contains less caffeine than ordinary coffee.
How to make tea?
If you want to make Chaga Tea, you can use mushrooms Chunks (about 10 grams). Insert the content in the cup. Pour it with boiling water. Leave the content to melt for about 10 minutes.
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