Tag Archives: stress

How Reishi Mushroom Supplements Can Help with Weight Loss

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Weight loss is a struggle for many of us, especially after the extra pandemic pounds that some of us have put on because of being less active, stress eating, and home baking. Sometimes it can seem that no matter how hard you diet or exercise, shedding stubborn excess weight can be a challenge, especially if you have a sluggish metabolism.

So, if you are looking for ways to lose those extra pounds, safely and naturally, we have some great news. By now, you probably know that this magical mushroom is used to support a balanced immune system and treat heart disease, liver disorders, and lung issues. But what you might not know is that reishi mushroom can also help you manage weight loss.

Reasons for Excess Weight

When patients ask me if I can help them with weight loss, I often try to reframe the problem. I can (and do) suggest healthier foods and encourage a more active lifestyle, but I can’t make patients follow those recommendations. Plus, some patients have already made those changes and still can’t shed the pounds.

There are many reasons other than eating too much or moving too little that someone can find it hard to maintain their healthiest weight. Some have a tough time regulating their blood sugars. Many have digestive issues. Even stress and poor sleep can affect metabolism and result in weight gain.

How Reishi Works To Battle the Bulge

The reishi mushroom, also known as Ganoderma lucidum and lingzhi, is well known for its abundance of health benefits. In fact, it has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries.

Blood Sugar Imbalance

Told you need to cut down on carbs and sweets because you have signs of insulin resistance? Wouldn’t it be nice to have something to help you manage your cravings and better regulate glucose metabolism?

In a recent study done on obese mice, bioactive substances found in reishi were found to help prevent obesity and insulin resistance.

Poor Digestion

While malabsorption of food nutrients often leads to unhealthy weight loss, sometimes poor digestion can result in unintended weight gain. Examples of this include chronic constipation, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and overeating caused by trying to abate symptoms of acid reflux. One common cause of digestive distress is an imbalance of the healthy bacteria of the gut. Reishi mushroom compounds, called polysaccharides, have been shown to help restore these good bacteria. In a study on mice, reishi successfully treated obesity, reversing weight gain and insulin resistance.

Stress Eating

Reishi mushroom is best recognized for its ability to help calm the nervous system and manage stress. When we produce more of the stress hormone cortisol, our insulin levels can rise, resulting in a drop in our blood sugar and cravings for sugary and fatty foods. Eating comfort foods may also distract us from facing our problems head on.

What’s worse, ramping up the calories when we’re pumping out high levels of cortisol can make fat preferentially gain around the middle, which holds higher health risks. And, as if that weren’t enough, we burn fewer calories because of lowered metabolism when we’re stressed.

Better managing our chronic stress with an adaptogen like Japanese red reishi can help bump us out of our poor food choices and lower our cortisol levels so we can properly burn off the calories once more.

Reishi for Weight Loss

Anything that has to do with weight loss drums up its fair share of attention. And as if reishi couldn’t get enough of the spotlight when it comes to longevity and overall health, this fantastic fungus has also been shown to help us find our healthy weight once more.

Find Your Calm with Red Reishi

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Anxiety. Everyone these days seems to be suffering from some varying degree of it, and understandably so. Modern day life is filled with high-speed over stimulation. Studies have shown that severe or long-lasting stress changes the way nerve cells transmit information from one region of the brain to another.

Work and home-life stress, traumatising news reports from around the globe, and poor sleep hygiene all wreak havoc on our nervous system.

While we may use the word “anxiety” frequently to describe our everyday fears and worries, anxiety disorders are serious mental illnesses that affect millions of people every year in North America. For these people, worry and fear are crippling and overwhelming states, making day-to-day functioning almost impossible.

More than “Just a Mushroom”

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), anxiety is viewed ultimately as a disharmony of the “Shen” (spirit—housed in the heart). However, the Chinese system teaches that a disturbance in any one (or more) of the “Zang” organs (Liver, Spleen, Kidney, Heart) can cause an imbalanced emotional state. Treatment aims to calm the mind and nourish any underlying deficiency or drain any excessive states within these systems, which may be contributing to the condition.

Enter Japanese Red Reishi, known as Ling Zhi in TCM. More than ‘just a mushroom’, Red Reishi has been revered in Asia for centuries as the medicine of immortality to treat such disorders, as well as to support the immune system, improve sleep, and increase one’s vital energy (qi).

A Powerful Adaptogen

Recent studies have shown the fruiting body of Japanese Red Reishi to contain specific immune regulating, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective agents (reishi beta-glucan and ganoderic acid A) that make it a powerful adaptogen; which is a fancy way of saying it works to increase our physiological resistance to stress.

Taken traditionally as a tea, the highest quality modern day preparation of Japanese Red Reishi is (still) hot water extracted to maximize potency and ensure therapeutic integrity.

Stress and anxiety are leading causes of serious illness in the modern world. Take control of your health and experience the benefits of one of the world’s most ancient prescriptions.

Can Red Reishi help with Depression?

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Depression is a complex disease that accounts for nearly 40% of all psychiatric illness. Characterized primarily by a change in mood, consisting typically as feelings of sadness, anxiety/agitation, loss of interest, insomnia, loss of appetite, body pain, and in it’s extreme, thoughts of death and self-harm; depression for some, is more than just a ‘bad day’.

Because depression can vary in it’s cause and severity, how it presents often differs by individual. Post-partum, SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), bi-polar disorder, and major/clinical depression are all examples of depression and it’s spectrum.

Despite the numerous physiological and psychological factors that can contribute to the manifestation of depression, acute and/or chronic stress is reported to be the number one contributing factor in the exacerbation, or worsening of depressive symptoms.

The Stress Connection

Long-term or chronic stress leads to elevated levels of the primary stress hormone cortisol, as well as decreased levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, like serotonin and dopamine, which have been linked to depression.  Changes in these chemical systems affects the functioning of ‘normal’ biological processes related to sleep, appetite, energy, and sex drive, as well as the expression of mood and emotion.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, mental, physical and/or emotional stress effectively weakens (consumes), scatters or stagnates the Qi (chi) in various organ systems of the body, resulting in both mental/emotional problems (called “shen” disorders) and physiological disease.

How Red Reishi Can Help

Reishi (called Ling Zhi in Traditional Chinese herbal medicine) has been used to treat disorders of the mind or “shen” for thousands of years. To blend the concepts of Eastern and Western medicine, western science has proven that through specific immune regulating and anti-inflammatory agents (ganoderic acid A), the fruiting body of the Japanese Red Reishi acts as a powerful adaptogen, allowing the body to more easily cope with stress. Through this, a positive effect occurs on the bodily systems most affected by it (stress). A less ‘stressed out’ body translates to a less ‘stressed out’ nervous system, thereby assisting to improve a person’s overall physical and mental health. Additionally, western science has shown Reishi to have positive effects on the hepatic (liver) and cardiovascular (heart) systems, whose functions according to TCM theory, are strongly linked to depression.

The TCM view of mental illnesses such as depression is a holistic one. With a strong focus on prevention and lifestyle change, TCM practitioners take into account many different aspects of a person’s functioning when developing treatment plans. When applied this way, the addition of a high quality supplement like Japanese Red Reishi may be of great benefit for both prevention and treatment of depressive symptoms due to a diminished resistance stress.

Keep in mind, not all supplements are created equal. Natural, wood-log cultivation using hot water extraction (without the use of ethanol) is the best and most desirable.