More than 2,000 years ago, Shennong Materia Medica has recorded the types, properties and efficacies of Ganoderma in detail and summarized that “long-term consumption of Ganoderma helps relieve the body of its weight and extend the years of life”. The magical Ganoderma is not just a legend in mythology.
Today, many achievements have been made in the research of Ganoderma lucidum with integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine. For example, pharmacological studies have proved that Ganoderma lucidum has the functions of strengthening the heart, resisting myocardial ischemia, improving myocardial microcirculation, and regulating blood lipids and blood rheology. This is related to the TCM theory that Ganoderma lucidum removes pathogenic factors congealing in the chest and benefits the heart qi.
Let’s review the top 10 effects of Ganoderma lucidum recognized by both traditional Chinese and Western medicine and learn how to eat Ganoderma lucidum for better results.
Modern research has proven that Ganoderma lucidum and its active components have a wide range of pharmacological effects.
10 Effects of Ganoderma Lucidumare as follows:
1. Immunomodulatory effect.
Ganoderma lucidum can enhance non-specific immune function: promote the maturation, differentiation and antigen presentation of dendritic cells, and enhance the functions of mononuclear macrophages and natural killer cells. Ganoderma lucidum can enhance specific immune function: promote B and T lymphocytes proliferation and production of antibodies and cytokines. Ganoderma lucidum can inhibit immunopathological reactions.
2. Anti-tumor effect.
Ganoderma lucidum inhibits the growth of transplanted tumors in mice mainly by enhancing anti-tumor immunity, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, and inhibiting tumor immune escape. Ganoderma lucidum can inhibit tumor cell proliferation and promote tumor cell apoptosis and autophagy in vitro. In addition, Ganoderma lucidum can antagonize the multidrug resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy drugs, and reduce the damage to the body caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
3.Sedative, sleep aid and analgesic effects.
Ganoderma lucidum has preventive and therapeutic effects on disease models such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ischemic stroke, epilepsy and spinal cord injury through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant mechanisms, and can alleviate neurodegenerative disorders,and improve learning and memory abilities. It can also promote nerve regeneration, reduce cerebral ischemia and inhibit epileptic seizures.
4. Cough-relieving, antiasthmatic, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects.
Ganoderma lucidum has preventive and therapeutic effects on animal models of allergic rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, allergic tracheoalveolitis and airway hyperresponsiveness through immune regulation and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.
5. The role of lowering blood pressure, regulating blood lipids and protecting the heart.
Ganoderma lucidum can lower blood pressure, serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein and increase high-density lipoprotein. It can protect vascular endothelial cells against oxidative stress-induced inflammatory damage. It can improve myocardial microcirculation, reduce myocardial damage and have a protective effect on myocardial ischemia.
6. The role of regulating endocrine and improving diabetes.
Ganoderma lucidum can reduce blood sugar in diabetic animal models, reduce islet damage, promote insulin secretion and improve diabetic complications such as diabetic nephropathy, cardiomyopathy, wound healing and retinopathy. It can ameliorate liver damage in hyperthyroid mice. It has no sex hormone-like effect but can increase the serum levels of testosterone and estradiol in castrated female rats, increase the bone mineral density of the femur and reduce the degree of endometrial atrophy. In vitro test, it can inhibit the activity of 5-alpha reductase and inhibit the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.
7. Protect gastric mucosa and prevent liver damage.
Ganoderma lucidum can improve gastric ulcers caused by alcohol, drugs, stress, pyloric ligation and other incentives. Ganoderma lucidum can inhibit the inflammation of the digestive tract induced by drugs and fungal infections, improve the immune function of the intestinal mucosa, and regulate the imbalance of intestinal flora. Ganoderma lucidum may have protective effects against non-alcoholic liver disease as well as alcoholic liver disease through anti-oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory effects. Ganoderma lucidum has the effect of anti-Hepatitis B Virus. Ganoderma lucidum can protect against liver damage caused by oxidative stress caused by drugs and poisons as well as immune liver damage.
8. Prevent acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease.
Ganoderma lucidum has inhibitory effects on canine kidney epithelial cell vesicle model, cellular tubulogenesis model, embryonic kidney vesicle model and mouse polycystic kidney model. It has a preventive and therapeutic effect on animal models of urinary system diseases such as acute kidney injury, diabetic nephropathy, renal fibrosis and urinary system tumors.
9. Anti-aging effect.
Ganoderma lucidum improves immune function reduction caused by aging. Ganoderma lucidum has anti-oxidative and free radical scavenging effects, can reduce the oxidative stress of the heart, brain, liver, spleen, skin and other organs and tissues caused by aging, and improve the learning and memory impairment caused by aging. It can also regulate aging genes of model organisms and prolong lifespan.
10. Antiviral effect.
By inhibiting viral adsorption and penetration, Ganoderma lucidum inhibits the activation of early antigens of viruses, inhibits the activities of viral reverse transcriptases and proteases, and hinders viral DNA or RNA replication and viral protein synthesis. Ganoderma lucidum has antiviral effects on influenza virus, herpes virus, hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus, Newcastle disease virus, dengue virus and enterovirus.
Note: The above content is excerpted from Pharmacology and Clinics of Ganoderma lucidum published by Peking University Medical Press, edited by Zhi-Bin Lin and Bao-Xue Yang, P11-P15
How to eat Ganoderma lucidum for better effect?
At present, the methods of consuming Ganoderma lucidum include boiling with water, grinding into powder, extracting and concentrating, breaking sporoderm and extracting.
Any method of consumption is a reprocessing of the raw material. The efficacies of Ganoderma lucidum obtained by these different processing methods are not the same, that is, the absorption effect of Ganoderma lucidum active components by the human body is different.
Water-boiling method
This method slices the fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum and boils it with water, which is the most common way of eating and also “the most primary hot water extraction”.
The water-boiling method is a bit laborious but economical, suitable for general health care. The boiled contents are mainly water-soluble Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides and less liposoluble Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes, but the bitterness is still quite strong, which is difficult for some people to accept.
Extraction and concentration method
“Extraction and concentration” is an enhanced version of “water-boiled Ganoderma lucidum“. It also uses a solvent to obtain the active ingredients. The difference is that through advanced equipment and processes, more active ingredients can be extracted, and then concentrated and dried to make Ganoderma lucidum extract capsules or powders, which are more convenient to take and have better effects.
The water-extracted products mainly contain Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides; the alcohol-extracted products mainly contain Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes. As for how much active ingredient can be extracted, it depends on the extraction technology. The Ganoderma lucidum products made by different extraction processes have different types of ingredients and levels of content.
Sporoderm-breaking method
Sporoderm-broken Ganoderma lucidum spore powder is the most commonly seen Ganoderma lucidum product on the market. Since the outermost layer of the spore has a hard sporoderm, it needs to be “broken” before its active components can be better released.
Animal experiments show that sporoderm-broken Ganoderma lucidum spore powder is far better than sporoderm-unbroken Ganoderma lucidum spore powder in improving immune function. Of course, sporoderm breaking must be real rather than a gimmick. How to differentiate? Under the microscope, you can see the difference immediately.
Fractional extraction
This has to be a technology that big enterprises can achieve. Using advanced technologies such as supercritical carbon dioxide extraction technology, the lipid in the spores can be effectively extracted.
Every procedure of extracting and encapsulating spore oil must be very careful to avoid oxidative deterioration of spore oil due to contact with air. Obviously, making a bottle of spore oil is not easy. It is not known how many kilograms of spore powder are needed to extract a vial of spore oil. The high cost makes it one of the most expensive raw materials for Ganoderma lucidum.
The above content is excerpted from Wu Tingyao’s Healing with Ganoderma, P58-63
GanoHerb Organic Ganoderma lucidum has been certified organic by China, the United States, Japan and the European Union for 17 consecutive years. Its plantation has also passed the GLOBALG.A.P. certification. More than 400 items of pesticide residue tests come back negative each year. GanoHerb has achieved a high standard that is difficult to replicate. Only by controlling the quality from the source can the customers be assured!
In fact, whether it is fruiting body or spore powder, the most critical processing technology is still “extraction”. Only by extracting various active ingredients can the value of each mouthful of Ganoderma lucidum be improved! So how to choose and eat Ganoderma lucidum in the future? Have you got any idea?
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