May 02, 2011

How mushrooms can save the world

Reishi Mushroom (Ling Zhi)
As you know, as an herbalist i use and recommend mushrooms to my patients at clinic very regularly, sometimes as a food like some of the tastier ones Shiitake and Chanterelles, other times as tinctures or powders or capsules of the mushroom mycelium like the Reishi, Cordyceps & Kombucha for their powerful beneficial effects on our immune system and as natural antibiotics and antivirals. I will discuss all of the above in detail in future posts.

I think it makes sense that this first herbal post will give props to the first species to move from the oceans to land, as the gateway species about 1.3 billion years ago. As Paul Stamets says fungi have always survived the extinction cycles on earth because they can survive in the dark, they are the grand molecular disassemblers in nature: they break down plants, minerals and animals into soil, they sequester CO2 and have an amazing healing effect not only on the human body but on the environment they inhabit on a global scale.

Old Growth Forest Agarikon mushroom
There is nobody better to explain this than Paul himself, who is a true visionary and greenovator, also known as the mushroom guy for his incredible work with mushroom mycelium and fungi. His work, patents, and research has huge implications in vast fields from medicine: in treatment of smallpox, pandemic avian flus, H5N1, on the one hand, all the way to cleaning up environmental brown fields and disasters such as the oil gulf spill of last year or the Japanese nuclear plant radioactive cleanup efforts right now! Note especially his work with rare Old Growth Forest's mushroom Agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis) - the one in the picture is about 50 years old from a forest in the pacific northwest of United States.

For more info go to Paul's website www.fungi.com
or read his book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World
'This book is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet...the mycorestoration revolution'.



As for video you can find his talks on youtube, but i really like his talk on Ted: 
Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Video on TED.com

1 comment:

  1. Now mushroom is one of the most popular and effective medicinal foods in the world. Because of its herbal qualities it is becoming more popular and in future it will be a great medicine for human health.

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