ergo-log.com

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

21.02.2024

Reishi | A spoke in the wheel of aggressive breast cancer

Following the example of traditional Asian healers, women with breast cancer sometimes use extracts of the edible resihi mushroom - scientific name: Ganoderma lucidum - to support their regular cancer treatment. An older animal study suggests that there may be something to be said for this.

Study
In 2013, researchers from Universidad Central del Caribe in Puerto Rico published an animal study in PLoS One in which they injected mice with breast cancer cells of a relatively rare type: inflammatory breast cancer [IBC]. IBC cells produce an unusual number of proteins that are involved in growth and metastasis.

Half of the mice were also given reishi daily via the oral route. The researchers used a Pharmanex product marketed as ReishiMax. If the mice had been adults weighing 70 kilos, they would have been given 2 grams of extract daily. That amounts to 4 capsules per day.

Much research has already been done into the biological effects of reishi. The literature suggests that they have an anti-estrogenic effect [Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 10;7(1):7792.] and at the same time stimulate the release of testosterone. The anticancer effect is probably partly a result of immunomodulatory effects of polysaccharides in reishi and cytotoxic effects of triterpenes such as ganoderic acid.

Results
Supplementation with reishi could not prevent the cancer cells from developing into tumors. In the mice that received reishi, the tumors grew less quickly. They were smaller in size and, at the end of the experiment, also less heavy. [Figure]

Mechanism
Supplementation with reishi reduced the amount of the protein Ki-67 in the tumors. This means that reishi inhibits cell division. The researchers also found less vimentin in the tumors of laboratory animals that had received reishi. This suggests that reishi slows down metastasis.

In the tumor cells of the mice that had received reishi, the activity of molecules that stimulate anabolic activity was less than in the cells of the animals in the control group.

Source:
PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e57431.

More:
Reishi raises testosterone levels 26.05.2019
Supplementation with these two mushrooms decimates the human papillomavirus 06.09.2018
Fit athletes derive more benefit from testosterone boosters Cordyceps sinensis and Ganoderma lucidum 03.09.2015

Archives:
Preventing & Surviving Cancer
Breast Cancer
Mushrooms

Vitamin D supplement helps women with breast cancer survive Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland stumbled upon another non-toxic strategy that can protect breast cancer patients from their disease.	A little bit of physical activity drastically increases the survival chances of breast cancer patients The more of this phytochemical people over fifty have in their blood, the greater their muscle strength.	Fasting for a few days makes chemotherapy more effective Dutch oncologists come to this conclusion in a human study that was published in Nature Communications.