Shiitake

Japenese Mushroom – Lentinus Edodes

The Shiitake mushroom is the most widely cultivated specialty mushroom in the world and is both a prized medicine as well as a culinary delight. Because of its traditional use in folk medicine and its availability, it has been the subject of intense research. Shiitake has adequate nutritional qualities to serve as a main dish. It adapts well to recipes as a meat substitute. Lentinan is not only useful for cancer treatment, but may also prevent the increase of chromosomal damage induced by anti-cancer drugs. Shiitake contains all eight essential amino acids in better proportions than soy beans, meat, milk, or eggs as well as a good blend of vitamins and minerals including vitamins A,B, B12, C, D and Niacin. Shiitake produces a fat-absorbing compound which aids in weight reduction. Delicious to eat and good for health

USES
Shiitake is good for preventing high blood pressure and heart disease, controlling cholesterol levels, building resistance to viruses, and fighting diseases such as cancer.

Research indicates that lentinan extracted from shiitake may help some people with hepatitis. Case reports from Japan suggest that lentinan also may be helpful in treating people with HIV / AIDS. Lentinan is generally administered by injection and has been used as an agent to prolong the survival of people receiving conventional cancer therapy.

Benefits of shiitake for specific health conditions include the following:

• Cancer. Japanese physicians have long used lentinan’s immune-stimulating capabilities in cancer treatment. Lentinan does not attack cancer cells directly. Instead, it activates the immune system’s lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) and natural killer (NK) cells to combat various types of cancers, including carcinoma, hepatoma, and sarcoma. Lentinan also counteracts the formation of prostaglandins that cause inflammation and keep the immune system’s T cells from reaching maturity.
• Japanese physicians have found that lentinan stimulates the capacity of specialized blood cells to produce immune system chemicals, mainly interleukin and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), that prevent the growth and spread of cancer. Lentinan is especially useful when surgery is not feasible.
  Stomach cancer is unusually difficult to treat because the early symptoms are often so vague that the cancer is usually quite advanced by the time it is detected. Japanese physicians have found that when surgery for advanced stomach cancer is feasible, treatment with a combination of lentinan and chemotherapy improves the quality of life. In one case, a patient whose stomach cancer had spread to the liver and lymph nodes was still alive five years after surgery. The tumors in his liver disappeared after seventeen months of combined treatment with lentinan and the chemotherapy preparation uracil plus ftorafur (UFT).
• Japanese physicians also use lentinan to treat breast cancer in women who have had mastectomies without follow-up radiation therapy. When chemotherapy is used, lentinan prevents immune-system damage if given before treatment begins. In addition, Japanese studies in animals have shown that lentinan increases the effectiveness of cancer treatment with a specific type of interleukin-2 (IL-2). When used together, the two treatments prevented the spread of breast cancers to the lung.
• Even if cancer has spread to the lung, lentinan can increase survival time. In a group of sixteen people with advanced cancer, Japanese medical researchers injected lentinan directly into malignant areas. All of the patients eventually died, but the average survival time of patients who responded to the treatment was 129 days, compared with 49 days for those who were given the drug.
• Chronic fatigue syndrome and Lyme disease. Japanese physicians report that lentinan is useful for low natural killer cell syndrome (LNKS), a disease that causes disabling fatigue. This disease causes symptoms that appear to be identical to chronic fatigue syndrome as it is diagnosed in the West. Lentinan treatment has been successful in reversing symptoms, including remittent fever, persistent fatigue, and low NK cell activity. The ability of this type of therapy to stimulate NK cells also makes it valuable in the treatment of Lyme disease.
• Common cold and macular degeneration. Shiitake contains polysaccharides (complex sugars) that stimulate the immune system to fight colds. They also enhance production of interferon, which helps to rein in the blood-vessel overgrowth seen in macular degeneration.

  High cholesterol. Shiitake is beneficial in lowering levels of both total cholesterol and LDL (low-density lipoproteins, or “bad”) cholesterol. In animal studies using eritadenine, a chemical found in shiitake, total cholesterol levels were reduced by 25 percent in one week. This effect was more pronounced in subjects who ate high-fat diets than in those on low-fat diets. Japanese scientists have found that shiitake compounds accelerate the accumulation of LDL in the liver, where it is converted into HDL (high-density lipoprotein, or “good”) cholesterol.

• Other medical uses – Viral infection.