June 8, 2010 Mushroom Abundance

June 8, 2010

"Love does not measure; it just gives" - Mother Teresa

"See joy and love in what you give, not in what you get" - EL

In my opinion, love is an overused four letter word. What is love? Is it the first time you step into the first spring rain and let it pour over your body? Is it your little dog sitting next to you on the couch? Is it when your child first says the word Daddy? The definition from Wikipedia is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. How vague is that! The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that steak sandwich") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my partner"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. Ugh!

I feel it must come from within. I learned about a different kind of "love" when I began to see the world and my place in the world in a completely different light. I began to appreciate the small things. This appreciation came from a lot of work within myself. I felt love as a child and the love of an extended family (great aunts, uncles, cousins, and more cousins) but then my perception changed when the God of my understanding left me at 20 years old without a mother. I felt lonely. I began to search for love in all the wrong places and drowned my sorrows over the years in addictions. I know now that was not love. It may have been an infatuation, or attraction. Today, I feel the love I did as a child. I am a little boy within who is not lost anymore. How could I be? I have the real love of a partner, of children, of friends, of all living creatures (including plants) and most of all the love of the God of my understanding. Who could ask for a better birthday gift to enter the next half century of my life?!

As we continue with dietary lifestyle changes, I want to state that any disease entity can fit into my LIFESTYLE pyramid. Let's review it again from the bottom to the top of the triangle.
#1 Lifestyle Change - Dietary
#2 Exercise
#3 Addictions
#4 Meditation
#5 Self Esteem/Hobbies
#6 Anger/Resentment - Forgiveness
#7 Self-Love

Since I want to discuss the Medicinal Uses of Mushrooms, I must discuss their roles in a variety of cancers. Any type of cancer can be fit into the Lifestyle Change Pyramid. Through the next few weeks, I want to discuss my philosophy in the treatment of cancers. I am not going to discuss allopathic or conventional-specific treatments. I am not an oncologist. I am an internist/cardiologist with a background in Integrative Medicine (may also be called Holistic, Alternative and Complimentary Medicine). There are many modalities used to treat cancers. Some of these modalities include herbs, meditation, Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine, spirituality and especially Dietary Lifestyle Changes.

There are many dietary lifestyle changes that a patient with cancer may institute. For example, some may try a Macrobiotic Diet, others may use a Vegetarian diet and still others may not change their diet at all.

In my opinion, the dietary lifestyle change should be to an alkaline diet, rich in vegetables and fruits, and low in simple carbohydrates. An acidic diet rich or abundant in simple carbohydrates is only putting gasoline on the fire, which is the cancer. The less simple sugar one consumes when diagnosed with cancer, the better the overall outcome.

Historically, some cite Eli Jones, an American Eclectic Physiomedical Physician who practiced eclectic Phytochemical Medicine in the 19th and 20th century. What is eclectic medicine? I knew what type of medicine this was but I had another introduction to it in Ithaca during my Botany Education. Eclectic medicine was a branch of American medicine which made use of botanical remedies along with other substances and physical therapy practices, popular in the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The term was coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1784 to 1841), a physician living among the Native Americans and observing their use of medicinal plants. Rafinesque used the word "eclectic" to refer to those physicians who employed whatever was found to be beneficial to their patients (eclectic being derived from the Greek word "eklego", meaning "to choose from"). Therefore, "Eclectics" were doctors who practiced with a philosophy of "alignment with nature", learning from and using concepts from other schools of medical thought.

I believe that I can be considered an Eclectic Physician. I really like that term. Jones was against using the knife to cut out cancer. I cannot and would not agree with that knowing the technology we have today.

So without getting lost in this philosophy, let's talk MUSHROOMS.

Medicinal mushrooms have been used extensively in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They are usually used in either liquid or powdered form. Some are now used to treat the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Mushrooms are used to enhance and stimulate the body's own immune system. I especially use mushroom extract (liquid or powder) for patients with a variety of cancers as well as other immune deficiency diseases such as HIV.

Some mushrooms are tough, chewy and they are fungi. Ewwee!

However, Maitake (Grifola frondosus), Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) have been used in cancer treatment and to support the immune system. Both the reishi and woody mushrooms can be used in food as they are too bitter to ingest. These mushrooms are non-toxic and can be used as a dietary supplement. Mushrooms...to be continued.

I could go on and on, but "Tomorrow is another day..."