Is reishi use as a medicine?

A considerable number of studies in Japan , China , USA , and the UK in the past 30 years have shown that the consumption of red Reishi has been linked to the treatment of a vast range of diseases, common ailments, and conditions. From asthma to zoster, the applications of red Reishi seem to be related to a multitude of body organs and systems.

However, most of the scientific research that has been conducted appears to strongly support red Reishi's role as a normalizing substance - a nutritional supplement that can yield medical benefits through its normalization and regulation of the body's organs and functions.

 The role of Red Reishi in maintaining a healthy lifestyle can best be explained through the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) point of view because none of the known active components taken alone is as more effective than the consumption of Reishi itself.

Whereas Western medicine focuses on the “cure” after the disease has already occurred, TCM, established through over 2,000 years of human observation, focuses on disease prevention by sustaining the right balance within the body through proper nutrition, exercise, and meditation. Reishi is an important adaptogenic herb in TCM in helping the body maintain this balance and also restore the balance when one is sick.

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What are the benefits of Reishi?

Red Reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum), commonly known as Ling Zhi in Chinese, is a herbal mushroom known to have miraculous health benefits.

So what's so good about red reishi?

• It is non-toxic and can be taken daily without producing any side effects.
• When it is taken regularly, it can restore the body to its natural state, enabling all organs to function normally.
• Immune modulator - regulates and fine tunes the immune system.

What are the benefits of Reishi?

Red Reishi is primarily composed of complex carbohydrates called water-soluble polysaccharides, triterpeniods, proteins and amino acids. Researchers have identified that water-soluble polysaccharides are the most active element found in Red Reishi that have anti-tumour, immune modulating and blood pressure lowering effects.

Another major active ingredient found in Red Reishi are triterpenes , called ganoderic acids. Preliminary studies indicated that ganoderic acids help alleviate common allergies by inhibiting histamine release, improve oxygen utilization and improve liver functions. Triterpenes are bitter in taste and the level of the triterpene content contained in a product can be determined by the bitterness.

Regular consumption of red Reishi can enhance our body's immune system and improve blood circulation, thus improving better health conditions. Generally, Reishi is recommended as an adaptogen, immune modulator, and a general tonic. Red Reishi is also used to help treat anxiety, high blood pressure, hepatitis, bronchitis, insomnia, and asthma.

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Is Ganodarma Natural Gift for humanity?

Use of herbs and herbal therapies has been an integral part of the Asian life and culture from time immemorial. China, India and Japan have their distinct herbal therapies, which have been used to prevent and cure many ailments and disease.

The use of herbs and herbal nutritional supplements has now been widely accepted by the western society. It is surprising and ironical that West is now embracing herbal therapies with enthusiasm while east is more inclined more towards contemporary medicine.In this context, perhaps ganoderma is one herbal product that has held its pre-eminent importance in the pharmacopoeia of China and Japan. With increasing research and clinical trials proving its efficacy in a wide range of disease prevention and control, west has shown a keen interest in this mysterious herb.





Benefits of Ganoderma is not just as a nutritional supplement but it is a miraculous herb for its health giving properties. Ganoderma is an anti-aging natural food that actually help prevent as well as help reverse many diseases like cancer, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, cardiac problems to mention a few of the major benefits of ganoderma where clinical trials have consistently established its efficacy.

Traditionally, ganoderma grew in dense humid forests on fallen trees in the ratio of 3 to 4 trees out of maybe ten thousand. The Chinese kings sought them out and only the royalty had the access to the rare mushrooms.

With the passage of time and the highest degree of curative properties ascribed to the ganoderma by the traditional Chinese medicinal textbooks, research for growing the rare mushrooms began in earnest in China and Japan.

Cultivation of ganodrma has been attempted for centuries with least success due to the complexity of the environment and nutrient required to grow the ganoderma mushrooms.

During 1970 breakthrough was made by a noted Japanese researcher Yukio Naoi of Kyoto University in growing the ganoderma. Since then the ganoderma mushroom began to be grown in quantity and quality but not enough to meet the demand yet. Another Noteworthy contribution to growing ganoderma has been by Dr. Lim Siow Jin a well know researcher and originator of Ganotherapy. He perfected the growing of Ganoderma in a controlled environment. He is a recognized authority on this unique herb and its health giving properties.

Benefits of ganoderma as herbal and nutritional supplement

It is the best adaptogen known to man and works on the cellular level. It is not disease specific but health specific and works in balancing the body functions, removes toxins and overall retards the aging process.

Ganoderma is classified as a food supplement by most countries, so there is no dosage restriction and can be had in any quantity without side effects. It is also suitable for consumption for all ages from a newborn baby to the most invalid or aged persons with visible improvements in health.

This is also perhaps the only single herbal source, which is rich in medicinal components such as Polysaccharides, Organic Germanium, Adenosine, triterpenoids and ganoderic essence.

Ganoderma is non-toxic and non-addictive.

The Ganoderma herb does not interact with other lines of treatment. It complements the same.

Many leading universities and research institutions are working to establish the efficacy of ganoderma and its curative properties with clinical trials. The internet has made available an abundance of research papers and details of clinical trials for those interested.

However, it is difficult for the extensive commercialization of ganoderma as a prescription drug due to it being a herb and a plant source which pharmaceutical companies may not be able to patent.

Leaving out the medicinal issues, ganoderma is undoubtedly a herb that needs to be part of every persons diet as an excellent nutritional supplement and a preventive herb for the many health hazards faced by the modern society.

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Introduction:- Ganodarma Lucidum

Ganoderma belongs to the Polyporaceae group of the Fungi family - Reishi and some formulas contain other mushrooms.

Ganoderma works in the treatment of cancer because it helps cleanse the body from toxins and it helps strengthen the immune system. It enhances liver detoxification, thus improving liver function and stimulating the regeneration of liver cells - making it a very important supplement for those who have liver cancer.

The anti-cancer agents in Ganoderma are the polysaccharides and Germanium. The polysaccharides fraction of Ganoderma is largely responsible for its anti-tumor efficacy. Indications for Ganoderma use in cancer include supplementation a) to reduce side-effects during chemotherapy or radiotherapy, b) to prolonging survival and minimize metastasis, c) to improve quality of life, and d) to prevent occurrence or recurrence.

Ganoderma can be used as a supplement during chemotherapy or radiotherapy to reduce side-effects such as fatigue, loss of appetite, hair loss, bone marrow suppression and risk of infection. It can also reduce the toxic and side effects and mitigate the pains during chemotherapy and radiotherapy, in particular to cancer patients at terminal stages for prolonging their lives and improving their living quality.

Qualities of Ganoderma that help in the treatment of cancer include:

• It enhances and helps regulate the immune and endocrine system, prevent tumors, improving the circulation and eliminating harmful free radicals.
• Inhibits DNA synthesis of the cancer cells, destroys the terminal enzyme activity of the tumor cells, promotes macrophages and regulates T and B lymphocytes, thus restraining the spread of cancer cells.
• It can also reduce the toxic and side effects and mitigate the pains during chemotherapy and radiotherapy
• Enhances liver detoxification, thus improving liver function and stimulating the regeneration of liver cells.
• Helps with cancerous as-cites, increases appetite and help relieve the pain of late stage cancer.
• It is especially effective with kidney diseases.

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Reaserch of Homeopathy by Hahnemann P. 4

Development Part 4

In the syphilitic miasm, as seen in the remedy Syphilinum, we see the themes of despair, hopelessness with suicidal ideation, violence and destruction in all spheres, anti social behavior, addictions, compulsions. We see destructive processes physically, with an affinity toward ulcerations, bone decay and pain, congenital disorders, especially to the structure of the body and basically symptoms very similar to syphilis in both acute and chronic forms. Mercury, Hahnemann’s great antisyphilitic shows symptoms similar to this, with a particular affinity for destructive processes to the mucous membranes, nerves and bones. Mentally, there is suspiciousness, paranoia, violence, with great sensitivity and intensity. They don’t feel they fit in, they feel threatened by a malevolent world and feel the need to retreat to a safe, secure place. So here, we have another archetypal expression, this time once of violence and possible mayhem. Whereas in Psora the threat is one of not having enough food and of basic survival, here it is a threat of imminent violence, of destruction. In our society the most profound influence of this miasm is seen in people who cannot fit into society, become degenerate to one level of other, often imploding in self violence or violence to others. Our prisons are full of people whose expression is a syphilitic one. In some ways, the feeling of the syphilitic miasm is to do or die. The need is that much more desperate than the other miasms, and if a person cannot find a socially acceptable way to express this energy – the classic genius, idiot savant or similar person who has a one pointed expression in life, an ability to focus extraordinarily intensely on one thing, often excelling in it, but when that energy cannot find an appropriate expression in a “normal” social form, it can become inverted in a self destructive energy that “eats away” at the person. It is a thwarted expression that because of its intensity is thrown back at the person. Interestingly, in Syphilinum, there are pains like a line, a fine, piercing pain, which is a similar sensation to that of the overall Syphilitic state – intense, violent, focused, extreme – life is seen from that perspective.

In these descriptions, what is being described is both the physical and mental symptoms that can be related to the specific diseases mentioned as well as a broader gestalt of phenomenon which moves beyond the personal to the collective. If we are talking of miasmatic influence moving through many generations, then its effect becomes more general and less specific, influencing both physical and mental expression in more diffuse and diverse ways. This is one reason why the major nosodes are so useful in prescribing and also why they can easily be overused. One of the justifications for giving a major nosode is when more than one remedy seems to be indicated and also when a well indicated remedy does not seem to work. Here it is inferring that the influence is more insidious and hidden, more occult and less expressing itself in specific keynotes or essence of the particular nosode itself. In that sense, it becomes more of an “atmosphere”, similar to the dictionary definition of a miasm. In this way, a miasm is behaving more like a field effect, similar to the morphogenetic fields described in the work by Rupert Sheldrake. (See Rupert Sheldrake, A New Science of Life) In his work, he postulates that all things that have a similar structure (DNA, atomic structure etc) can connect and communicate with one another based on sharing similar “fields” of consciousness and that these patterns of consciousness are past on through time, through generations and have a ”cumulative influence which acts across both space and time.” (P. 13). So the imprint of the past is past on into the present and the future. He is postulating this connection for all systems, not only in organic but also inorganic forms. The hypothesis he makes from this he calls “formative causation”. In the context of miasmatic conditioning, we are considering the fact that patterns of influence are past on through countless generations, stemming from one or more original infectious diseases, the memory of these original diseases being transplanted in myriad forms through genetic and “vibrational” imprinting, leading to a wider and more generalized influence on human health and behavior. This imprinting creates a propensity to illness, dependent on other constitutional susceptibilities and external factors that can stimulate this susceptibility into action, manifesting in a multitude of disease patterns and symptom complexes.

One of the most important practical aspects of this analysis is that it allows a homeopath to organize what seems to be chaotic or random symptoms into a more coherent pattern, enabling connections to be made within a given symptom picture and also allowing the roots of certain conditions to be revealed. One of the biggest challenges in homeopathy is to see both the breadth and depth of symptoms. Many symptom pictures look alike, but with a clear understanding of materia medica, one can use it to decipher symptom pictures into clearer totalities and knowledge of miasms and nosodes can be an essential part of this analysis. Because a nosode is made from diseased material, the potentized nosode has a unique pattern to it, as all remedies do, but the source of the remedy does make it somewhat different. If the root of a disease e.g., childhood asthma, stems directly from a history of gonorrhea, even a few generations ago, then often, only Medorrhinum will ultimately cure it and take the susceptibility away. No other remedy will do this.

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Reaserch of Homeopathy by Hahnemann P. 3

Development Part 3

One other way to consider miasms and constitutional remedy is to say that a remedy reflects a strategic relationship to life, it reveals both the good and not so good ways in which the body/mind struggles to evolve. The miasmatic influence affects the intensity of this expression – the basic struggle of psora, the intensity and exaggeration of sycosis and the desperateness and violence of syphilis. The same can be identified with tuberculosis and cancer and perhaps other miasmatic classifications. One can also see a miasm as a solar system. The sun is the nosode of the miasm and the planets surrounding the sun are various remedies, each of which reflect a specific strategy or expression of that miasm. That way, one can understand the miasm as a large potentiality and each remedy reflects merely one part of that totality, circling around the sun and influenced by the nosode, the original place from where the miasm began. In this way, one can gain a deeper understanding of the miasm by studying the nosode and at least one other remedy of that miasm. In Psora we have Psorinum and Calcarea carbonica (Ortega’s choice of remedy), in Sycosis we have Medorrhinum and Thuja (the classic anti-sycotic but perhaps its significance is exaggerated – typical sycotic) and Syphilis we have Syphilinum and Mercury (the obvious one and of course the closest to our sun!). By studying the miasms in this way, we gain an understanding of the essential ideas of the nosode and its bacterial origin, as seen by Hahnemann, and the miasmatic thematic influence as perceived through certain remedies. One can also study the actual effect of the original infection, especially the diseases Gonorrhea and Syphilis and from there gain an understanding of the “dynamic” influence of these diseases on various constitutions. This, as has been explained earlier, is much harder to do for Psora because of the lack of specificity of infection for this miasm, one of the weaknesses in Hahnemann’s own theory of Psora. According to his own analysis, Psorinum the nosode of the disease Scabies, is only one of the possible infectious agents of psora, leprosy being another and herpes and tinea being possibly others. Each of those infections has it’s own characteristic DNA and morbific influence. Therefore Psorinum can be said to be one of the examples of psora, but interestingly the picture of this remedy does give a very clear image of some of the essential characteristics of the miasm.

To summarize the themes of psora and that of the remedy Psorinum, we have the words deficiency or under function. In the remedy we have a fear of poverty, of being homeless, despair, hopeless, anxiety, great forsaken feeling, coldness and hunger. The whole feeling is one of a state of passive despair and a feeling that there will never be enough to go around, the actual social reality for most of the planet still, and an experience not that far removed from a majority of people in the advanced countries of the world. In other words, it represents a state within the archetypal consciousness of all humans, the fear of starvation and not having a home. It is an existential anxiety often, and in cases these symptoms are obviously more important when it is not the reality of a person, more a delusion, but which feels real all the same. To extend this theme, it can therefore be said that those people whose focus is predominantly on the struggle to be, to define themselves in the context of their immediate situation – home, work, family, structure, and who find these issues particularly challenging, are under the dynamic influence of the psoric miasm. This is very clearly portrayed in the remedy Calcarea carbonica, the inside of the oyster shell, where the person needing this remedy experiences the delusion that there is no shell, leaving them feeling exposed, anxious, fearful of the great unknown of the ocean, the dark depths with horrible images, making them feel cold, shivery, fearful, apprehensive and exhausted with the struggle to re-find the shell. Lycopodium experiences it as an existential anxiety whether he is worthy of his position, a situation he continually stresses over and doubts, especially when having to prove himself he actually OK. Sulphur doesn’t have such concerns. His ego is now intact but he suffers from the lack of impetus to actually manifest this ego. For Sulphur, isn’t the fact that it’s there enough. Why bother to do anything about it and why bother to let others know. For Sulphur the challenge is the integration of the self into the larger context of family and society. Each of these remedies represent a basic struggle and because we are looking at deficiency here, the expression of these states will never be too violent or extreme, even if it seems to be written in the books that each of these remedies can show extreme emotions. In reality, they rarely do, there is not the impetus or drive.

Whereas in the sycotic miasm, as seen in the remedy Medorrhinum, the theme of exaggeration or excess produces many inflammatory states, with an exaggeration of function. The expression is intense and focuses on areas of the body to do with water, communication and expansion – sinuses, chest, joints, kidneys and bladder, skin and heart. Mentally there is a tendency to extremes, unpredictability, intensity, addictions, everything is too much. There is focus on how one is seen and the ambition to become, not merely content to be as in the psoric miasm. The degree of egocentricity is that much greater, although of course one sees that with Sulphur, the grand antispsoric (but as is the case, polycrest remedies by definition are influenced by more than one miasmatic influence). There can be violence, all sorts of extremes and antisocial dynamics in mental behavior, and in physical areas, a tendency to distortion or incoordination in function, especially in earlier years of life than one would expect, e.g., congenital deformities, joint inflammations, urinary tract inflammations, asthma, abnormal skin growths, early heart pathology etc. Thuja, the archetype of this miasm, shares many of these qualities but reveals its own unique strategy of having to cover up a feeling of distortion or wrongness. Anxiety, guilt, shame and secrecy are feelings and strategies used to deal with a sense of separation and stigma they can feel. They feel alone, and don’t know really why and imagine something must be wrong with them. Again, this fits an archetypal experience – how does one fit into a family, a society, a culture, what strategies do we have to employ to do so. Thuja is only one remedy that examples this struggle. To see the sycotic miasm in this light, one can say that now that the ego is clearly identified and expressed, what do we have to do connect to the whole, to everyone else. This struggle of individuation and then connection is a contrast of opposites, two poles of an archetypal theme of consciousness.

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Reaserch of Homeopathy by Hahnemann P. 2

Development Part 2

It is interesting that Ortega quotes some of same basic passages from Hahnemann that Dimitrialis does to example that Hahnemann was talking about diathesis in disease potential (Ortega, p. 28-30). Hahnemann was speaking how even when some minor event occurred, there would arise a violent internal reaction to it that would reveal a “psoric diathesis, the fundamental and most common cause of chronic disease”. Therefore, for practical purposes the distinction between the miasmatic infection and subsequent chronic miasmatic disease does establish a diathesis or disposition to subsequent illness. The main distinction is that the person who has experienced a primary infection with a miasm is at the mercy of an active disease state whose mechanism is one of continuing internalization and overall health deterioration. This factor, Dimitrialis explores and makes the distinction between this dynamic and the more “static” susceptibility of those who’ve inherited certain predispositions to illness based on these primary infectious diseases. However as Dimitrialis mentions, Hahnemann was influenced in his development of these ideas by observing the effects of Syphilis on people, from which he modeled his theory of psora (Dimitrialis p. 29). He observed the inexorable decline in syphilitic cases and from this made similar conclusions about the nature of all chronic disease, the most prevalent of which he connected to the “itch”, to psora.

Ortega focuses predominantly on the miasmatic disease state, not the immediate consequences of miasmatic infection. His interest is in the terrain, the diathesis and susceptibility that has been influenced by the miasm. Ortega examples this approach by a case example in which he felt a patient needed Calcarea carbonica as a “constitutional” remedy, as apposed to Mercury, which seemed to superficially fit the symptoms. Here is one example of what many of us take for granted in practicing homeopathy today. We always look for a “constitutional” based remedy, that is, a remedy indicated for the whole person as much as possible. That is why it is baffling when studying some of the old books of the 19th century, including much of the therapeutics, where any individual characteristics of the person are not included, much of the information justifying a remedy being based on certain physical characteristics only.

Ortega and his quoting of other famous South American homeopaths, including Thomas P. Paschero, making the categorizations of Hahnemann’s miasms of Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis into broader diatheses and dyscrasias, is based on a level of experience that Hahnemann couldn’t have. They had a much deeper understanding of the significance of the sycotic and syphilitic miasm, which as mentioned earlier, Hahnemann didn’t have, not using the nosodes Medorrhinum and Syphilinum, and were able to identify in the 3 miasms, unique dynamics consistent with each, which reflected a broader universality of structure and function. Furthermore, one of the main ideas of miasmatic influence is that it weaves its way into the constitutional pattern, giving an extra broad dimension or expression to the constitution. One of the key aspects of homeopathic prescribing is being able to identify constitutional patterns and any general miasmatic influence. Some cases will present a clear miasmatic pattern while others will not. The miasmatic influence will not lead to an individual remedy, unless a nosode is clearly indicated but it will help orientate the direction of search for an appropriate remedy. It is but one tool that we use, more important in some cases than others.

The contribution that Ortega defined in his descriptions of miasmatic themes, based on work by Paschero and others, was that the three “big” miasms reflected certain fundamental alterations of normal cellular function, which were classified as Deficiency (Psora), Excess (Sycosis) and Perversion (Syphilis). He is stating that the original miasmatic diseases that Hahnemann explored can be seen as representative of 3 fundamental expressions of imbalance which are intrinsic possibilities of dis-ease expression. These are inbuilt possibilities or diatheses of a constitution, the degree and intensity of each depending on the inherited influence that all of us are influenced by. He is not describing, as Dimitrialis points out, the expressions of the miasmatic infectious disease, manifesting in Syphilis, Gonorrhea or Psora, that Hahnemann spoke of. However, within those diseases lies the kernel to the broader miasmatic expression. But as the influence of these diseases pass through generations, their influence and expression is diluted, modified and broadened and become wedded to normal and abnormal constitutional function. Another contribution of Ortega is identifying 3 primary colors to each miasm, blue for psora, yellow for sycosis and red for syphilis. To accept this analysis, one has to accept the idea of a miasm as a theme, gestalt or pattern. If one moves in this direction, then other more archetypal qualities can similarly be categorized.

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