The Yew tree provides nutrients needed by this fungus, but it is the fungus that contains the active anti-cancer ingredients. In exchange for its food, the fungus produces a substance like a fungicide or insecticide that protects the trees from infectious diseases. The Yew tree provides mushrooms with raw materials, and the fungi are the factories that process these raw materials into another product.

This is true for other medicinal mushrooms. Mushrooms grow on, and eat, dead tissues. In nature, they grow in soil rich in decomposed leaves and other materials. Cultivated medicinal mushrooms need nourishment, also. The quality of their food determines their beneficial qualities.

Like the fungus on Yew trees, mushrooms can increase the potency of other compounds and create new ones. The rate at which mushrooms grow, the amount of heat they generate, and the quantity of food they eat, all factor into their beneficial qualities. Many medicinal mushrooms are grown on simple carbohydrates, like brown rice. These carbohydrates help make immune-enhancing compounds. But when you feed the mushrooms on a base of brown rice and medicinal herbs, their growth increases by 30 percent!

A supplement made from mushrooms grown on herbs is more potent, and less expensive, than if the mushrooms and herbs were taken separately.

Pairing mushrooms with Chinese herbs
Dr. Eliaz is a creative-thinking, science-based medical doctor well versed in Chinese herbs. He designed a proprietary blend of Chinese herbs with the ability to increase the immune system, reduce cancer, detoxify, and act as adaptogens (nutrients that help restore the body’s natural balance). Each medicinal mushroom is grown separately on a base of these Chinese herbs, then harvested, dried, and blended into the final formula. This formula, MycoPhyto Complex, is currently being studied at Dr. Eliaz’s clinic, Amitabha Medical Clinic & Healing Center in Sebastopol. You can order it from Advanced Bionutritionals at 800-728-2288.

MycoPhyto Complex has been found to work well with many cancer patients. Dr. Eliaz, along with a number of other doctors and acupuncturists, is evaluating the formula for a widening number of conditions including chronic fatigue, hepatitis and other viral infections, and congestive heart failure. I expect to hear of more applications for this new and unusual process, along with new formulas designed to target specific ailments. I’ll keep you posted on this in the future.

One early observation found that cancer patients on chemotherapy were dramatically less fatigued after using this formula. When they stopped taking it, their fatigue returned.

Medicinal mushrooms enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation while removing the toxic debris left in their aftermath. In my opinion, anyone who uses toxic pharmaceuticals of any kind should take a strong formula of detoxifying herbs and mushrooms to avoid future problems caused by any remaining toxins.

How medicinal mushrooms work
Mushrooms help you detoxify, but detoxification doesn’t have to make you tired if you are being strengthened at the same time. Medicinal mushrooms strengthen the body by acting like sponges, absorbing and removing chemotherapy agents, pharmaceutical drugs, heavy metals, and other toxins. Many herbs are also tonifying. Some are used as food for the mushrooms in this formula.

Because they bind to heavy metals, like mercury, make sure any mushrooms you take are grown organically with water tested for heavy metals. Some mushrooms grown in China contain high amounts of heavy metals from the water used in their growing process and could do more harm than good.