Reishi (about to be heavily x-posted)

[seven4sirius.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone,

I've mentioned this to a couple of you already, but I was curious what the community at large might have to say on the subject of Reishi (aka: Lingzhi/Red Mushroom/Ganoderma Lucidum).

Since I work for a company that sells products with this ingredient as an additive, I am hearing a lot about it all the time, and the testimonials from people who use it.

What do you guys think; Have you heard of it? Is it all hype? Is it any different from other antioxidant mushrooms?

Input from herbalists, or anyone who has used it (successfully or not) as a remedy would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Ma'ai

Comments

[lyght.livejournal.com]

Well, first of all, everything I know about it suggests that it is not a remedy but a tonic. Think similar to taking your vitamins or your fish oil pills. I have never heard of it being used to treat anything specific. The website looks like an excellent source of information -- I think the most I would do is check up on the info to see that it was published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. If you're really curious, you could also do some academic searches to see if you can find any other papers suggesting that there is or there isn't a beneificial effect. Sometimes the design of an experiment can be controversial, so repeated positive results are likely to indicate a true effect.

The dosage is also a typical concern, and many (low-quality) herbal supplement companies make their money by lowballing the dosage to levels that keep costs down but also provide no benefit to the user. Dosage should be the equivalent of 15-25 drops 3x/day of tincture of reishi (although I don't know how much reishi or alcohol is used to make the tincture!).

Finally, I would be concerned as to what the source of the mushroom is. The website you linked to says that these guys can be cultured, which is fine. It's the wildharvested stuff I'm worried about, as this can cause stress on natural populations. Some consumers really want the wildharvested stuff to feel like they're getting the "real thing" or because of some idea that it's more environmentally friendly, but particularly with mushrooms it's generally far more beneficial to use a cultivated product.

I personally have been a bad reishi subject. I got some from an herbalist I took a course from, but I never used any of it. The best I can hope for is some good vibes coming from the bottle. :)

[seven4sirius.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your input.

I get so called "scientific" reviews crossing my desk all the time as they are part of the marketing approach of the company I work for. They are always from other Countries though. No one seems to be interested in studying here so far as I can tell, and of those I've seen, I wouldn't know which to believe.

Many people I have spoken to (distributers of the product mainly) claim that it has literally cured cancer in them, made skin growths disappear, reversed diabetes... all of these I have heard among personal testimonials.

I have used it too, and I can say it makes a big difference over all in the way I feel. It's like a subtle change that goes a long way, and I do miss it when I don't have it.

For something that is supposed to be to highly thought of though, no one here seems to know anything about it. Asians I've spoken with do. Americans, even the seemingly very informed ones, don't. I don't know what to think.

Thanks again for your comments! :)

[lyght.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Reviews can be very tricky; they can really run the gamut from highly scientific and peer-reviewed to something written by a practitioner with strictly anecdotal evidence (which is okay for a start but not the way to start putting money on something) to essentially being ad copy.

www.scirus.com is a good (and free) place to start -- anything that is listed as being from a journal *is* peer-reviewed. I have some misgivings about the site because the journals are nearly all Elsevier publications (web pages could be from anywhere), and they're pretty much trying to take over the world of scientific publishing (think "knowledge should be for everyone" vs. "we're looking for as much profit as possible" and you've got the basic conflict of interest down). On the other hand, they do have massive amounts of information. I use the site at work when I'm trying to get a basic idea on what's out there before I do a more directed search via our slow, paid search service.