Messin’ with a ‘fun-gi… how mushrooms can help with so many things! One out of three bites of food we eat is pollinated by honey bees. Collapsed Colony Disorder is hurting our little buddies. The initial detection in 2006 estimated that roughly thirty percent of hives are lost annually. Some thought it was due to loss of biodiversity that comes with all the cultured landscapes. Sixty-one different factors have been identified that come into play together and it is the combination that is killing colonies. The worst of these is the varroa mite. It looks like a reddish-black bump on the bee. It is a body fluid feeder that feeds on adult bees, larvae, and pupae. When the hive collapses there is still a queen, and some immature babies but the hive dies. This mite came from illegally imported bees from Brazil. Importing bees was banned in the 1920’s. Then add pollution, pesticide use, environmental toxins everywhere, and not enough people planting the right flowers! Okay, I made up that last part. Did you know that certain flowers of are better for bees? To kill these mites, initially pesticides were used, of course. The trick was to figure out what would kill the mites and not the bees. It turned out this Varroa mite adapts quickly and became resistant to any pesticide that was tried. The mites cause a bee’s wings to get deformed. The larvae/pupae die in their little beeswax pockets. A chemical-free alternative needed to be found that helped the bees fight off not only this mite, but other viral and bacterial pathogens. Think about all the many things I have encouraged you to do and to consume to build up your immune system rather than just taking pharmaceuticals. That will tell you why this amazes me. In this dismal scene enters a mycologist, Paul Stamets, author of Host Defense Organic Mushrooms. He launched an initiative to fund research called BeeFriendly™. As a mushroom scientist, he and Walter “Steve” Sheppard, an entomologist and geneticist out of Washington State University, came up with the idea to employ mushrooms to help the bee’s immune system. This fascinates me because the bees didn’t “read about it”, but they drank the juice and got better. So, there is no placebo effect here. The bees that weren’t given the mushroom tainted sugar water didn’t get better and the ones that were able to get this treatment got much better with ONE dose!! Three hundred honey bees consumed mushroom extract with their normal sugar water. It decreased their viral load by seventy-five percent and also extended their lives anywhere from thirty to one hundred percent, depending on the age of the bee. In 2015, a huge experiment was conducted that included five hundred and thirty-two hives in the almond orchards of California. The researchers used the polypore mushroom mycelia, which was already known to help the immune system. The BeeFriendly™ website showed a video of a device that could be hung up in a tree in your yard that would offer bees this medicine. Similar to a large hummingbird feeder, but with a maze-like structure that lets bees in and out after getting a drink, but prevents other things from raiding the mushroom medicine sugar water. From what I gathered; this is still forthcoming with the idea that anyone who wants to help our bees thrive could hang one up in their back yard. Also mentioned was the Amadou mushroom, which decreased the presence of deformed wing virus more than a thousand times! Another metarhizium, a pathogen fighter, attacks and kills varroa mites and doesn’t harm the bee. That sounds almost like bee-‘cillin’. What other amazing things can mushrooms do for us? I have previously mentioned lion’s mane mushrooms when I took them to help my nerves heal from the shingles virus. Claims are made that this mushroom (which sort of looks like a big white ball of thick hair) helps the brain and nervous system. It has neuroprotective and nootropic (cognitive) enhancing effects. We used to think that once a nerve died that there was no regenerative abilities. Lion’s mane can increase nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Both allow neurons to communicate, and support neuroplasticity. This helps learning and memory. It helps myelin sheath damage heal. Nerve regeneration from severe nerve injury is promoted and functional recovery is improved.
What about Alzheimer’s? Studies are in the initial phases. One placebo-controlled study included thirty, “older” Japanese men and women, ages fifty to eighty years old, with mild cognitive impairment. The treatment group received powdered lion’s mane in four 250 mg tablets, three times daily, for sixteen weeks. That group had significantly higher scores in their cognitive function compared to the placebo group. When this group stopped taking it, the improvement faded – which is sort of good and bad news. The subjects would have to continue to consume the lion’s mane mushroom to hold onto the cognitive improvements, but the good news is - it helps! Compared to drugs or coffee to stimulate cognitive function, there are no side effects, so taking a pill form of this mushroom isn’t much of a hardship if it helps you gain clear thinking. One animal study showed lion’s mane was neuroprotective; significantly reducing oxidative damage, neurotoxicity and preventing the cell shrinkage that the amyloid beta proteins cause. This shrinkage is a big part of what Alzheimer’s disease does to our brains. Another animal model, using extract of mycelium, reduced the plaque, increased nerve growth factor, and promoted neurogenesis in the hippocampus. This region of the brain is involved in our emotions and memory. One other study added
that the cerebellum is also affected, apparently seen to improve the recognition memory. Recognition memory is the ability to recognize people you have already met, or events and objects you have encountered before. A mushroom that is readily available in grocery stores is the white button mushroom. (WBM). It’s so ordinary that we might think it’s less able to provide any unique nutrition. It has been shown to enhance the natural killer cell activity of our immune system. It can act as a prebiotic for gut bacteria and seems to enhance glucose sensitivity by making positive changes in the gut microbiota. The Pennsylvania State College of Medicine conducted some new research that showed that people who regularly ate these mushrooms had lower odds of having depression. That certainly doesn’t make it the happy pill for sad people, but the concept that a vegetable grown in dark caves, that has almost no calories can improve the brain’s ability to stave off depression is pretty remarkable to me. Here are some ideas for including WBM in your diet. Serve them raw with your favorite dip, slice and add to a salad, and/or toss them in with fried onions for a topping on your holiday burger. Spear one with a long stick and grill it alongside that Fourth of July hamburger. Please note: The clinic will be closed from July 6th thru July 22nd for a family vacation. If you read the May newsletter, I hinted that my husband wants to take some long trips - whether I retire or not. This is the first one on his list. Given this extended absence, I recommend you consider coming in for treatment before Friday, July 5th. I apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to seeing all of you when I return.
