Here's the deal, if you haven't incorporated medicinal mushrooms into your daily diet yet, you are certainly missing one of the most beneficial molecular compounds known to man.  The top three for overall health and longevity are Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps (in that order).  Today we will focus on my favorite.  The amazing Chaga Mushroom.

Throughout history, Wild Chaga has been most widely consumed in tea form.

This raw alkaline superfood is ready for you to immediately combine with some warm spring water directly from the tree…creating a nutrient-packed cup of longevity and health!  The really exciting part is that if you live in the Northern temperate climates, you can even choose to hunt for your own fresh Chaga.

Chaga is one of the most well known of the Medicinal Mushrooms. All Medicinal Mushrooms are rich in polysaccharides and super immune enhancing components. They contain dozens of compounds that help boost the immune system and detoxify the body of certain synthetic chemicals such as bisphenol-A (found in plastics), and many other chemical and heavy metal toxins.

Medicinal Mushrooms also contain a high number of the immune system supporting, connective-tissue building, joint-healing, and skin-youthening molecules known as beta glucans, as well as other Ormus containing polysaccharides. They are one of the most intelligent adaptogenic herb/superfoods on the planet. Chaga is known in Siberian shamanism as the “King of the Mushrooms.”

The Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) grows primarily on birch trees in the temperate regions of the world such as Russia, Korea, Europe, Canada, northern regions of the United States and in the forests of the Appalachian mountains. Chaga resembles a piece of burnt charcoal, therefore it is sometimes referred to as “Tinder Mushroom”.

Chaga contains the highest amount of anti-tumor compounds of any medicinal mushroom known, especially in the form of betulicinic acid. Betulicinic acid is a powerful anti-mutagenic compound naturally present in the white part of the birch bark. As Chaga mushroom feeds on this, it therefore contains a large concentration of betulin.

Chaga is a powerful antioxidant that is extremely high in vital phytochemicals, nutrients, and free-radical scavenging antioxidants, especially melanin. Melanin is the main pigment in human skin, the retina of the eye, and the pigment-bearing neurons within the brain stem. Chaga is second only to cacao in antioxidant content.

The Benefits Of Chaga

Chaga has been known to promote the following benefits (based on thousands of studies done in Russia):

Protecting cell components against free radicals.

Protecting cells against DNA degradation.

Increasing longevity by slowing the aging process.

Improving the blood.

Nourishing skin and hair through it's melanin compounds.

Improving digestion, relieving digestive distress and candida.

Treating chronic fatigue syndrome, flu, and HIV.

Inhibiting the cell mutations that are associated with cancer.

Fighting cancerous tumors, especially in mammary glands and sex organs.

Fighting Hepatitis, ulcers, diabetes, and gastritis.

Fighting inflammation and inflammatory disease, such as Shingles.

Knocking out the common cold.

Fighting viruses.

Detoxifying your liver.

There is one single superfood that my family drinks all day every day, and CHAGA is it.  We use Chaga as the base to all of our superfood smoothies and we drink it in iced and hot tea form throughout the day.  In my opinion, Chaga in tea form is the one thing you should never miss.  Be advised, the pill forms out there are not nearly as efficient as the raw tea chunk form.  If you're not up to hunting and harvesting your own, you can find a good source at www.EducatingWellness.com or stop by my clinic Advanced Health in Rhinelander.  (This delicious Chaga is hand-picked in the wild North American forests and arrives to you already cut up into the tea chunk form).