Does anyone have firsthand exeprience or knowledge with regard to Reishi mushroom extract? If so, I'd like to hear what you have to say with regard to dosage, brands, and effectiveness.
In a recent magazine interview, Charles Poliquin stated that Reishi mushroom extract is both a fat loss agent and anticatabolic. He further stated that while using Reshi, one of his trainees loss 2% bodyfat in one month without any other modifications to his diet or training regimen, which is very impressive.
Hi.
I have firsthand experience and knowledge with reishi mushroom extract. You can study reishi articles yourself from Pubmed.com for example. Red reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum) is very intresting and potential nutritional supplement for many different things. It is a tree mushroom (grows on dead trees) and probably transforms some of trees superp ingredients to human edible form. Same kind of mushroom is Chaga (Inonotus Obliquus). Reishi has very high or highest meaning in TCM (traditional chinese medicine). TCM considers reishi as the king mushroom of immortality. Wild reishi grows usually on stump of a leafy tree. I have taken reishi extract supplements and made my own chaga extracts. These extracts are very safe but shouldn't be unerestimated. There are at least 7 herbal components in reishi such as germanium(known very good antioxidant), polysaccharides(gives long lasting energy), triterpene, Linghzi L Z 8, nucleosides and enzymes(aids digestion). It even contains a form of steroids but don't worry these steroids are not harmful or doping. Many atheletes have used reishi, chaga and cordyceps which is also potential supplement for exercicing. The beneficial effect of Reishi is probably multifactoral. I suggest that if you want to use reishi, start slowly (400mg) and increase the dosage as your body adopts to the ingredients. Just don't go higher than 1500mg per day although I haven't heard problems of Reishi overdose. If you use medication of some sort beware that reishi might have some sort complications with immunosuppressive drugs or lowering blood pressure drugs although some studies have shown that reishi has improved in some cases therapetically the condition of people tkaing immunosuppressive and lovering blood pressure (Check Pubmed). Most importantly listen to your body! Regularly it takes a week or ten days for body to adobt for Reishi so be patient the stuff usually delivers
Best products of Reishi are probably made by japanese goverment approved Reishi farmers. But I wouldn't buy right know from Japan because its difficult due to language problems and they just had a powerplant accident which may have impacted their reishi harvest. I have used Mushroom Science Reishi and Chaga and also New Chapters Reishi that I have bought from Iherb.com. If you haven't ordered from Iherb before you can use my coupon code EXI747 and you get 5 dollars off from the deal
iherb.com/Mushroom-Science-Reishi-Super-Strength-400-mg-90-Veggie-Caps/16425
iherb.com/New-Chapter-Organics-LifeShield-Reishi-60-Vcaps/22650
You can find more information of these products from the companies websites: NewChapter.com and MushroomScience.com
Beware that some companies make Reishi that is bad quality. Always buy good quality Reishi or don't buy at all.
I have found that Reishi keeps me sleeping better and I can recover faster to workouts. It keeps me more calm and it is a wonderful aid in my life busy life. Highly recommend. You can boost Reishi by taking it with good quality vitamin C (250-500mg).
Chaga gives nice stable energy due the day. Don't take Chaga in evening because it can keep you wake.
You can also go and collect your own Reishi (from forest that is not near of pollution) if can recognise the mushroom or can get help from someone who knows the mushroom for sure. Then you can make your own Reishi extracts. I would boil Reishi for couple of hours in water.
Hope this information was useful.