Chaga: the northern medicinal mushroom

This mushroom is a circumpolar that grows worldwide in its preferred habitat, breeds by spores and feeds on organic matter, and it thrives on birches that prefer northern climates such as Canada, Alaska , Sweden and Russia.

Chaga spores float in the air during breeding, hoping to land on an open wound of a birch; Insects and squirrels feeding on branches for sap or broken branches are responsible for the spores.

If the spores land successfully at a suitable place, they enter the tree and slowly spread in the wood in a slow process that can last up to 80 years, until the Chaga kills finally his host tree. Once the host tree is dead, the Chaga mushroom will use the inside of the tree to create fruiting bodies that will then spread more spores into nearby forests.

The part of the chaga that deserves to be consumed is the mycelium, which is a vegetative fungal growth network, rather than badual fungal growth. As for the apple tree, the wood and the leaves would be the equivalent of the mycelium and the apples would be comparable to the fruiting part of the mushroom.

The Chaga mycelium appears as an abnormal growth visible outside the birch, which becomes hard and dense; they appear black on the outside and orange on the inside. A single birch can produce Chaga for decades, as the mycelium grows well before the fungus kills it. The chaga is harvested in the wild by hand, and special attention is paid when harvesting the birch side to minimize damage to the tree.

It is said that Chaga has a great healing potential through age-old folk medicine, where it is sometimes called black gold. To date, no clinical trials involving humans have been published, but scientific research on this fungus has increased slightly. In addition, dozens of studies on human and animal cancer cells using Chaga have revealed positive results.

Chaga has been shown to decrease glucose levels in the blood of diabetic mice. It has been shown that regular ingestion of a fermented mixture suppresses body weight gain in mice receiving high fat diets. Both of these results could be beneficial because it is expected that one in three Americans will be prediabetic or diabetic by 2050.

Chaga is an excellent source of anti-inflammatory antioxidants. By weight, it can weigh up to 150 times the load of blueberries. However, I would still prefer to eat a nice bowl of blueberries instead of a cup of woody mushroom. The fungus would also be an effective antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and would relieve stomach ulcers.

Recently, Chaga has been proven effective at destroying cancer cells in the human lung while leaving healthy, healthy cells alone; and other studies have shown similar anticancer properties against leukemia, as well as cancers of the colon and cervix.

Evidence also shows that Chaga can help elevate the immune system in mice. This can be useful for patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer whose immune system is weakened due to the harshness of the treatment.

In its natural state, Chaga is not bioactive, it is as hard as wood and can be fatter than a softball. As such, it is usually divided into pieces the size of a peppercorn and is often brewed in the form of tea. It must be boiled for at least 15 minutes to obtain therapeutic effects.

Other methods, such as alcohol extraction, can eliminate all water soluble compounds and create a more potent therapeutic effect. Fermentation with bacteria is a more difficult way to turn this mushroom into a medicine. However, research on this method is still in its infancy but promising.

The chaga is also sold by various companies in various forms, mainly in the form of tea, smoothie powders, dye and ingredients mixed with other therapeutic mushrooms. A company even sells chaga in the cafe. Do not be surprised if Chaga appears more and more in the coming years, as research begins with great promise.