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Unfortunately, the modern lifestyle can take a toll on your immune system. Reishi mushrooms may help you maintain a supercharged immune system. While there is a myriad of potential benefits, let’s explore the top 5 reasons you might want to include the reishi mushroom in your wellness routine. Thanks to cultivation, reishi has become available in: For this reason, the reishi mushroom became more accessible after successful cultivation in the 1970s. 4 Ironically, it is thought to have the opposite effect on our well-being.
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If you’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing a reishi mushroom up close and personal, you might note the luxurious reddish-brown colour and texture reminiscent of a finely varnished cherry wood which can ironically cause a cherry tree to rot. It was so revered that it was reserved for royalty, earning its name the ‘monarch of mushrooms.’ And rightfully so. Even in the early 1950s, it was presented to Chinese leaders in Mainland China and Taiwan, following the occasional discovery in the wild’ 3. But it was so rare in ancient China that ‘any person who picked the mushroom from the natural environment and presented it to a high-ranking official was usually well rewarded. It has over a 2000 year long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) health and longevity tonics, which has it deemed the ‘mushroom of longevity’ or ‘immortality’ 2. Reishi mushroom benefits can extend to many areas of life.
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Ganoderma lucidum aka reishi mushrooms or Lingzhi are perhaps one of the most revered medicinal mushrooms of the East, yet they have only recently caught our eyes in the West for its health benefits and pharmaceutical potential 1.