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Mushrooms for Health and Longevity by Ken Babel

Mushrooms for Health and Longevity by Nutritional Councilor Ken Babel is both informative and essential to anyone looking to reap the medicinal and nutritional benefits of the world of medicinal mushrooms.
In addition to the vitamins and nutritional essence of each mushroom, he provides the medicinal value of each, and it’s application to the various illness’ and diseases we face in our world today.

Through case studies and clinical research, he give us the evidence to walk away with a new consciousness of the world of fungi.

“Today mushrooms are still considered the greatest of all tonics, promoting overall well-being and vibrant health. In natural food and supplement stores, mushrooms are carving out their own niche as dietary supplements apart from herbs and vitamins.”

he says. At the same time he also reminds us with a collection of delicious mushroom recipes and even mushroom desserts, where mushrooms such as Tremella Fuciformis, Shiitake and Enoki are key ingredients, that introducing medicinal mushrooms into our diets, is a great way to balance the body, and promote a healthy immune system.

Mushrooms for Health and Longevity is a book that can actually change your life. The information on the benefits of these medicinal mushrooms is often overlooked in North America and western medicine. Ken Babel has brought to our attention the power medicinal mushrooms can have in our daily lives.

Cheers! To our health and longevity.

Bryan Warman
Fungi Health

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Mycelium Running

how mushrooms can help save the world.
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World
by Dr. Markho Rafael

Paul Stamets’ Mycelium Running is a must have reference book for anyone working the land in any form, whether it be farming, forest management or environmental cleanup. But also for people who, like me, enjoy growing things, especially delectable edibles.

Mycelium Running is filled to the brim with useful tips on things such as using mushrooms to improve soils and boost productivity in forestry and farming (gardening) with decreased use of expensive fertilizers and pesticides; filtering waste-water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste from the land (mycoremediation).

For example, an easy do-it-yourself method of creating a mycofiltration bed for filtering waste water is delineated in detail. Recommended materials are listed along with suggested mushroom species to use and the ideal dimensions of the bed. In Stamets’ examples, these mycofiltration beds are used to effectively filter and neutralize farm runoff but they could also be used to filter industrial waste water.

An added benefit of using mycofiltration beds on farms include the production of delicious food mushrooms, which sprout out of these beds. And every 2-3 years, the material in the bed can be dug out and used as a rich fertilizer on the fields of the farm.

Also useful for farmers is the information on no-till farming, which involves a method of leaving the stubble on the field until the next crops is planted. This encourages the development of saprophytic fungi, which break down old plant matter at a pace that’s highly beneficial for new plant life. In contrast, the conventional method of plowing down the stubble after harvest promotes anaerobic bacteria, which decompose organic substrate too rapidly. The saprophytic fungi also help prevent soil erosion and leaching of valuable nutrients and top soil.

For forestry, not only do saprophytic fungi help break down and recycle organic matter. They also help combat many parasitic fungi (blights) that may kill large numbers of trees. Stamets gives useful suggestions on how to seed beneficial saprophytic fungi in blight infested forests as a natural “fungicide,” fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

The symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi can also be seeded in forests to promote healthy trees. Or they can be protected and naturally promoted through wise and informed forest management.

Most plants form symbiotic relationships with mushrooms. The mushroom mycelium more effectively absorbs water and nutrients, exchanged with trees for sugars, making the trees healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also provide trees with natural antibiotics against pathogens.

Mushroom mycelium can also be utilized to clean up toxic waste sites through a method known as mycoremediation. The term was invented by the author of Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets, but was in common use before the publication of this book.

Synthetic toxic compounds including petrochemicals, dioxins, neurotoxins, toxic industrial waste and much more can be effectively broken down by fungi into harmless compounds. Bacterial contaminants such E. coli can be killed by anti-bacterial compounds excreted by the fungi. And toxic levels of heavy metals may be absorbed and concentrated by mushrooms, which can then be harvested and safely deposed.

Mycoremediation is extremely economical, at less than 5% the cost of some conventional methods for cleaning up toxic waste.

This plethora of information is merely the first half of this 300-page tome. Part III, which makes up the second half of the book, is an instruction manual on how to cultivate your own mushroom mycelium, which can be used for the above listed purposes, or to grow your own medicinal or culinary mushrooms. And seriously, who doesn’t love gourmet mushrooms? In other words, this is a reference book for every household.

Dr. Rafael has worked in the natural health field since finishing Chiropractic College in 1996. He currently specializes in medicinal fungi, frequently consulting two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for medicinal, biological and chemical properties of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora as the most complete identification guide for North American mushrooms.