Ganoderma for Diabetes - Holistic Meaning

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Ganoderma helps to reduce blood sugar

The constitutes in Ganoderma lucidum that reduce blood glucose are Ganoderma B and C. The principle is by enhancing utilization of blood glucose by body tossues. Ganoderma lucidum serves as a substitute to insulin to inhibit release of fatty acids. It thus improves symptoms in high blood glucose and high urine glucose patients. Blood glucose will be reduced from 173 to 116, cholesterol from 233 to 179, beat-protein from 580 to 465. Water-solubility polysaccharides in Ganoderma lucidum suppresse insulin-independent diabetes. The health food products manufactured by Japan Numata Kenji, has been widely used for the treatment of diabetes.

Ganoderma for Diabetes

Can Herbs for Diabetes help to reduce blood sugar?

Impossible! Most people think that herbs for diabetes are useless for improving diabetes. At least that’s true for conventional medication which can only control it.

However, Traditional Chinese Medicine has its methods for improving this common disease. But treating diabetes with natural herbs can be quite complicated because more than one healing aspect are involved.

How Ganoderma Lucidum herb help to improve diabetes? Besides Ganoderma, what other herbs and supplements you can take to improve and control your diabetes?

The root of most diseases
Diabetes happens when blood sugar level constantly stays at a higher level. This leads to many other diseases such as:

high blood pressure
kidney failure
stroke
blindness
food ulcer
and even impotence

Conventional treatment for diabetes uses drug medications to suppress blood sugar level. Before taking any herbs for diabetes, you too must begin your treatment with medication.

It helps to quickly reduce blood sugar level and maintain it. However, medication doesn’t cure it. It only controls this disease and prevent other associated health problems.

Medication side effect
There are 2 groups of diabetes medication. The first type mainly forces the already weakened pancreas to produce more insulin hormone to reduce blood sugar level.

The second type mainly suppresses sugar absorption in intestines, thus maintaining blood sugar at a safe level.

However, long term consumption of diabetes medication causes two main side effects. One is the hardening of blood vessels, causing stroke and heart disease. The other side effect is the interference with fats metabolism, causing a patient to become fatter.

As you might have seen, some diabetes patients under long term medication are still affected with kidney failure and stroke. This shows that conventional medication alone is not the complte answer to treating diabetes.

How TCM treats diabetes
The recommended treatment for diabetes is to combine western medication with herbs for diabetes prescribed according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

TCM looks at diabetes with a different view. It regards diabetes as a disease of excessive heat in the body and divides it into 3 condtions, namely:

Upper part heat (lung)
Middle part heat (stomach)
Lower part heat (kidney)
According to each specific condition, TCM doctor will prescribe the suitable herbs for diabetes to improve the actual cause of this disease. In the above 3 conditions, the main required healing functions are to:

1) Reduce body heat
2) Enhance kidney energy
3) Enhance “yin” energy
4) Enhance body energy
5) Improve blood circulation

4 Herbs for Diabetes
With these healing principles, the first recommended herbs for diabetes are Five Leaves Ginseng herb (Rhinacanthus Nasutus) and White Crane Lingzhi herb (Gynostemma Pentaphyllum).

These herbal plants effectively reduce body heat of the upper, middle and lower part. Both are used to reduce high blood pressure and high cholesterol too.

The second herb isCordyceps Sinensis. This precious fungus is proven to improve kidney energy. It was used since ancient times by the Chinese to improve weak body constitution.

The third supplement for diabetes is bee’s Royal Jelly. This natural supplement has the highest content of natural hormones. It helps to increase “yin” energy of the body. In TCM, “yin” is associated with body fluid such as blood, hormones, saliva, eye tear and joints fluid.

So, taking Royal Jelly helps to naturally increase insulin hormone produced by pancreas.

Ganoderma for Diabetes
The fourth herb is Ganoderma Lucidum. This herb helps to boost body energy and improve blood circulation. Therefore, Ganoderma Lucidum is one of the important herbs for diabetes.

Although Ganoderma Lucidum herb alone is not enough, it can help to improve your blood circulation and increase their immune system. This prevents the disease from worsening.

The polysaccharidesfound in Ganoderma and Cordyceps are also proved to help insulin to transfer sugar into body cells.

The requirement
Before this, please take note of the following:

1) Reduce sugar and sweet food intake
2) Don’t get angry and stressful
3) Exercise regularly

With the above lifestyles kept in mind, taking herbs for diabetes can certainly improve this common disease in the long run.

International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms

ISSN 1521-9437
Print version Editorial Board

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Home / Volume 6, 2004 Issue 1 / Article
DOI: 10.1615/IntJMedMushr.v6.i1.30

download article 8 pages

A Phase I/II Study of Ling Zhi Mushroom Ganoderma lucidum (W.Curt.:Fr.)Lloyd (Aphyllophoromycetideae) Extract in Patients with Type II Diabetes Mellitus
Yihuai Gao
Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University; Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland, New Zealand

Jin Lan
Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Biochemistry, Qingdao Medical College, Qingdao University, China

Xihu Dai
Department of Internal Medicine, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Region of the Peoples’ Liberation Army, Fuzhou, R.P. China

Jingxian Ye
Department of Integrated Medicine. Hospital of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, R.P. China

Shufeng Zhou
Division of Pharmacy, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland 4001, Australia; and Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore

ABSTRACT

Animal studies have demonstrated that the polysaccharide fractions of Ganoderma lucidum (Ling Zhi, reishi mushroom) have potential hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities. This clinical study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Ganopoly (polysaccharide fractions extracted from G. lucidum by patented technique) in 71 patients with confirmed type II diabetes mellitus (DM). Eligibility criteria included type II DM of >3 months’ duration for which patients were not receiving insulin; age >18 years; normal vital signs for age and disease state; normal electrocardiogram (ECG); and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level of 8.9.16.7 mmol/L in sulfonylurea-naive patients or an FPG <10 mmol/L before washout in sulfonylurea-treated patients. Patients were randomly grouped to be given either Ganopoly or placebo orally at 1800 mg three times daily for 12 weeks. Patients underwent 4 weeks of dose adjustment followed by 8 weeks of dose maintenance. Fasting and stimulated glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), plasma glucose, insulin, and C-peptide were monitered at predetermined intervals. Adverse events and hypoglycemic episodes were recorded. The treatment of Ganopoly significantly decreased the mean HbA1c from 8.4 at baseline to 7.6% at 12 weeks. Significant changes in mean FPG and PPG levels at the last visit paralleled the changes in mean HbA1c levels. At baseline, the mean FPG and PPG values in patients treated with Ganopoly were 12.0 and 13.6 mmol/L, respectively. At week 12, mean PPG values had decreased to 11.8 mmol/L. However, these parameters did not change or slightly increased in patients receiving placebo. The between-group difference in PPG levels at week 12 was significant (p < 0.05). Changes in fasting insulin, 2-hour post-prandial insulin, fasting C-peptide, and 2-hour post-prandial C-peptide were consistent, with the between-group differences in these end points being significant at the last visit. Overall, Ganopoly was well tolerated. This study demonstrated that Ganopoly was efficacious and safe in lowering blood glucose concentrations.
Chinese herb Ganoderma lucidum mushroom can cure diabetes

A team from the University of Western Sydney’s Centre for Complementary Medicine Research (CompleMED) is working with the Cardiac Health Institute to find out if the medicinal mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum, can reduce high blood sugar, often a precursor to diabetes – as well as treat other health problems.
The clinical trial is the first of its kind to rigorously test the mushroom – known in Asia as the ‘King of herbs’, because of its huge range of medicinal properties – and needs 170 Sydneysiders to take part.

UWS PhD researcher Nerida Klupp hopes the findings contribute to western medicine’s knowledge of this Chinese herb, and provide much-needed clinical evidence of a possible new treatment for people with metabolic syndrome.

“Many people in Australia have high blood sugar, which is often classified as diabetes or pre-diabetes. Many also have other medical problems such as high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol,” she says.

“Scientists and doctors now know these conditions are linked, and a person with at least three of these health problems is diagnosed with a condition called metabolic syndrome – also called ‘Syndrome X’.”

“Affluent countries with lazy lifestyles and bad diets are at particular risk, with 44 per cent of Americans aged over 50 years of age diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. While we don’t really know how prevalent the condition is here in Australia, we suspect similar trends to those in the United States,” Ms Klupp says.

“Currently there is no single pharmaceutical treatment for metabolic syndrome, which is why we are conducting the first randomised clinical trial to test if this medicinal mushroom can offer western medicine an effective, long-term treatment to help lower blood sugar as well as control other problems associated with the condition,” he says.

Nerida Klupp says the mushroom has been revered in Asia for over 2000 years.

“Ganoderma lucidum, which is also known as Reishi, has long been used to fight a wide range of diseases, and was thought to be the ‘elixir of immortality’ – enhancing vitality and helping to delay ageing,” she says.

Thankfully, there has been increased cultivation of the herb over the last thirty years, and preliminary animal and human pilot studies have proved promising, suggesting it can have a positive effect on blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and blood fats.

Traditionally, Ganoderma lucidum has been considered to be even more potent when taken in combination with another medicinal mushroom called Cordyceps sinensis.

“Cordyceps is also thought to have significant health properties, so we want to find out if Ganoderma is effective on its own, or whether it works better in combination with the second mushroom,” says Ms Klupp.

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