“Mobilizing Mushrooms against AIDS
Several mushroom species—oyster, shiitake, maitake, turkey tails, and other polypores—have shown anti-HIV activity under certain circumstances. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a small clinical study using oyster mushrooms in conjunction with protease inhibitors. The application, entitled “Anti-Hyperlipidemic Effects of Oyster Mushrooms in the CAM Therapy in the Treatment of HIV/AIDS,” was approved in late 2003 with trials scheduled to start in mid-2005 and to be supervised by the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (Abrams 2004).
Our mushroom farm, Fungi Perfecti, grew a strain of oyster mushrooms for these trials that were frozen, freeze-dried, and powdered for consumption. This may be the first clinical trial funded by the NIH to study the medicinal effects of ingesting mushrooms.
Updates will be posted at www.fungi.com.
Protease inhibitors, commonly prescribed to combat HIV, interfere with lipid metabolism in the liver, causing an accumulation of “bad” cholesterol, LDL. From the hyperaccumulation of LDL, many patients suffer from arteriolosclerosis, endocrine disruption, and heart disease. Oyster mushrooms contain a natural isomer of lovastatin (an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase), an FDA-approved cholesterol-lowering[…]”
Excerpt From: Paul Stamets. “Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World."