Cordyceps mushroom is an effective cancer treatment, says new research

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: cordyceps, cancer, health news

(NaturalNews) Researchers from the University of Nottingham have found that a rare, wild mushroom called cordyceps is an effective treatment for cancer. Commonly used in Chinese medicine, the cordyceps fungi inhibits the growth, division, and proliferation of cancer cells in the body.

Cordyceps was originally formulated into a cancer drug called cordycepin back in the 1950s. Though the drug version was ultimately found to be ineffective because of rapid degradation inside the body once it was administered, the active components from the mushroom continue to be effective cancer fighters.

Depending upon dosage levels, cordyceps mushroom extracts directly impact the process of cell protein development, impeding the production of the mRNA molecules that create them. At high doses, cordyceps inhibits protein development directly, essentially eliminating the ability of cancer cells to function and survive.

Since the study focused on the pharmaceutical drug formulation derived from cordyceps, called cordycepin, lead scientist Dr. Cornelia de Moor and her team specifically sought ways to improve the effectiveness of that particular drug. Their only solution was to suggest giving another drug alongside cordycepin in order to prevent it from degrading in the body. The team warned that the other drug causes serious side effects which may discourage its use.

Though the research focused primarily on cordycepin, it ultimately revealed the powerful effects of cordyceps in preventing and treating cancer. The study is set to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and its authors hope that the findings will spark further research into the potential uses for cordyceps as a cancer treatment.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

What's really fascinating about these "new" findings are that they aren't really new at all -- this is the same information you can read in ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine texts... if you can read ancient traditional Chinese writings, of course.

I know many TCM practitioners and several of them can actually read the ancient texts. One book written 2,000 years ago -- yes, that's 1,900 years before Big Pharma even existed -- teaches the healing powers of medicinal mushrooms like cordyceps.

Much of Big Pharma's modern effort has been focused on trying to isolate, pirate and patent ancient Chinese Medicine molecules. This is, of course, a form of "biopiracy" where U.S. corporations steal intellectual property from China and never pay a royalty to anyone. Interestingly, U.S. companies don't even consider this a form of stealing. I guess "our" theft is okay but "their" theft is illegal, huh?

It's particularly interesting that China is often under fire for pirating software from U.S. companies like Microsoft, but the U.S. consistently gets away with the mass-pirating of Chinese medicine. (Personally, I'm completely against patent protection for medicines, seeds, human genes, foods and animals.)

The truth about cordyceps is that you don't need some fabricated cordyceptin drug to experience the benefits of cordyceps -- all you need is cordyceps itself!

Sources for this story include:

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/releases/2009/0...