So if you are looking into natural options to support an ill pet then you will probably have come across Turkey Tail mushrooms and you may be wondering what they are all about. So the information is out there but it is actually a bit difficult to understand and certainly how much you need for your pets.
This was my experience when a few days ago I found out that 1 of my dogs was quite ill and would potentially benefit from having Turkey Tail mushrooms but it's not as easy as just going to buy some Turkey Tail mushrooms because there is such a vast difference in what is available and obviously therefore whether or not they have any therapeutic benefit bit like my beautiful essential oils. So this blog is really the result of the research I did last week in order to make sure that I got some really beneficial Turkey Tail mushrooms.
So Turkey tail mushrooms are functional mushrooms and have been used as a traditional medicine for thousands of years as with everything medical research is just starting to catch up with some of the health boosting potential. The benefits of which are actually documented in a lot of historical and modern scientific literature. Now when buying mushrooms or functional mushrooms, which are basically edible mushrooms that have a wide variety of bioactive compounds, there are many different types of these mushrooms and each have a unique bioactive profile and capacity for supporting bodily systems and in the case of Turkey tail mushrooms it is their ability to strengthen the immune system amongst other benefits as well.
Now the key compound in functional mushrooms are the Beta glucans or Beta D-glucans these bioactive agents are thought to be responsible for the immune modulating effects of mushrooms and they have been shown to activate immune cells like monocytes, natural killer cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells in test tube studies. And Turkey tail mushrooms have these compounds in abundance and they also contain other bioavailable compounds that are responsible for some of their other unique health-promoting supporting properties.
They are called Turkey tail because they look a bit like the tail of a Turkey and it's actually a White Rock fungus found growing on log stumps and these fungi play an important role in breaking down lignin in rotting wood leaving behind the white which is a soft spongy cellulose,this helps return nutrients to the soil so that other plants can access them for their growth.
Turkey Tail mushrooms actually possess an impressive range of compounds they have a lot of secondary compounds in them such as phenolic acids, flavonoids and terpenoids much like my beloved essential oils and they also have quercetin and baicalein Both of which have an awful lot of information behind them now in particular let's look at the properties associated with the abundant bioactive agent mentioned above this is a protein-bound polysaccaride or PSP, naturally occurring they belong to a group of substances called biological response modifiers these are non-specific immune system supportive agents and they work to restore balance to the immune system without a specific target. It is really important to recognise that there are hundreds over a 120 strains of Turkey tail mushrooms and not all of these compounds are the same so it is important to get good quality ones
Benefits of using Turkey tail mushrooms include removing toxins, increasing energy, removing excessive fluid, strengthening the organs responsible for the immune system, supporting liver, lung and spleen functions. Studies have suggested that Turkey Tail mushrooms have strong antioxidant properties and may protect from free radical damage. Now Turkey Tail mushrooms are also adaptogenic which means they help the body adapt to the various kinds of stresses that we come across whether that is physical, biological or chemical and they can actually help stabilise your cortisol levels under stress and assist the body in reaching balance again because they interact with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. They also have potent immuno-stimulatory benefits and have been found to enhance both the innate and adaptive immune responses, the body’s first and second lines of defense respectively.
In order to get these benefits it is really important that you get your Turkey tail mushrooms from a good source and studies show that you want between 30 to 40% Beta D glucans
These are 3 things to look for when buying a Turkey Tail mushroom supplement
1. Must contain the fruiting body and not mycelium which is basically the root of the fungi as it's got fewer desirable bioactive compound and is also growing on grain and then that goes into the mycelium
2. Find out what the beta glucan content of the Turkey tail supplement is because this is the primary compound responsible for the unique immune supporting function so if you haven't got a good content of beta glucan then it's really not worth having. A lot of brands don’t put the beta glucan content on the label then it's likely that the product doesn't have sufficient levels of it so you always want to be looking that the supplement has greater than 30% which is one of the highest concentrations of the market but make sure it's at least over 25.
3. Find out how the mushroom is extracted to make it more beneficial because our bodies don't have the proper enzyme to break down the mushrooms tough cell wall and so you won’t get as many benefits (this is why you must always cook your mushrooms) traditionally in Chinese and Japanese medicine Turkey Tail is prepared as a tea so that is still something that can be used so you want to look for either mushrooms that have ideally been broken down using the hot water extraction method which keeps the beta glucan level high.
Overall beta glucans have been found to activate immune cells and increase antibody production and so reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, a harmful immune response to multiple cancers and inhibit the spread of cancer cells. There was a very good study that was published in Evidence-Based Complementary Medicine which looked at the effectiveness of Turkey Tail mushrooms in treating dogs with haemangiosarcoma, the study from Penn State University was carried out in 2012 and looked at the medium survival rate and how it increased with dos. Haemangiosarcoma is a vascular cancer with a high rate of metastasis this aggressive cancer is primarily found in the spleen and survival time with no treatment was 86 days, survival treatment time with 50 mg per kilogram per day of Turkey Tail mushrooms was 117 days and a survival time with a 100 mg per kilogram was a 199 days this is absolutely fantastic and potentially could make a massive difference in the course of this cancer as well as others.
Brown DC, Reetz J. Single agent polysaccharopeptide delays metastases and improves survival in naturally occurring hemangiosarcoma. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2012.
This dose specific result is another reason why it's so important to make sure when you're getting the supplement you actually know how much of the active component is in say a teaspoon so you can actually give a therapeutic dose that studies have shown to be of therapeutic benefit. There have been other studies as well done particularly in Japan and China and in 2012 the FDA actually approved human trials forTurkey Tail mushrooms as an anti cancer agent as well.
A quick bit about the study, it was small - only featured 15 dogs but the dogs appear to be evenly matched and there were no other treatments involved in the study i.e chemotherapy. The study was a double blind randomised one so basically neither researchers nor owners knew what they were having this is the ideal scenario in gathering evidence. The study was funded through a grant from Chinese Medicine Holdings, LTD but it is widely quoted by a lot of different people and papers and it does make worthwhile reading and the results are certainly worth taking note of with a P value <0.05 they were considered to be statistically significant.
So how to use them? Ideally give your dog your mushrooms supplement between meals, they can have a bit of taste so you might want to mix them with a little bit of kefir or bone broth (slightly warmed seems to work best for my dog who laps it down and if they don’t like the taste just add them to the meals and they will still get the benefits don't worry.
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Information given here is not intended as a substitute for medical or veterinary consultation - the author has no liability nor responsibility with respect to any issues occurring out of use such as damage, loss, injury.