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Cancer is a very difficult illness to beat, and when you’re trying to get rid of it, you might be tempted to try every remedy available. Some of these remedies may be useful while some won’t be, but one peculiar remedy that can have an unexpectedly positive effect are turkey tail mushrooms. Turkey tail mushrooms come with several benefits, and one of the most major ones is that it helps fight cancer.
If you’re having trouble believing this, we have picked out a few important testimonials that will let you in on the benefits of these mushrooms. People with various types of cancers have used these mushrooms with great results, and their stories might encourage you to follow their lead. You might find major benefits like the patients in our testimonials, but you won’t know until you go for it and start taking turkey tail mushrooms yourself.
What Are Turkey Tail Mushrooms?
Turkey tail mushrooms are a mushroom you can find all over the world. It is covered in a cool blend of brown stripes around each mushroom. Some of the stripes are really light brown and almost cream, some are so dark, they are almost black, and there is every brown in between those. These mushrooms are rounded and shaped almost like flower petals. These colorful mushrooms come with many benefits, and most importantly when it comes to cancer.
These mushrooms are also called Coriolus versicolor. They are filled with substances that affect the immune system, the gut, and cancer cells. There are different ways that you can enjoy turkey tail mushrooms. They can be enjoyed fresh like many mushrooms are, or they can be taken as a supplement, or as a powder. Since it isn’t easy to overdose on mushrooms, you can mostly enjoy all the mushrooms you want. You can switch back and forth between different forms of it as you please.
Turkey tail mushrooms can have a surprisingly positive effect on cancer, and some people take it with cancer medication to make their treatments more effective. This is a treatment that is approved and monitored by doctors, and reported to have benefitted several patients. Compared to other treatments for cancer, turkey tail mushrooms are relatively low risk, and come with other benefits to the body.
Turkey Tail Mushroom Benefits
The benefits that turkey tail mushrooms offer might seem too good to be true, but they are used in tandem with cancer treatments by many people, and there are several reasons for that. Turkey tail mushrooms contain a polysaccharide that is purported to suppress certain tumors. Certain studies have shown that eating turkey tail mushrooms on a daily basis can shrink those tumors. Turkey tail mushrooms can improve the survival rates of people with certain types of cancer when used in combination with other treatments, which is why a number of doctors use it that way. In eastern countries, it is often used as an anticancer agent alongside surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Turkey tail mushrooms are filled with antioxidants, which come with many benefits of their own. Antioxidants protect the body’s cells from free radicals, which can cause them damage. This damage is caused by oxidative stress, which can wreak havoc on your system. When antioxidants do their job, it prevents parts of the body from experiencing inflammation, and also contributes to warding off certain cancer cells. Turkey tail mushrooms contain antioxidants known as phenols and flavonoids, and these two substances release protective compounds that improve the overall immune system.
Turkey tail mushrooms also contain a protein bound carbohydrate known as polysaccharopeptide. Polysaccharopeptide has an effect on the immune cells. They activate some immune cells and suppress others. Because of this function, this substance decreases inflammation. This substance also increases the number of white blood cells in the body, further bolstering the immune system.
Turkey tail mushrooms can also benefit the gut. They contain prebiotics, something that feeds the good bacteria inside the gut. This is another thing that impacts your immune system since what happens in your gut has an effect on it. Turkey tail mushrooms modify the composition of your gut bacteria and increase the presence of good bacteria. Good bacteria will have many positive effects on the gut if it exists in higher quantities than the bad bacteria. Because of these effects on the gut, turkey tail mushrooms particularly have an impact on colorectal and intestinal cancer.
Turkey Tail Mushroom Side Effects
Turkey tail mushrooms, like most mushrooms, are unlikely to bring about any serious side effects, but on some occasions, rare side effects can be a problem. In case of a rare incident taking place, you should know what the worst might look like. The main side effects that turkey tail mushrooms could come with are gastrolienal ones, and they can include stomach pains, gas, bloating, constipation, and nausea. These side effects can occur when you get way too much turkey tail mushroom in your diet, so if you’re overdoing it, you need to slow down your consumption.
There are other side effects that can come from turkey tail mushrooms, and some of those are more severe, but also even more rare. Those side effects are low blood pressure, low blood sugar, low white blood cell count, heart palpitations, and skin rashes. All of these symptoms are signs that you should likely put a stop to your turkey tail mushroom use. Anyone with mold allergies is also prone to being affected negatively by turkey tail mushrooms. Those with mold allergies might experience trouble breathing, skin rashes, and swelling of the throat.
Turkey Tail Mushroom Cancer Stories
Turkey tail mushrooms sound like an unlikely cancer remedy, but there are some powerful testimonials online that show just how well it works. If you are considering using turkey tail mushrooms as part of your cancer treatments, you will find that you would be in very good company. These mushrooms have given some people exceptionally good results, usually when used with other primary cancer treatments. Here are some personal stories from cancer survivors and their loved ones:
Our first story is an inspiring one from Paul and Beverly Stamets. Paul is an advocate for turkey tail mushroom use, and his mother, Beverly, was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. After enduring just about every cancer treatment and being given only months to live, Beverly added turkey tail mushrooms to her routine, and came by amazing results.
Paul's mother, Beverly Stamets, has also spoken publicly about her experience with turkey tail mushrooms. In an interview with the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, she described how she took the mushrooms and the impact they had on her health:
"I drank turkey tail tea. And within three months my cancer was gone. It was very quick. And that was without chemo, without radiation. The tumor just kept getting smaller and smaller and eventually it disappeared."
Our next story is a personal account from a man who survives Hodgkin's lymphoma by supplementing his cancer treatments with turkey tail mushrooms. Doctors told him that he would die within a few months without treatment, and so he got treatment, and over time got the idea to supplement his treatment with turkey tail mushrooms.
“Fortunately for me, on a sunny day on Feb. 6, 2023, I “rang the bell” on the oncology floor, signaling that I was cancer free. A follow-up PET scan in late March revealed that the cancer had not returned. Half a year later, there was still no sign of cancer. I don’t know how much I can credit the turkey tail with my recovery. But I was back to my old self within six months.”
Here, an 83 year old patient with breast cancer recounts how chemotherapy and mushroom therapy combined led her to experience amazing results.
“I had been watching a small lump in my right breast for about 6 months, but I was doing a lot of traveling, and I wasn't going to do anything about it when I was traveling. I was just going to watch and see if it grew. At the time, I wasn't taking any medication except for a multivitamin and CordyChi (a mushroom supplement). The lump sort of lay dormant for a while, and then all of a sudden, after I got home from my traveling, it just started to blossom. There was no pain, no soreness or anything. But it was growing very rapidly.
Shortly after my visit to Swedish Hospital and before I began treatment, Paul said, “You've got to start taking turkey tail mushrooms. This is what Dr Standish's research is all about.” I agreed to begin taking it and was taking 8 to 10 capsules a day immediately after the diagnosis. About 6 months later I also began taking another mushroom product called MyCommunity that Paul gave me.
I started the chemo within a week and continued weekly for 6 months. After 6 months of chemotherapy and taking the turkey tail mushrooms, the tumor was gone and I continued on a maintenance therapy.”
–NCBI
This last story is from Vince and his mother Sandy. Sandy discovered she had lung cancer, and with the use of turkey tail mushrooms, turned the diagnosis around.
“Just before Thanksgiving, Vince’s mother Sandy went to the hospital with what was believed to be pneumonia. It was determined after a few restless days of testing that she had stage IV non-small cell lung cancer and was quickly put on chemotherapy.
The diagnosis was abrupt and shocking. At 71 years of age, the prognosis is also very uncertain. Despite this, Sandy takes one day at a time with lots of family support, focused treatment and hopefully a little extra help from our own backyard.
Sandy’s primary treatment is carboplatin with thoracentesis as needed to remove a build up of fluid outside her lungs caused by the cancer. After speaking with her oncologist about our research into mushrooms, Vince convinced his mom to take a twice daily dose of Turkey Tail mushrooms (Trametes or Coriolus Versicolor) starting with her first treatment.
Our interest in the science behind the anti-viral and anti-cancer properties of Turkey Tails began shortly after seeing preliminary clinical trial results and an anecdotal story in a TED lecture last year by mycologist Paul Stamets. In the last two minutes of the speech, Stamets described his 84 year old mother’s successful fight against stage IV breast cancer that included taking Turkey Tail mushrooms. She was a deeply religious person who hadn’t been to the doctor since 1968. According to Stamets, it was the second worst case of stage IV breast cancer her doctor had ever seen, and she was given three months to live. She’s now cancer free.”
Turkey tail mushrooms pack a lot more benefits than you would expect, and if you have been diagnosed with cancer, you can see some of those effects for yourself. With regular cancer treatment and turkey tail mushrooms, you can eventually experience some of the major benefits that the people in these stories did.
