Chaga and Cancer

What Role Can Chaga Play In Cancer Treatment?

Cancer has been one of the most devastating of all diseases that has plagued mankind in recent decades. The medical and pharmaceutical industries have been searching for a cancer cure for a very long time, and yet this disease is still wreaking havoc in the lives of millions of people around the world.

That’s a pity, because some Russian peasants in Northern Russia, without them ever knowing it, were able to lick this monster of a disease by consuming a natural product, chaga mushroom, growing in their birch forests. Medical researchers were not able to find any medical record of even a single person suffering from cancer in this part of the world.

What Is Chaga and Where Does It Originate?
Chaga is a parasitic mushroom that grows on the trunks of birch trees. They are found in the forests of the Siberian regions of Northern Russia, Northern and Eastern Europe, North Korea and North Carolina in the United States.

These mushrooms contain significant amounts of potent substances which are effective in eradicating pathogens and strengthening the body’s immune system. Chaga mushrooms acquire these powerful substances from the birch trees to which they have attached themselves.

These chemical substances are originally contained in the white bark and trunks of birch trees and the mushrooms assimilate these substances to live and grow. In fact, when these mushrooms become mature and are harvested, which is typically within a 20-year time period, the birch tree also dies because all of its nutrients were already used up by the mushroom.

Our modern world would not have known this beneficial product if not for the famed Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In his book, “The Cancer Ward”, he mentioned how some of the characters in his book were cured of cancer by consuming Chaga tea brewed from Chaga mushrooms.

Chemical Components of Chaga That Can Kill Cancer Cells
After 20 long years of assimilating all the substances of birch trees, Chaga mushrooms are already ripe for harvesting. At this stage, these mushrooms are a veritable powerhouse of chemical substances that can eradicate cancer cells and other harmful pathogens. Here is a list of the most potent chemical compounds contained in Chaga and how they can help with cancer treatment.

• Polysaccharides/beta glucans – these substances are the main active ingredient of Chaga. They are actually special mushroom carbohydrates. Their role is to increase energy levels, boost liver, digestive and brain functions, which usually results in the enhancement of the sense of well-being of a person.
• Betulinic acid – this substance is converted by the mushroom from the betulin substance found in the trunks and bark of the white birch tree. Research studies have confirmed that this substance can kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. Betulinic acid can also inhibit the activity of topoisomerase – an enzyme that controls the over-winding and under-winding of DNA strands. Coupled with the action of polysaccharides, betulinic acid can be effectively used as a dietary supplement that will promote good health.
• Melanin – this is an effective antioxidant and it is responsible for Chaga’s reputation of having the highest antioxidant levels of all natural substances.
• Other chemical compounds contained in Chaga which can help fight diseases and boost the immune system include several phytosterols such as lanosterols and inotodiols. 

Beneficial Qualities of Chaga That Can Be Used In Fighting Cancer
To remain healthy, our body should have the right amounts of super oxide dismutase (or SOD). The problem is the amount of SOD in our system decreases as we get older. We need to keep this level up or we could succumb to all kinds of diseases. Chaga contains huge amounts of SOD. It has more antioxidant capabilities than mega doses of vitamins C, E, A, co-enzyme Q10, bioflavinoids, grape extracts, spirulina, essential oils and beta carotene. Other types of mushrooms contain 1,400 to 1,500 SOD. Chaga has more than 35,000 SOD.

Another quality of Chaga that can be an advantage in the fight against cancer is that it absorbs free radicals before they can do damage to our cells. In addition, this mushroom contains 25 times more antioxidants than the antioxidant contents of other varieties of medicinal mushrooms.

To validate this fact, we need to look at Chaga’s ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) rating. Clove oil has the highest ORAC score of all essential oils which is 10,786,875 per 1 ml serving. Chaga has 4 times than that amount, per 1 ml or 1 gram of serving.

Conclusion
From the above information, we can safely say that Chaga can be useful in the fight against cancer. But this is not to say that cancer patients should forego their conventional cancer treatments and use Chaga instead. Some medical practitioners say that the better approach is to use Chaga as an adjunct to the cancer treatments which are now being used.