Measures Taken to Decriminalize Psychedelics in Washington D.C
Earlier this year advances were taken in the early steps to decriminalize many psychedelics in Washington D.C. The Ballot initiative was given initial approval by the Board of Elections, and will now have to get the approval of their title and summary statement. If the ballot initiative goes through, psychedelics will be of the lowest priority in local law enforcement. The measure does not remove any penalties. Decriminalize Nature D.C is the organization behind this ballot initiative and had many advocates speak in favor of decriminalization at its original hearing.
Decriminalization can only bring safety and knowledge around the therapeutic use of substances that are already widely available, It will allow therapist to speak candidly to clients, researchers and students to pursue areas of study without fear of retribution, and an overall more educated society.”
Last year Denver, Colorado became the first city to decriminalize psychedelics and several more cities have followed suit. Many people have advocated the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms because of their therapeutic purposes.
It is important to gain control over what goes into your mouth. Understanding where your food comes from is great for your body and the health of the environment, but starting another container tomato plant or a itty-bitty herb garden in your kitchen window can start to get old after a while. If you’re sick of sprouting greens and eager to try your green thumb at something new, the wonderful world of mushrooms might be calling your name.
Cast off your concerns that all homegrown mushrooms are poisonous. That’s something mothers tell young children to prevent them from chomping on a death cap in the backyard. In truth, there are dozens of mushroom varieties that you can grow right at home, all without putting your health at risk. Best of all, homegrown mushrooms are incredibly tasty and versatile. Rich in flavor and easy to toss into any recipe, homegrown mushrooms infuse an earthy taste into every dish you add them to, all for far less cost than buying them at the store.
What is a Mushroom, Anyways?
Not a plant or a vegetable, mushrooms are in their own fungal family. Often called saprophytes or organisms that extract nutrients from decomposing plants and animals, mushrooms get their nutrients by breaking down tree stumps, leaves and other material on the forest floor. Scientists estimate that there are over 140,000 species of mushrooms in the world today, though less than 10% have been fully studied at this time. However, the ones that have withstood scientific scrutiny are nothing less than impressive. Ranging in color, texture, shape and toxicity, mushrooms open an entire world of culinary adventures, though only a small number of edible mushrooms actually make it to the supermarket shelves.
Benefits Of Eating Mushrooms
No other food can quite compare to the health benefits of mushrooms. Not only can regular consumption help reduce your risk of developing breast cancer and diabetes, but mushrooms also naturally lower bad cholesterol levels and fill you up with protein, vitamins, antioxidants and more. Mushrooms are full of valuable substances like riboflavin, pantothenic acid, folate, thiamine, and niacin. As they are the only naturally vegan dietary source of vitamin D, mushrooms can naturally help inhibit the growth of cancer cells. One cup of stir fried shiitake mushrooms provides 3 grams of fiber, which helps you feel full for longer after your meal. Because most varieties are almost 90% water, mushrooms are extremely low in calories but still make for a top rate meat substitute that will leave you feeling satisfied.
Top Reasons to Grow Your Own Mushrooms
Your mushroom experiences have been stunted if you haven’t branched out beyond boring portabello mushrooms. Despite what you might think, growing your own mushrooms doesn’t require acres of farmland or specialized knowledge. All you need to get started is a little knowledge, the right spores, and motivation. The techniques for mushroom cultivation tend to be very basic, meaning that a little experience will take you a long way towards becoming self-sufficient and sustainable with your fungi consumption.
Top Three Types to Grow Yourself
Risotto fans, rejoice! Growing your own mushrooms is a simple way to enjoy the benefits of these fascinating fungi, and there are dozens of delicious mushroom varieties that are simple for the beginner to grow. Once you start growing one of these three mushroom varieties, you will soon start branching out into ever fancier varieties to grow. But be warned; mushroom cultivation is addictive, and once you start, it’s too hard to stop.
Pearl Oyster Mushrooms
You don’t need lots of yard space to grow these guys. With the smallest amount of effort, homegrown pearl oyster mushrooms can be yours to enjoy. All it takes is a plastic container full of something you throw away every day without thinking: coffee grounds.
To make these mushrooms work, you’ll need to collect more than two gallons of coffee grounds. If your caffeine consumption can’t quite handle that rate, simply visit your local coffee shop and see what kinds of grounds they have to spare. You’ll be sure to come home with more than you need.
Once you have enough grounds to get started, add them to a two-gallon bucket and blend pre-bought mushroom spores into the top inch of coffee grounds. Use a spray bottle to keep the spore-soaked grounds moist, and cover the bucket with plastic wrap. Punch six or more holes into the plastic wrap. For an even better effect, you can also drill holes in the bucket just a few inches above the top of the grounds so that CO2 from growing mushrooms can escape with ease. Put the bucket in a warm, dark place and spray it down twice a day to keep it moist. In a matter of weeks, small mushrooms will start to appear that can be easily harvested and eaten. Once your bucket seems to slow down its production, you can swap out those grounds and get started with fresh ones.
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
If you want to grow something that truly stands out, lion’s mane mushrooms might be the variety for you. These softball-sized clusters of white fungi grow with long, white spines down the sides that look like the long hairs made famous on the King of the Savannah. Not only do lion’s mane mushrooms taste amazing when sauteed with other vegetables, they also have been shown to have plenty of neurotropic capabilities and are excellent brain boosters, especially for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia. grow bagAll you need to get started is a grow bag. Mushroom grow bags come with roughly 5lbs of sterilized spawn that have been inoculated into a substrate. When kept in ideal growing conditions, most bags can produce
A grow bag is all you need to get started. Mushroom grow bags come with roughly 5lbs of sterilized spawn that have been inoculated into a substrate. When kept in ideal growing conditions, most bags can produce more than a pound of stunning lion’s mane mushrooms.
Keep your bag unopened until you’re ready to fruit it (refrigerators work best). Once you start to see white mycelium starting to form throughout the bag it is ready to fruit. At this time, set the bag on a dinner plate or shallow container and keep it somewhere where it will get light and consistent humidity. Make a small slit in a place where the white fungus is extra thick, being careful not to cut into the block. Next, roll down the top of the bag so that it’s tight against the block and pull a piece of fabric over the bag to keep it in the dark. Keep the fabric wet by misting it with a spray bottle a few times a day, checking it repeatedly to see if the mushrooms have grown (this usually takes a few weeks).
Once you start to see a large mushroom growing out of the slit, you can harvest it by twisting and pulling it out of the block. Don’t use a knife, as it might contaminate the block. It’s easy to enjoy your giant mushroom in your favorite dish. If you keep the block moist for several more weeks, you should get additional mushrooms to form through the same hole.
Shiitake Mushrooms
Popular in Asian cooking, shiitake mushrooms are full of flavor and have a highly distinctive, almost meat-like texture. They are delicious when sauteed or baked, and tend to be big successes at farmers markets or natural food stores because they are simple to dry out and can be re-hydrated in a matter of minutes to restore the full flavor. Though shiitake mushrooms are well suited for a small mushroom business, they are also an ideal mushroom for first-time growers to start with if they want to learn how mushroom logs work.
Like many mushroom types, shiitakes need to be grown on hardwood logs that stay moist, well shaded, and out of the way of fierce winds. While oak wood tends to work best, any hardwood can work in a pinch. The best time to cut down mushroom logs is in the late winter in order to allow them plenty of time to set before getting inoculated in the early spring. Logs that are between 3-8 inches are ideal, and each log shouldn’t be longer than 3-4 feet. Make sure to choose logs with intact bark, as gaps provide perfect openings for wild spores to get inside and compromise your mushrooms.
In order to inoculate your logs, a high-speed drill is necessary to drill holes that are one inch deep, 5/16 inches in diameter, and spaced six inches apart. After drilling, you can fill each whole with a mix of sawdust and shiitake spores, and then seal the mixture in place by covering the top with melted cheese wax.
Once the logs are inoculated, they need between six months to a year for the spores to fully spread throughout the log in a thread-like network called the spawn run. Throughout these months, the mushroom logs need to be stacked in piles that allow for good air flow while still being protected from wind and rain. The best strategy is to shoot for 35-45 percent moisture content at all times and keep the logs off the bare ground in order to prevent contamination from strains of wild fungi.
After the spawn run is complete, the shiitake mushrooms will start to pop up from the log every few days. Once the caps are just about completely open they are ready to be harvested. It’s easy for mushrooms to go from almost ready to overripe in a matter of hours, so make sure to check your logs often to ensure they are being harvested enough. Once harvested, shiitakes can be stored for many months so long as you keep them in well-ventilated containers or dry them out before storage. After the harvest of most of the logs fruiting bodies, it’s best to let it rest for the next few months in order to give the mycelium in the logs time to regain their energy in order to bloom again. When taken care of in this way, most shiitake mushroom logs can fruit for 2-8 years with no problems.
In Summary
The wild and wonderful world of mushroom cultivation is not to be underestimated. If your only experience with mushrooms has been the boring button varieties at grocery stores, the time has come to branch out. Start out with one of these three simple strategies for cultivating your own mushrooms, and you’ll soon be a fungi fanatic who can’t leave them alone.
Nature provides an amazing array of resources to improve our health and boost our immunity. Mushrooms are a type of fungus that are enjoyed by people all over the world and renowned for their nutritional benefits. In recent years, scientists have studied the medicinal benefits of the cordyceps sinensis mushroom.
Mushrooms have been used as food, medicine, poison, and in spiritual mushroom practices in religious rituals across the world since at least 5000 BC. They have been used in tonics, soups, teas, prepared foods and herbal formulas to promote health and longevity. The mushroom fungus, Penicillium,was the raw material used to create the antibiotic penicillin, which transformed the medical world.
What is Cordyceps?
This oddly shaped mushroom grows native to China and grows around the Tibetan area. For years, it was thought to be a living worm rather than a mushroom and was nicknamed the caterpillar fungus as it is seen growing on the sides of trees. Cordyceps is actually a fungal spore that kills insects such as caterpillars and moths and feeds off their tissues.
The Cordyceps mushroom has been described in old Chinese medical books from ancient times and is also found in Tibetan medicine. Traditional Tibetan healers have recommended Cordyceps as a tonic for all illnesses. This is because they continually witness how it improves people’s energy, sleep habits, digestion, stamina, libido, and endurance.
Cordyceps first became popular in the western world when the coach of the record breaking Chinese female runners credited it with the team’s extraordinary success. Today, many researchers believe Cordyceps to be one of the most powerful performance and longevity promoting herbs (1).
Cordyceps Improves Adrenal and Hormonal Health
The adrenal glands are critical for maintaining healthy energy levels, physical and mental performance, and good sleeping patterns. Adrenal fatigue is a state where the adrenal glands are overworked and unable to perform their functions effectively. Individuals with adrenal fatigue suffer from low energy, poor hormonal function, and chronic inflammation.
Adaptogenic substance is a term originally defined by Russian scientist Dr Nikolai Lazarev in the late 1940’s following research done on the eleuthero root. Israel Brekham, PhD and Dr. I.V. Dardymov formally defined adaptogens with three major characteristics:
Adaptogens are non-toxic – this means they don’t have harmful effects on the body and are safe to be taken for long periods of time.
They produce a non-specific biological response that improves the body’s ability to resist physical, chemical, emotional, and other biological stressors.
They have a strong influence on the body towards homeostatic balance. This means that they move the body in the direction of a normal homeostatic set point. If stress hormones are too high, they lower and stabilize them, and if stress hormones are too low, they raise and stabilize them.
Cordyceps Improves Performance
Cordyceps is shown to help the body produce and balance cortisol and other stress hormones (2). The adaptogenic qualities allow them to influence the body towards homeostatic balance. This means that they move the body in the direction of a normal homeostatic set point. If stress hormones are too high, they lower and stabilize them and if stress hormones are too low, they raise and stabilize them (3).
In a 2003 study, Cordyceps extract was shown to improve a group of rat’s physical performance in an endurance swim by over 16% . The rats also showed signs of reduced stress during the swim compared to the placebo group (4).
A 2014 study showed that Cordyceps markedly reduced exercise induced oxidative stress in a group of rats. The study showed that the rats using Cordyceps has significantly increased production of intracellular anti-oxidants superoxide dismutase, glutathione and catalase in their serum, liver, and muscle. They had considerably lower oxidative stress markers in their serum, liver, and muscle (5).
For more indepth information on Cordyceps, including the best forms to take it in and the best teas, raw products, and supplements to get online, see my complete article here:
Nature provides an amazing array of resources to improve our health and boost our immunity. Mushrooms are a type of fungus that are enjoyed by people all over the world and renowned for their nutritional benefits. These have used in tonics, soups, teas, prepared foods, and herbal formulas to promote health and longevity. In recent years, scientists have studied the medicinal benefits of mushrooms on the immune system.
There are thousands of different types of mushrooms with a small percentage being poisonous if consumed. Most mushrooms are edible and include white mushrooms, morels, truffles, portabellas, chanterelle, shiitake, maitake, agaricus, reishi, oyster, and enoki. While all of these mushrooms have nutritional benefits, some are far denser in unique immune stimulating compounds than others.
The most common nutrients found in the majority of mushrooms include thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), folate (B9), phosphorus, iron, panthothenic acid (B5), zinc, potassium, copper, magnesium, pyridoxine (B6), zinc, potassium, copper, and selenium. All edible mushrooms are healthy for the body but some contain high levels of beta glucans, which are an extraordinary molecule that scientists are just beginning to understand.
Beta Glucan and the Immune System
Beta glucan is a powerful immune stimulating compound found in several mushrooms, yeasts, and other foods. Beta glucan is a polysaccharide that is made up of multiple sugar molecules linked together. The different types of beta glucan include 1,3-D glucan and Beta 1,6-D glucan,
Beta glucans are known by scientists as “biological response modifiers” that bind to the surface of innate immune cells, which allows the cells to have better coordination in their attack. This reduces the tendency towards auto-immune reactions and hyperinflamatory activity when the body is under attack. This compound activates certain immune cells such as key T-cells, macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells and the cytokines interleukin (IL) 1 and 2. Studies have shown that it inhibits the growth of cancer and strengthens the immune response to microbial invaders.
Beta glucans have been studied for their ability to mitigate cancer cell growth and reduce the symptoms of the common cold. In one report by the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism they studied firefighters and tracked their cold/flu symptoms. Firefighters have very physically and emotionally stressful positions that demand a lot out of them. The results of the study showed that those who took beta glucan instead of the placebo had a 23% reduction in upper respiratory tract infections. “These results are consistent with previous clinical research involving marathoners, individuals with high stress lifestyles and the general population,” wrote Brent C. Rudy, the director of the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism.
Maitake Mushrooms
Maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese. It is said that people danced for joy when they found these mushrooms because they were worth their weight in silver for their remarkable healing properties. Maitake has been found to contain high levels of the immune modulating molecule Beta 1,6-D glucan.
Agaricus Blazei Murill Mushroom
This mushroom commonly referred to as the ABM mushroom is grown in the rain forest of Brazil and is nicknamed “The Mushroom of God.” Studies have revealed that the ABM mushroom has the greatest density of beta glucan in the world. When human subjects were given ABM in their diet, they saw a 3000% increase in NK cells in the blood within 2-4 days.
Reishi Mushroom:
Reishi is rich in Beta1,3-D glucan which boosts macrophages, T cells, and cytokinetic activity. Reishi is especially good at increasing the production of tumor inhibiting cytokines IL-1and IL-2. Reishi has powerful analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-microbial affects in the body. It also acts to protect the liver and detoxify the body of ionizing radiation.
Self-treating medical conditions with medicinal mushrooms
Which Type is Right for You?
Whether you want to improve cellular health or prevent the common cold, medicinal mushrooms are available in a variety of species to help you address your health concerns. Certain types of mushrooms have the distinct ability to boost immune health and fight diseases including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and many more life-threatening illnesses. These powerful herbal remedies are one of the primary foundations of alternative medicine, but with so many different formulas to choose from, it can be difficult to know which type best fits your personal health needs. Here’s a closer look at three varieties of common medicinal mushrooms:
Reishi
Ganoderma lucidum, more commonly known as Reishi, is found worldwide and has a variety of active components, including proteins, amino acids, polysaccharides, volatile oils, minerals, vitamins and lipids. These properties make it effective in enhancing the oxygenation of the blood, lowering cholesterol levels, stimulating the immune system, and promoting liver detoxification.
Maitake
This leaf-like, braided polypore fungus contains over 25% protein, various polysaccharides, vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids, and sterols that provide potent anti-tumor and immune-regulating effects. It is most highly recognized for its anti-cancer effects, as it provides protection against the harmful effects of chemotherapy, has inhibited breast cancer growth and metastasis in animal studies, and is the subject of ongoing human clinical trials with breast and prostate cancer patients.
Shiitake
This particular mushroom is the source of two well-studied extracts that include lentinan, a cell wall polysaccharide rich in Beta-glucans; and LEM (LentinulaEdodes Mycelium Extract), a protein-bound polysaccharide complex. Lentinan has been shown to be protective against various bacteria, viruses (including influenza) and parasites. Taking this mushroom regularly may help to decrease cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure.
Each of these mushrooms has profound applications that can improve vitality, decrease the growth of fungus and bacteria in the body, and even prevent deadly viruses by boosting your immune system. For more in-depth information about specific medicinal mushrooms and their many health-promoting benefits, I invite you to download a complimentary copy of a Medicinal Mushroom Wellness Guide.
Raw Stuffed Shiitake Recipe
First, pat mushrooms caps with a dash of raw soy sauce and pumpkin seed or sesame oil. Set aside and let marinate for a couple of hours.
Stuffed Shitake Filling
Blend in a food processor:
1 cup pine nuts
½ cup tarragon
½ tsp sea salt
To serve:
Fill each mushroom cap with a spoon of Pine
Nut Filling and top with a thin slice of fresh ripe
mango, 2 small strips of scallion and a sliver of jalapeno pepper.
All ingredients should be organic when ever possible!
a food processor: