In my posts, I will talk not only about what the use of nutrients in one’s diet leads to, but also about the very nutrients those need to be added to your diet, as well as how to choose these products, how the most useful of them differ from their own kind, but not very useful, as well as from similar ones dressed in it, but completely useless, and even harmful.
And today I will talk about chaga.
Just imagine you are sitting in your favorite cafe, waiting for your friends, and flipping through the list of drinks… tea, coffee, chicory, matcha latte, mango & mint smoothie, green pea sprout shot with celery… and suddenly you stumble upon the “chaga drinks” section. Of course, you are unlikely to see this on the menu of your favorite coffee shop, unfortunately. However, hot drinks from chaga, familiar to our ancestors from time immemorial, are finally beginning to gain a foothold in the minds of modern healthy lifestyle-oriented people, like a superfood from superfoods.
Even a sophisticated Western consumer has finally paid due attention to chaga. In Old and New Europe, healthy lifestyle cafes have also begun to appear, on the menu of which you can find chaga drinks – chaga tea, and even chagacino (kinda new way of cappuccino, mochachino, Frappuccino style dinks).
So, what is chaga? It’s a latinised word from Russian. The official Latin name of this fungus – Inonotus obliquus – is very rarely used. Most often, it begins to grow on damaged areas of birch bark, which is why it got its second name – birch fungus.
Scientists drew their attention to chaga and began to study it in detail back in the USSR in 1951. By 1960, chaga entered the State Pharmacopoeia and was recommended for use as a non-specific drug. Studies of biological compounds and biological activity of chaga are still ongoing in scientific laboratories in many countries.
Chromogenic complex is the main indicator of chaga quality
There are many ways to use birch fungus – these are tea-like drinks, and tinctures, and extracts, balms. How to determine the most effective of them?
The main indicator of the quality and high health-improving properties of chaga is the so-called chromogenic (polyphenol carbon) complex.
So what is a chromogenic complex? This is a combination of active substances of a birch fungus, such as beta-d-glucans, betulin and betulinic acids, lipids, phytosterols, flavanoids, as well as macro- and microelements: copper, barium, zinc, iron, silicon, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium. In total, there are more than two hundred active substances that give chaga its miraculous properties. And this is expressed in percentage, accepted as a chromogenic complex. The higher the number of chromogenic complex, the higher the quality of the raw material.
In order for chaga and products from it to be as useful as possible, the chromogenic complex should exceed 50%. This is possible only when chaga grew in extreme conditions: at temperatures from -45°С (-50°F) in winter to +45°С (+113°F) in summer. All these conditions are met if chaga grew in Siberian taiga.
Since 2008, virologists and biotechnologists from Novosibirsk, Russia, have been studying the activity of chaga against various viruses. The research ended without surprises – on the contrary – they approved the experts in what they already noticed a long time ago. The aqueous extracts extracted from the chaga suppressed all the viruses studied in the work, including HIV, herpes and influenza viruses of any strains.
And already in 2020 (in the same Novosibirsk scientific center) scientists experimentally found out that chaga suppresses the reproduction of the COVID virus. Further research in this direction is already planned. However, an encouraging start has already been made.
Chaga can be successfully used in the prevention and complex treatment of oncology. Long-term observations (up to 3-7 years) of patients with stage IV cancer have shown that taking chaga and products based on it improves the quality of life in all patients. In the complex therapy of cancer, chaga helps to prolong and improve the quality of life for people who are faced with this disease.
By regulating the production of cytokines in the body, chaga helps to reduce joints inflammation.
Since chaga helps to control blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels, this birch fungus is extremely useful for people suffering from type II diabetes.
In folk medicine, chaga has long been used as a means for normalizing the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. And since chaga contains pantothenic acid, which is important for the functioning of the adrenal glands, chaga decoction is used as a diuretic (and choleretic) agent.
With the help of chaga, many skin diseases are treated. It also contains powerful antioxidants that slow down skin aging.
Brain work
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter. It is associated in the brain, in particular, with memory and learning functions. By restoring acetylcholine levels, the active components of chaga help to support mental function and memory.
General immunity
During the cold and flu season, regular consumption of chaga mushroom tea strengthens the immune system.