Speaking of fungus...

Speaking of fungus, I have been doing some research on Tsi Ahga for its health benefits and thought I'd share my finds.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/72db0aa85315.jpeg[/atsimg]

Tsi-Ahga is a Native American Sacramental Medicine derived from Conks that grow on certain cone-bearing trees. The 3-beta-D-glucans which make up part of the cellular structure of these Conks cause a pan-systemic modulation of T-Cells, Macrophages and Neutrophil White Blood Cells, when ingested. In fact, it has been established that the number and viability of these particular cells is increased by as much as 4000% within 20 hours after taking Tsi-Ahga! Macrophages and Neutrophils are the two cells upon which all other Immune Cells depend.

You can have many viable B-Cells and T-Cells, but they will not be effective without the programming provided by these “Communicator” cells. Tsi-Ahga also contains bitter triterpene compounds that support the thymus and spleen (essential to insuring that immune cells are properly programmed), anti-tumor polysaccharides, blood pressure-reducing angiotensin re-uptake inhibitors, and perhaps the highest source of germanium in nature. Germanium is an oxygen catalyst and one of the most powerful free-radical scavengers found in nature.

The Tsi-Agha Story

The story behind Tsi-Ahga started with the The Nez Perce Indians of the Upper Plateau region of the Pacific Northwest. The Nez Perces were expert observers of animals (one need only look at the history and development of the famous Appaloosa Horse to recognize their special place among livestock breeders and geneticists). In the winter, the Nez Perces observed that the elk, moose and deer often dug down through the snow around stumps or fallen trees and ate the hard fungi that grew on them. These animals, more often than not, quickly recovered from their weakened and ill state and successfully survived the harsh mountain winters.

The Nez Perces, believing that the Sky Father and the Earth Mother had given them a gift, made this woody fungus one of their most important medicines and placed it at the center of the Medicine Wheel. In the center of the wheel, Tsi-Ahga became synonymous with the defense and protection provided by the Creator. To honor such a powerful medicine, Tsi-Ahga was added to the pemmican, the staple diet of the Nez Perce. As a consequence, where other tribes suffered bitterly from the diseases the trappers and traders passed on to them, the Nez Perce People did not. In fact, when the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through their territory, and even stayed with them, there was no outbreak of disease consequent to their visit. This is true even in view of the fact that, according to the expedition journal, many of the party suffered from measles just as they were passing through the region. Clark himself was one of the sufferers.

What protected the Shahaptian-speaking peoples of the inter-mountain northwest from being ravaged in the same way that the east coast Indians had been upon first encountering the white man's diseases? They tell us that they observed to use the gifts given to them by Sky Father, Earth Mother and the Grandfathers, and that this kept them free of disease - or, if they did get sick, these gifts helped them to recover quickly.

Source

Continued...

Health Benefits of the Tsi-Aga

Tsi-aga is a tree fungus, also sometimes known as the Siberian Chaga mushroom, which grows in Russia, Finland, Eastern Europe, Korea, and the northern parts of North America. It is related to several other popular mushrooms, such as shiitake and maitake, and is known for its health benefits and its role in Asian and Russian folk medicine.

The tsi-aga mushroom grows on birch trees in the various places in the forests of the Northern Hemisphere. It is often described as resembling charcoal in appearance. It is a kind of parasite that appears on dying birch trees. The fungus absorbs the nutrients from the birch tree for several years. It also grows on other trees, but the health benefits of these mushrooms are rumored to be not as remarkable. After the flower of the tsi-aga mushroom is fully ripened, it falls from the tree to the ground, and the birch tree then dies.

The mushroom has been used in traditional medicine for centuries as a treatment for stomach problems, ulcers, and bacterial infections. This mushroom has had an important place in Traditional Chinese Medicine, where, in addition to being used as a tonic for numerous health conditions, it was also prescribed to preserve youth and beauty.

The tsi-aga mushroom, like other medicinal mushrooms, is useful in helping the spleen to function optimally. The spleen is an organ that in turn helps the functioning of the immune system. It is a storage area and recycling area for depleted red blood cells, in addition to a filter for the blood to get rid of bacteria. It also stores excess blood and platelets that are needed for blood clotting and makes the cells that fight illness in our bodies. People who have their spleens removed due to injury or illness can sometimes suffer with blood-borne bacterial illnesses, so it is important for you to keep your spleen healthy. The tsi-aga mushroom contributes to the health of the spleen by helping to stimulate the immune system. Thus, it is useful for the treatment of several illnesses including cancer, HIV, and many types of viral and bacterial infections because it aids the body’s natural defenses. It may even be a useful natural medicine to prevent the influenza pandemic that medical experts consistently warn is overdue.

What exactly is it that makes the tsi-aga mushroom so good for the immune system? One of its most prominent properties are its polysaccharides, which are chemical substances made up of ten simple sugars, including glycogen and starch, which help to increase the efficacy of the body’s natural disease-fighting cells, including the macrophage and the lymphocyte. It also has betulinic acid. Betulinic acid, which is absorbed into the tsi-aga mushroom from the bark of the birch tree to which it attaches, is cytotoxic to both melanoma and non-melanoma cancers, which means it deters their growth. Another anti-cancer component of the tsi-aga is inotodiol, which helps induce cell death in cancerous tumors.

The tsi-aga mushroom is high in germanium. Germanium is an important trace mineral that is known to help the body activate its own defense mechanism, hence it is good for the human immune system. It can help cancer patients remain strong when their systems are depleted by chemical cancer treatments, and is also seen as a possible preventative treatment for AIDS in HIV-positive people. Some of the other things that germanium does is increase the body’s oxygen supply and thus energy, something that the chronically ill tend to lack. The tsi-aga mushroom contains saponin, which is a glycoside chemical that protects DNA from free radicals and oxidation, which prevents the cell mutations that lead to cancer. The tsi-aga boasts isoprenoids as one of its properties as well. Isoprenoids are molecules that aid the body’s cells in eliminating free radicals.

Continued...

Beta-glucan is another important healthful property of the tsi-aga mushroom, which aids the immune system in functioning, and in particular is a good remedy to take after exposure to people with contagious illnesses.

Aside from aiding the immune system, the tsi-aga mushroom helps treat or prevent other diseases and conditions, and contributes to the well-being of other structures and systems within the body. This has much to do with its mineral content. For instance, the tsi-aga mushroom’s magnesium content promotes healthy nerve and muscle function, in addition to helping the body to absorb calcium, either from food or supplements. It is also high in potassium, known in some circles as kalium. Potassium protects the heart and helps maintain the electrolyte balance in the body. Chromium, an important mineral for balancing blood sugar levels, provides the mushroom with anti-diabetic properties. Chromium also can help with general nutritional deficiencies and problems with high cholesterol. Chromium is one of the minerals that makes the tsi-aga mushroom a good preventative remedy for metabolic illnesses. Lastly, because of its cleansing properties, the tsi-aga mushroom is very helpful to the liver and helps to detoxify the bloodstream.

Medicinal Uses:

In the areas where it grows naturally and is used for medicinal purposes, the tsi-aga mushroom is harvested and grated or crumbled into water, where it is steeped for a long time to extract its helpful substances and properties, and drunk as a tea. Some people claim that the taste of this tea is similar to coffee. In Russia, the tsi-aga mushroom is extracted and turned into befungin, which is accepted as a legitimate medicine for a variety of conditions. But for those who don’t live in Russia or anywhere the tsi-aga grows or is typically used, it is now marketed in supplement form and can be found online for anyone wanting to improve their health.

source

"When I was told that I had only weeks to live and that there was nothing that could be done, you might imagine that I was devastated. My complete confidence had always been in the miracle of modern medicine. But tht miracle was not to be available to me. Despairing, I sought advice from a man I had met many years earlier while undertaking a vision quest among my people, the Nez Perce Indians of northeastern Idaho. He told me to take the wood fungus known as "Tsi-Ahga" and keep a piece of it in my mouth at all times. Up to receiving this suggestion, I had been losing copious amounts of blood from the bowel as the disease literally ate me up from the inside. I was dying. So, even though I must admit I had always considered the wood fungi to be at best unsafe and at worst downright poisonous, what did I have to lose? I did what I was told and a miracle happened. Within just a few short weeks the bleeding stopped. Within a year my disease was in complete remission. Now, the disease that was killing me and had engulfed my entire G.I. tract is almost completely gone. The gift of the Earth Mother has given me back my life."
Chief Cloudpiler
Humansville, MO

More interesting info

Anywho if you sat through that and some of the redundancies it's quite interesting and I'm very tempted to start taking it just for immune support and such.

reply to post by beaverg


OHHHHH!!! I wasn't fast enough! I actually got a good laugh out of that.

reply to post by Crossfate


lol, sorry about that. I still haven't finished all the text but I don't think I'll get a shot like that again soon.

But this is the first time I've ever heard of Tsi-Aga or Fomitopsis pinicola, or the Siberian Chaga mushroom. But if it, "causes up to 4,000% modulation of white blood and other T killer cells within about 20 hours after ingestion." then that is pretty amazing.


[edit on 27-4-2010 by beaverg]

Now to only find out where to find/ buy this stuff....

reply to post by wylekat


According to here you can buy "defense" which has tsi-ahga in it but I'd rather take it straight from the tree.

the health benefits of mushrooms are amazing- thanks for your research!

They (mushrooms) can do so much more too! Clean up toxic spill sites being one of them...simply amazing little alien things!

reply to post by Crossfate
I don't believe it is the same species as the one in your OP, but the 5,000 year old iceman found in a glacier in Tyrol, on the border of Italy and Austria carried a 'medicine kit' that included birch fungus!
Read more here....
en.wikipedia.org...


www.google.com... rlcGQBA&usg=AFQjCNHq3hhGEeJqws2XOCf-HhWop_K2bw



[edit on 27-4-2010 by butcherguy]

Fungi are marvelous things with all sorts of uses in almost any area.

Paul Stamets