As a medical anthropologist, I search for remedies from healing traditions all over the world. When I find something of value, I negotiate with the natives to bring it back, arrange for a fair trade, test it for scientific validity, and if all that works out positively, I try to convince labs, clinics, universities and hospitals to integrate the remedy into medical practice.

The search for medicine that works has taken me everywhere from Caribbean islands to the Amazon, southern India, and the rain forests of the northwest British Columbia. On one trip to the East, a native healer wondered what I was doing so far from home: “Don’t you know your medicine is in your own backyard?” she asked. She called me a global medicine hunter in her own words–and the name stuck ever since. And she had a point. I did know a lot about medicine in my own “backyard,” but I wanted to know more about why the Eastern approach to cultivating and sustaining energy is so vastly different from the West’s material, structured approach.

At the center of that quest was a desire to find the richest, most potent energy adaptogen, which is an herb or botanical compounds that has an uncanny ability to provide the body with whatever is needed. For example, if you have low blood pressure, adaptogens helps to raise it slightly. If you have high cholesterol, adaptogens help reduce it. We’ve never been able to manufacture in a laboratory what natural adaptogens are able to achieve within human physiology.

Out of thousands of herbs, only a few qualify as adaptogens. In Russia, I’ve found rhodiola; in India, ashwaghanda. Both have been used by native healers and are now integrated into modern medical practice. But in the East, I was driven to find the monarach of adaptogens-the Red Reishi mushroom. This rare, woody mushroom from the remote Asian highlands was considered the superior energy adaptogen on the planet. And it’s darn near impossible to find. More on that in a moment.

Energy: The Quest For More

We often think we have the last word on energy here in the West, because we have dissected and analyzed the cellular components within mitochondria that create 38 moles of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from glucose and water. (You remember your Kreb’s Cycle from high school biology, right?)

But in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the version of how we cultivate and sustain energy focuses on the invisible, energies of the body through the enhancement of qi or vital forces.

TCM practitioners have had to rely on restoring the body’s imbalances through natural means, such as movement (qigong), diet (herbs) and unblocking techniques (acupuncture and acupressure). While synthetic drugs and surgery have been the hallmarks of Western medicine for correcting structural problems and vanquishing invasive pathogens, doctors now recognize the worth of more non-invasive means such as adjusting lifestyle factors for the treatment of stubborn chronic disease.

As different as these two approaches are, there is a meeting of the minds when it comes to research. Both Eastern and Western healing systems revere historically successful outcomes. The goal of research, whether it is trial and error, centuries-old human usage, or the modern invention of randomized, double-blind clinical trials, seeks, above all else, medicine that works.

Night Shift Research: Awakening a New Understanding

The recent announcement by the World Health Organization that night shift work is a probable cause of cancer has Western medicine doctors curiously inching towards language that would be described as Eastern. Researchers have begun to seriously investigate rhythms such as the fluctuation between activity and rest as nested within larger natural cycles of light and dark. As we stray from those nested hierarchies of natural rhythms, life-threatening imbalances occur in the body. Neuroendocrine glands such as the pituitary fail to produce sufficient melatonin, an important cancer-preventive antioxidant.

Suddenly the Eastern systems with their reliance on mysterious qi, strange descriptions of “too much wind” and “insufficient yin” start to make sense as a cultural expression of bioenergetic balancing of the body’s physical and emotional health.

Red Reishi: King of the Balancing Natural Compounds

That is why so much of the research world has turned its gaze toward the top dog of “rebalancers” – the highly valued Red Resihi mushroom, used for over 2,000 years by traditional Chinese and Japanese healers. Once so difficult to obtain, it was reserved for royalty only, but one Japanese laboratory (Mikkei Manufacturing) is now able to cultivate Red Reishi essence within the last 25 years, guaranteeing quality amounts of the therapeutic compounds (polysaccarchides, beta-glucans, and ganoderic acid).

This amazing mushroom can strengthen the body’s response to disease-causing processes, rebuilding and restoring immune system function, and improving your overall ability to cope with life’s stresses-mental, physical and environmental.

As the most valued adaptogenic herb in nature, Red Resishi enhances energy levels if you’re feeling run down and stagnant, or helps to calm you if you’re irritable and wired. Again,adaptogens supply whatever is needed, working to balance the body in ways that have never been duplicated by pharmaceutical drugs.

Wide Range of Benefits

Today, the brunt of research explores the tremendous immune system enhancement by Red Reishi. The extract has been shown in both animal and in vitro studies to improve the action of immune system cells: natural killer, lymphocytes, macrophages and cytokines, thereby improving your ability to resist colds, flu, and other viral and bacterial infections.

Red Reishi has also been cited as a potent anti-inflammatory agent, helping calm the multitude of ailments that arise from chronic inflammation, such as arthritis and allergies.

New research in blood sugar control with people who have Type 2 diabetes looks very promising. One study concluded that the administration of Reishi extract in animals caused a decrease in the blood sugar levels. With the dire predictions of obesity rates climbing and contributing to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, it’s more important than ever to lower our excessive blood sugar levels through exercise, proper diet and now, with the powerful Japanese Red Reishi essence, available in capsule form from Mikei.

New research has also shown that Red Reishi can:

Play a significant role in helping the body to detoxify, providing protection for the accumulation of toxins, and helping to assist the body’s metabolic burn of fat;

Assist in the process of renewal of 30 trillion cells per year;

Strengthen the body’s resistance to allergies, bronchitis, viral infections;

Help with mood and appetite control;

Bolster mental alertness;

Increase energy, vitality and mental alertness;

Help decrease high blood pressure;

Help present platelet aggregation (excessive clotting); and

Help lower triglycerides and cholesterol.

More than anything, Japanese Red Reishi can work fast to help you combat stress. With our minds and bodies undergoing a continuous tyranny of daily stressors and growing demands, we need a natural substance that can help us retain brain function, ward off premature again, help retain memory and make us feel vital well into old age.

In many ways, Western medicine and Eastern medicine are joining forces to validate what ancient healers have long known-that life requires balance. Make Japanese Red Reishi a central pillar in your commitment to daily balance, and enjoy your healthiest potential.

By Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, Medical Anthropologist and Global Medicine Hunter

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meg_Jordan