Annanda Mushroom Forum - Mushroom Blog

AS THE COVID-19 vaccine rollout gathers pace, a population is at risk of being left behind: the millions of people around the globe who lack fully functional immune systems. While the exact number of the immunocompromised worldwide is unknown, estimates suggest that about 10 million live in the U.S. alone, or around 3 percent of the national population. The number encompasses a diverse range of vulnerabilities, including rare genetic immune deficiencies, chronic illnesses that impair the immune system such as rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer and organ-transplant patients who must take immune-suppressing medications. For them, vaccines will not be effective, because they are incapable of making...

Why Fungi is Essential to Life on Earth As you read these words, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years. They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing plants, surviving in space, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behavior, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Fungi make up one of life’s kingdoms – as broad and busy a category as plants or animals and provide a key to understanding our planet. Yet fungi have received only a small fraction of the attention they deserve. The best estimate suggests...

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were vitamin D sufficient, with a blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of at least 30 ng/mL (a measure of vitamin D status), had a significant decreased risk for adverse clinical outcomes including becoming unconscious, hypoxia (body starved for oxygen) and death. In addition, they had lower blood levels of an inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) and higher blood levels of lymphocytes (a type of immune cell to help fight infection). “This study provides direct evidence that vitamin D sufficiency can reduce the complications, including the cytokine storm (release of too many proteins into the blood too quickly) and ultimately...

As we all do our best to safeguard ourselves from the perils of the pandemic, keeping our immune system healthy is one of the best ways to prevent infections. While we know how beneficial vitamin C, zinc and other anti-viral foods can be, the benefits of another nutrient-selenium are not as widely known.  Benefits of Selenium  Selenium is a nutrient which we take in through our diet. While selenium as a trace mineral doesn't get a lot of attention, it plays a super helpful role in keeping our metabolism in check, boosting immunity, regulating thyroid function, improving brain health and...