Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma Lucidum, lingzhi)
Updated 27 May 2014: Now Chaga, not Reishi: For some reason, Reishi didn’t work for my hayfever this year. Maybe I should have increased the dose, I don’t know. I decided to stop taking Reishi after I read that it had estrogenic properties and people with estrogen-positive breast cancer should not take Reishi. I was disappointed because it had worked so well last year. Quite by chance, I was taking another mushroom, Chaga, from Oriveda. I had to up the dose because I caught a cold. I was taking 9 capsules, 3 times a day. Result: still had cold. But no hayfever. I’ll keep you posted whether it’s a real “cure” or not. You can buy the same very high-potency Chaga extract from Oriveda.nl.
Updated 20 March 2014 – unfortunately, the Reishi hasn’t worked so far this year. I started taking it at the first signs of the Spring hayfever season, and I’m still getting hayfever. I’m going to ramp up the dose and see what happens. It could be that last year I was having acupuncture weekly, then every fortnightly. And also taking TCM herbs. It was also after the mastectomy so perhaps less tumour burden meant the body wasn’t in such an inflammatory state and the Th1/Th2 balance was … in balance. Stay tuned.
This week, for the first time in 20 years, I slept with the windows wide open, in the middle of a blazing hot summer.
(So what’s so unusual about that?)
Well, in previous years, sleeping with the windows open would have meant breathing in lungfuls of pollen-laden air, triggered by traffic fumes, and suffering from hayfever.
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