Fight Colds With Mushrooms to Strengthen Immune System

I’ve been a huge fan of including mushrooms into my diet since childhood. Best mushrooms for flu and infections could be easily included into a regular everyday diet.

To tell you the truth, I do not get these flu shots at all. I totally rely on my knowledge and experience of herbal remedies, some coming from such afar as my childhood! I guess we learn and remember what our mom did when we were sick and carry this knowledge with us throughout life.



It’s incredible how much we depend on antibiotics and similar remedies in medical innovations. In many instances these drugs are abused to the point that our human race has become resistant to them. That’s when a real scare steps in. The point at which we do not respond to drugs created specifically to treat contagious diseases and life-threatening conditions.

Remember that MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infection that used to occur only in hospital settings? Now, it pops up in healthy people in our living communities.

Such ease in spreading and resistance to medication are the result of multiple variables that play out in real life situations. And there is no single answer why it happens.

Do Mushrooms Fight Flu?

Without doubt, there are natural remedies and supplements that arm our immune system with natural respondents. With them, we go through flu, colds and other infections much easier and with a better attitude.

My long-time interest has been mushroom-based supplements. To be more specific the AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compound.) While it sounds long and very scary, it is an extract obtained from a hybridization of several subspecies of mushroom mycelia.

What is impressive about this supplement is that it is used in over 1000 clinics worldwide as a standard preventative regimen for all incoming patients to reduce the risk of hospital infections. WOW! Did you know about that?

How Mushrooms Boost Our Immunity

By the myriad of clinical trials on animals and human subjects (over 50 on humans), AHCC has been proven to have no side effects and safe. Plus, it’s proven that AHCC  extract increases vital activities within a cell.

• Cytokine production. Cytokines are chemical messengers that help immune cells communicate and coordinate an immune response.
• NK cell activity. NK cells are white blood cells that help your body fight all the pathogens when they invade it.
• Macrophage populations. Macrophages are white blood cells that ingest bacteria and cellular by-products.
• Dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are white blood cells that help your body to identify infection and organize the response to it.
• T cell numbers and their activity. T cells are white blood cells that recognize the previous invaders within your body and thus prepared to fight them off quickly.

I’ve taken AHCC to support and boost my immune system for the upcoming flu season and beyond. It’s like my daily vitamin for the immune system. It is important to prepare your immune system well before the flu seasons is upon us. I begin my mushroom supplementation about three months prior the regular influenza season and continue throughout the season.

Check out mushroom powder supplements for immunity.

Products Made with Medicinal Mushrooms

You might be interested to explore other personal product categories and supplements that use medicinal mushrooms to fight cold and flu. To name a few categories, look up these products with mushrooms as active ingredients.

– Body Deodorizer
– Anti-aging Support
– Digestive Support
– Prostate Health
– Women’s Health
– Weight Loss and Mood Support

Best Mushrooms to Fight Influenza

If you are a person looking for natural remedies to fight flu and cold, then including different mushrooms into your daily diet is a must.

Usually, the American diet has a tunnel vision when it comes to the variety of vegetables we include into our meal prep. We are probably more familiar with white mushrooms, Portobello mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms. But what about a rich variety of this incredible fungus family that offers natural remedies to strengthen our immunity system?

Mushrooms are a wealth of storage of such micronutrients like magnesium, zinc, selenium that are known to fight flu and make flu and cold symptoms significantly milder.

You may consider and seek these immune boosting mushrooms in your local stores and markets. If for some reason you cannot find fresh mushrooms, go after dried mushrooms. I have a large container with dried mushrooms I use in my soups, salads, dips.

Mushrooms like you see in the list below are potent warehouses of the chemicals that fight colds, flu, and infections. These gifts from nature are effective in strengthening our immune system and can be easily stored in your kitchen pantry.

– Maitake mushrooms
– Reishi mushrooms
– Shiitake mushrooms
– Chaga mushrooms
– Cordyceps mushrooms
– Oyster mushrooms
– Lion’s Mane mushrooms

Shiitake Mushrooms Snacks

When you want to boost your well-being with the foods you consume, include mushrooms. Shiitake, reishi, lion’s mane mushrooms make a great snack during the day. Today you can find quality mushroom snacks and foods to compliment your dietary needs.

Vegetarians, vegans, workout fans rejoice! High in protein and abundant in micronutrients, mushrooms present an undeniably rich food source. Check out the flavors and variety of shiitake mushrooms snacks HERE.

How To Choose the Best Mushroom Products

When I am looking for the mushroom product, I make sure that it is grown organically. I also look at the Ingredients list to see if there’s any breakdown mentioning beta glucans in an individual dose.

The companies who care about the efficacy of their products will provide this information on the label. In addition, you can request a third-party testing documentation for the product purity. Usually, the companies try to offer such documentation on their websites. As a result, you are going to purchase a mushroom product that is of quality, safety and efficacy.

Mushrooms are rich in the medicinal compounds.

When you are looking for a mushroom product, be aware that some products are NOT really mushrooms. Rather, such bogus products are the mycelium spawn on grain that has been made into a powder form and sold under the pretense label.

Check out the next section that explains how further to detect a misrepresented mushroom supplement.

What to Look for In A Mushroom Supplement

Real mushrooms are very aromatic and have medicinal qualities. A mushroom product will have a distinctive mushroomy smell and flavor.

A mushroom is called a “fruiting body.”

Grain is usually used as a carrier material to grow mushrooms. Once it’s colonized with mushroom myselium culture, it is called grain spawn.

The fact is that the majority of companies is selling a mycelium on grain, rather than pure mushrooms or mycelium spawn (the networks, the roots from where a mushroom grows from). In fact, many products consist of the powdered grain with some mushroom mycelium mixed into it. As a result, the efficacy of such mushroom supplements are greatly diminished.

If you taste a mushroom product and it tastes sweet, then you are probably tasting the carbohydrates coming from the grain on which the mushrooms have been grown.

Some companies specialize on growing grain spawn and then make it into powder. It doesn’t make such powder a quality mushroom supplement, though.