The Science behind Medicinal Mushrooms

Today's post is an extract from 'Medicinal Mushrooms - The Essential Guide' by Martin Powell and describes their incredible healing properties.

Mushrooms are part of the fungal kingdom. As such they are more closely related to humans and other members of the animal kingdom than to plants and, partly because of this relative evolutionary closeness, a large number of the compounds they produce show physiological activity in humans as well as other animals.

Indeed many of the top-selling pharmaceutical products are derived from mushrooms and other fungi, including the major antibiotics as well as statin-class compounds such as Lovastatin and Simvastatin.

Of course mushrooms do not produce these compounds for our benefit but rather to give themselves an advantage in the competition with other micro-organisms for food and resources and as such many show anti-microbial activity, either as antibiotics or as anti-fungal agents⁴.

Breast Cancer Seminar Review 2014: The Importance of Exercise

Today's post discusses the importance of exercise to cancer patients at any stage of recovery, drawing on talks given by Ted Poulter, physical activity adviser to Macmillan, and Barbara Gallani, yoga specialist, at our recent July 2014 seminar ' Breast Cancer - The Power of Choice'. If you are interested in putting some of these ideas into practice, Barbara is running a specialised yoga workshop with us on Monday 13th October, for more information and a link to buy tickets please see our events page here.

As more and more studies are showing, exercise is an entirely natural and harm-free way to effectively support cancer treatment and recovery. At our major annual seminar we were fortunate to hear from two experts, Ted Poulter and Barbara Gallani, who offered practical advice on how to go about improving health with physical activity.

Ted is a senior adviser for Macmillan and having been through cancer treatment himself, offered a very personal understanding and overview of the importance of physical activity for recovery. Ted began by admitting it was a lot easier to preach than to practice but by the end of his talk it was clear that this was an effort worth making. Studies by the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) shows that exercise has no adverse effects and can improve health in many areas including aerobic capacity, muscular strength, reducing fatigue, slowing disease progression and contributing to protection from recurrence. Benefits have been studied in breast, colorectal, prostate and haematological cancer (which account for 50% of cancers in the UK) and particularly in breast cancer.

You've Kicked Cancer's Butt...So Now What?

Today's post is by Gloria Halim, holistic health coach, founder of Rock On Divas and author of 'Healing Foods Healthy Foods'. She writes about her experiences improving well-being and why if you are in need of a boost, the Rock On Divas Renew & Energize Retreat (19th-20th September) could be just for you!

I started on my health and wellness journey after being diagnosed and going through breast cancer treatment five years ago. Coming to the end of major treatment, I started asking questions and doing research into how I could heal and stay healthy after treatment. I needed to do something in order to keep myself from walking this cancer treatment journey ever again. Through my research and studying, I found there was a lot I could do and the place to start was to change my diet and lifestyle.