Medicinal Mushrooms For Dogs: Multi-Dimensional Healing

When it comes to natural healing for your dog, you can’t go wrong with mushrooms. There have been tons of amazing results using mushrooms as a natural remedy for many different health issues, from regulating blood pressure to treating cancer.

There’s not any one plant that can do as much as a mushroom can, they’re miracle plants.

Mushrooms are really versatile natural plants and they serve four major functions:

Prevention (disease)
Regeneration (cells)
Protection (cancer, radiation)
Intervention (treatment)

This is because of their nutritional value. They contain:

Minerals: potassium, selenium, sulfur, sodium, geranium, zinc, phosphorus
Sugars: mannitol, xylose, glucose, galactose, mannose
Vitamins: B complex, folic acid, pro-vitamin D
Protein: essential amino acids
Enzymes: antibacterial, proteolytic
Lipids: phospholipids, sterols, sterol esters, free fatty acids, mono-, di- and triglycerides
Polysaccharides: glycogen, beta-D-glucans, chitin
Essential oils: triterpenes

Medicinal Mushrooms For Dogs

Reishi, Shiitake, Maitake, Turkey Tail and Cordyceps: These are the power mushrooms. Research shows they can improve immune system function and have a wide range of other important health benefits for your dog. You can combine them to get the different benefits and support the healing properties of each one.

1. Reishi Mushrooms

Reishi mushrooms are known as the mushroom of immortality. They have anti-tumor effects, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and immune-stimulating properties. This makes them great for boosting overall health.

In dogs, reishi mushrooms are used to:

Help improve heart health
Improve immune system function
Improve liver function
Inhibit antihistamine release
Improve endurance
Relieve pain

Reishi mushrooms are typically used to treat:

Cancer
Heart disease
Arthritis
Allergies
Viral upper respiratory tract infections
Compromised immune systems

2. Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms have 30 different enzymes and 10 amino acids. They also have minerals like calcium, zinc, magnesium, iron and selenium. That makes them really useful when it comes to your dog’s health (and your own for that matter).

They stimulate white blood cells and improve circulation. They can also inhibit tumor growth and lower cholesterol.

Shiitake mushrooms are used to:

Reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation
Treat Cushing’s disease
Help soothe bronchial inflammation
Regulate urinary incontinence
Reduce allergy symptoms

3. Maitake Mushrooms

Maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese. These mushrooms are known to stimulate t-cells, inhibit tumor growth and lower cholesterol.

Maitake mushrooms are good for:

Preventing cancer
Supporting the body during chemotherapy and other cancer treatment
Helping manage diabetes
Supporting dogs with liver problems

4. Turkey Tail

Turkey tail mushrooms are full of beta-glucan polysaccharides. These are the essential sugars in the body that aid in activating the immune system. This can help protect the body from infection and fight off disease.

A study done by the Veterinary School at the University of Penn State looked at dogs with hemangiosarcoma. This is a common cancer found almost exclusively in dogs. Dogs treated with a compound derived from the turkey tail mushroom had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with the disease.

But these mushrooms are good for more than just cancer. Turkey tail mushrooms can:

Help heal pulmonary disorders
Treat the inflammation of the urinary and digestive tracts
Decrease the effects of chemotherapy and radiation

5. Cordyceps Mushrooms

Wild cordyceps mushrooms actually grow on caterpillars. This makes them really expensive to harvest. Luckily, they’re also cultivated by growers. Although cultivated mushrooms may not be quite as potent as wild ones, they’re way more wallet friendly.

Cordyceps have antifungal and antibacterial properties. They also Studies show that cordyceps mushrooms have impressive antitumor properties. They can protect against liver and heart disease as well.

Cordyceps are also good for treating: