Mushrooms for Gut Health | Short

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog.

Through an herbal lens.

So let's get to it and dive right in.

Welcome to another herbal short.

This is Rita.

I'm back. We are talking today about. About gut health in our herbal short. So I received an email from Veronica and she wanted to know about mushrooms in the gut. She said, I've been following you for a while, love what you do, and I never miss an episode. Thank you, Veronica. Please share, please share. I was wondering if you could talk about medicinal mushrooms for gut issues. I would love to try them for my dog, but it's very unclear to me what would be the right choice. We're going to talk about that today, Veronica. So let's get going. We don't have a lot of time. These are nice, shareable little bites of information that you can use, guys. Okay, so before we start talking about mushrooms, just want to quickly thank my sponsor for our shorts. Without them, this would not be possible. So I like to do a little explanation. I'm not into that kind of advertising where you're just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you know, you know, you pause that. Anyways, right, so earthbuddypet.com EarthBuddy is our sponsor for our shorts right now and they sent me a great box like I told you on the last episode of our shorts. And gut health, they have a little package called gut health 300 milligram. And it is a combination of colostrum, which is good at increasing IgA and glycocalyx in the gut. Whole plant hemp extract, full spectrum, which has cbd, cannabinoids and terpenes in it. They have an excellent extraction process that uses low temp and actually sub zero temperatures. And so it's a very low heat activation of the constituents. I like this product and it's not for everyone. They add some organic blueberry powder in there that's kind of like an inactive ingredient. But blueberry powder has its own, you know, anti inflammatory, antioxidant, special sauce. Right? So Colostrum is really good for dogs that are more cool. Definitely warm dogs can have it. I wouldn't use it for dogs that are more hot. They definitely need to cool that gut down, cool the body down before you're gonna give them colostrum. Because, you know, think of it, you know, warming Colostrum would obviously be more on the warming side because It's a building, nourishing substance. So this is good at working with the gut, definitely. So check them out. Earthbuddypet.com they have a coupon for us folk out here. It is a 20% discount for listeners. I appreciate that, you guys at Earthbuddy for that. We all love discounts. Herbal buddy 20 all together, all lowercase. Herbal buddy 20.

Okay, let's get back to this question.

What mushrooms are good for the gut and how you can use them for your dog? So mushrooms for the gut are actually quite effective. And you know, there's lots and lots of issues that can go along with the word gut, right? Lots of issues people can think about leaky gut. And that's basically brush border weakness in the brush border of the intestinal tract. Okay? That's leaky gut, where the brush border is weak. And it allows things through that barrier and into the bloodstream where it wreaks havoc on our immune system and causes inflammation. All right, and then a lot of you have heard about probiotics and prebiotics. Well, one of the cool things about mushrooms is that a lot of them are prebiotic. They feed probiotics so they can go along with adding that diversity in the gut. And remember, if you're using whole mushrooms, you need to make sure A, they're not toxic, B, that you cook them very well because they have this thing called chitin, which Lion's mane is 100% water soluble, so it doesn't have that. But the main mushrooms that we're thinking about, like reishi, turkey tail, shiitake, chaga, maitake, they have chitin in them and you need to break that down and hot water will do that. So you need to make a, what's called a mushroom decoction, if they're whole mushrooms and simmer them for a good 45 minutes to an hour, in my opinion, to get really, get the good, the good juju out of it. But medicinal mushrooms are really high in prebiotics and they definitely can help reduce inflammation. They can strengthen the gut lining and they improve the overall microbiome, okay? The microbiota, they, they increase it. The microbiome needs variety, variety, variety, variety. Probiotics are awesome, but you don't want your dog to be like, dominant in one type of probiotic, right? So you want to give variety in probiotics and you want to give a variety of foods that are going to feed the gut. Every choice that you make and your dog makes in through your mouth is a choice for a good microbiome, okay? And the microbiome completely changes day to day, depending on what you're eating and what you're feeding. The first mushroom I want to talk about is very popular. It's reishi mushroom. Reishi is slightly warming, not too warming, just slightly. So for those of you that follow my energetics course on k9herbalism.com you're, you know, you'll want to focus on more cooling dogs, slightly warm dogs, you know, just warm, kind of very healthy. Reishi would be fine. And reishi can also be in a formula that kind of cools its warming energetics down too. So, you know, there's ways to use it if you have a. A pretty warm dog, if it's well indicated. Remember, all herbs need to be well indicated for your own individual dog. But Reishi's really good at improving the diversity of bacteria in the gut. And when you improve the diversity in the gut in a positive way, you can reduce inflammation. And it can also help the gut bring down, like the possibility of getting H. Pylori bacteria. It's actually very good when you're doing H. Pylori treatments. And that's for people and dogs. Dogs can get H. Pylori. And reishi is an adaptogen, okay? It helps people and dogs deal with stress. And when you can deal with stress, your gut's going to function better. When you're not in fight or flight, when you're not feeling anxious, your gut is going to function better. Okay. And when you have things like brush border barrier weakness or leaky gut, okay, you have things that are spilling out into the bloodstream, and that is going to mess with the immune system. And one of the things that reishi can do is it can modulate the immune system, which means that it's going to help adjust the immune system to your dog's needs. Okay? To your dog's needs. And that's going to help with constipation or, and, or diarrhea, skin issues, liver issues. These are all things that are intertwined with the immune system. So is reishi good for leaky gut? Absolutely. One of the downfalls of reishi mushroom is that it is really bitter. Okay? Really bitter. So your dog's probably not going to just lick it off your hand or take the hot water extracted powder. I recommend real mushrooms, Reishi powder, or reishi pills. I carry those in my store. That's canineherbalist.com and or going to realmushrooms.com they're also a sponsor of my longer podcasts. So reishi can really help Tighten up that intestinal lining and fortify the brush barrier in the gut, okay? And that improves or brings down intestinal permeability, which is key to having a healthy gut. Another thing that Reishi does is it's an antifungal, so it can help with any type of candida overgrowth as well as supporting the kidneys, the liver, and systemic inflammation. Another mushroom that is really good for the gut, and this goes along with being really good for the body, and it's nice and neutral, so it's good for any energetic longer term. It's turkey tail, okay? Turkey tail mushroom is awesome because it's really great at feeding the microbiota, your dog's microbiome, and it helps proliferate Lactobacillus and Bifobacterium, kind of those groups of microbes in the gut. These are really good, healthy bacteria strains that need support so that they, they show and reflect variety. And turkey tail mushrooms are a wonderful way to get those bacteria fed. Okay? So getting enough prebiotics is really important. And a variety of prebiotics and turkey tail can be part of that. They really help, you know, those two strains, Lactobacillus and Bifobacterium, they help proliferate commensal good bacteria, okay. But they also reduce the number of bad bacteria in the gut. The little nasties that you don't want too many of, okay. We don't want to completely eradicate the nasties because it is about balance in the gut, okay? It's about balance. We just don't want them like overgrowth in the gut. Okay? And how does turkey tail do this? Turkey tail does this because it is super high in polysaccharides, okay. And it also has fructilogosaccharides and it's chock full of beta glucans, okay? And these things support a healthy immune system and ding, ding, ding. Over 80% of our immune system and our dog's immune system is gut bound, okay. That's why they call it the gut brain, because it has that affinity towards the brain. Your gut actually creates and makes serotonin and also B vitamins and vitamin K and different types of vitamins and minerals are dependent on a good healthy gut microbiome. Crazy. But as science really is propelling these different types of situations that we're trying to understand that make a huge difference in our lives and our dogs lives. And basically, you know, when you're going from just existing to thriving, and having a thriving existence for our dogs really means feeding variety and getting the microbiome healthy. All right, so two starter mushrooms, Reishi mushroom and Turkey tail mushroom. Check these out, see if they're well indicated for your dog. I have a mushroom episode that you can also check out that talks more about the indications for those mush for for your dog and those mushrooms. Again, turkey tail is nice neutral and Reishi is slightly warming.

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Individuals Podcast and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode. Episode the content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or healthcare provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not.

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