Mushrooms Oh My!

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 almost 20 years. This podcast is all about seeing our dogs as individuals through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Welcome to the second episode of the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm here with you, Rita Hogan. I am a holistic canine herbalist, and I'm here to share some ramblings. Definitely. It's been a wonderful week of learning, of working with clients and working on my new book, the Herbal Dog, which should be out towards the end of next year. One thing I'm going to ask you guys to do is to go to my website@canineherbalist.com and click the Herbal Dog. And please sign up as interested for my book. This is going to help me a lot in working as a new author in the publishing world, so if you could do that for me, that would be wonderful. For those of you on social media, you can follow me on Instagram 9Herbalist, and also on Facebook. I have a business page and that can be found@facebook.com Canine herbalist okay, so let's get started. We're going to talk about mushrooms on the podcast today. And I absolutely love mushrooms. They're not an herb per se, they're a fungi. But they have some really great benefits for dogs. So a few years ago, I was at the Olympia Theater here in my town of Olympia, Washington, that I adore. Paul Stamens was debuting his movie called Fantastic Bungee. I highly recommend it. Paul is a researcher and he's a grower, and he's a mover and shaker in the mushroom world. He lives about the 35, 40 minutes from my house here. He lives in Shelton, Washington. And he's really brought to light the fact that mammals actually have more in common with fungi than they do plants. And that's through shared bioidentical molecules, like our DNA and, like, our dog's DNA. And this likeness really makes fungi a really powerful ally. And it really opens up, up the conversation for using mushrooms for disease prevention and definitely for support for diseases like cancer and autoimmune disease. There are actually over, like 100,000 species of mushrooms known to science, and those are only the ones that they know. And we tend to focus on a few of them. And that is what we know today. So things like cordyceps mushroom, lion's mane mushroom, maitake poria reishi, I think there's like, oh, shiitake and tremellia and turkey tail. So those are the ones that we focus on. I know turkey tail is very popular. When my late partner had cancer in 2013, we put her on turkey tail right away. Very large amounts of it, like 4 to 6 grams a day. It really helped her in her cancer journey to stay alive. It was a huge component of her herbal protocol. And medicinal mushrooms activate the immune system's killer cells and they help provide protection as well as bring down inflammation, which is a key component of any successful herbal treatment. In my opinion. It's definitely a key component in successful cancer treatment. What's special about mushrooms is that they work with the body's immune system, causing cancer cell death and they help keep healthy cells protected. So certain species, like shiitake and reishi mushroom, these mushrooms work synergistically together. That means that they work kind of better together than apart. And that of course is condition specified. Like that's not the case in all of the uses that you're going to use reishi or shiitake for. Like you're not always going to blend them together, but they work really well together for cancer because they amplify their effect. What you want to remember about mushrooms is that each species has their own unique mechanisms of action and constitution constituents and different ways that they affect the immune system. One thing to note about mushrooms is they don't stimulate the immune system, as a lot of people believe. Medicinal mushrooms are immune modulators, meaning they support and they kind of fine tune the immune system, which optimizes it to destroy pathogens and definitely helps destroy cancer cells. So it's mushrooms are definitely one of those things that you really want on your side if your dog is dealing with cancer or if you're dealing with cancer. I know that this podcast is all about dogs from an herbal lens, but I will be mentioning people in here because, you know, we are such a part of our dogs lives and if we're not healthy, then we can't, you know, we can't care for our animals, so. So we have to care for ourselves too. Mushrooms are made up of mycelium fruiting bodies, which is the above ground parts. And they have lots of constituents and each constituent really differs from mushroom to mushroom. The mushroom fruiting body is nutrient dense. It contains B vitamins and vitamin D, linoleic acids, minerals, proteins and and most importantly, polysaccharides. The mycelium. Mushrooms and fungi include like this network and it's called a mycelium and it resembles the nervous system and it's Located in the substrate, under the fruiting body or in the ground. So within the mycelium is the beginnings and the constituents for mushroom body formation. Okay, and one thing, not all mycelium has an active mushroom formation. So not all mycelium create fruiting bodies. The mushrooms that we are dealing with right now, mycelium takes in and it breaks down nutrients, it gives life to the fruiting body, it has bacteria that helps the mushrooms ecosystem survive and it digests nutrients, it keeps predators away and it produces fruit, which is the fruiting body. So I think these functions, I think mushrooms and how they interact with our planet give great promise, I think, to helping our dogs and ourselves. Some mushrooms can help heal the digestive system, others support the microbiome. Many will support things like cancer and autoimmune disease. And from a holistic standpoint, that's fantastic. I want to talk about mycelium for a second. I think it's gotten a really negative wrap and a lot of negative exposure. And mycelium is definitely a topic of much debate amongst mycologists and those are people who study mushrooms. So from a holistic perspective, I don't think it's the mycelium that's the issue. It's the substrate. Where the mycelium is grown, where the mushrooms are grown that is more of a concern. Mycelium consumption actually is very mushroom specific. So for example, chaga mushroom is mycelium. When it's found in the wild, it's not a fruiting body and it's from my understanding it's a parasitic fungus that grows on birch trees. So many mycelium products are grown on grain substrates like rice and oats. Grain grown mycelium are ground into powders and I think misleadingly sold as real fruiting body mushrooms. Like for instance, a product that will not be named, but that I have in my possession has turkey tail mushrooms as the ingredient. But when you look at the mushroom powder, it is not turkey tail, it is ground up grain sold as turkey tail mushrooms. So there's a lot of deceit in the mushroom commercial world and that has brought up a lot of issues with talking about mycelium. Because what some companies will do is they'll grow their mushrooms in mycelium, they will grind up the grain and my ciliated, well, it's called my ciliated rice or you know, oats, and then they will market them as whole fruiting bodies. And that is the issue there because you're getting something that you really are not. So my ciliated rice has beta glucan content and beta glucans is a constituent that you really want a high volume of in your mushroom product. And my ciliated rice specifically forms a chemical called and I'm going to annihilate this, so just brace yourself. Arabino xylenes. And I'm sure that's really not what it, what the real word is, but we're going to spell it for you. A, R, A B, I, N, O, X, Y, L, A, N, E, S. It's produced by enzymes which digest and kind of expand the mycelium body. And studies show that it can help enhance immunological responses. But I think more diverse research is needed. Some myceliated products are excellent and considerably enhance immune activity, in my opinion. But, but due to the market hype, you have to know the company you're purchasing from. Good mushroom product companies will ferment the mycelium substrate. And that's a really important part of the immunological results of mycelium based mushroom products. In fact, studies have shown that when the rice substrate is unfermented, there's no significant immune activity detected. And that's very important to know. So mycelium based mushroom products can vary. The only mycelium based mushroom product that I use is Host Defense, which is made by Paul Stamets here in the Pacific Northwest. Paul has a very holistic approach for mushroom products in that many of his products include the mycelium, the fermented mycelium as well as the fruiting body. So it's a lot of the whole constituents of the fungi and that's just one aspect and it depends on what you're using it for. So another commercial product that I use is from realmushrooms.com these are fruiting body products and I have had really good results with them and I've had really good results with the host events product as well. So what you really want to look for in many mushroom commercial mushroom products is what is called hot water extraction. Hot water extraction is a process by which you're going to extract the polysaccharides and the beta glucans out of the mushroom product. And what companies will do is they will put them through the mushrooms, through hot water extraction and then dry it into a powder. And that's what you're getting when you are using mushroom products. You really want to ask the company, so is this hot water extracted? And then there's products like Adored Beast, which makes a liquid turkey tail and a liquid chaga extract. And those are Dual extracted. And that means they're extracted in water and alcohol, then the alcohol is evaporated off and the solution is preserved in glycerin. And I really like the Adored Beast mushroom products for the liquids. They're easy to administer and they have a lot of good uses. Another product I carry in my store is the Four Leaf Rover, Turkey Tail and Lion's Mane Mushroom. And this is hot water extracted and dried into a powder. Very high quality mushrooms. So there's a few that I use for dogs. I almost forgot another company that I use for mushrooms and that's Animal Essentials. I sell their Reishi, their Maitake and their Lion's Mane liquid extract. And again, like Adored Beast, they are using a hot water extraction. And then I believe that they use alcohol and then evaporate the alcohol off and preserve it in glycerin. These, the Adored Beast, the Four Leaf Rover, the Animal Essentials, they're all very good mushroom products for sure. And there's also other ones out there. But don't be afraid to ask the manufacturer their process if they are dual extracted or hot water extracted, because if it's not on the label, I would definitely question what is going on because it, it needs to be on the label. Okay, so let's talk about mushroom constituents. So mushroom constituents, the fruiting body contains polysaccharides, which are very important when it comes to mushrooms. And one of the polysaccharides is called beta glucan, and that is the superpower in the mushroom. But you also have triterpenoids, you have glycoproteins, you have, there's some antibiotic content in mushrooms and some sterols. So polysaccharides are really diverse and responsible for the individual healing mechanisms of specific mushrooms. So that the polysaccharide content and what types of polysaccharides really determine what that mushroom is going to do inside the body. Again, the most active polysaccharide in medicinal mushrooms is the beta glucans. So mushrooms can also contain fiber, protein, vitamins, especially vitamin D and vitamin B. They also have vitamin C and are really high in antioxidants. Some mushrooms have kind of specialized constituents that, that can act as like super antioxidants and that helps prevent cancer. It also can help prevent cancer spreading, which is metasis. Beta glucans are definitely one of those heavy, heavy hitters in the cancer department. And they're definitely the most studied constituent of mushrooms. They're really a specific type of, of immune modulating polysaccharides that are found in the cell wall and the mycelium of the mushroom. Beta glucans can make up to like 50% of the cell wall structures, but this percentage will kind of fluctuate mushroom to mushroom. And the thing is, is that the polysaccharide content and the constituent content can definitely fluctuate from batch to batch when you're using commercial mushrooms, because natural products do fluctuate in their constituents and the level of those constituents. An example of this is oats. So oat beta glucans, you'll see, like, now that mushrooms are all the hype and that beta glucans are all the hype, right? You'll see other people promoting products that are high in beta glucons. And oats are one of those things. And oat beta glucans have what I would say, prebiotic functions. So they feed beneficial bacteria, but they don't directly interact with the immune system or immune function. And of course, I could be wrong about this because I could be wrong about so much.

But.

But please correct me if I'm wrong, because my research says that, no, the beta glucons from oats do not have the immune power that mushrooms do. An interesting fact in kind of like the systemic usage of mushrooms is that mammals have intestinal receptor sites for beta glucons. When these receptor sites are activated, they stimulate the production of white blood cells, natural killer cells, and macrophages, which are key to cancer prevention and also the treatment of disease and cancer. So fungal beta glucans increase immune activity throughout the body, and that is not true of oat beta glucons. The. The cool thing about mushroom based beta glucans is that they get broken down by the acids and enzymes in the digestive system. And these types of constituents will. Milk will basically mix with your dog's microbiome found in the mucous membranes of the large intestine. So this process supports gastrointestinal lymph tissue by breaking down polysaccharides and into what's called ogliosaccharides. And this causes the release of immune messengers. Those are called cytokines like interferon and interleukins. And both of these substances stimulate the migration of immune cells to other tissues, which in turn, this is going to build stronger defenses against pathogens, and that includes cancer cells. And that's why mushroom research is so important, important right now because it can really be a huge tool in your toolbox to help prevent disease and treat disease inside our canine friends. So I don't know if your head is hurting, but mine kind of is a little bit painful from all of the, you know, scientific speak that just came rambling out of my mouth. In the spirit of let's get to it, I think we should talk about specific mushrooms for a little bit. Right? First off, lion's mane mushroom. I actually use lion's mane for myself. It really does help my nervous system. Lion's mane helps gut inflammation, and it serves as a probiotic. It can help strengthen the intestinal lining, which is the mechanism in which it brings down inflammation in the gut. It also helps stop biofilm formation from. From dismantling its protective coating on different types of bacteria. And a lot of people don't know about that. So that's really good to know about lion's mane. It contains a high level of polysaccharides and it definitely enhances the immune system. You need a water extract for lion's mane, and the water extract has been shown in studies to increase natural killer cells. It increases interleukin 12 and interferon, making it a very powerful ally against certain types of cancer. It also has a strong nerve regeneration properties. There's very few things in the world that can regenerate nerves, and lion's mane is one of them. It's been scientifically proven for that. It helps coat the nerves and helps them communicate better, and. And it strengthens the myelithin sheath, which is the protective coating around nerve cells. I think the biggest thing that we all talk about in disease from a holistic perspective is inflammation. And chronic inflammation can damage the myelithin sheath in our dog's nervous systems, leading to nerve damage. The lion's main fruiting body helps protect and regenerate neuronal cells, nerve cells, and helps them produce what is called nerve growth factor. We'll just call that ngf. So NGF is definitely needed for proper functioning of nerve cells. And lion's mane mycelium produces a substance which helps NGF synthesis. And this is really important in nerve and brain injuries. So if you're looking for a product to support the nervous system to help prevent nervous system damage, then definitely use the fruiting body of lion's mane. But if you have brain damage and nerve damage that you're trying to work with, then I would combine both the lion's mane fruiting body with the mycelium. One thing to know about lion's mane is in the extraction process or what kind of product you're looking for is lion's mane is Fully water soluble. So that means it does not need alcoholic extraction. You can just use a hot water extract product. Some other uses of lion's mane is that it's anti tumor, it's antimicrobial, it's antibacterial, it's antifungal, it's really high in antioxidants, it's good for the lungs. It's definitely a cardiovascular tonic. It helps with digestion, Lyme related nerve support, Flea and tick pharmaceuticals, I definitely, if you're going to be giving flea and tick pharmaceuticals, I would give lion's mane mixed with milk thistle. Lion's mane can support the body at dealing with the flea and tickets pesticide. Because let's remember that all flea and tick medicines, the pharmaceutical medicines, are poisoned. And they are definitely, in my opinion, slowly poisoning your dog. So you want to protect the liver. And lion's mane in conjunction with milk thistle can help do that. The cancers that lion's mane has been studied for are colon cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and melanoma. The next mushroom I want to talk about is reishi mushroom. So in herbalism, I would definitely, I mean, we as herbalists refer to reishi mushroom is kind of the grandma mushroom, the foundational mushroom. Reishi. Reishi's energetics is neutral to warming. And it is warming, but I wouldn't say irritating. If it's well indicated. That means that it really, after you've done your research on reishi, you say, oh, you know, my dog kind of ticks all of these boxes. So reishi is really a multifaceted healer and it protects the liver and builds up weakened immune systems. And it supports really a healthy immune response by reducing autoimmune excess. And it also supports the circulatory system. So both the mycelium of reishi and the fruiting body are really rich in nutrients and some pretty powerful constituents. The mycelium contains alkaloids, lactones, polysaccharides, and different type of triterpenoids. So the fruiting body contains amino acids, steroids, vitamin B2 and vitamin C, things like manganese, iron, copper, zinc. And because rei is high in triterpenoids, it's also going to be high in antioxidants. And the fruiting body is very high in beta glucans, which is the superpower polysaccharide. So I think that reishi can be used for many issues that our dogs deal with. And why I say this is because of stress. So reishi is a known adaptogen and Reishi can help your dog deal with stress. It's really beneficial towards dogs who are always kind of on or stuck in what's called sympathetic excess. And they definitely need help to relax through parasympathetic, like parasympathetic activity, which is kind of accessing that vagal nervous system inside the gut. Reishi is also a very good anti histamine and it addresses mast cell proliferation. Mast cell tumors are a huge issue in dogs. We will eventually talk about mast cell tumors here on the podcast, but you definitely want to bring down histamine and naturally decreasing histamine is a lot better than giving antihistamines. So Reishi helps build immunity and increase natural killer cells, which help support cancer cell death and it reduces tumors and again helps stabilized mast cells, which can help bring down mast cell tumor. It's definitely one of the foundational ingredients in a lot of my mast cells tumor protocols. Reishi is high in beta glucans. It is an antibacterial. It's antifungal, it's antiviral, it's an antioxidant. A lot of mushrooms are. It can be used with autoimmune disease. It has some properties towards the lungs. It can help with lung weakness. It helps support the kidneys. It's good for dogs that have urinary tract infections, dogs that are dealing with nerve pain. I would mix it with lion's mane. It also has some liver support. It can definitely be an ally in dogs and people with high liver enzyme activity. Next year, I'm going to be coming out with a mushroom course on my course platform, which is canineherbalism.com and it'll be a course that really dives deep into each mushroom we use with our dogs. I literally could sit here and talk for about eight hours on mushrooms easily. Shiitake mushrooms are, I would say, neutral to warming in their energetics. Shiitake mushrooms are really packed with vitamins and they help create synergy in mushroom formulas. You'll see shiitake added to a lot of mushroom formulas. They're really high in B vitamins and calcium and vitamin D and fiber. And shiitakes help with oral health. One of the things that I love using shiitakes for is I will make a shiitake mushroom broth and I give it to my dogs and I also will spray it on their teeth. Shiitake helps fight plaque formation and it decreases pathogenic bacteria in the mouth. You can use a water extract for shiitakes, definitely. You can also look for a Dual extract of shiitake for the mouth, you can mix with probiotics like Adored Beast Love bugs for an added, I would definitely say an added boost. In my opinion, both the shiitake fruity body and the shiitake mycelium are beneficial. Like reishi, shiitake is an anti inflammatory. It's antioxidant, it's antifungal. It's really great for dogs and people that have high cholesterol and high triglycerides. It helps with arthritis, it's good for constipation. It's a really great prebiotic. If you're giving the fruiting body, it's definitely an immunomodulator. It's nutritive and like lion's mane. And when combined with lion's mane, it's really great for cognition and dementia. One of the things that you have to be concerned about when using shiitake is that it can interfere with blood thinners. So you want to make sure that your dog isn't using blood thinners if they're taking shiitake. And this is true of a lot of herbs. So if you, your dog or yourself is on blood thinners, always make sure that the herbs that you're consuming don't interfere. From a cancer perspective, shiitake helps produce what is called alpha interferon, which prevents cancer in general, but it also reduces the body's inflammation response. Shiitake mushrooms can help increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation. So it is one of those mushrooms like turkey tail, that you can give if you know someone who is choosing to do both radiation and or chemo. As far as cancer research goes, shiitake has been studied for breast cancer, mammary cancer, prostate cancer, and sarcoma. Okay, so our next mushroom is very popular and, and it seems to be getting more popular by the day. So that is turkey tail. Turkey tail is a very sustainable mushroom. Its energetics are neutral, very high in antioxidants, which helps bring down inflammation, and it definitely supports liver detoxification. Turkey tail mushrooms support the immune system and they do this prolifically and it helps the immune system adapt, which definitely supports our dog's entire ecosystem. So turkey tails really help decrease the effects of radiation, and they can also help protect our dogs against electromagnetic frequencies like from our cell phones and our Internet. One of the benefits that I love about turkey tail is that it helps commensal bacteria, the good bacteria in our dog's intestinal walls proliferate. So it helps, it kind of serves as a type of probiotic. In that it helps the bacteria kind of really grow and adhere to the gut wall. This process helps restore the gut health in our dogs while having literally a positive systemic effect like better kidney health and better liver function. Turkey tails are super high in polysaccharides. And like shiitake and reishi mushroom, turkey tail is anti inflammatory, it has some antibacterial properties. It's very good at helping with arthritis and coughing, definitely with cancer and fungal infections like candida overgrowth. Turkey tail is immunomodulating, it helps with autoimmune, it can be given with dogs with autoimmune disease. It can help with itching. And because of its effect on the gut, it's good for dogs with leaky gut as well as helping lipomas or kind of keeping lipomas from proliferating from getting bigger. Okay. And I've also seen turkey tail shrink lipomas. So this is very dog specific in my opinion. But turkey tail, because of its neutral energetics, is definitely one of those mushrooms that I include in almost every one of my lipoma protocols. Turkey tail also has a good affinity towards the liver and it can help with dogs that have high liver enzymes because it really does help the liver break down toxins. From a cancer standpoint, which a lot of turkey tail's research focuses on, it's chemo protective, it can help protect the body against the negative effects of chemotherapy and it can improve chemotherapy's outcome. Turkey tail improves cancer cell death, plain and simple. Research shows it, it helps prevent metasis and it increases natural killer cells in the body. It definitely has been shown to inhibit tumor growth, which I feel that is one of the aspects where it shines in lipoma formation, that affinity towards the liver and the inhibiting of tumor growth. It's good for the lungs, it's good for the ovaries, the urinary system. It's definitely a wonderful herb that can play a part in, in the treatment and I guess elongation of life from hemangiosarcoma. It's been studied for sarcoma, it's been studied for breast cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. So when using turkey tail for cancer, I would definitely use both the fruiting body and the mycelium. If you can find clean, a clean mycelium source, and I would reach out to Paul Stamen's company for that, for that question. But if you're going to use turkey tail for cancer, you want to use it in really high levels. So 1 to 5 grams twice a day, depending on the size of your dog. I just want to clarify my recommendation for mycelium for cancer. One of the reasons why I recommend, why I recommend mycelium for cancer is that the mycelium has a very high level of what is called psk. And psk helps keep tumors from spreading out into the cellular matrix. And that's the interstitial fluid that is between the cells. The only caution that I can see for turkey tail is that it can cause some digestive upset. I like to give it on an empty stomach, but some dogs can't tolerate it. And then you want to give it with a little bit of food. Our last mushroom we'll cover today is not really a mushroom at all. It's more of a parasitic fungus. It's called chaga. And chaga's energetics are pretty neutral in my opinion or my experience. There's two types of chaga. One is referred to as true chaga and the other is false chaga. So true chaga has like an uneven edge to it and false chaga is very smooth. So lab grown chaga, which does happen, is still, you know, pretty much in its early stages, but it differs from wild chaga in its constituents. So definitely you want to use tree grown chaga. So growers are figuring out ways to improve. I think that the constituents in lab grown chaga, because chaga can be very, I mean, chaga in general is not very sustainable and in certain areas it's getting endangered from people. Kind of what I would call chaga poaching. So lab grown chaga isn't out of the mix, but I think it definitely needs some more research and it's not there yet is what I'm really trying to say. So as I said in the beginning, chaga really isn't a real mushroom. It's actually a parasitic mycelium. It's referred to as a. Let's see, a sclerotium mixes with the trees lingens and the black part of the fungus contains what's called butylan, while the inside, which is very red, contains what's called ligostains. And I use chaga with dogs and people with severe allergies and sensitivities. I also use it for mast cell tumor and certain types of cancer. I'm very particular about the chaga I use. I want to make sure as an herbalist that it's very sustainable and that it hasn't been poached. Definitely. You know, when you are walking down the, what I would call the. And many other herbalists would Call the green path. You want to make sure that you're not harming the plants in your environment. So chaga definitely make sure that your sourcing is ethical. So chaga mushroom is also very good for lyme disease and like shiitake, you can use it as a rinse for the teeth because it helps keep biofilm from forming and it disrupts what is called quorum sensing, which is how microbials talk to one another. So quorum sensing, it definitely is a communication process and it's how they protect themselves. And chaga inhibits that. So chaga helps build the immune system and it inhibits cancer proliferation because it has butylinic acid in it. And that's why you want to use traditionally grown chaga on trees, because of, on birch trees, because of the butylinic acid. Chaga is an anti inflammatory, it's a pretty effective painkiller and it also helps regulate digestion. Like most fungi, it is an immune modulator which it helps the immune system respond to systemic threats. And that's a really good, I would say benefit of Chaga for sure. Several compounds in chaga kind of mix together to result in its beneficial effects. And definitely chaga is a super powered antioxidant because of its polyphenol content and that really gives it its anti cancer effect. So it decreases free radicals, which is also known as oxidative stress and it brings down inflammation. You want to hot water extract Chaga. Chaga is very good in a hot water and alcohol extraction. Adored beast has a very sustainable, ethically produced hot water alcohol extraction where the alcohol is then evaporated and it's preserved in glycerin. Some actions of Chaga is that it's anti inflammatory, it's an antioxidant, it's high in vitamin D, vitamin E and polyphenols. It is an antibacterial, it, it's an antihistamine. It really helps with mast cell proliferation. It's definitely a part of many of my mast cell support protocols. Chaga has an effect on the digestion as well. And this is true for many, I would say definitely many mushrooms as far as cancer is concerned. Chaga targets cancer cells and it definitely leaves healthy cells alone. And it helps induce cell death while bringing down inflammation. And that's the really key to any successful cancer protocol is bringing down inflammation. It helps treat superficial mast cell tumors. You can use chaga both externally and internally. Again, it definitely needs hot water and alcohol extraction and it's been studied for mammary tumors. Carcinoma, cervical cancer, melanoma, mast cell tumor, colon cancer and sarcoma. I think when you're using it for cancer, it really needs to be grown on birch trees. In my opinion, the tree gives the fungus its precursors, its butylan and another thing called tramtonolotic acid. Research is really still being done on chaga, comparing lab grown chaga to wild chaga. But definitely, in my opinion, use wild grown sustainably and ethically crafted chaga. A couple cautions when using Chaga. If your dog is prone to oxalate stones, you don't want to use chaga because it's high in oxalates. You want to avoid in dogs really prone to those stones and don't use chaga long term. It can bind calcium forming, I mean, basically it can bind to calcium and that can form kidney stones given the proper environment. So I like to use chaga acutely or, you know, semi, I mean, for like short periods of time and then give it a break. One thing to know about chaga is more is not better when using chaga. So you definitely want to use it as directed or use it under the kind of supervision of a holistic vet or an herbalist or mycologist. Whew, that's a lot, right? So we're going to stop there at least talking about mushrooms. So on the first episode of the podcast, I mentioned that on each episode I wanted to give you a tip that you could use at home. Now, these tips may not apply to you in every episode, but they're definitely actionable things that can help. One of the things that I thought of this week is I had a client who was feeding their dog dehydrated food and the dog was suffering from extreme dryness and kidney, their kidney function was declining. I looked at their history and it was very apparent to me that the use of dehydrated food, there was some freeze dried food going on and then of course, freeze dried treats. So what you need to understand is these processes remove like 95 to like 99% of the moisture in the food. What this means for your dog is that if you feed it without rehydrating it, and that is more than just pouring some water on the food and serving, right? If you don't properly rehydrate the food, the moisture is going to be utilized inside your dog's body. So the body is going to have to pull moisture from the internal system to compensate for the dryness in that food. So you might ask yourself, well, you know, why does that matter. I'm putting a little water on it, right, because it's not properly hydrated and that is going to bring down kidney function. It's going to cause dryness in your dog and we don't want that. So when you're using dehydrated food or freeze dried foods, you want to make sure that you're putting the proper amount of water on that food. Put it in the fridge, leave it there overnight, and then in the morning you can add some hot water to bring that food to room temperature and that way it's going to be properly hydrated. A lot of times I've had people do this and they're not adding enough water because what they've told me is that some of the nuggets still have some dryness on the outside. And that's definitely the nuggets have absorbed, or the nuggets or the patties have absorbed as much water as they can. So the water's gone, but it's not enough. So you add more water in the morning and then the next time you, you put it in the fridge, make sure you're adding enough water to completely hydrate these foods. Super important for kidney health and for internal dryness. I think that the convenience of freeze dried and dehydrated foods are great, but when you're feeding them day in and day out, moisture is so important. Especially like I had one client that was feeding freeze dried food and freeze dried treats was just putting a little bit of water, just enough for the food, like she would crumble it and enough for the food to collapse and be, you know, edible but wasn't giving enough moisture. And then on top of it was giving freeze dried treats all day long. A lot of dryness in that dog, a lot of dandruff on the skin. The nose started getting dry, having constipation issues and also kidney function issues. So this was all traced back to using freeze dried and dehydrated foods and too much dehydrated treats. So that is my tip for you, especially if you are a lover of freeze dried treats or freeze dried food. So if you and dehydrated. So if you are just giving freeze dried treats and you're giving a raw food diet or a diet with a lot of moisture, then you should be okay. And for those of you kibble feeders out there, you definitely want to add moisture to your dog's diet as much as possible because kibble is extremely systemic, systemically drying and that isn't good for kidney function. In fact, it's one of the main reasons why cats have such a short lifespan. They're given kibble which they should not eat at all whatsoever unless it's an emergency and given. You know, having said that.

A ton.

Of us out there definitely feed our dogs kibble or our cat's kibble and.

We don't want to do that.

Okay, so you want to move over to a meat based fresh food diet for your cat. I hope that.

The tip of basically.

To please watch all of the dried.

Items that you're putting into your dog.

Or cat is useful. I think we all need to be aware and mindful of these things. I do want to remind you that you can write questions into the podcast. You can email me@canineherbalistmail.com and put the subject podcast. Send me your questions. I'll answer them here on the podcast. Okay, so reminder, follow me on Instagram it's anineherbalist and on Facebook, which is facebook.com canineherbalist for those of you that like poetry, I want to end the podcast today with a poem by Margaret Atwood called Mushrooms in the moist season.

Mist on the lake and thunder afternoon in the distance they ooze up through the earth and during the night like bubbles, like tiny bright red balloons filling with water. A sound below sound the thumbs of rubber gloves turn softly inside out. In the mornings there is a leaf mold starred with nipples with cool white fish gills, leathery purple brains, fist sized suns dulled to the colors of embers. Poisonous moons, pale yellow. Where do they come from? For each thunderstorm that travels overhead, there's another storm that moves parallel in the ground. Struck lightning is where they meet. Underfoot there's a cloud of rootlets, shed hairs or a bundle of loose threads blown slowly through the midsoil. These are their fingers, these fingers reaching through darkness to the sky, these eye blinks that burst and powder the air with spores. They feed in the shade on half leaves. As they return to water on slowly melting logs, dead wood, they glow in the dark. Sometimes they taste of rotten meat or cloves or cooking steak or bruised lips or new snow. It isn't only for food I hunt them, but for the hunt and because they smell of death and the waxy skins of the newborn flesh into the earth into flesh. Here's the handful of shadow I have brought back to you. This decay, this hope, this mouthful of dirt, this poetry. I love that poem from Margaret Atwood.

Again, it's called Mushrooms and that's a wrap.

So thank you so much for listening to my second episode of the Dogs Our Individuals podcast. I will see you guys next on the podcast, where we will be discussing how to use herbs more effectively. Kind of, you know, what you guys need to know to understand using herbs more and how to kind of figure out if your herbal regimen is working.

Okay, guys, take care. Thank you so much, and I'll talk to you next time.