Tiger Milk Mushrooms | 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.

Hey, everyone, this is Rita Hogan, and we are going to talk about mushrooms today. Again, different mushrooms this time. Though one thing, mushrooms are not herbs. So let me say that again, mushrooms are not herbs. They're not even close to herbs. How about that? And you use them differently. And I had this question, and people tend to lump them together like cats and dogs. Completely different species. Yeah. So just want you to know, like when I tell you that for mushrooms, you need to use quite a bit of mushrooms for therapeutic purposes. And many times that's not the same for herbs. So just want you to know, mushrooms are not herbs. Okay? So now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about mushrooms. Tiger mushroom. We are going to talk about tiger Mushroom, and before we get started, want to thank Green Juju, our sponsor, for our shorts, their mushroom fermented mushroom probiotic. I've talked about it before, but, you know, been using it with a lot of my clients and have gotten good feedback on this beautiful product and an awesome rotation to your probiotic needs for your dogs. Like, you want to rotate, rotate, rotate, rotate, rotate probiotics, because you don't want strain dominant guts, basically, that's kind of how that goes. So, yeah, rotate, rotate, rotate. If you want diversity, you know, giving a little ferment, then combine what you're doing with diversity. Just keep trying to diversify, but only use those things that work with your individual dog. I have some probiotic episodes that you can listen to. I work them into a lot of my episodes, so check those out. The green choo choo mushroom probiotic just has been doing wonders for so many dogs, like having eye goop clear up, not having eye discharge and staining, helping with yeast, helping with behavioral issues. So give it a try. I definitely would. You can go to green juju.com and they will actually ship you a mushroom frozen, a mushroom probiotic frozen. So go ahead and give it a try, then report back. Send me a message on the podcast. Okay, so let's talk about mushrooms. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about a different mushroom today was that I got a question from Jenny and she writes in and says, thank you, Rita, for the wonderful podcast. I enjoy listening to it so much. Thank you, Jenny. I appreciate that. Jenny is also excited about My new book, so. Gotta love that for sure. Thank you, Jenny. Okay, so Jenny wants to know what she can do to lower her dog's blood pressure. Well, Jenny, one thing I want to say is that if you have a dog with high blood pressure, you want to see what's causing the excess tension, for one. But if we're just talking about remedies, then I would try either maitake mushroom, lion's mane mushroom. Those two are excellent at lowering blood pressure. You can mix them together. I would start off with very small amounts and then work our way up to see where the blood pressure starts to start dropping. That is very. A very good way to help manage that high blood pressure. And mushrooms are just a really great way to explore different health outcomes. And one of those things that I want you guys to be aware of this season, which is our lung season, we are in until the middle of December. We are in lung season right now, and you're gonna see a lot more issues with the lungs. This is definitely a time where you're gonna. When you can see lung cancers come up, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, you know, all of the things. Right. So anything related to the lungs and also constipation, diarrhea, different types of. How shall I say it? Digestive issues relating to poop. Yeah, digestive issues relating to poop things. So one of the wonderful mushrooms out there that can help us during this lung season is tiger milk mushroom. And a lot of people have not heard of tiger milk mushroom, but I use it with my clients that have breathing difficulties. I work with a little pug that has breathing difficulties, and it really helps him. Tiger milk mushroom is. It's got a Latin name of lychnosis rhinocerotis. So I think it should be called rhinoceros mushroom, but they don't care what I think. So this is a mushroom that originated in Southeast Asia. It's very popular in places like China, Indonesia, Malaysia. The reason why it's called tiger milk mushroom is it's folklore. So they have this folk belief that mushrooms would grow from the drops of milk left from nursing tigers. They would always see these types of mushrooms where they would see nursing tigers. And so goes the folk remedy of tiger milk mushroom. So tiger milk mushroom can be cultivated. It doesn't just have to grow in the wild. It definitely can be cultivated on substrate. They dry it out, and it's really a beautiful tonic. And it has a, like. It focuses on the respiratory health of your dog and yourself. It has an affinity towards the lungs. So tiger milk mushroom has been used in, like, in some clinical trials. But definitely it's an antispasmodic. It, it's an anti inflammatory, it's antimicrobial antiviral, it's an antioxidant. And like lion's mane, it's neuroprotective. So it helps protect the nervous system. And these are all good things during this time of the year. Now, is tiger milk mushroom going to be good for your dog? Don't know. Don't know. But could you could give it a try, especially if your dog has any type of issues with breathing. Okay. I do want to tell you that, you know, finding neuroprotective mushrooms and substances is very important, especially in this day and age with so much stress and so much cancer, because cancer is related to stress and related to your immune system health. So oxidative stress is definitely things that we need substances in our body to bring down inflammation. So when we do that, mushrooms like these can help with dementia, brain health, mental clarity, you know, giving your dog back that kind of edge that he used to have. I love that. Mushrooms can help with anxiety and depression, you know, because they're neuroprotective and they're also immune modulating. And tiger mushroom definitely does not disappoint in this category. It really helps modulate the immune system by giving the immune system what it needs so the immune system can adjust to what's going on with the body. And then one of the studies I looked at for tiger milk mushroom indicated that like lion's mane, the compounds in tiger milk mushroom can mimic nerve growth factor, which helps neurons, nerve cells to survive. And we really, really want that because the nervous system goes throughout the body, including the lungs, including the brain, including the gut. And we want to nourish the nervous system. We want to have things in our toolbox that we can use for the nervous system. Okay, I love that. So it, you know, could you combine lion's mane with tiger milk mushroom? Absolutely. I think that definitely would kind of produce what's called, you know, a synergistic effect. You know, that way it can one increase nerve growth and increase nerve regeneration. Now there's, you know, they need to do more studies on this, but I think the potential there is fantastic. Okay. I really do. And then, you know, when you mix tiger milk mushroom with lion's mane, and then possibly you can mix it with other mushrooms like turkey tail, you know, very anti tumor. Tiger milk mushroom improves lung capacity. So it has a strong affinity towards respiratory function, like I said, and that improves oxygen intake which helps all cells. You know, breathing correctly is so important. And when you breathe correctly, you alleviate stress and anxiety, you help support the gut, and in turn that can help with supporting organ health and again, modulating the immune system. So I absolutely love this mushroom. One of the things that is a bit of a drawback to tiger milk mushroom is that it's hard to find because up to recently it hasn't been very successful in cultivation. Even though I mentioned that it can be cultivated. It can. And it's. Look, people are learning how to cultivate it viably right now. So on a larger scale, but it's not in like main commerce. One of the places that I have found a good extract of it is nootropicsdepot.com that's N O o T R o P I C S D e p o t.com and you can just search tiger mushroom. Okay. Tiger mushroom. And they give you some good information on tiger mushroom. And they do mention, you know why it's tricky? Because it's not, per se, a typical fruiting body mushroom. It is called a sclerotium sclerodium and it normally forms underground and then the fruiting body will eventually grow. Okay. And so that makes it a little more difficult to produce, but people have figured it out, which is awesome. And so now you're going to see it more and more in commerce. Okay, so check that out. I love this kind of neuro happy. Neuro healthy, respiratory tonic, you know, high immune modulating mushroom. Let's call that neuro happy. Just like lion's mane. So check that out. And you know, typical dosages start out low and work your way up. You know, for a, let's see, extra small dog, I would start out at 1 to 200 milligrams a day and then, you know, small dog, 2 to 300 milligrams. For a medium dog, 4 to 600 milligrams, large dog, 6 to 800 milligrams and extra large dog, you know, you could do 6 to 1000 milligrams a day. And if you're dealing with cancers like lung cancer, you're gonna wanna triple that, if not quadruple. But you wanna start out low and slow and see how your dog reacts to it. Okay, that is really important. It's just beyond important, really. Okay, so that is tiger milk mushroom. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave.

A review in your podcast app.

And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love dogs are individuals podcast. Share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson.

And edited by Mike Fry.

Any questions, email the show, go to k9herbalist.com, click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for.

Listening to this episode of Dogs Are.

Individuals Podcast and I'm going to talk.

To you in our next 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 been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any production.