During the past 50 years, several major advancements in medicine came from lower organisms such as molds, yeast, and mushrooms (fungi). The first antibiotics were extracted from fungi. Penicillin, tetracyclene and aureomycin, derived from molds, were hailed as a wonder drug for infections and communicable diseases. We have also seen a rapid pace of advancement in organ transplant due to Cyclosporin, a drug derived from a fungus that uses insects as its host. Cylcosporin suppresses the immune system of transplant patients hence lowering tissue rejection rates. These lower organisms are used to commercially produce bread, beer, wine, cheese, organic acids, and vitamins - including Vitamin C. The Vitamin C tablet you take may be a by product of fungal growth.
Mushrooms are valuable health food - low in calories, high in vegetable proteins, chitin, iron, zinc, fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins & minerals. Mushrooms also have a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine . Their legendary effects on promoting good health and vitality and increasing your body's adaptive abilities have been supported by recent studies. These studies suggest that Mushrooms are probiotic - they help our body strengthen itself and fight off illness by maintaining physiological homeostasis - restoring our bodies balance and natural resistance to disease. The compounds they contain have been classified as Host Defense Potentiators (HDP) which can have immune system enhancement properties. That is one of the reasons they are currently used as adjuncts to cancer treatments in Japan and China. "In Japan, Russia, China, and the U.S.A. several different polysaccharide antitumor agents have been developed from the fruiting body, mycelia, and culture medium of various medicinal mushrooms (Lentinus edodes, Ganoderma lucidum, Schizophyllum commune, Trametes versicolor, Inonotus obliquus, and Flammulina velutipes). Both cellular components and secondary metabolites of a large number of mushrooms have been shown to effect the immune system of the host and therefore could be used to treat a variety of disease states."