There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about mushrooms, in particular a mushroom compound that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than two centuries, and how it’s use is giving dogs with an aggressive form of cancer the longest survival times ever reported! The compound is polysaccharopeptide, or PSP, and is found in the Coriolus versicolor mushroom, which is commonly known as the Yunzhi mushroom. I know, that’s quite a mouthful, but the most important thing to know about PSP is that it is believed to have immune-boosting properties.
This led to a study conducted by Dorothy Cimino Brown, the professor and chair of the department of clinical studies and director of the Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and attending radiologist Jennifer Reetz. They pursued a study in dogs with naturally occurring hemangiosarcoma, which is an aggressive, invasive cancer that arises from the blood cells and typically affects the spleen.
Based on a report in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, fifteen dogs that had been diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma participated in the clinical trial. There owners were instructed to give their dog capsules of I’m-Yunity daily, and each month the owners brought their dogs to Penn’s Ryan Veterinary Hospital for follow-up visits. Researchers took blood samples and conducted ultrasounds to determine the extent that tumors developed or grew and spread in the dogs’ bodies. Based on how quickly the tumors progressed and how long the dogs actually lived, the results of the researchers’ trial suggest that the I’m-Yunity was effectively fighting the tumors.
The results were surprising, and researchers believe the findings offer hope that the compound may one day offer cancer patients, both human and canine, a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies.
To read more about this amazing study, read here…Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
