For the past year and a half, Keith Taylor and his wife have adopted a lifestyle that includes fasting on a regular basis. “For six days per week we don’t eat until around 5 pm, but eat as much as we want and whatever we want from 5 pm until we go to bed. It is not a diet in the classic sense — we do not restrict WHAT we eat or HOW MUCH we eat, but rather just WHEN we eat,” Taylor said in an email.
Since the Taylors have been intermittently fasting, often called just IF, they’ve maintained a healthy body weight, been more alert and energetic, experienced less stress, and are less prone to getting sick. While Taylor admits that whether or not he will live longer as a result of his eating pattern is a “good question,” but he feels optimistic.
“I already feel as though I am younger,” said Taylor. “And if I am showing objective signs of being younger — more vigor and positivity — then I think it is logical to assume that I have already lengthened my lifespan by moving to IF.”
Research on fasting
Research involving animals has revealed that intermittent fasting can reduce the risk of obesity and its related diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes and cancer. According to Mark Mattson, chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, research from the 1980s revealed that the lifespan of rats increases substantially when they fast every other day, compared to rats who have food available at all times.
A much more recent study, published this month, found that mice who fasted, whether because they were fed all of their calories only once per day or because their calories were restricted, which naturally caused them to eat all of their limited food at once — were healthier and lived longer compared to mice who had constant access to food.
Trying to tease out whether fasting is simply a form of calorie restriction is very complicated, according to experts. But “in the absence of calorie restriction, and independent of diet composition, fasting mice do better than non-fasting,” explained Rafael deCabo, a scientist at the National Institute on Aging and the study’s lead author.
But do the health benefits of fasting, including the possibility of living a longer life, apply to humans?
So far, research has revealed promising results. One study published last year divided 100 people, all free of disease, into two groups. For three months, participants either ate whatever they wanted, or consumed between 800 and 1,100 calories for only five days out of the month — a pattern researchers refer to as a “fasting mimicking diet” or “FMD.” At the end of the study period, participants on the FMD who were at risk for disease saw their fasting glucose, an indicator of diabetes risk, return to normal. Markers for heart disease, along with high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, decreased, as did levels of the 1GF1 marker of various cancers. Additionally, participants lost abdominal fat, while preserving lean muscle mass and metabolism, which is often sacrificed on a lower calorie diet.
A human trial on longevity is almost impossible to design, and would cost “a hundred million dollars or more,” according to Valter Longo, who co-authored the clinical study. “But if you look at the data from our trial … it would be hard to see how they would not live longer.”
“You think of diseases when you think of lifespan — like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes — as major causes of death,” said Mattson. And if you have improvements in risk factors for disease, it does, “on average” promote lifespan, explained Mattson.
Longo, who also runs the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, adds that periodic fasting provides a “potential alternative to taking lots of drugs.”
And no major diet changes are necessary. “You can do this for five days, and then go back to what you would do normally,” added Longo.
The research behind the popular 5:2 diet — a type of intermittent fasting where people eat whatever they want for five days per week, then limit their diet to 500 calories for two consecutive days, has also revealed health benefits.
“We published two studies with Dr. Michelle Harvie at the University of Manchester; each included 100 overweight women, and the design of both studies was the same,” said Mattson. “We divided them into two groups; one group got the 5:2 diet; the other group had three meals per day but we reduced the amount of calories by 20% to 25% below what they normally eat — so that the weekly calorie intake of both groups would be the same.”
Both groups lost the same amount of body weight over a 6-month period, but that was where the similarities ended. “We saw superior beneficial effects of 5:2 diet on glucose regulation (a risk factor for diabetes) and loss of belly fat (a risk factor for cardiovascular disease) compared to the women eating regular meals but restricting calories,” said Mattson.
A form of fasting known as time-restricted feeding, where meals are consumed within a limited number of hours each day — like the Taylors are doing — has revealed beneficial effects on weight and health in animals, but a review article published in 2015 concluded that the data from human studies on this type of eating pattern is limited.
A study from June revealed health benefits of a time-restricted eating pattern in the absence of weight loss among pre-diabetic men; however, the study only included eight participants. The study’s researchers admit the “results need to be replicated in a larger trial that also includes women.”
Clinical trials are currently underway of IF in patients with various diseases such as multiple sclerosis or cancer to determine if fasting can halt progression. “If you hit cancer cells with chemo or radiation, when the individual is in a fasting state, the cells may be more vulnerable to being killed because they use glucose and cannot use ketones [the source of fuel during fasting],” explained Mattson. Researchers are also currently studying how fasting may impact cognitive performance and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in overweight women.
How fasting may help you live longer
According to experts, a critical aspect of fasting — which is different from simply restricting calories — is that the body undergoes a metabolic switch from using glucose to using ketones as fuel, a result of the depletion of liver energy stores and the mobilization of fat. (This switch also occurs during extended periods of exercise.)
“If ketones are not elevated, you don’t see the beneficial effects,” said Mattson. What’s more, these metabolic changes that occur during repeated “cycling” from fasting to eating may help to optimize brain function and bolster its resistance to stress and disease, both of which have positive implications for aging.
According to Longo, the presence of ketones in the blood signifies that on the cellular level, the body is “regenerating” itself, which protects against aging and disease.
“We’ve published many papers, and the main thing we talk about is multisystem regeneration,” said Longo. For example, fasting seems to lower the level of damaged white blood cells — but when you re-feed, stem cells are turned on, and you rebuild and regenerate new, healthy cells, explained Longo. “You get rid of the junk during starvation — and once you have food, you can rebuild.”
“The damaged cells are replaced with new cells, working cells — and now the system starts working properly,” said Longo. This ultimately impacts disease risk, as risk factors for disease decrease when tissues are healthy and functional, explained Longo.
Fasting factors to consider
One point to consider is that the research on fasting has focused mostly on overweight individuals or those with risk factors for disease. If you are aging at a healthy body weight and are free of disease, and you eat a healthy diet and regularly exercise, periodic fasting may not necessarily offer an added benefit in terms of lengthening your life. “If you are already doing everything right … then I wouldn’t necessarily recommend switching to IF,” said Mattson.
Fasting is also not appropriate for pregnant women and those with medical conditions such as diabetes or eating disorders.
According to Samantha Heller, a registered dietitian and senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Health in New York, the jury is still out on how healthy, sustainable and realistic the approach is. Though some people may feel better as a result of fasting, “eating very low calories, or none, on alternate days feels punitive to many and may exacerbate an already difficult and complex relationship someone has with food,” said Heller.
Experts say if you are considering a fasting diet, it’s crucial to have a doctor’s approval, and to be medically monitored. It’s also wise to meet regularly with a registered dietitian who can monitor your eating patterns, because it’s easy to overdo it on non-fasting days, especially when you are not in a controlled setting like the study participants were in, explained Angela Lemond, a registered dietitian and national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “The benefits [of fasting] are counteracted if you are going to make up for the calories the next day,” said Lemond.
Another consideration is to think about what type of pattern will make sense for your lifestyle. Mattson engages in time-restricted feeding, a practice he has adopted for more than 30 years, where he consumes all of his 2,000 calories between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
His regimen, which includes lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and oatmeal, along with fish and chicken cooked by his wife, allows him to get to work at his laboratory by 7 a.m., and affords him time for an early afternoon run. (Note: He claims that once you adapt to skipping breakfast, your circadian rhythms adjust appropriately and you don’t experience negative side effects, including an increased risk for weight gain.)
Finally, it’s important to remember that even though your health might improve from fasting, other factors including genetics and the environment can also determine how long you will ultimately live.
And being healthy isn’t always associated with a longer life. “We always try to link survival with health, but there is a clear separation with health and survival … and we’ve seen that in many cases,” said deCabo. “The preclinical data based on our studies is that the answer is yes — you can benefit [from fasting] in terms of health and lifespan — but we do not know what [the outcome] would be in humans.”
“There are so many unknown factors, including life experiences and how they influence your health,” echoed Mattson. “I think I’ve increased my chances [of living longer], but there’s no guarantee.”
But men did not reap the same benefit from the diet, which concentrates on fish, fruits, nuts, vegetables and beans, and avoids meat and dairy products.
“Simple changes in dietary habits may bring a substantial benefit regarding reducing stroke, which remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide,” said lead researcher Dr. Phyo Myint. He is clinical chair of medicine at the University of Aberdeen School of Medicine in Scotland.
Although the Mediterranean diet is considered healthy, this study could not prove that the diet itself caused stroke risk to drop.
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In addition, why men’s risk for stroke isn’t also lowered isn’t yet clear, Myint said.
But, “it is widely acknowledged that men and women are very different with regard to normal physiology,” he added.
“It may be that certain components in the Mediterranean diet may influence risk of stroke in women more than in men,” he said.
For the study, the investigators collected data on more than 23,000 men and women, aged 40 to 77, who took part in a large cancer study. The participants were followed for 17 years.
The researchers found that, overall, those who followed a Mediterranean diet cut their risk for stroke 17 percent. When looking at men and women separately, however, women saw a reduction in risk of 22 percent, while men saw a 6 percent drop in risk. The risk reduction among men, however, might be so small that it is a “chance” finding, the scientists added.
Moreover, among those with a high risk for stroke, the risk was lowered 13 percent for those who followed a Mediterranean diet, the findings showed. This association, however, was mainly due to a 20 percent reduction in risk among women, the researchers found.
The findings were published online Sept. 20 in the journal Stroke.
According to Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, “The Mediterranean eating style, which has great variations among several different cultures, is characterized by foods high in anti-inflammatory compounds, including fiber, vitamins, minerals and healthy plant compounds.”
Previous research has suggested that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, obesity and declines in thinking skills, she said.
Foods such as olive oil, zucchini, lemons, hummus, tabouleh, pasta, eggplant, lentils, tomatoes, artichokes, salads and spices are staples in many parts of the Mediterranean, Heller explained.
“In contrast, the typical Western diet is high in foods that increase inflammation, such as burgers, hot dogs, steak, butter, sodium, sugary beverages, fried foods, fast and junk foods, all of which have been associated with increased risks of chronic diseases,” she said.
Heller suggests skipping the ham and cheese on white bread with mayo for lunch, and instead trying hummus on whole wheat pita with cucumbers and tomatoes. For dinner, try going meatless a few nights a week with a pasta primavera, roasted vegetables, Greek salad, quinoa and lentil-stuffed lettuce wraps, she added.
Sleep apnea is a known risk factor for stroke, and new research suggests that curbing the condition might also aid the recovery of people who’ve suffered a stroke or mini-stroke.
The investigators found that, among stroke patients, “treatment of sleep apnea with CPAP therapy provides significant benefits, even greater than the benefits of tPA, the FDA-approved drug treatment for stroke,” said study lead researcher Dr. Dawn Bravata.
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“That’s a substantial clinical effect,” she said. “The added good news for stroke patients is that CPAP has been used as a sleep apnea therapy for many years, and it has an excellent safety record.” Bravata is a research scientist with the Regenstrief Institute and Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.
According to the researchers, sleep apnea is common among people who’ve had a stroke or mini-stroke, but few are currently diagnosed and treated for the condition. It’s estimated that two out of three stroke patients are thought to have the condition, which causes irregular breathing during sleep. Sleep apnea can lead to low oxygen levels, high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat.
In the new study, Bravata’s group tracked outcomes for 252 people who had experienced a stroke or mini-stroke (known as a transient ischemic attack, or TIA) for up to one year. Patients were treated at one of five different hospitals in two states.
The patients were randomly divided into three groups: a control group who received standard care without sleep apnea treatment; standard care plus CPAP therapy; or enhanced care with CPAP therapy. Patients who used CPAP did so for an average of 50 percent of nights.
The researchers reported that 59 percent of patients who received CPAP therapy showed marked improvement in their recovery, in terms of improvements in neurological symptoms. This compared with 38 percent of those who didn’t get CPAP.
Timing of therapy may be key, as well, the study authors said.
“Preliminary data suggests the sooner you treat sleep apnea in stroke patients with CPAP, the more potent the effect of that treatment,” Bravata said in a Regenstrief news release.
“Usually, diagnosing sleep apnea is an outpatient service. But we need to make sleep testing acutely available to stroke and TIA patients in the hospital as part of their work-up,” she said, “just as we do brain imaging, lab testing and cardiac monitoring as part of the initial stroke/TIA evaluation.”
Two experts in stroke care believe the approach has real merit.
“This study is very interesting — it shows that a simple intervention, treating obstructive sleep apnea, can improve outcomes in stroke patients,” said Dr. Andrew Rogrove. He is director of stroke services at Northwell Health’s Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y.
Rogrove said it would be even more interesting to assess recovery rates when CPAP was used more frequently than the 50 percent of nights observed in this study.
Dr. Salman Azhar directs stroke care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He noted that several studies have shown sleep apnea to be a factor in poor stroke recovery.
Testing for sleep apnea shouldn’t add much to the burden of care for stroke survivors, Azhar added.
“With the current ease of doing home sleep studies, the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea has become much simpler and should be considered in all stroke patients with positive screening questionnaire results,” he said.
The findings were published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Contact lens wearers everywhere need to be on the lookout for a rare, but potentially blinding, eye infection, British researchers warn.
In southeast England, cases of the infection, called Acanthamoeba keratitis, have tripled since 2011, a new study found.
The illness is typically tied to poor contact lens hygiene use.
The infection combines a tiny single-cell amoeba with the bacteria keratitis. Once the eye is infected, it causes the the cornea to become painful and inflamed due to this cyst-forming microorganism.
For one in every four of people infected, the disease results in a loss of most of their vision or blindness and they face prolonged treatment, the research team said.
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While rare, outbreaks have also occurred in the United States, one ophthalmologist said.
“There have been a few outbreaks in the U.S., most notably from improper disinfection of contact lenses,” said Dr. Jules Winokur, who practices at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He wasn’t involved in the new study.
“In clinical practice, we see cases of acanthamoeba on a regular basis, ” he said. “Most often, these cases present in patients wearing contact lenses who have been exposed to contaminated water, which could be from swimming pools, water parks or even showers at home.”
“The treatment of acanthamoeba can be prolonged and difficult,” Winokur explained. “Toxic medications and even corneal transplantation may be necessary treatments.”
The British study was led by Dr. John Dart, from University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology. His team collected data on patients seen from 1985 to 2016 at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
They found an increase in cases of the disease from the eight to 10 a year seen in 2000 -2003, to 36 to 65 cases per year more recently.
Overall, 25 percent of those affected required corneal transplants to treat the disease or restore vision, the researchers said.
Dart’s team also conducted a second study, this time in people who wore reusable contact lenses daily. The study compared those 63 diagnosed with Acanthamoeba keratitis with 213 people who went to the eye hospital for any other reason.
Continued
Dart’s group found that the risk of developing the disease was more than three times greater among people with poor contact lens hygiene. This means people who didn’t always wash and dry their hands before handling their lenses, or those who used a now discontinued disinfectant product containing Oxipol.
In addition, people who wore their contacts in swimming pools or hot tubs were also at risk, as were those who showered or washed their face while wearing their lenses, the study found.
“People who wear reusable contact lenses need to make sure they thoroughly wash and dry their hands before handling contact lenses, and avoid wearing them while swimming, face washing or bathing,” Dart said.
“Daily disposable lenses, which eliminate the need for contact lens cases or solutions, may be safer and we are currently analyzing our data to establish the risk factors for these,” he added in a university news release.
Dart stressed that “this infection is still quite rare, usually affecting fewer than 3 in 100,000 contact lens users per year in South East England, but it’s largely preventable.”
“This increase in cases highlights the need for contact lens users to be aware of the risks,” he added.
Dr. Matthew Gorski is an ophthalmologist at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. He agreed that proper contact lens hygiene could prevent most cases of Acanthamoeba.
According to Gorski, that includes:
Washing your hands with soap and water before handling contacts.
Properly disinfecting, cleaning and storing your contacts, including never using tap water to clean contacts.
Removing contacts from your eyes before water exposures such as swimming, showering or bathing.
Removing contacts immediately and seeing your eye doctor if you have any eye pain, sensitivity to light, red eye or change in vision.
The study was published Sept. 21 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
As important as getting close to eight hours of sleep a night is, new research suggests that going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is just as critical for your health.
The study of more than 1,900 older adults found that those who didn’t keep to a regular bedtime and wake time weighed more, had higher blood sugar, higher blood pressure and a higher risk of heart attack or stroke within 10 years.
Perhaps obesity disrupts sleep, said lead study author Jessica Lunsford-Avery, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
“Or, as some research suggests, perhaps poor sleep interferes with the body’s metabolism, which can lead to weight gain, and it’s a vicious cycle,” she added in a university news release.
“With more research, we hope to understand what’s going on biologically, and perhaps then we could say what’s coming first or which is the chicken and which is the egg,” Lunsford-Avery said.
Irregular sleepers were also more likely to say they suffered from depression and stress than those who stuck to regular sleep patterns.
In terms of race, blacks made up the largest proportion of irregular sleepers, compared with whites, Asian-Americans or Hispanics, the researchers found.
The findings show an association between irregular sleep and health, but cannot prove that one causes the other, the researchers cautioned.
“From our study, we can’t conclude that sleep irregularity results in health risks, or whether health conditions affect sleep,” Lunsford-Avery said. “Perhaps all of these things are impacting each other.”
For the study, participants aged 54 to 93 used devices that tracked sleep schedules down to the minute. This enabled the researchers to pinpoint exact bedtimes.
The investigators also kept track of when participants went to bed and how long they slept. They found that people with high blood pressure tended to sleep longer, and obese people tended to stay up later.
Of all the things the team measured, however, keeping regular hours turned out to be the best predictor of heart and metabolic health. Irregular sleepers experienced more sleepiness during the day and were less active — perhaps because they were tired, Lunsford-Avery said.
The report was published Sept. 21 in Scientific Reports.
Most of us have been trained to be wary of clicking on links and attachments that arrive in emails unexpected, but it’s easy to forget scam artists are constantly dreaming up innovations that put a new shine on old-fashioned telephone-based phishing scams. Think you’re too smart to fall for one? Think again: Even technology experts are getting taken in by some of the more recent schemes (or very nearly).
Matt Haughey is the creator of the community Weblog MetaFilter and a writer at Slack. Haughey banks at a small Portland credit union, and last week he got a call on his mobile phone from an 800-number that matched the number his credit union uses.
Actually, he got three calls from the same number in rapid succession. He ignored the first two, letting them both go to voicemail. But he picked up on the third call, thinking it must be something urgent and important. After all, his credit union had rarely ever called him.
Haughey said he was greeted by a female voice who explained that the credit union had blocked two phony-looking charges in Ohio made to his debit/ATM card. She proceeded to then read him the last four digits of the card that was currently in his wallet. It checked out.
Haughey told the lady that he would need a replacement card immediately because he was about to travel out of state to California. Without missing a beat, the caller said he could keep his card and that the credit union would simply block any future charges that weren’t made in either Oregon or California.
This struck Haughey as a bit off. Why would the bank say they were freezing his card but then say they could keep it open for his upcoming trip? It was the first time the voice inside his head spoke up and said, “Something isn’t right, Matt.” But, he figured, the customer service person at the credit union was trying to be helpful: She was doing him a favor, he reasoned.
The caller then read his entire home address to double check it was the correct destination to send a new card at the conclusion of his trip. Then the caller said she needed to verify his mother’s maiden name. The voice in his head spoke out in protest again, but then banks had asked for this in the past. He provided it.
Next she asked him to verify the three digit security code printed on the back of his card. Once more, the voice of caution in his brain was silenced: He’d given this code out previously in the few times he’d used his card to pay for something over the phone.
Then she asked him for his current card PIN, just so she could apply that same PIN to the new card being mailed out, she assured him. Ding, ding, ding went the alarm bells in his head. Haughey hesitated, then asked the lady to repeat the question. When she did, he gave her the PIN, and she assured him she’d make sure his existing PIN also served as the PIN for his new card.
Haughey said after hanging up he felt fairly certain the entire transaction was legitimate, although the part about her requesting the PIN kept nagging at him.
“I balked at challenging her because everything lined up,” he said in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “But when I hung up the phone and told a friend about it, he was like, ‘Oh man, you just got scammed, there’s no way that’s real.’”
Now more concerned, Haughey visited his credit union to make sure his travel arrangements were set. When he began telling the bank employee what had transpired, he could tell by the look on her face that his friend was right.
A review of his account showed that there were indeed two fraudulent charges on his account from earlier that day totaling $3,400, but neither charge was from Ohio. Rather, someone used a counterfeit copy of his debit card to spend more than $2,900 at a Kroger near Atlanta, and to withdraw almost $500 from an ATM in the same area. After the unauthorized charges, he had just $300 remaining in his account.
“People I’ve talked to about this say there’s no way they’d fall for that, but when someone from a trustworthy number calls, says they’re from your small town bank, and sounds incredibly professional, you’d fall for it, too,” Haughey said.
Fraudsters can use a variety of open-source and free tools to fake or “spoof” the number displayed as the caller ID, lending legitimacy to phone phishing schemes. Often, just sprinkling in a little foreknowledge of the target’s personal details — SSNs, dates of birth, addresses and other information that can be purchased for a nominal fee from any one of several underground sites that sell such data — adds enough detail to the call to make it seem legitimate.
A CLOSE CALL
Cabel Sasser is founder of a Mac and iOS software company called Panic Inc. Sasser said he almost got scammed recently after receiving a call that appeared to be the same number as the one displayed on the back of his Wells Fargo ATM card.
“I answered, and a Fraud Department agent said my ATM card has just been used at a Target in Minnesota, was I on vacation?” Sasser recalled in a tweet about the experience.
What Sasser didn’t mention in his tweet was that his corporate debit card had just been hit with two instances of fraud: Someone had charged $10,000 worth of metal air ducts to his card. When he disputed the charge, his bank sent a replacement card.
“I used the new card at maybe four places and immediately another fraud charge popped up for like $20,000 in custom bathtubs,” Sasser recalled in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “The morning this scam call came in I was spending time trying to figure out who might have lost our card data and was already in that frame of mind when I got the call about fraud on my card.”
And so the card-replacement dance began.
“Is the card in your possession?,” the caller asked. It was. The agent then asked him to read the three-digit CVV code printed on the back of his card.
After verifying the CVV, the agent offered to expedite a replacement, Sasser said. “First he had to read some disclosures. Then he asked me to key in a new PIN. I picked a random PIN and entered it. Verified it again. Then he asked me to key in my current PIN.”
That made Sasser pause. Wouldn’t an actual representative from Wells Fargo’s fraud division already have access to his current PIN?
“It’s just to confirm the change,” the caller told him. “I can’t see what you enter.”
“But…you’re the bank,” he countered. “You have my PIN, and you can see what I enter…”
The caller had a snappy reply for this retort as well.
“Only the IVR [interactive voice response] system can see it,” the caller assured him. “Hey, if it helps, I have all of your account info up…to confirm, the last four digits of your Social Security number are XXXX, right?”
Sure enough, that was correct. But something still seemed off. At this point, Sasser said he told the agent he would call back by dialing the number printed on his ATM card — the same number his mobile phone was already displaying as the source of the call. After doing just that, the representative who answered said there had been no such fraud detected on his account.
“I was just four key presses away from having all my cash drained by someone at an ATM,” Sasser recalled. A visit to the local Wells Fargo branch before his trip confirmed that he’d dodged a bullet.
“The Wells person was super surprised that I bailed out when I did, and said most people are 100 percent taken by this scam,” Sasser said.
“The Wells person was super surprised that I bailed out when I did, and said most people are 100 percent taken by this scam,” Sasser said.
HUMAN, ROBOT OR HYBRID?
In Sasser’s case, the scammer was a live person, but some equally convincing voice phishing schemes — sometimes called “vishing” — use a combination of humans and automation. Consider the following vishing attempt, reported to KrebsOnSecurity in August by “Curt,” a longtime reader from Canada.
“I’m both a TD customer and Rogers phone subscriber and just experienced what I consider a very convincing and/or elaborate social engineering/vishing attempt,” Curt wrote. “At 7:46pm I received a call from (647-475-1636) purporting to be from Credit Alert (alertservice.ca) on behalf of TD Canada Trust offering me a free 30-day trial for a credit monitoring service.”
The caller said her name was Jen Hansen, and began the call with what Curt described as “over-the-top courtesy.”
“It sounded like a very well-scripted Customer Service call, where they seem to be trying so hard to please that it seems disingenuous,” Curt recalled. “But honestly it still sounded very much like a real person, not like a text to speech voice which sounds robotic. This sounded VERY natural.”
Ms. Hansen proceeded to tell Curt that TD Bank was offering a credit monitoring service free for one month, and that he could cancel at any time. To enroll, he only needed to confirm his home mailing address.
“I’m mega paranoid (I read krebsonsecurity.com daily) and asked her to tell me what address I had on their file, knowing full well my home address can be found in a variety of ways,” Curt wrote in an email to this author. “She said, ‘One moment while I access that information.’”
After a short pause, a new voice came on the line.
“And here’s where I realized I was finally talking to a real human — a female with a slight French accent — who read me my correct address,” Curt recalled.
After another pause, Ms. Hansen’s voice came back on the line. While she was explaining that part of the package included free antivirus and anti-keylogging software, Curt asked her if he could opt-in to receive his credit reports while opting-out of installing the software.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” the voice identifying itself as Ms. Hansen replied. Curt repeated himself. After another, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that,” Curt asked Ms. Hansen where she was from.
The voice confirmed what was indicated by the number displayed on his caller ID: That she was calling from Barrie, Ontario. Trying to throw the robot voice further off-script, Curt asked what the weather was like in Barrie, Ontario. Another Long pause. The voice continued describing the offered service.
“I asked again about the weather, and she said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have that information. Would you like me to transfer you to someone that does?’ I said yes and again the real person with a French accent started speaking, ignoring my question about the weather and saying that if I’d like to continue with the offer I needed to provide my date of birth. This is when I hung up and immediately called TD Bank.” No one from TD had called him, they assured him.
FULLY AUTOMATED PHONE PHISHING
And then there are the fully-automated voice phishing scams, which can be be equally convincing. Last week I heard from “Jon,” a cybersecurity professional with more than 30 years of experience under his belt (Jon asked to leave his last name out of this story).
Answering a call on his mobile device from a phone number in Missouri, Jon was greeted with the familiar four-note AT&T jingle, followed by a recorded voice saying AT&T was calling to prevent his phone service from being suspended for non-payment.
“It then prompted me to enter my security PIN to be connected to a billing department representative,” Jon said. “My number was originally an AT&T number (it reports as Cingular Wireless) but I have been on T-Mobile for several years, so clearly a scam if I had any doubt. However, I suspect that the average Joe would fall for it.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Just as you would never give out personal information if asked to do so via email, never give out any information about yourself in response to an unsolicited phone call.
Phone phishing, like email scams, usually invokes an element of urgency in a bid to get people to let their guard down. If call has you worried that there might be something wrong and you wish to call them back, don’t call the number offered to you by the caller. If you want to reach your bank, call the number on the back of your card. If it’s another company you do business with, go to the company’s site and look up their main customer support number.
I suspect people my age (mid-40s) and younger also generally let most unrecognized calls go to voicemail. It seems to be a very different reality for folks from an older generation, many of whom still primarily call friends and family using land lines, and who will always answer a ringing phone whenever it is humanly possible to do so.
It’s a good idea to advise your loved ones to ignore calls unless they appear to come from a friend or family member, and to just hang up the moment the caller starts asking for personal information.
Many scientists now believe that the evolution of mushrooms’ highly developed immune systems are exactly what makes mushrooms so valuable to humans today. Find out what they may possibly do for you…*
Mushrooms represent a largely unexplored world especially in the Western hemisphere. They are not considered a plant because they don’t undergo photosynthesis. They are a fungus. When it comes to fungi, there are over 5,000 different species in North America alone and many of them are wildly popular in the culinary world.
Several Eastern cultures have long recognized mushrooms for their health promoting attributes.* Over the last fifty years, scientists again, mostly in the Eastern world have finally begun to validate their many potential health benefits.
Over 300 different species of mushrooms are now thought to have potential for promoting health.* Evidence continues to emerge, confirming how mushrooms’ proteins, trace minerals, polysaccharides, amino acids and fiber promote overall heath.*
These and other compounds found in mushrooms are now believed to help…
Support immune function*
Promote normal cellular growth*
Protect against environmental stressors*
Support your body’s normal detoxification process*
Preserve cellular structure*
Support healthy gut flora*
Promote optimal digestion*
In other words, mushrooms are increasingly thought to play many different roles: adaptogens, antioxidants, detoxifying agents just to name a few.*
A Mushroom Is More than What Meets the Eye
Mushrooms are more than a stem
and cap
When most people think of a mushroom, they think of a stem and a cap.
However, there’s much more to a mushroom. What you and I consider a mushroom is actually the fruiting body of a much larger mass called “mycelium”.
The mycelium is the part of the mushroom you don’t see or typically eat. It’s the hidden part of the fungus and up to 95% of mushrooms’ total biomass that lies beneath the surface of the soil.
Mycelium is a vast network of living cells covering much of the earth’s surface. And when I say “vast”, I’m not exaggerating.
More than 8 miles of these individual mycelium cells, called mycelia, can permeate ONE cubic inch of soil! And as the largest biological entities on the planet, these “fungal mats” can live for decades and even centuries.
Here’s an important point I want you to hold on to… During its life, the mycelium has one goal: To preserve and promote the existence of the species.
Mushroom or mycelium cells struggle to survive against invaders. In order to survive, mycelia have developed highly efficient and proactive immune systems.
Many scientists now believe that the highly developed immune system, the mycelia, has evolved over the years, along with its ability to break down organic matter in nature, are exactly what makes mushrooms so valuable to humans and other mammals.
To get a better understanding of how the mycelium promotes and preserves its species and what that can mean for us, let’s take a closer look at its life cycle.
Here’s a detailed look at the complete life cycle of the mycelium – and the mushroom:
The Life Cycle of the Mushroom
The diagram starts when the mature mushroom releases its spores (#1 in the upper left corner). These released spores germinate in an environment that promotes growth. It can be soil, plant matter, or other substrate.
Keep in mind everything is happening underground until step #4. Environmental conditions such as rain and warm temperatures encourage the mycelium to form compact masses that develop into “fruit” – mushrooms – that can literally pop up overnight.
In short, the mycelium achieves its goal of promoting its species by growing mushrooms. These mycelium “fruit” produce spores in their cap’s underside gills.
The spores rapidly multiply and by the time the mushrooms reach adulthood of their short lifespan, their gills release spores into the air and soil. After releasing their spores, mushroom fruit bodies decompose quickly, often within a day. The life cycle then repeats itself.
What you may not appreciate from this rather complex diagram is the enormity of the process.
Growing at the rate of one quarter to two inches per day, imagine the growth of the mycelial mass from just a single mushroom species. Every inch of soil hosts thousands of species of fungi.
Just more evidence of the power of the mycelium and its ability to promote the life of the species – this time through genetic diversity.
Making Mushrooms and Mycelium Work For You
As I mentioned earlier, other cultures have valued mushrooms for their health-supporting properties for five millennia and science is now starting to validate many of those claims.*
What is it about mushrooms and their mycelium that makes them so potentially valuable to your health?*
Beta glucans and proteoglycans are the primary biologically active compounds in mushroom fruit bodies and mycelia that support the immune systems of humans, and some animals, too.* Beta glucans are chains of polysaccharides, and proteoglycans are special proteins, often found in connective tissue.
And what makes mushroom-derived beta glucans so valuable to human health is this – their ability to help support the immune system.* And that may offer value to individuals who desire to support optimal immune function without over-stimulation. *
How do mushrooms support immune function?
Beta glucans function like a lock and key
The beta glucans found in mushrooms and their mycelium are large and complex long-chain molecules. What sets certain beta glucans apart are their unique side-branching patterns.
Just like a key and lock, the beta glucan compounds in mushrooms must “fit” perfectly with cellular receptor sites to support the immune system.*
By binding to receptor points on cells important to the immune system, the beta glucan polysaccharide compounds can have a positive effect on your immune cells.*
Each individual mushroom species contributes a variety of beta glucan molecular structures. When you combine several species, you multiply the number of immune cell receptor sites that may be activated.
While beta glucans have been the most studied component, mushrooms and their mycelium contain many other bioactive compounds and proteins that support immune function, too:*
Alpha glucans
Antioxidants
Enzymes
Pectins
Ribonucleases
Ubiquitin-like proteins
Peptides
Lectins
How Mushrooms Support a Healthy Gut and Digestion, Too*
Supporting healthy immune function isn’t the only thing mushrooms can potentially do for you.*
Mushrooms’ complex nutritional matrix of nutrients, dietary fiber and fungal enzymes has been shown to support healthy digestion and gastrointestinal tract function.*
Mushrooms that include the extra-cellular digestive enzymes produced by the mycelium are a source of a variety of enzymes that can help promote optimal digestive function.*
And as you’ll soon see, how a mushroom is processed affects its contribution to your
health, too.*
Produced using fermentation, specially processed mushroom mycelium preparations can help promote optimal digestive function and more.*
The Connection Between Your Gut, Brain, and Immune Function
A healthy immune system starts in your gut
If you’ve been reading my site for any period of time, you’re probably aware that optimal health starts in your gastrointestinal tract.
And when you have a healthy digestive system, you can more completely digest food particles that might otherwise keep you from enjoying optimal health.
Most people don’t realize that 80 percent of your immune system lies in your gastrointestinal tract.
So, in my opinion, if you want to help support your immune system, you must support your digestion.
Not only that, but additionally, your gut originates from the same type of tissue as your brain.
When a fetus develops, one part of this “brain” tissue
turns into his central nervous system and the other part develops into his enteric nervous system.
These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen.
This nerve explains why your gut and your brain influence each other so powerfully.
And that explains why your intestinal health can affect your mental and neurological health. Including fermented products into your daily diet is an effective way to naturally help optimize your gut flora and support your immune system and brain health, too.*
Mushrooms… A Timely Addition to the Mercola Line of Quality Supplements
With all the latest research on the benefits of fermented foods, I am constantly searching for ways to make it easier for you to include fermented products into your diet each day.
Especially since I know not everyone is willing to regularly eat the few true fermented foods that do exist, such as natto, kim chee, and sauerkraut. (For a more complete list of fermented foods, see box at right.)
I have located a source of mushrooms that, in my opinion, offers the ultimate in mycelium benefits and is a fermented product.
Before I tell you more about the mushroom varieties included in my Fermented Mushroom Complex, let me introduce you to the extraordinary company we’ve selected to produce our unique blend.
The company, Mushroom Matrix (M2), led by an expert team of Mycologists, has worked with mushroom species from around the world since the 1980’s.
Pioneers in the field, they developed the proprietary Solid State Fermentation (SSF) production methodology and equipment that allows for the production of health-supporting mushrooms and their mycelium on organic substrate (more about that in just a minute).*
M2 obtained 100% organic certification status for all of their products in 2006, and today produce only certified organic mushrooms in their labs in San Marcos, California, just north of San Diego.
And now I’m thrilled to announce that they’ve agreed to develop a proprietary blend just for us, available only through Mercola.com.
7 Species That Made The Cut for the
Fermented Mushroom Complex…
M2 selected seven species for the new proprietary Fermented Mushroom Complex, based on their expert research of purported health benefits:*
Niu-Chang (Antrodia camphorata)
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)
Maitake (Grifola frondosa)
Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)
Himematsutake (Agaricus blazei)
Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris)
Starting with the species that, in my opinion, is most intriguing, let me tell you about Niu-Chang, or Antrodia camphorata, or Antrodia for short.
Niu-Chang A Rare Gift Originating From Taiwan’s Old-Growth Rainforest
The Mountains of Taiwan – Home to Antrodia in the wild
A unique and rare health-promoting mushroom species native to Taiwan’s old growth rainforest, Antrodia or “Niu-Chang” is virtually unheard of in the Western hemisphere.*
In the wild, this orange-red mushroom grows inside the hollow trunk of one specific kind of tree named “Chang tree” (or the “Cinnamomum kanehirai”), found exclusively in Taiwan’s mountain regions.
Only mature Chang trees over 100 years old provide the right conditions for Antrodia to grow. Considered “Taiwan’s National Treasure”, Antrodia, in the wild is found nowhere else in the world.
Luckily for us, M2 has figured out how to culture Antrodia mycelia in its lab in San Marcos, California.
Antrodia is not only one of the world’s most rare and expensive mushrooms, it’s said to possess an impressive array of health-promoting attributes.*
Both the fruit bodies and the mycelia have been shown by research studies to contain powerful, bio-active compounds.*
Some of the scientifically studied uses of Antrodia include:
Supports immune function*
Promotes normal cellular function and growth*
Supports liver health*
Promotes healthy blood circulation*
Promotes healthy blood pressure levels already in the normal range*
Helps support optimal gastrointestinal health and function*
Promotes normal immune response*
Helps supports optimal neurological health*
M2 was the first company in the Western world to successfully culture the mycelia of this unique mushroom species.
From Virtually Unknown to One of the Best Known
Asian Shitake Mushrooms
Shitake, or Lentinula edodes, is well-known and often used in Asian cuisine.
But did you know that both the fruit body and mycelium of the shitake are also highly valued in Asian cultures for their supposed health-promoting benefits?*
Cultivation of this mushroom has been practiced for over one thousand years.
The use of Shiitake dates back to at least 100 AD in China. In Traditional Chinese Practice, Shiitake was used to support a wide range of body functions.*
In vitro and animal research shows shitake to be useful for helping to:
Support immune function*
Support normal cellular growth and development*
Support liver function*
Promote optimal blood circulation*
Support oral health*
Promote healthy cholesterol levels already in the normal range*
Promote normal response to stress as an “adaptogenic”*
The Oriental Mushroom with the Longest Recorded History of Use
Woody, earthy Reishi Mushroom
Of all the health-promoting mushrooms, Reishi or Ganoderma lucidum is not only the most revered, but also has the longest recorded history of use.
Reishi is considered a “warming” ingredient in Traditional Chinese practice.*
Known as a “three treasure” herb, it’s thought by the Chinese to harmonize jung (life force), qi (energy), and shen (spirit).*
A richly colored mushroom, Reishi is found in the wild around the world, especially in subtropical regions. For our formula, M2 has developed a way to culture Reishi in its lab in San Marcos, California.
Active compounds are found in its fruit bodies, spores, and mycelia. Studies, including animal studies, suggest that they help:
Support immune function*
Support normal cellular growth and development*
Promote the body’s normal detoxification processes*
Support healthy blood pressure levels already in the normal range*
Support liver and kidney function*
Promote restful sleep*
Help support optimal cellular energy*
Support healthy blood sugar levels already in the normal range*
Promote normal response to stress as an “adaptogenic”*
Support muscular and joint comfort and movement*
Help support optimal neurological and psychiatric health*
Promote optimal blood flow and healthy heart muscle function*
Special Note: If you’re currently taking medication for high blood pressure, please consult with your health care practitioner before taking Fermented Mushroom Complex, and be sure they continue to monitor you throughout the duration of your use of this product.
The “Dancing Butterfly Mushroom” A Culinary Delight and Provides Beta-Glucans, Too
“Dancing Butterfly” Maitake
Almost resembling a butterfly in flight, Maitake, or Grifola frondosa, is a large mushroom characterized by multiple overlapping layers.
The fruit bodies and mycelia of Maitake provide immune-supporting beta glucans.* Compared to extracted fractions of Maitake, the whole powdered fruit body and mycelium show a wider variety of benefits.*
The synergistic chemistry of Maitake’s complex variety of polysaccharides, amino acids, proteins, enzymes and antioxidants contribute to its many suggested health-promoting benefits, including*:
Supports immune function*
Supports normal cellular development*
May promote healthy glucose levels already in the normal range, as well as a normal insulin response*
May help support weight management when combined with a healthy diet and exercise*
May promote healthy blood pressure levels already in the normal range*
May promote skin health*
The Turkey Tail One of the Most Researched and Respected…
Can you see the Turkey Tail?
The Turkey Tail, or the Trametes versicolormushroom, with its fan-shaped, colorful overlapping layers of fruit bodies truly resembling turkey tails, is a common inhabitant in the northern forests of the world.
And it also happens to have one of the longest histories of health-promoting use in China and Japan.*
Known for its supply of a particular type of polysaccharide PSK Turkey Tail has been widely studied. Some of its purported benefits include:
Promotes respiratory health*
May support urinary and digestive health*
Supports immune health*
Supports normal cellular growth*
Supports normal cellular growth*
Looks Like a Common Mushroom, But Is It Really?
Agaricus Mushrooms
Himematsutake (or Royal Sun Agaricus or Agaricus blazei species) falls into the same genus as the common button mushroom.
Richly almond scented, Agaricus boasts immune-supporting polysaccharides and other important cellular growth-supporting compounds, clearly setting it apart from its every day cousin.*
Other possible benefits attributed to Agaricus, in addition to supporting immune health and normal cell growth, include: *
Helps promote optimal insulin response*
Supports heart health*
Supports liver health*
Promotes optimal gastrointestinal health*
One of the Most Valued Herbs Used Traditionally in China…
Dried Cordyceps Mushrooms
Cordyceps, or Cordyceps militaris, has been used for centuries for a wide variety of health-promoting properties.*
Looking the least like a mushroom, long, slender Cordyceps fruit bodies and its mycelia both show important health-promoting properties.*
Compared to Cordyceps sinensis, researchers have found the mycelia of this variety of Cordyceps to provide additional bioactive ingredients.
Cordyceps militaris has been shown in studies, to potentially help:
Support athletic performance and energy*
Support sexual function*
Promote optimal circulation*
Promote lung and respiratory health*
Support kidney health*
Support immune function*
Support healthy cholesterol levels already in the normal range*
Chinese herbalists believe that Cordyceps replenishes Yin and Yang Jing and acts to help the body better respond to exertion, stress, or normal aging.*
I’m Bringing You What I Believe to be the BEST in Health-Promoting Mushrooms*
My Fermented Mushroom Complex contains 7 species of highly-valued, health-promoting mushrooms and their mycelium that provide an array of enzymes, nutrients, antioxidants and immune-supporting compounds.*
Additionally, I’ve made sure my blend is:
Made from a whole food, and NOT from an extract
Cultivated using organic oats instead of rice
Contains mostly the mycelium and also fruiting bodies
Produced using Solid State Fermentation (SSF)
Biologically active
Gluten-free
Free of unhealthy levels of toxic heavy metals
Grown and processed in the U.S.A.
100% Certified Organic
Free of additives and fillers
As with all of the supplements I offer on my site, I refuse to sacrifice quality. What’s more, I will never recommend a supplement to you that I cannot fully embrace.
Whole Food vs. Extracts: Why I Believe Fermented Mushrooms Trump Isolated Mushroom Extracts
Whereas most mushroom products you’ll find on store shelves are made from “extracts”, our product is truly made from a whole food.
You already know how passionate I am about whole foods and supplements are no exception. When you isolate nutrients from their food source, you strip them of their valuable enzymes, co-enzymes, and other important co-factors responsible for a nutrient’s actions.
In my opinion, a whole food with its ratio of natural components designed by nature will always be a better choice than concentrations of individual elements.
A recent study shows that consuming food nutrients such as vitamins and minerals in their natural “whole food” matrix offers greater nutritional value than ingesting those same vitamins and minerals in an isolated, purified state.
Just like eating a fresh vegetable with its fiber and natural nutrients intact is the preferred way to get those nutrients, it’s no different with mushrooms.
When you extract certain bioactive compounds from mushrooms, such as important beta glucans and polysaccharides, you leave behind enzymes, coenzymes, and chelated mineral activators.
These valuable compounds support the mushroom’s bioactivity and how your body receives benefits from the compound. The extraction process can also damage many of the bioactive enzymes and proteins.
And here’s something else I must mention… Highly concentrated mushroom extracts can bring the potential for unintended consequences. As powerful as they can be, an overload of certain compounds in isolated extracts may shut down the important feedback your body depends upon.
The Mycelium’s Substrate Why Our Supplier Chose Oats Over Rice
Our mushrooms are cultivated with oats instead of rice
In stark contrast to other mushroom products, the mycelium for Fermented Mushroom Complex is cultivated using 100% Certified Organic Whole Oats, complete with the outer hull intact.
Our supplier believes that oats make a better growing substrate for mycelium than hulled brown rice, the medium commonly used. Why?
The outer hull protects the oat seed from oxidizing and going rancid
Oats have a higher content of nutrients, protein, and fiber
Oats’ cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin stimulate the mushroom to activate a more complete set of metabolic and enzymatic pathways, vital to the mycelia’s bioactivity
Oats are easy for the mycelium to digest
Almost all the oats are digested during the fermentation process
Oats’ plant beta glucans compliment the fungal beta glucans
Why M2’s Proprietary Solid State Fermentation Method
Delivers What I Consider a Better Product
M2’s Steam Sterilization Equipment
M2 has developed and optimized a proprietary Solid State Fermentation (SSF) method to produce their mushrooms.
SSF is a process where the insoluble substrate in this case, organic whole oats is fermented with enough moisture, but without excess water. It results in higher quality production and yields while degrading the starch and enhancing nutrients.
In this process, the team cooks the oats to hydrate them to 55% moisture and to remove competing fungi, viruses, yeast, and bacteria.
This substrate is now ready for the mycelium starter to be added.
Grown in bags over the next 30 to 80 days, the mycelium gradually digests the oats until the grains vanish, leaving behind a solid white mass the mycelium biomass. Due to this length of time, almost all the oats are digested, unlike mushroom spawn, which is harvested after about seven days.
At this point and right before the biomass enters the erupting fruit body stage the team members open the bags and slowly dehydrate the biomass to reduce the moisture content. The use of controlled 118 degrees preserves live enzymes, protein structure, and the many bioactivities of each mushroom species.
Once the mushroom biomass reaches 5 percent moisture, it is milled into a fine powder and is ready for use.
Fermented Mushroom Complex is Safely Grown and Processed in the USA
With mushrooms, their growing environment matters, just as it does with other plants. Their intense ability to concentrate minerals and metals in their tissues makes polluted environments a real threat to their purity.
When grown in a polluted environment, mushrooms may contain lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium, which can be toxic, depending on the levels.
Recently, Asian (and Chinese, in particular) mushroom products have been found to contain unhealthy levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium, most likely from widespread water, soil, and air pollution.
Although M2 Mycologists select strains of mushrooms from around the globe and carry home tissue cultures of these extraordinary species, they propagate and produce all of their own mushrooms in their lab in San Marcos, California.
All critical points of quality control stay totally in their hands.
Further, they routinely test for heavy metals in the tissue samples, the organic oat substrate as well as the finished mushroom ingredients, so we’re assured of a product free of dangerous levels of heavy metals.
I Challenge You to Find a More Bio-Active, Cleaner Organic Mushroom Blend…
If you believe and are convinced in the value of mushrooms for your health, then there’s no question in my mind that we’ve found ourselves a winner with my Fermented Mushroom Complex.
When I first found out about the mushrooms in this blend Rare Antrodia… Revered Reishi… Cordyceps militaris… I suspected it was too good to be true.
But when I learned more about and met with the incredible team of Mycologists at M2, I had nothing but utmost respect for their vast knowledge of mushrooms’ health-promoting benefits.*
The tipping point for me came when I learned how their finished product was fermented. That cinched it for me.
I immediately requested a supply to be rushed to my office. I’ve been taking Fermented Mushroom Complex ever since the first day it arrived.
And now I’m more convinced than ever… we have struck gold.
The Countdown to Excellence… Fermented Mushroom Complex Emerges a Winner
This extraordinary blend of 7 organic mushrooms…
Is made with the whole food mushroom and mycelium, not isolated extracts
Is produced using fermentation, thanks to M2’s breakthrough SSF processing methods
Is free of unhealthy levels of heavy metals
Contains some of the rarest and most bio-active mushrooms*, some of which are barely known to the Western hemisphere
Is grown and produced entirely in the U.S.
Uses oats instead of rice for its substrate, adding valuable plant beta glucans and enhancing the mycelia’s bioactivity*
Retains its potent bioactivity through carefully controlled processing methods*
Beta-glucanspromote healthy immune function within its normal range rather than over-stimulation like some herbal products*
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