#currently like i have literally worried that i have alzheimers or dementia

[not-poignant]

I know I'm still burnt out because my executive function is so bad at the moment I make like a million mistakes every time I put up a new chapter, which is demoralising and makes me feel extremely pathetic.

Anyone who says ADHD is a superpower needs to just spend some time in a bin.

[i-want-to-bethlieve]

Steve Rogers’ Ending and its Horrible Implications

Let me start by saying I was very disappointed with the entire Avengers Endgame movie.  I didn’t like the plot, the humor, or the action, but I feel the ending for Captain America perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with the movie; not enough thought was put into it.  This is basically all of the gripes I have with Steve’s ending.  It’s late, but I had to get it all out.

The writers (Markus and McFeely) and the directors (Russo Brothers) don’t even agree on what happened to Steve at the end of the movie.  Which is pretty embarrassing considering they worked together on this story for 4 movies.  The Russo Brothers say Steve Rogers goes back in time and creates an alternate timeline. He marries Peggy, and is free to change whatever he wants because it has no effect on the main timeline of the MCU. As for explaining how Steve was able to show up on a park bench in the main timeline at the end, their only non-answer is “maybe there is a story there”. In other words, they don’t know.  Markus and McFeely say Steve goes back in time, marries Peggy, and lives out his life in the main MCU timeline, which is why he just shows up on a bench at the end of the movie without using the time machine. To them Steve has apparently been Peggy’s husband this whole time.

The most disappointing thing about either ending is the character assassination of Steve Rogers.  Whatever scenario you choose to believe, Steve Rogers makes an incredibly selfish choice to go be with Peggy.  Steve knew Peggy had moved on and had a family. She tells him she has no regrets about that part of her life.  He saw her children and knew she was married, but he goes back to be with Peggy anyway, which shows him blatantly disregarding the life she made without him.  He makes the decision to change her life without any thought about what she wanted.  It was all about his own happiness.  Never mind that they shared only 1 kiss before being separated.  Never mind that two of his teammates just died to restore the current universe he was living in.  Never mind that his two closest friends literally came back from the dead a minute ago.  All of that was disregarded so Steve could live in his fantasy.  That is what Peggy was for Steve at that point.  She is more an idea than an actual person because they just didn’t know each other well enough. They were never a couple.  They never went on a date.  It was all speculation.  A ‘what-could-have-been’ for both of them.  I’m not saying there was no love between them.  They played important parts in each others lives, but Steve believes she is “the love of his life” and doesn’t seem to care whether she felt the same way about him.  She was happily married with no regrets. How does he know her husband (who Steve wouldn’t know was himself if you believe the writers) was not the love of her life?  Honestly, if you look at this decision from anyone's perspective other than Steve’s it is all very horrible.

When you break down both the writers and directors’ theories the story only falls apart even more.  Lets say you believe the Russo brothers and think Steve created an alternate timeline.  In this scenario Steve can do whatever he wants because he intentionally created an alternate reality to live in.  We can assume he is able to prevent many tragedies from happening (stops Bucky from becoming the Winter Soldier, stops Howard and Maria from dying, prevents Hydra from taking over SHIELD etc.) and the movie shows us he gets married to Peggy. This seems great on the surface, but the minute you start thinking about how the story would have to play out to get there, it becomes a bitter pill to swallow. In order to marry Peggy, our Steve Rogers (OSteve) had to keep alternate universe Steve Rogers (AUSteve) stuck in the ice for 70 years. That’s a pretty cold (ha) thing for OSteve to do, but it also means Peggy went along with it.  You would think Peggy would want to go find AUSteve as soon as she realizes he survived the crash, and that would mean she wouldn’t want to marry OSteve because the man she just said goodbye to is out there alive somewhere.  If Peggy marries OSteve we have to assume Peggy agreed to leave her Steve frozen for 70 years.  There is also no reason to keep AUSteve in the ice except for selfish reasons.  In this scenario OSteve prevents the events of the Captain America trilogy from happening, so Steve would not be needed in 70 years the same way he was in the main MCU timeline.  OSteve and Peggy would knowingly choose to keep AUSteve frozen in the ice even though they have every ability to save him.  That’s some skeleton in the closet.

In this alternate reality it is true Steve can save his friends, but it does not erase his friends in the original timeline, or the trauma they went through. Steve getting to "fix" everything he did not like about his life sounds great, but it is hollow if you abandon your old traumatized friends for new ones without baggage. He is really just living in fantasy land as far as anyone in the main timeline is concerned.  No matter what he does, Steve does not belong in that alternate timeline. He has a life he is leaving behind with people who care about him, and who he is supposed to care about. Steve can pretend all he wants, but the alternate timeline is not "his" life. What would AUSteve think when he wakes up and finds out a man came from some alternate universe and stole his life, keeping him frozen for years when he could have been saved?

There is also the moral dilemma of playing god.  Is creating an alternate universe for yourself okay just because you’ve been a good guy in the past?  You have to be pretty arrogant to think you are good enough to create a universe for your own happiness.  Is it okay to have the supposedly most moral character in the series do this?  Does it go against everything the character is supposed to stand for? We watched Thor and Tony speak to their dead parents without attempting to save them. Why is that?  Why does everyone except Steve have to avoid creating alternate timelines? Why are we worried about the consequences of messing with time travel when apparently there are none? The directors did not care enough to ask themselves these questions, and Steve Rogers’ character, and the movie, suffers for it. The Russos created an arrogant, and selfish Steve Rogers who is willing to change Peggy’s world to the one he wants without knowing if she would want that too.

If you believe the writers and think Steve went back in time and was Peggy’s husband all along, things still don’t add up.  First of all, Steve going back in time would change the past, meaning there would have to be an alternate timeline.  It makes no sense given the rules of time travel Endgame gave us, that Steve did not create an alternate timeline when he went back in time.  Second of all, the reveal that Steve was Peggy’s husband all along does not fit into what we saw in any of the previous Captain America movies (written and directed by the same people who made Endgame).  In ‘Captain America: the Winter Soldier’ the video at the Smithsonian shows Peggy mentioning Steve saved her husband during the war.  Why would she say that if Steve has been her husband the whole time?  She has to be lying about that, even though there is no reason for her to be saying any of this at all. In the same movie Peggy tells Steve her only regret is knowing Steve never got the chance to live his life.  This doesn’t make sense because she knows he will get the chance to live his life. Yes I know that part can be explained away because Peggy seems to be suffering from some for of dementia or alzheimer's, but this opens another plot hole.  We assume Steve was involved in Peggy’s life after he came out of the ice. How is it possible he never met her husband? In ‘Captain America: Civil War’ Steve goes to Peggy’s funeral. Are we meant to believe that Steve would not have given his condolences to Peggy’s husband? Steve being at her funeral also means Peggy’s friends and family are in on the lie too because no one mentions how strange it is that Peggy’s husband suddenly looks 50 years younger.  And last but not least of this theory’s problems, if Steve was Peggy’s husband the whole time that would mean Sharon Carter knowingly makes out with her uncle.  Yikes!  Personally I refuse to give that theory any credibility. The writers clearly did not plan this ending from the beginning. Unless of course they are just that bad at their job.

Besides breaking all of the time travel rules Avengers Endgame established, the writer’s theory also fails to keep Steve in character.  Steve “I can’t stand aside when I see a situation going south” Rogers would have to stand aside his entire life knowing Natasha and Bucky were becoming brainwashed assassins killing countless people, including Tony Stark’s parents. He knows that his wife is working with Hydra agents who will undermine everything she helped build with SHIELD and kill countless people. He has to live with knowing every horrible thing that will happens in the MCU, and do nothing to prevent it.  That life for Steve does not sound like a happily ever after ending to me.  In ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ it is established skinny Steve is constantly getting beat up because he can’t stand by and watch someone be disrespectful, or allow injustice to prevail.  So what character growth did the writers give Steve at the end of Endgame?  He has grown over these last 11 years into a man that chooses a life where he has to stand aside knowing his friends are suffering?  He leaves his friends in a present where the world is rebuilding to go live in a past where he can kick back and relax while injustice rages around him. Is that the type of character growth you want to see for Steve Rogers? 

It is a huge mess no matter which way you slice it.  And the whole thing is so contrived.  Bucky, who has been at the center of the Captain America trilogy, does not get a proper reunion or goodbye scene with Steve.  Steve does not have a moment to mourn Bucky or Sam during the entire movie. Instead we have multiple scenes of Steve looking at the picture of Peggy he keeps in the compass.  He doesn’t mention losing Bucky or Sam when speaking to a therapy group about moving on after the snap. Instead he brings up losing Peggy aka "the love of his life".  That was done not because it is true to the character, but so the audience would be more likely to accept Steve’s ending.  If we saw a movie where Steve misses his friends and desperately wants to get them back, the ending would not work.  Steve leaving them just after getting them back would feel out of place, and inappropriate.  So the writers and directors committed the ultimate story telling sin and forced the characters to fit inside their story, instead of creating a story to fit the characters.  It is a huge injustice to fans who have invested years into watching these movies. Steve Rogers’ story ends without him experiencing any growth at all. Steve’s entire journey is disregarded in a way because he has not gained anything important enough to stay in the present for.  He is still longing for the past after all this time, and if you disagree, think about this.  Even after returning to Peggy in the 1940s, Steve remains a man out of time.  He does not belong in 1940 more than he belongs in 2023.  That is some other person’s life he is living. A life he was never meant to have because he chose to sacrifice it.  Choosing to take it back undoes everything we are suppose to love about Steve Rogers.

Many people argue that Steve deserves to be selfish for once.  He has earned the right to go and live the life he wants.  I say those people are just in denial about how badly the movie screwed up Steve’s character.  All of the Avengers have earned the right to retire if they want to, and Steve could retire (though I would still argue it was out of character).  If the writers and directors wanted Steve to end with making a decision for his own self-interest, retirement would have been a great option.  But that is not what we got.  He didn’t just make a decisions for his own self interest, he literally created an entire universe where his happiness was the priority.  That is out of character for Steve.  Steve Rogers is beloved because he is not selfish.  He is beloved because he wants to do the right thing, even when doing the right thing is difficult (especially when doing the right thing is difficult).  Steve is suppose to be the character willing to do “whatever it takes” to help people. Not do whatever it takes to get his own happy ending.  So while Steve getting his dance is a lovely image to end on, the Russo brothers, Markus, and McFeely had to destroy everything you love about the character to get him there.  That is not a good or satisfying ending.

[ladymusic600]

ET

My mom didn’t make a lot of money and my father left before i was born, I was already dealing with the shame of receiving free school lunches and the looks associated with that. Some of my school friends laughed and poked fun. They chuckled and I even joked about it with them. But for me, on the inside, it wasn’t funny at all. I know how tough it can be to use a soup spoon or button a shirt. I struggle with these seemingly easy, day-to-day tasks too. But I think it shows your true character to keep soldiering on and finding a way, day after day, to keep rising above the challenges. This is a nerve disorder causing uncontrollable shaking usually to the top half of the body. The tremors can make easy and everyday tasks so much more difficult. These tremors can make something as easy as feeding yourself, dressing yourself a challenge. A person with these tremors can have difficulty using a spoon or picking up a glass without spilling what is inside. This is something i have had sense birth. It truly does affect my entire body: my arms, hands, legs(which make me fall and trip), lips, stomach. It even affects my voice, which I find very stressful as it often sounds like I am about to cry when I am in a nervous situation- so phone calls would, naturally, be another source of anxiety for me as I was always worried the person on the other end of the phone would think I was upset. There are many factors that exasperate and intensify my tremor which include: anxiety, being hungry, being too tired, being too cold, being too hot, adrenaline, caffeine and the worst of all: being hungover. There is another huge point to cover here- alcohol completely gets rid of the tremor and when I say it completely gets rid of it, I mean it becomes non-existent, doctors say its ok to have a little but come on? wouldn't you drink like a fish out of water if it made you normal. Therefore throughout my teens I would often drink to self-medicate and relieve the stress that the tremor would put on me. Alcohol would also allow me to do everyday things that I couldn’t do with the tremor (for instance: walking down steps(i need to hold on someone or something), taking a drink, eating soup, writing, the list goes on and on.) I remember enjoying the feeling the alcohol gave me as it made me feel like a ‘normal’ person and I couldn’t believe that people were actually living their lives with this feeling of normality and I was extremely jealous of that. Imagine that, the one cure to your condition, is something that can actually kill you (or is extremely dangerous). But this was a really big problem for me and I was in denial for years that I had become dependent on drinking to calm my tremor and my anxiety. I had normalized using alcohol to self-medicate and kept it a secret for years. I decided to have a drink to calm myself down and stop my legs from shaking, when going out to meet new friends. Of course as one does when socializing this led to another drink and then another. The next morning and I realize my tremor is so bad that I can barely even stand up. So, I went through my options and decided the only real way I could even get out of bed was to have another drink… so I did. This cycle continued drinking, waking up with a hangover, not being able to stand/walk and then drinking again to be able to continue with daily life. The thing is my friends and family would have to carry me days after...So naturally i stopped drinking all together. People don't understand that one day you can be happy and notice its not as bad as you remember but then....there are those days where I have trouble holding things, i drop things on my feet, i fall over a ghost foot, needing help down stairs, i cut my hand, burn myself, can't dress myself, sound like im having a mental break down...i could go on and on how bad it gets....But Imagine waking up one day and trying to drink a cup of hot coffee without burning yourself. Just imagine when you have your good days and bad days, meaning good days being where you can do stuff without even remembering you have this shaking problem. To bad days literally where the moment you get up you know its going to be a long day of wanting to scream cry and throw everything in frustration because you can’t feed yourself or dress yourself, that you are kinda like a new born again, that you just want to go back to sleep and wake up the next day. But the next day might be the same or better you never know. And you know whats sad about this is im a small person and between 100-106 pounds and short and cops always stop me and ask for my id because they think im on drugs….i only met one cop and that day sadly was at night i was working on a children’s haunted train ride and we were both zombies. Not once did he every think that i was on drugs and it was like 60ish degrees out side and that was cold to me so i was shaking like crazy. I came to realize when i got home he just thought i was cold…then i got into my own head and started getting depressed. The thought of people feeling sorry for me, thinking of me as ‘helpless’, or weak was just awful heartbreaking and was one of the reasons why I kept it a secret for so long. I know if i every have a kid in the future that they will have this as well and that makes me cry thinking about them going through this as well. Im going put a innocent child in this world to get bullied like i did and not be able to do things on there own... Im still to scared to tell people about it, it's embarrassing. Eventually it will get worse which makes me sad but even then as far as neurological disorders go, it’s not as bad as it could be and for that I’m grateful. Like When im paying for stuff god i feel horrible because im shaking and nervous which makes it worse and im left feeling guilty and apologizing to everyone every time. Sometimes it makes me want to scream, fall to my knees and cry because i feel like im just slowing people down or they get embarrassed by me. I have difficulty cooking and have burned and cut myself multiple times, I can’t drive when my tremors are bad because Im scared…I’m at the point now where I avoid eating and drinking in public even if im out all day i still won’t. I’m socially awkward all the time even when im not shaking im just shy and weird haha. See The dating scene can be a bit tricky, especially with people who aren’t really used to seeing you, or anyone else, with tremors. I NEVER been on a date in my life and im kind of scared to go on one because i have to wear wrist and forearm weights. Essential Tremors is a progressive neurological condition that causes a shaking within the hands, head, voice or legs and in some cases an internal shaking is reported. Essential Tremors are most normally confused with Parkinson’s but is more common and while Parkinson’s lessens with more movement, ET worsens with movement, anxiety, stress and strain. Unlike Parkinson's, which is a degenerative disease that causes someone to lose brain cells, essential tremor is not a degenerative disorder. Usually, the tremor that's characteristic of essential tremor occurs while the person is performing a movement-oriented activity – such as eating, drinking, writing, typing or brushing teeth – or when the hand is in a still but outstretched position (called a postural tremor). The severity can range from a barely noticeable trembling that's exacerbated by stress, anxiety, fatigue, excess caffeine or certain stimulant asthma medications to a severe, disabling tremor that has a significant impact on your ability to perform daily activities. For people with severe tremor that doesn't respond to drugs, surgical therapies and other treatments are gaining traction. With deep brain stimulation, a probe is implanted in the thalamus, the part of the brain that causes tremors, and a wire runs from the probe to a pacemaker-like device implanted in the chest. "We use the pacemaker to jam the tremor signal inside the brain," "If the tremor gets worse, we can dial up the stimulation." Hearing that scares me, because you can't be asleep when you have this surgery, you have to be awake so they know they have it in the right place. Recent epidemiological studies indicate that individuals with ET are at slightly increased risk of developing dementia (particularly Alzheimer’s disease) compared to their age-matched counterparts without ET. Similar studies also show that persons with ET have a more than four-times increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The mechanisms for these associations are currently under study. so….would you date me knowing possibly by the time im 40-50ish that i might need help with almost everything i do? would you date me knowing i could possibly give ET to our kid? would you date me knowing there are times where i scream bloody murder because i can’t handle the shaking?  would you date me knowing that there will be times where i zone out and get depressed because i either know my out come or because i im scared of it? i want someone who loves me and not because of sympathy…

[mzyraj]

Explaining Cognitive Problem

I can’t be the only person out there experiencing things like this, but I wondered if anybody else might be struggling to explain what it’s like to friends/family/doctors, as I’ve come up with an (admittedly imperfect) metaphor for what it’s like for me.

Note: I don’t know what’s actually wrong with me yet, I have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, but I really hope it’s not long-term. I’m also going to break this down into lots of smaller paragraphs because if you’re like me right now, you just cannot do walls of text whether it’s gramatically appropriate or not.

So, I’m having brain problems. A lot of the time I can’t think as well as I usually would be able to. Sounds vague, huh? It gets a bit worrying and you start to panic about whether it’s going to be permanent, and I like to reassure myself of worrying symptoms between doctors appointments by googling them and seeing that they’re actually pretty common and could be part of something pretty standard (or much more worrying, but that’s googling stuff on the internet for you).

But I can’t google this. I tried and all it gives me is stuff about memory problems and dementia/alzheimers. Like, yeah, my memory’s not great as part of it, but that’s not my main issue and I doubt it’s dementia when I’m 27.

So here’s how I explain it: Imagine your thinking is like a massive highway with, say, seven lanes. That’s about what I normally have. In the fastest lane you have the essential of what you are doing, so right now you are reading words.

The next few lanes may be supplementing your main activity depending on how complicated it is - you may be using your empathy and imagination to put yourself in my shoes, and if english isn’t your first language you may also be translating this, it all takes brain power.

If you have spare lanes left over, they may be doing other things. Reminding you that there’s something you need to do later in the day. Playing that song stuck in your head. If you’re like I normally am, something back there may be making you anxious or depressed for no sensible reason. You may be working on a story or something. You have lots of brain power.

So that’s how I normally am and sometimes have been again but usually only briefly in the past week or more. Now, I have like two lanes (or less when I collapse). Oh, I can do things, I’m clearly writing a post and (I believe) being fairly coherent, but I cannot do anything else at the same time anymore.

Oddly, it has its perks. I’m generally a lot less depressed simply because I don’t have the mental capability to worry or obsess unless that is literally all I am doing. I don’t get annoying songs stuck in my head because I don’t have space for them - if I want a song in my head I have to put it there and dedicate my limited brain power to it.

But the drawbacks are bigger. I’m still trying to work (currently only half days due to my tendency to collapse if I’m upright for too long). Like I am now, I could write an email or letter at work and it will probably make sense, but in a professional environment you’ll have lots of rules you’ll need to be following in how you write and what you write, and I am in a bit of a specialist field so there’s also knowledge I have to remember and concepts I have to understand... I don’t have the brainpower to do all of those things at once, so things can and will go wrong (and have, though nothing significant yet afaik).

I’ve been taken off the phones as I pose a risk to the company - and probably quite fairly so. At least I can take my time with a letter or email to make sure I get it right, but if somebody calls me out of the blue and wants to know about some specialist thing... Something could give. I tell them the wrong thing, or say it in a bad way that they either misunderstand or get offended by. Some people will kick up a fuss about anything, even where it was a genuine and understandable error.

I also seem to have a lot less brainpower for judgement anyway. When forced into conversation I tend to say what comes to my brain (which tends to be very basically observational) with little consideration of how it’ll sound or what people might think. So I’m probably going to make myself sound/look like an idiot. Fortunately I can’t spare the brainpower to care very much what other people think.

So yeah, there’s probably a better metaphor out there than lanes in a road, but my limited brainpower hasn’t been able to find it yet. Maybe it might help somebody else express a similar thing. Maybe this is just an update for my friends. Maybe my brain will get worse and worse and this will be the last thing I write of this standard. I doubt that I am, but I’ll let you know if it turns out I’m dying. If I’m going to go permanently simple at least it suggests I might be happier that way, just applaud my fiance who is amazingly chill at all the prospects (that aren’t me dying).

[heilpraktiker-hannover]

Is Mushroom Coffee Even Better than Regular Coffee?

Is Mushroom Coffee Even Better than Regular Coffee?

Is Mushroom Coffee Even Better than Regular Coffee?

draxe.com | May 13, 2017 02:00 AM

You may already be on the keto coffee train, but have you tried mushroom coffee? I know it sounds like a really bizarre combination, but this fungi-focused coffee is very trendy at the moment and only seems to be picking up steam. Lovers of the somewhat eccentric brew say that the earthy essence of mushrooms is a complementary addition to coffee that actually makes for a smoother overall flavor. Plus, you get even more antioxidants with less jitter-promoting caffeine.

So mushroom coffee may be gaining popularity, but is it healthy? Mushroom coffee gives you the health benefits of coffee along with the impressive benefits of mushrooms. Same goes for mushroom tea or mushroom hot chocolate. But these beverage options don’t use your typical culinary mushrooms. Instead, they add in medicinal mushrooms. Are medicinal mushrooms good for you? The short answer, which I’ll elaborate on shortly, is “yes.”

The medicinal mushrooms used in mushroom coffee and mushroom tea include health powerhouses like cordyceps. Scientific research continues to show major health benefits of medicinal mushrooms ranging from boosting immune function to even improving brain cells, which means mushrooms may even help fight serious neurodegenerative issue like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. (1) If you’re interested in possibly taking your cup of coffee to another level, then you may just want to try a hot cup of mushroom coffee. And don’t worry — it still tastes like coffee!

What Is Mushroom Coffee?

I know what you’re probably picturing: a hot cup of coffee ruined by some random spongey floating mushrooms. But don’t worry, this is not what I’m talking about here. Right now, there are different kinds of mushroom coffee being made by various companies, and it’s basically regular coffee infused with medicinal mushroom extracts.

Several companies are now making a powdered combination of instant coffee and mushrooms extracts. All you need to do is add hot water to create a cup of mushroom coffee. To create mushroom coffee mixes, mushroom extract powders are often created by by isolating and spray-drying different key constituents of medicinal mushrooms. Mushroom powder is touted as having the health benefits of mushrooms but at an even more concentrated level. (2)

There are also packets of mushroom extracts with healthy ingredients like organic peppermint and anise extracts along with some stevia. A packet like this can be added to your favorite tea to create a hot cup of mushroom tea.

There are all kinds of disease-fighting mushrooms. Some of the most common medicinal mushrooms used in mushroom tea and mushroom coffee include:

Cordyceps

Chaga

Lion’s mane

Turkey tail

Reishi

Mushroom Coffee vs. Regular Coffee

Obviously the biggest difference between regular coffee and mushroom coffee is that the mushroom coffee contains mushrooms while regular coffee does not. When you drink mushroom coffee, you get all of the benefits of drinking coffee plus the benefits of mushrooms.

While regular coffee can attribute to anxiety and insomnia thanks to all that caffeine, the addition of mushroom is said to result in a more balanced cup of joe. So while a regular cup of coffee can leave some people feeling on edge and wide awake when they want to be counting sheep, makers and drinkers of mushroom coffee say it’s not as likely to make health concerns like anxiety and insomnia worse. (3)

Prepackaged or instant mushroom coffee is also said to be lower in caffeine and less acidic than regular coffee, which makes sense because most mushroom coffee mixtures are equal parts mushroom and coffee. So a cup of mushroom coffee typically has half of the caffeine of a regular cup.

How does mushroom coffee taste? Makers as well as drinkers of mushroom coffee say it does not taste like mushrooms at all. They even say that the mushrooms that are added actually have a similar taste to coffee itself!

6 Health Benefits of Mushroom Coffee

1. Anticancer

Some components of mushrooms have been shown to stimulate the immune system in such a way that certain mushrooms appear to exert antitumor and anticancer activity.† A 2015 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology looked at a type of mushroom that’s commonly used in mushroom coffee (even way back in the 1940s). It’s called the chaga mushroom. The researchers found that ergosterol peroxide, a derivative of the chaga mushroom, exhibited impressive anticancer activities in human colorectal cancer cell lines.

The study concludes that the data demonstrates how chaga mushroom’s ergosterol peroxide can suppress the proliferation of human colorectal cancer cell lines, and it also successfully inhibited colon cancer linked to colitis in animal subjects. Overall, the researchers conclude, “These properties of ergosterol peroxide advocate its use as a supplement in colon cancer chemoprevention.” (4) Cancer chemoprevention is the use of a substances to stop cancer from developing, making mushroom coffee a cancer-fighting food.

2. Loaded with Antioxidants

One of the top coffee benefits of its rich antioxidant content. Scientific research has shown that an average cup of coffee may be even higher in disease-fighting and anti-aging antioxidants than than cocoa, green tea, black tea and herbal tea. (5)

Most coffee health benefits can traced back to this high level of antioxidants. Mushrooms also contain significant levels of antioxidants, especially glutathione and ergothioneine. (6) As such, mushroom coffee really packs a literal double punch of antioxidants in a single cup, but why is this so great for your health? Decades of scientific research have shown that the more antioxidant-rich foods you get in your diet, the more you can protect yourselves from all kinds of harmful diseases and health problems.

3. Decreases Oxidative Stress 

One of the main reasons the antioxidants found in coffee beans and mushrooms are so health-protective is they provide defense against free radicals we’re exposed to in our daily lives (like air pollution, for example). Free radicals cause oxidative stress to humans, which can then cause cellular damage to our bodies.

Oxidative stress is believed to be a big part of a lot of serious and chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and serious eye diseases like cataracts. (7) Upping your antioxidant intake in your diet is a way of reducing oxidative stress on the body, which in turn may help to ward off all kinds of serious health issues.†

4. Boosts Liver Health

You can find variations in what types of mushrooms are included in a mushroom coffee. One type you’re likely to see included is the reishi mushroom. The reishi mushroom is rich in adaptogens that may help improve liver function and prevent liver disease by encouraging waste and toxins to be flushed from the body more efficiently.

A 2013 study published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms found that reishi induces hepatoprotective effects on acute liver injury because it contains antioxidant properties and fights harmful immune responses that slow down liver function. (8)

5. Aids Digestive and Diabetic Health

Mushrooms are rich in polysaccharides, specifically bioactive ones called beta-glucans or homopolysaccharides. These special polysaccharides act as prebiotics in the digestive system that directly help boost digestive health in various ways. These mushroom beta-glucans have also been shown in animal studies to decrease body weight, glucose levels, cholesterol and triglycerides in diabetic mice. The beta-glucans also appeared to have a very positive biochemical effect on insulin receptors that equated to improved insulin sensitivity. (9)

6. Focus without Jitters

Since most mushroom coffee on the market today uses a mixture of half coffee, half mushroom extract, when you switch to mushroom coffee from regular coffee, you should end up getting roughly half of the caffeine that you normally do. Of course, check packaging of a product for specifics, but with the addition of mushrooms to any coffee, the amount of caffeine naturally goes down.

Since caffeine in moderation can improve focus yet in excess produce jitters, mushroom coffee can give that same focus benefit, but with the addition of adaptogenic or medicinal mushroom extracts the likelihood of nervous energy after a cup becomes less likely.

History and Background of Mushroom Coffee

There actually is some very interesting history to mushroom coffee. During World War II, some of the most common things we know and love today were hard to come by. I’m talking about items like coffee. There have been some very interesting alternatives to coffee that people have come up with throughout the years, including things like roasted barley as well as chaga mushrooms. That’s right — in Finland during the 1940s people were actually using their native chaga mushroom as a wartime coffee substitute.

The founder of one current mushroom coffee company says, “To our knowledge, our grandparents invented the concept of using chaga as a coffee substitute.” So back then, mushroom coffee came about as a result of lack of coffee availability, whereas today it’s becoming popular not because there’s a shortage of coffee, rather because people are looking to get more and more out of their coffee intake. (10)

Mushroom Coffee Precautions

Most purveyors of mushroom coffee recommend a max of two packets of mushroom coffee per day. Even though mushroom coffee typically has less caffeine than regular coffee, you still don’t want to risk a caffeine overdose.

For anyone with a known autoimmune disease (for example, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis), some doctors warn that medicinal mushrooms can worsen the problem. Because they stimulate the immune system, it’s possible that medicinal mushrooms can interfere with medications for these diseases or overactivate certain immune cells. The same warning goes for anyone with a known bleeding or blood clot disorder, since medicinal mushrooms can sometimes interfere with proper blood clotting.

Possible side effects and interactions of mushroom coffee can depend on the type of mushroom used so I suggest double-checking the specific side effects of the mushroom(s) in your mushroom coffee of choice.

If you have any ongoing health concerns or are taking any medication, definitely check with your doctor before drinking mushroom coffee or mushroom tea. It’s also possible to have an allergy to mushrooms. If you have an allergy or intolerance to mushrooms, you should not consume mushroom tea or mushroom coffee.

Final Thoughts on Mushroom Coffee

Mushroom coffee offers another intriguing option in the world of hot beverages, especially for lovers of coffee who are looking for the possibility of more health benefits or just a cup of coffee that leaves them feeling less jittery yet still has a lot of flavor.

People not only enjoy the taste of mushroom coffee, but many drinkers claim that they enjoy the health benefits. One of the most common perks you hear mushroom coffee drinkers raving about is having energy and focus yet not feeling shaky. Of course, mushroom coffee still contains a significant amount of caffeine so it should still be enjoyed in moderation.

Read Next: Shiitake Mushrooms: 8 Scientifically Proven Benefits

†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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Tags: Kaffee, Pilze, -newsletter, -podcast, -ideas, -video May 13, 2017 at 02:50PM Open in Evernote