Turkey Tail mushrooms and FOS. Anyone else here use these?
I have been taking Turkey Tail Mushroom tea or capsules, along with Lion’s Mane’s mushroom tea or capsules and FOS for 4 years now. For the last few visits to my urologist, he has told me that he is surprised how well I am doing. When I first started seeing him, I was diagnosed with Stage 3-C, advanced and aggressive prostate cancer with a PSA of 54.0. My Gleason score was 8.
My search of the literature led me to taking FOS and Turkey Tail mushrooms since October, 2021. I added Lion’s Mane mushrooms to my daily routine a bit later. I take Turkey Tail mushrooms I have collected myself as well as commercially available capsules and mycelium powder. Cancer stem cells (CSC) promote metastasis, something that we all hope to avoid. Turkey Tail mushroom and specifically the polysaccharides within the mushroom are credited with combating the cancer stem cells. I attribute my lack of progression of my cancer to my Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy aka IMRT, my one year of ADT, and to the supplements that I take daily.
Below, I have quoted from four peer reviewed articles without editorializing though I have bolded some of the most relevant passages.
An additional note, Turkey Tail mushrooms are now the subject of a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic in pre-operative breast cancer patients. It has also been reported favorably for patients with colorectal cancer and a few other solid organ cancers.
The following acronyms are found in the quotes below.
A mucinphila the commensal intestinal mucin-degrading bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila
CSC cancer stem cells
FOS FructooligoSaccharide or oligofructose
PC Prostate Cancer
Advanced prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy have altered gut microbiota composition, with an accumulation of bacterial species that can synthesize dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone from pregnenolone [through 17a-hydroxylase/17,20-desmo lase (CYP17A1)– like activity]. The presence of these species enhances tumor growth and progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)(1).
We have carefully examined a total of 24 the up-to-date available dietary intervention studies in search for evidence and strategies to increase A. muciniphila, a beneficial member of gut microbiota in the gut. Available evidence from animal studies showed that viable A.muciniphila or prebiotics (FOS) was able to consistently promote A. muciniphila abundance in the gut, suggesting a great potential for future development of dietary intervention approaches using viable bacterium or FOS for increasing gut A. muciniphila..(2)
Here, we demonstrated that the polysaccharopeptide (PSP) extracted from Turkey tail (known as Coriolus versicolor [aka Trametes versicolor] or Yun-zhi) targets prostate CSCs in vitro and suppresses tumor formation in vivo. Treatment of prostate cancer cell line PC-3 with PSP led to the down-regulation of CSC markers (CD133 and CD44) in a time and dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, formation of prostasphere, a major property of prostate CSCs, was completely suppressed in PC-3 cells in the presence of PSP. Furthermore,PSP pre-treatment significantly suppressed tumor initiation of PC-3 cells in immunocompromised mice, suggesting that PSP suppresses the tumorigenicity of the PC-3 cells. More importantly, oral feeding of transgenic mice (TgMAP) that spontaneously develop prostate tumor with PSP was found to completely inhibit prostate tumor formation. Our findings support that PSP may be a potent chemo-preventive agent against prostate cancer, possibly through targeting of the prostate CSC population. (3)
Since ancient times, mushrooms have been considered valuable allies of human wellbeing both from a dietary and medicinal point of view. Their essential role in several traditional medicines is explained today by the discovery of the plethora of biomolecules that have shown proven efficacy for treating various diseases, including cancer. Numerous studies have already been conducted to explore the antitumoural properties of mushroom extracts against cancer. Still,very few have reported the anticancer properties of mushroom polysaccharides and mycochemicals against the specific population of cancer stem cells (CSCs). In this context, _-glucans are relevant in modulating immunological surveillance against this subpopulation of cancer cells within tumours.(4)
In fact, as reported in this review, mushrooms are an abundant source of mycochemicals that may intervene in several pathways involved in the induction of embryonic characteristics specific to CSCs, either alone or in synergy with conventional drug therapies.(4)
SOURCES
1. Gut bacteria enable prostate cancer growth. John A. McCulloch, Giorgio Trinchieri.. Science, 374 (6564), DOI: 10.1126/science.abl7070
2. 2. Kequan Zhou, Strategies to promote abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila, an emerging probiotics in the gut, evidence from dietary intervention studies, Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 33, 2017, Pages 194-201, ISSN 1756-4646,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2017.03.045
3. Chemopreventive Effect of PSP Through Targeting ofProstate Cancer Stem Cell-Like Population. Sze-Ue Luk , Terence Kin-Wah Lee, Ji Liu, Davy Tak-Wing Lee, Yung-Tuen Chiu, Stephanie Ma, Irene Oi-Lin Ng, Yong-Chuan Wong, Franky Leung Chan, Ming-Tat Ling. Published: May 16, 2011, Chemopreventive Effect of PSP Through Targeting of Prostate Cancer Stem Cell-Like Population | PLOS ONE
4. Mycochemicals against Cancer Stem Cells. : Tacchini, M.; Sacchetti, G.; Guerrini, A.; Paganetto, G. Toxins 2023, 15, 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins15060360
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.
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Yes it does clear up our discussion. We were using different definitions of the word castrated. We basically agree.
@heavyphil
This is absolutely amazing!
How does the gut produce testosterone?
I heard should eat sauerkraut, right?
@denis76 https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2024/12/male-hormones-made-by-bacteria
Yes, it is truly mind boggling…the PSP in Turkey Tail disrupts this process but take note: you must consume between 3 and 9 GRAMS per day of the capsules and it is merely supportive; there is no guarantee that it is going to work for every individual.
Best,
Phil
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2 Reactions@heavyphil
It is just pure madness indeed !
I also read some papers where they used fecal matter of aggressive PC patients and injected that in mouse guts with PC and they developed high progression and accelerated tumor growth !!!
PC really is like a parasite in so many ways - maybe Ivermectin IS the answer lol , JK JK , BUT, why nobody tried finding specific antibiotic/medicine to reduce number of that particular gut bacteria that is doing this ? There are also natural bacteria killers like bacteriophages and perhaps with genetic engineering scientists can "make" bacteriophages that attack only that particular bacteria in PC patient guts ?
@heavyphil
Tried to reply - but it is under "review" lol *eyeroll
I guess talking about eliminating bacteria is very controversial here LMAO I did not use a single "smily" BTW lol lol
Hopefully it will be posted eventually *sigh
@surftohealth88
ANYHOW - let me try again.
What I was saying is that there were experiments done with transferring human fecal matter from PC patients with aggressive cancers into guts of mice and that caused mouse's PC to grow exponentially faster !!!
The other point that I was trying to make was that since it is known which bacteria do produce testosterone like substances, maybe scientists can use bacteriophage (micro organisms that eat bacteria) and genetically reprogram them to eat those particular types of bacteria in our guts OR find antibiotics that would eliminate only those weird bacterial colonies in PC patients.
A long shot, I know ...
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Animal studies suggest that FOS promotes good bacteria that crowds out bacteria that can synthesize testosterone. That is why I take it!
Advanced prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy have altered gut microbiota composition, with an accumulation of bacterial species that can synthesize dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone from pregnenolone [through 17a-hydroxylase/17,20-desmo lase (CYP17A1)– like activity]. The presence of these species enhances tumor growth and progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)(1).
We have carefully examined a total of 24 the up-to-date available dietary intervention studies in search for evidence and strategies to increase A. muciniphila, a beneficial member of gut microbiota in the gut. Available evidence from animal studies showed that viable A.muciniphila or prebiotics (FOS) was able to consistently promote A. muciniphila abundance in the gut, suggesting a great potential for future development of dietary intervention approaches using viable bacterium or FOS for increasing gut A. muciniphila..(2)
SOURCES
1. Gut bacteria enable prostate cancer growth. John A. McCulloch, Giorgio Trinchieri.. Science, 374 (6564), DOI: 10.1126/science.abl7070
2. Kequan Zhou, Strategies to promote abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila, an emerging probiotics in the gut, evidence from dietary intervention studies, Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 33, 2017, Pages 194-201, ISSN 1756-4646,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2017.03.045
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3 Reactions@surftohealth88 This is why I roll my eyes when I hear someone extolling the virtues of this vitamin, or that supplement, trace element, Chinese medicine, etc, etc…
ALL of these cancers are Soooooo freakin complicated, and are influenced by factors we haven’t even begun to imagine, let alone comprehend!
Just thank goodness there are still researchers out there with a thirst for knowledge and the funding 🤞to make these discoveries happen!
Phil
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2 Reactions@heavyphil
If anybody tried it all, it was me *sigh. Vegetarian diet, no eggs, occasional fish or small amount of chicken and about 20 supplements.
My poor husband was taking 3 types of mushrooms and yes, about 9 grams of TT, PLUS Maitake, PLUS button mushrooms every single day as one of side dishes, so save him growing mushrooms on his lower abdomen lol, he was imbibed with mushrooms for the past 9 mos worth of a lifetime consumption of any other known person XP.
Teas - you name it ! Galore !!!
Herbs of all kinds, plus vitamins, plus broccoli every single day PLUS broccoli extract with mustard extract , I mean I can open vitamin shop and operate from home.
Unfortunately nothing prevented BCR , although I am pretty sure that "iffy margin" is to blame and nothing can clean that "garbage" that was left behind.
BUT, maybe it is helpful for less aggressive cancer - it is very possible ! 👍 For the "les miserables" , herbal magic does not work 😔 ...
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7 Reactions@surftohealth88
Unfortunately no treatment, herbal, mushroom, diet, or the AMA standard of care works for everyone. Individual genetics and the environment we are exposed to by air, water, and contact with chemicals throughout our lives have a huge impact on our likelihood of contracting cancer and fighting it.
I wish you and your husband the best of all possible outcomes.
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