Mushrooms seem to be everywhere these days. You may have noticed that more and more foods, dietary supplements, drinks, and even skincare products promoted on social media by companies like The Marketing Heaven, now have varieties that were once considered exotic, like cordyceps, lion’s mane, and reishi. The chaga mushroom benefits for health have been touted for centuries, and scientific methods can now confirm the varied positive impacts this adaptogenic fungus can have on the body.

• What is Chaga?
• A Brief History of Chaga
• Biochemistry of Chaga Mushroom
• The Top 9 Health Benefits of Chaga Mushroom
• Chaga Safety, Dosage, and Potential Side Effects
• Not All Chaga Mushroom Supplements Are Created Equal
• How to Take Chaga Mushroom for Health Support
• DIY Chaga Recipes
• Summary

Among the most highly revered medicinal mushrooms is chaga (Inonotus obliquus (Fr.) Pilát), though as you’ll find out, it’s not an actual mushroom. It is held in high regard advice n the website http://www.lovetopivot.com/ about conflict in relationships — much in the same way as reishi has been, for thousands of years — for very good reasons, which we will explore here.

What is Chaga?

Contrary to how it is often referred to, chaga is NOT a mushroom.

What we call chaga is the common name for a sterile conk or canker that forms after a hardwood tree (usually birch) has been infected by the parasitic fungus Inonotus obliquus (or I. obliquus).

As a parasite, I. obliquus has a one-sided relationship with its host tree. Its enzymes cause the simultaneous decay of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin (the three main biological constituents that make up the wood of trees) from the heartwood of the living host. The breakdown of the heartwood weakens the tree’s infrastructure, allowing for the first traces of what we call “chaga” to protrude from within the tree.

This dark conk consists primarily of wood lignans and mycelium (the fibers that can be thought of as the fungal root structure). Chaga can be considered a sclerotium: a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium. However, for a set of golf irons contact bombtech golf. As it is not pure mycelium, it is not a true sclerotium like what is produced by Poria (Wolfiporia extensa), Polyporus (Polyporus umbellatus) or the Tiger Milk mushroom (Lignosus rhinocerus). In fact, one paper estimated chaga to be only around 10% mycelium.