Q: Where does chaga come from
and why are birch trees important?
A: Wild birch trees grow in northern climates, north of the 45th
parallel where they have to endure challenging weather conditions. From the hot
summers to the extreme cold winters, wild birch trees need the most powerful of
nutrients to withstand the tolling enviroment. It is these nutrients
which chaga draws from and concentrates.
Q: What is so special about
chaga?
A: It is a dense powerhouse of 215 potent and unique
phyto-nutrients. Some of these nutrients, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD),
polysaccharides, betulin and betulinic acid only come from a limited number of
sources. Chaga is nature’s richest source of these unique compounds, and it
delivers these nutrients in a whole-food, bio-available form. Chaga,
and it’s constituents, are the subject of extensive research.
Q: What is superoxide
dismutase?
A: SOD is an antioxidant enzyme needed the entire body. SOD is
the main antioxidant responsible for counteracting superoxide, which is one of
the most common and most damaging free-radicals in the human body.
Normally, SOD is created by the body, but by ages 25-30 the levels of enzymes
needed to create SOD in any significant amount have diminished. This
makes chaga an essential supplement to any diet, especially for those 25 years
and older.
Q: What are the benefits of
supplementing chaga into a daily diet?
A: There are many benefits to the use of chaga.
Commonly, it is used as a daily tonic. It is a powerful adaptogenic herb with an amazing nutritional
profile to support the body’s general health and ability to balance itself.
Chaga is an excellent natural source for B-complex, plant sterols, SOD, and
beta glucan. Benefits include improved vitality and well-being
due to the high amount of antioxidants and nutrients.
Q: Is chaga safe?
A: Yes. Chaga is completely natural and there
have been no reported side-effects in several thousand years’ of use.
Furthermore, there are no known conflicts in using chaga. It is completely safe to use every day, even
many times a day. It is recognized as a nutritional supplement, and is produced
under Good Manufacturing Practices for supplements.
ORIVEDA CHAGA EXTRACT
Oriveda Chaga extract is probably the most potent Chaga extract available. A
statement that is not just a sales pitch this time: it's fully verifiable,
backed up as it is with detailed Certificates of Analysis, available on request for those in
doubt. The product is conveniently packed in capsules which makes it very easy to dose and to
consume. Loose Chaga tea (to
be used with an infuser or filter bags) is also available on their website.
In many instances the quality and the levels of active
ingredients in their products are fully comparable to the samples used in
scientific Chaga research - meaning the research results you read about you can
also expect from Oriveda Chaga. A lot
of the research on which Chaga's reputation is built can actually be downloaded
for free from Oriveda website.
Shipping is always free, worldwide(!), and in general orders are shipped the same day. Large orders are
shipped using registered priority mail, with no additional costs. For health
practitioners and others that are interested in wholesale quantities:
interesting discounts are available, up to 40%.
The excellent quality and service they provide is no doubt
the reason their customer base currently spans over 30 countries. The
value-for-money you get is unparalleled -100 high grade potency capsules ($39.95) are enough for a month of general use. One
kilo (± 3300 capsules - discounted price: $795!) will cover over 2 years of regular intake!!
- 50% polysaccharides
- 1.5% betulinic acid
- ORAC-value of 146,700 u/100 grams (source: Brunswick Labs, 2011)
- 100% natural, wild-harvested Siberian Chaga - processed in compliance with GMP, HACCP and ISO 22000 standards, the most strict production protocols. This is the only fully certified Chaga product in the world.
Oriveda Chaga extract is the ideal immune supporter and an ideal
prophylactic. It normalizes cholesterol (within a few weeks!),
successfully deals with auto-immune diseases like psoriasis and eczema,
allergies (like hayfever) and neutralizes the side effects of
aggressive medication (e.g. Chemotherapy).
FAQ : ORIVEDA EXTRACT
A: We offer the best value-for-money
in the world. Google and you'll get instant confirmation. This is one of the
reasons we have customers in over 30 countries.
In Asia extracts like these are very popular but also expensive or very expensive. The producers are benefitting from consumers that do mix up price and value; but a higher price does not automatically
indicate a better quality or value. PSP extracts are also sold e.g.
in Singapore and Hongkong. The price is 5 x higher.
Apart from the price there is no difference with EU or US products. Percentages
of active ingredients or information about the production process is not
revealed, though, so it is difficult to compare the actual quality. Requests
for a Certificate of Analysis are in general ignored, which also gives food for
thought.
Our extracts are without competition when it
comes to potency and power. No other
producer can rightfully claim an identical or better percentage of actives. Our extracts are used more
and more by health practitioners. The
capsules and the clear indication of what they contain make administration very
efficient. Our Certificates of Analysis are
available on request, to verify the statements made above.
We have unmatched levels of active ingredients in
our extracts. This is due to the fact that our producer is a combination of a
pharmaceutical production- and mushroom research-center, where extracts for
injections and i.v. administration are also being produced. These extracts
require a purity level of at least 99%, Our extracts are the only ones on the
market that are fully certified according to ISO22000:2005, HACCP and GMP. This
assures the safety and pharmaceutical quality of the products and the justness
of their descriptions.
Q: Why is certification important?
A: Oriveda mushroom
extracts are the only ones in the world that are fully certified. This is
important, because it means that you, as a customer, have the guarantee the products are 100% safe, free of dangerous substances
and are described accurately, without exaggeration.
Mushrooms can be contaminated with heavy metals and
pesticides, both of which they easily absorb. These contamination levels have
to be listed in a so-called Certificate of Analysis
(COA), that has to be presented to the authorities during e.g. the
import/export process. If the product to-be-imported does not comply with the
international safety standards, it will be confiscated by the authorities and
destroyed.
A decade ago several problems were reported with mushroom
products imported from China, the world biggest producer of mushrooms. Since
then the import regulations became more strict and the fear of contaminated
Chinese products is no longer justified. But we still recommend to always
ask for a COA before buying expensive supplements, even when they are recommended by
a guy in a white coat on TV - after all, it's about your health and well-being.
Oriveda extracts were produced in compliance with not just
the basic GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice - a series of general principles that must
be observed during manufacturing) but also HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control points - a program
used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards)
and ISO 22000:2005 (an extension of the HACCP policy).
In short, these safety standards demand extensive quality control during all phases of the
production process, including pre- and post-production. Clean rooms and in-house laboratory testing facilities are
required, e.g., and external auditors keep track of everything to prevent
tampering or sloppiness.
Certificates of Analysis (COA) should
accompany every production batch and have to show accurate and factual
information about the active ingredients and the contamination levels in the
product. This goes way beyond a basic 'supplement facts' label. You might notice that
many sellers will refuse to show you a COA. They might even use phrases like 'it contains proprietary information'
to justify this. This is nonsense. The COA of a mushroom extract only shows you
contamination levels and levels of active ingredients, plus the way these have
been determined. Nothing to be secretive about. Unless the COA reveals
contamination or insignificant levels of actives, of course...
Q: Why should I use your products ? What about all those medicines ?
Q: Why should I use your products ? What about all those medicines ?
A: Indeed, there is a pill for
almost everything, and in general they more or less do what is expected of them.
But there are plenty of complex medical problems
that are not easy to solve, like cancer, eczema, psoriasis, migraine… often
because medical science does not fully understand
what exactly is causing the problem. So they just fight the symptoms,
based on their speculations about the cause, which they do not always fully
understand.
Apart from that, more and more viruses and other pathogenic
organisms have become resistant against synthetic
antibiotics. Causing doctors to prescribe more and more powerful cures
like prednisone or broad-spectrum antibiotics for what often is only a
'simple' ailment. More often than not these power-pharmaceuticals have severe side effects, and besides that,
how long will it take before those pathogens become resistant to them as well ?
Pharmaceuticals often work as follows: the exact profile of
the enemy (a virus or other
pathogen) has been established and a chemical substance has been tailor-designed to deal with that. But… as soon as the
enemy changes a bit (and these
pathogens are true living organisms with the ability to change and adapt, often
very fast) the chemical agent becomes useless:
its outlined enemy does no longer exist and it cannot adapt to the new
situation. Natural
products can. With a few exceptions, we are only selling so-called 'adaptogens'. These are without doubt the most powerful of all natural healers. They tune and balance the body as a whole,
instead of dealing with isolated events.
• An adaptogen is non-toxic and non-habit
forming.
• An adaptogen aids in normalization of the body
chemistries.
• An adaptogen increases your body's ability to
cope with physical stress, emotional stress, stress related imbalance and
environmental pollution and their after effects.
• An adaptogen works in a synergistic manner increasing
your body's own ability to fight off illness before it sets in, in direct
contrast to modern drugs which attack 'specific' disease symptoms after you are
thoroughly sick.
• An adaptogen works not only when you take it,
but for a sustained period of time and becomes increasingly active the more
your body needs it.
So, they do not work in a static way like most pharmaceuticals, but are dynamic, only getting into gear when it is needed and only to the extent that is
needed. And they can adapt to the ever-changing enemy. These adaptogenic properties (like immune balancing) are
still not fully understood by science. Please have a look at our 'resources' page,
where you'll find a large collection of scientific publications about this and
related subject matter. We are also preparing a small PDF with an in-depth
analysis of adaptogens. Register for our newsletter
and stay informed about this and other developments.
A: Yes. During the past decades a tremendous
amount of research was undertaken to verify the claims made by
herbalists and traditional systems, like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese
Medicine. In general, the outcome was very positve
or promising, at least. No wonder - if it wouldn't work at all, people
would have stopped using it centuries ago. There is a
special journal dedicated to the mushrooms, e.g.: International Journal for
Medicinal Mushrooms. This link will show you an overview of
recent publications dealing with the Agaricus blazei.
This link and also this one gives an overview of recent
scientific research about Chaga. Mumijo / Shilajit is a mythical substance referred
to as 'Nectar of the Gods' in the Ayurveda (3000 years old) and Central-Asian
folk medicine. Aristoteles mentioned it, 400
years B.C. and even wrote some instructions regarding its use.
This alone already made it worthwhile to
investigate: what was true and what was pure myth ? In particular in
India and Russia a lot of research was done, with positive
and often surprising outcomes.
Herbal medicine is as old as humanity itself. Medicinal-philosophical systems have been
developed like the Ayurveda and Traditional
Chinese Medicine, both 1000s of
years old, each
with its own point of view, the core of which is restoring the balance between
the body's elements. Then there is pure folk medicine,
in general based on simple trial and error, often after observing animals and
their behaviour when sick or wounded. Medicinal herbs and mushrooms are the core of all these approaches.
Modern
western medicine as we know it today started about 150 years ago. The first
drugs were herbal-based and the first antibiotics (like penicilline) were derived from fungi. Until
today science still does not know exactly what makes an aspirine work, but that
it works is clear.
Still, despite all the positive results there is a lot of distrust and paranoid, in particular in
the West. It is speculative, but in our opinion religion is partly to blame
here (witches use herbal mixes,
do they not?) and mushrooms do also kill... so beware! Nowadays science
is a new form of religion, with the men in white coats as its
priests. They have their own motivation when mocking 'alternative' medicine.
Financial interests e.g. - after all, you cannot patent a plant or a mushroom,
only pharmaceuticals.
A: Our mushrooms extracts have no
side effects and can be used safely by everyone, unless you happen to be allergic
to mushrooms. However, immuno-modulating substances should be
used with extreme care or avoided completely in
organ-transplant patients utilizing
immuno-suppressive agents. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should also be cautious, as
no research has been done on the effect of adaptogenic mushrooms on their
situation. Better to stay on the safe side and refrain from using it.
Our herbs in general have
no side effects either, unless you happen to be one of those few that are
allergic to a specific plant or component of a plant. As for Mumijo,
there are no known side effects, but there are some contradicting
reports about using it when you have kidney stones or when you are
pregnant or breastfeeding. Some sources state it has a positive effect in those
cases, whereas others say exactly the opposite. To be on the safe side, we
recommend to be cautious in these instances and not to take Mumijo internally. Do not use Mumijo together with alcohol, it will kill a
lot of its healing potential.
A: Our mushroom extracts have the highest
possible concentration of active ingredients (polysaccharides, phytosterols)
and contain no additives at all. They are 100% natural. Always look at the percentage of polysaccharides, the main active ingredient.
When this is not listed, avoid the product.
It is probably just dried and ground mushroom.
The term 'extract' is often
used quite loosely - dried and powdered mushrooms are also advertised as
'mushroom extract'. Hot-water extraction is needed to free the active ingredients
from the cells in which they are contained. These cells are made of chitin, an largely
indigestible substance for humans. Most of the active components will be
flushed down the toilet if you choose the
cheap 'extracts'. Read this brief explanation, drawn up by the Canadian ProMedics laboratory.
We are using a state-of-the-art
extraction and distillation process to get rid of useless chitin and fibers and
set the active ingredients free. The final product has a constant pharmaceutical level of quality. To
reach the same protective and healing effect by eating fresh mushrooms you'd
have to eat kilo's daily, which is undoable.10 grams of fresh mushroom equals e.g. 1 gram of
dried mushroom, and most of the active ingredients cannot be digested, locked into chitin cells as
they are. You do the math..
A: Our Agaricus
blazei mushrooms are being cultivated in
greenhouses located in a rural area, without polluting industry or
traffic nearby. No pesticides are used.
Chaga cannot be
cultivated. Our Chaga is
harvested in the coldest region of N-Siberia,
where no industry or agriculture worth
mentioning takes place, since the population density is very low. No pollution
and clean groundwater. Chaga's purity can be
guaranteed.
Both mushrooms are processed in a state-of-the-art
pharmaceutical factory, fully certified according to ISO 22000:2005, GMP for pharmaceutical products, en HACCP. These are the most strict international standards.
Our herbs are collected on
the Plateau Lago-Naki (see picture) in the Republic
Adygea. A rural area, 40% is covered with centuries-old forest. The selection
and processing is done by a trained and certified
pharmacologist, specializing in phytotherapy and already the third
generation in her family dealing with this. Mumijo is a rare natural product,
found between 1000-5000m above sea level in remote
mountain areas. For many centuries it has been collected on the
mountains, cleaned from grasses and stones and then used, as is. Both
literature research and personal experience have not
shown any negative side effects. It is perfectly safe to use, both
internally and externally.
Q: What are polysaccharides and Beta-glucans ?
A: Polysaccharides are a type of complex carbohydrates. They contain the main active ingredients of
medicinal mushrooms and other fungi. Beta-glucans are a specific type of polysaccharides. The most important ones are the (1->3) and
(1->6) Beta-D-glucans. According to scientific
research these are
responsible for the adaptogenic, immune balancing
effect of medicinal mushrooms. The precise mechanism behind this is
still not fully understood by science. But
they sure wished they could!
An example: in a laboratory an 'in vitro' test (= taking place in a test tube) was performed
with an extract from Agaricus blazei and tumor cells. No effect was found. The
same test was repeated, this time 'in
vivo', with a mouse having the same tumor from which the cells were
taken in the previous test. This time the effect was remarkable, causing a shrinkage of
the tumor within 36 hours and an increase of NK (natural killer) cells. In some way the immune
system of the animal was triggered and started fighting the cancer. A brief summary of an article can be found here.
A: Please go up and read “Why should I use your products? What about all those
medicines?” in this FAQ.
Q: Is it true Chaga can help people suffering from psoriasis ?
A: Yes. Psoriasis is basically an
auto-immune disease. Chaga is in the core an immune-modulator.
In the early 70s a case study was performed
in the USSR, investigating the effect of a traditional Chaga preparation (Befungin ®) on psoriasis. The
outcome was excellent. Fifty people were involved, 14 women and 36
men, aged between 6 - 55. The majority were suffering from serious psoriasis
for over 10 years. The therapeutic effect of the Chaga manifested itself
slowly, after 2-3 months. Continued intake led to complete
dissapearance of the psoriatic rashes. Only 4 patients did not benefit from
Chaga, but this was probably because of severe alcohol abuse and not following
the instructions. The Chaga intake should be continued for the rest
of their lives, because rashes would reappear when the intake was concelled.
Befungin ® is a Russian preparation based on Chaga, originating from the 50s. Modern Chaga extracts are much more powerful and more easy to administer. Three times two
capsules of the Oriveda extract per day will do. After the first results are
obvious, one can experiment with the dosage and find the perfect balance. After
all, every person is different.
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