Healing properties of beta-glucans

Not all beta-glucans are created equal

Beta-glucans are polysaccharides of large atomic masses that are found as building blocks in the cell walls of fungi, algae, bacteria and some cereals.

Consumable foods in which they can be found are mushrooms, oats and barley to a greater extent, and in wheat, rye and cattle sorghum to a very small extent. It is less well known that the consumption of oatmeal is recommended precisely because they contain beta-glucans. They affect the health of the intestinal microbiome and thus indirectly the entire immunity.

The structure and size of beta-glucan atomic masses vary depending on the type of organism in which they are located.

In fungi, they are found in the cell walls and belong to the primary metabolites.

Beta-glucans from higher fungi are considered to be the most compatible for the human body

Humans and fungi share a similar cellular structure. That is why mushrooms, unlike plants, have a significant effect on human organism. We have adapted to them through a long history of consumption, as well.

Unlike fungi which we have consumed since the beginning of the human race, most of the grains that we have grown by crossing for the last few hundred years haven’t been around long enough and we haven’t adapted to them (resulting in a wide-spread gluten allergy).

Beta-glucans available on the market are extracted from microscopic fungi-yeasts or cereals, in industrial conditions. Their structure and properties are not identical to those from higher fungi. They have smaller atomic masses, their chain structures are shorter.

There is a direct link between the size of beta-glucan chains and their anticancer properties

The longer and more branched the chains, more effective they are, and the stronger the effect on cancer cells and their cellular mechanisms and behaviours.

Their structure is similar within the genus of fungi but varies from species to species by some specific shapes and the ways they are interconnected, whether they are spirally twisted, and the length of the side chains attached to the spine of the beta-glucan compound.

The more complex the structure of the beta-glucan compound and the more it extends into space like a mesh with grabs, the more active it is in trapping free radicals in the blood. Due to the larger linking area, it links easier to immune antibodies or cancer cells (tumour or free-moving) and inhibits and neutralizes them by the enzymatic principle.

If beta-glucan structure brakes into smaller chains or the lateral parts separate from the spine of the joint, the health effect drops up to a hundred times.

And contact with alcohol (ethanol and all organic solvents) breaks their structure, splitting them into smaller parts with less ability to trap the free radicals. In our body, they are more inert to cellular immune processes and directly to cancer cells.

Extraction method is important, and water extract (tea) keeps the valuable beta-glucans intact

Most of today’s commercially available drugs or dietary supplements based on beta-glucans are extracted from yeasts (microscopic fungi) or plants, and those few extracted from medicinal mushrooms have the misfortune that their extraction processes have broken spatial structures and reduced efficiency, as some studies have shown.

We may formally call them beta-glucans, but their effectiveness is low despite their purity and high concentration.

The only way to keep (and not destroy) the structure of beta-glucans is by gradually dissolving them in water, at a temperature of about 80°C, as tea.

So the standard herbal tincture recipe where mushrooms are first dissolved in alcohol and only then boiled in water makes a poor choice, as alcohol breaks down the structure of beta-glucans and reduces their effectiveness. This recipe is valid for the extraction of herbal preparations, but it is not recommended for mushrooms, because it destroys the structure of beta-glucans.

Tea residue is valuable for our microbiome

Some beta-glucans are not soluble in water, and yet they have a direct effect on immunity, so in addition to drinking tea, it is beneficial to consume a bit of the tea residue containing the insoluble beta-glucans. In our digestive system, the intestinal bacteria as the mediators and activators in the body’s immune responses will use the beta-glucans from the residue. In human serum, they are absorbed through the cell walls of the intestine directly into the lymphatic system, where they interact with macrophages as a stimulus to activate immunity, and as active substances on their own. Intestinal bacteria, probiotics and their interaction with each other play a significant role in this process of transition to the lymph.

Integral extracts of medicinal mushrooms are much more healing and potent than beta-glucans themselves

Although higher fungal beta-glucans have beneficial medicinal properties on their own and the pharmaceutical industry promotes them, it is important to stress that integral extracts of medicinal mushrooms are much more healing and potent. They contain beta-glucans and hundreds of other, mostly secondary metabolites as well, and their activity has a synergic effect.

The evolution of fungi has, for millions of years, perfected their ability to synthesize immune bodies and the relationships between them to be successful in survival and, beacause we share similar cell structure, we can benefit from it as well.

Addition
The pharmaceutical industry is familiar with the property of beta-glucans that the size of their atomic mass is in direct relation to the effectiveness of their fighting cancer.
The problem of breaking the structures of beta-glucans was solved by an ion extraction technology protected by a pharmaceutical patent in 2013. However, for some reason, it hasn’t been used commercially.
So we have to find the medicinal mushrooms and do the beta-glucans extraction by ourselves, cooking the mushrooms in water as tea.