Herb for the Kidneys Ganoderma lucidum

Herb for the Kidneys Ganoderma lucidum

Read on and discover how this herb for the kidneys may be able to help you!

The kidneys are a very important pair of organs in your body. They...

1) Remove waste from the blood

2) Remove the excess water and salt from your blood

3) Help control blood pressure

4) Help keep the blood from being acidic

5) Balance calcium and phosphate

6) Produce a hormone which stimulates red blood cell production

7) Help in the body's production of Vitamin D and much more.

In other words not only do the kidneys filter out and get rid of wastes, they also help to keep the contents in the blood in a steady state.

Ganoderma lucidum is a herb for the kidneys as we will soon see. But first let's learn a little bit about the kidneys and how they work.

The kidneys are two bean shaped organs that are close in size to your fist. They are located on both sides in the back of the abdomen just below the rib cage.

Each kidney contains about a million functioning units called nephrons. Each nephron consists of a glomerus (a filtering unit) that is attached to a tubule. This filtering unit filters the blood and allows the filtered fluid to pass into the tubule. The fluid in the tubule is then treated by chemicals and water is either added or removed to keep the fluid in balance accordance to the body's needs. The final product from the kidneys is urine.

The kidneys perform this filtration 24/7 and actually filter about 200 liters a day producing about 2 liters of urine.

So How is Ganoderma lucidum a Herb for the Kidneys?

Ganoderma has been found to be useful in detoxifying the kidneys, improving its overall function and protecting the kidneys during chemotherapy.

In Thailand there was a study involving 14 patients with nephrosis (a kidney disease that affects the nephrons) in which they had persistent proteinuria (excess protein in the urine). The patients were treated with Ganoderma lucidum and all 14 patients experienced suppressed endothelial cell cytotoxicity, restored immunocirculatory balance and suppressed proteinuria.

Suppression of proteinuria is shown to be enhanced by Ganoderma lucidum along with the vitamins C and E. This is thought to be so because of the antioxidant capacity of the three. Click here for more on Ganoderma's antioxidant properties.

There was another interesting study done in India showing how Ganoderma is a herb for the kidneys. In this study on the prevention of nephrotoxicity induced by the anticancer drug cisplatin it was shown that Ganoderma lucidum could prevent nephrotoxicity by the drug cisplatin. It did this by "restoring the renal antioxidant defense system" and it was also shown that it did not interfere with the antitumor properties of cisplatin.