Gail Edgell: What can we do about boosting our immunity?

Dr. Chilkov: There are many things that contribute to our immune system becoming compromised and less robust — certainly stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise. I think people are concerned about exposure to flus and infectious organisms, cancer risk — all of the things that the immune system’s job is about.

Within the Chinese herbal tonics, there are incredibly strong herbs for boosting immunity, not only for increasing our resistance to infections, colds, flus and improving our recovery after surgeries but also for reducing our risk of getting complex diseases of the immune system such as cancer and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus. In Western medicine, we don’t really have a lot of tools for boosting immunity. We really have to look elsewhere for that purpose.

I would like to talk about three Chinese herbs that boost immunity and can be taken safely on a daily basis.

One very famous herb is Reishi mushroom. It’s Latin name is Ganoderma. Mushrooms are a source of some of our greatest anti-cancer agents and immune tonics. I particularly like Reishi mushroom. It not only boosts our immunity, particularly to viruses, and increases our resistance to cancer but also acts as an anti-inflammatory. Whenever we have cancer, we have excess inflammation. When we have autoimmune diseases like eczema or asthma, we have excess inflammation. We want to look for things that will not only boost our immunity but also decrease inflammation. This is one of the greatest herbs for that.

There has been an enormous amount of research on Reishi mushroom and cancer. I use this as a support for all of my cancer patients. Many of the therapies will reduce immunity. We want to keep the immune function up while people are going through chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and after they are done with them. There is also research showing that there is reduced tumor invasiveness and tumor growth with Reishi mushroom. Therefore, we can truly call it an anti-cancer herb as well. In fact, it is used in China with cancer patients.

Another one of the great Chinese mushrooms is Shitake. Shitake is a very tasty, edible mushroom. You will see fresh Shitake mushrooms in many grocery stores and health-food stores. In Asia, there is a great tradition of making food into medicine. Some of these herbs are made into soups, but you will also find Chinese dishes — stir-fry vegetables with Shitake mushrooms, for example. I always keep either fresh or dry Shitake mushrooms in my kitchen so that I can add them to my food and boost my immunity. That is another way to think about using these herbs. If you are making a pot of rice or soup, you just put these herbs right into it. They do not have a strong taste.

Shitake is legendary for containing lentinan, which is very active against influenza viruses. Everybody is concerned about a possible flu epidemic. This is an herb you can use to boost your immunity to all kinds of flu viruses. And like the Reishi mushroom, the Shitake mushroom has potent anti-cancer properties. Shitake also lowers cholesterol and is a powerful antioxidant. It’s really protective to the cells.

Shitake mushrooms are put in soups with the next herb that I am going to talk about: Huang Qi, or Astragalus root. This is an herb that is safe for anybody to use. I actually give it to children when they are experiencing a lot of colds and flu and I want to boost their immunity. It has a very mild taste — you can make a tea or use an extract of this for children as well as adults.

I also want to say that these three herbs do not have any drug interactions that you have to worry about. They are more like concentrated foods. They are very, very safe. You can feel very comfortable using them, even if you are taking a lot of other medications.

Astragalus root is an herb that is really great for boosting the number of immune cells in your bloodstream. These white blood cells are the army of the immune system. Astragalus root will really raise white-blood-cell count, which means that you can fight infections much more easily. When someone’s immunity is compromised, you will see his or her white-blood-cell count go down. This is also what happens to people who go through chemotherapy. In China, Astragalus root is used to keep white-blood-cell counts up.

If I have a patient who comes in and says he or she is getting colds and flus all the time, this is an herb that I give to them. Again, it does not have a strong taste, so you can put it in soups or rice. It is typically combined with Ginseng and the medicinal mushrooms. Astragalus root is also used for hay fever and allergies. It is in this category of adaptogens, or herbs that counteract the adverse effects of stress. It balances the body and our response to stress. It improves our resistance to infections. It also has a little bit of selenium in it. Selenium is a very, very important mineral that is not found in a lot of food plants today because the soil is depleted of it. But selenium is very important for thyroid function, cancer prevention and cardiovascular health — the health of our blood vessels. It also seems to be protective against some heavy metal contamination and chemical toxins in the environment. Like all adaptogens, it has many, many functions.

Gail Edgell: Taking a tonic versus eating the mushroom itself — is one more potent than the other?

Dr. Chilkov: Whenever you take an herb, no matter what it is, and make it into a medicinal tea or extract, you concentrate it. It is important to understand that beverage tea is just adding some nutrients, like a food would add nutrients, versus a medicinal effect, where you get a more concentrated dose.

Gail Edgell: Where would you get herbal tonics?

Dr. Chilkov: I live in California, where there are many Chinatowns and a large Asian population. Therefore, they’re very easy to find. You will find all of these herbs in good health-food stores today. You will find in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine that these are very common herbs. Of course, you will find lots of Chinese herbs being sold online today. Just make sure you have good quality. That is the main thing.

Gail Edgell: Will herbal tonics combine all of these three herbs, or will there be separate tonics?

Dr. Chilkov: Traditionally, you will see these things combined. It’s perfectly fine to take single herbs. But the real art of herbal medicine — and the way to get the strongest effect — is to combine herbs into balanced formulas.

Gail Edgell: To review, what should our audience know?

Dr. Chilkov: If you are looking for ways to boost your immunity, to increase your resistance to infections like colds and flus, you are not going to find that in conventional modern medicine. You will find that in Traditional Chinese Medicine, particularly in these extraordinary tonic herbs: Reishi mushroom, Shitake mushroom and Huang Qi, or Astragalus root. These herbs are easy to find. They are very common and very safe.

Note: This article is an edited transcript of an audio interview. Changes have been made.