Mushroom Wisdom, East Rutherford, NJ, founded by CEO Mike Shirota in 1991, celebrated its 25^th Anniversary at Expo West.  Addressing the audience at Mushroom Wisdom’s annual Expo West breakfast symposium, Shirota reflected on the company’s 25 years and expressed his gratitude. “On behalf of Mushroom Wisdom and all of its employees, I would like to thank all of you who have been supporting us for the last 25 years,” he said. “Without your warm patronage and big support, we wouldn’t be here today.”

In conjunction with this milestone, the company introduced a kidney support product called Poria, along with research demonstrating its renoprotective properties, presented by Sensuke Konno, Ph.D., Department of Urology, New York Medical College. Twenty-six million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, with three million new cases each year. There is no known direct cause for chronic kidney disease, but those with diabetes and high blood pressure are at an elevated risk. Poria may have the potential to help.

Poria cocos is a mushroom that grows on the roots of pine trees and has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for the past 2,000 years. In the research presented by Konno, a bioactive extract of Poria cocos was tested on epithelial cell cultures. The study’s hypothesis was that if kidney disease is triggered by oxidative stress, Poria, as an antioxidant, would protect the epithelial cells against free radicals. Results showed that cell viability was increased by 25% when cell cultures were exposed to oxidative stress and the severity of oxidative stress was even reduced by 35%. In addition, Poria partially prevented the disruption of the cell cycle which also results from oxidative stress.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine May 2016 (Online 4/4/2016)