Excitement in some parts of the medical fraternity as researh is directed at " Reishi ", a giant Chinese mushroom that has been at the centre of Chinese medicine for over two thousand years.
Known in botanical circles as " ganoderma lucidum " this mushroom grows to the size of a dinner plate and science now thinks it may play a dominant role in combating diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Interest in the medicine practised by the ancient Chinese and healers in jungle villages in remote parts of the world has waxed and waned over decades. The main problem is the elitism and arrogance shown by western medicine. Amazing medical breakthroughs in some areas have led to indifference to proven track records from barefoot " wise ones " who have been regarded as " quacks ", " witch doctors " and " barbarians ".
Certainly some ethnic medicine is tied into anamalistic religion which usually incorporates ritualistic blood sacrifices to various gods, and this obscures the quite separate entity of healers who have had their knowledge passed down from generation to generation - and who are able to obtain cures unknown to western medicine.
If studies of Reishi result in the development of treatments for diabetes one thing is certain - western medicine will take the credit and the fact that it came from a Chinese healer's knowledge will be pushed into the background.
Wise ones of this age would do well to respect the knowledge gathered over centuries by those who treated patients long before the age of the man in a white coat with a stethescope around his neck. Amazing treatments could be occurring deep in the jungles. Hopefully western medicine is learning that it is not the centre of all knowledge and is now prepared to consider the ancient cures of " the wise ones ".
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