A good method on how to boost the immune system is through the use of active hexose correlated compound (AHCC), an extract obtained from several kinds of mushroom. Mushroom extracts are known to have immunomodulation and antitumor effects. AHCC is very effective in strengthening and optimizing the capacity of the immune system.
The Oasis of Hope and other clinical organizations have conducted a study comparing patients taking chemotherapy combined with AHCC and another group taking chemotherapy alone. One of the nasty side effects of chemotherapy is that it can severely depress the immune system. We found that AHCC truly protected the immune system from the depressing effects of chemotherapy.
AHCC can reduce the side effects of radiotherapy as well. AHCC also improves patients’ quality of life by reducing nausea, increasing appetite, and decreasing anxiety. Furthermore, there are no side effects to taking AHCC as an immune -enhancing supplement.
Like melatonin, AHCC also stimulates the immune surveillance system. Cancer cells release several kinds of immune suppressive factors which inhibit the body’s ability to combat the disease. When the immune system is suppressed, something of a “chain reaction” occurs that results in the inhibition of the antitumor effects, which should come naturally to the body. The anticancer immune response fails when the production of killer cells fails. Thus, restoring the suppressed immune system is a very important part of cancer treatment, as is reversing any damage to it.
AHCC restores a depressed immune system and reverses damage by inhibiting the immune-suppresive factors produced by the cancer cells, increasing production of the cells that attack cancer, and stimulating the activity of the killer cells in particular. For this reason, AHCC is an important part of the well-rounded treatment program.