Dear DIRTEA Fam.
Last week we launched the DIRTEA Tremella mushroom, aka The Beauty mushroom. The reaction has been amazing and the curiosity to understand this mushroom continues to grow beyond its sweet taste! So, I wanted to give you a little more context behind why we named Tremella ‘The Beauty Mushroom’ on this special week of love.
To do this, we’ll have to briefly cast our minds back to the Tang Dynasty (618–907), when an imperial concubine by the name of Yang Guifei was believed to be one of the most beautiful women in Chinese history. She would attribute her incomparable beauty to the consistent use of Tremella. Her appearance and exceptional talent brought her admiration, honourable status, countless treasure, and an extremely luxurious life. She was so beautiful in the eyes of the beholder that she was referred to as having “a face that would put flowers to shame.”
Today, science is allowing us to rediscover what ancient cultures like the Tang Dynasty understood all those years ago about the healing properties of medicinal mushrooms. As many of these ancient remedies have been lost in translation, it is our duty to bridge the gap between ancient remedies and science to unlock the true healing potential of mushrooms for your skin and beyond!
In our bodies, we have hyaluronic acid (HA), a substance that retains moisture. This substance is naturally found in many areas of the human body, including the joints, skin, eyes, and synovial fluid. But did you know our HA levels start to decrease as early as 20 years of age and is reduced to half by the age of 50? The impact of this includes a hydration loss and the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles However, this is where Tremella plays a pivotal role in retaining the beauty of our skin. The unique polysaccharide compounds in Tremella show remarkable water-retaining properties that are hard to beat. Holding over 500 times its weight in water, the hydrating molecules of Tremella are smaller than those of hyaluronic acid allowing them to penetrate the skin faster and more effectively, improving the texture and elasticity of your skin. A beauty hack brought to you by Mother Nature!
Throughout history, from the days of Plato onwards, the path to love has been described as through beauty. Dante falls in love with Beatrice because he finds her beautiful and longs to see what is hidden in her physique. Lord Krishna “steals the mind” with his beauty, and Majnun, in his love for Leila, is obsessed with her beauty, even if she does not seem beautiful to others. “To see her beauty”, he declares, “you must borrow my eyes”.
I've learnt recently that it seems that romantic love is triggered by visual input. It is not surprising, therefore, that the first studies to investigate the neural correlations of romantic love in the human brain have used a visual input. However, I believe other very important factors, such as voice, intellect and charm, come into play.
One of the areas of the brain that is involved in love is the hippocampus, which constitutes memory, focus and mood. Our recent blog on Lion’s Mane digs deeper into how this mushroom can support the health of our hippocampus. We cover the promising studies of Lion’s Mane’s ability to boost the production of brain cells in the hippocampus, constituting an increase in mood levels, memory recall and focus. This process is also known as Nerve Growth Factor. And only last week, a new study from The University of Queensland found that Lion’s Mane does promote neuron projections, (extending and connecting to other neurons), which has a significant impact on memory recall and focus for more insight check out the study.
In this note I feel I’ve covered the ways in which Tremella can support our external beauty but I’d love to leave you with a quote by the Irish poet John O’Donohue: “Beauty is the illumination of your soul.”
Wishing you a healthy and blessed week ahead.
Remember; Keep clean, Drink DIRTEA.
Simon