Espirit l'escalier part 2

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Ganoderma_lucidum_01.jpg/270px-Ganoderma_lucidum_01.jpg

Reishi, or Ganoderma lucidum to those in the know, has all sorts of stuff to help the blood. Next up on "Questions I wished I had a better answer for" is the anti-inflamatory and anti-coagulants of Reishi mushrooms. Why Reishi and not any of the other mushrooms or anti-inflammatory plants? Because I like the name and it's become sort of famous in the mushroom hunting world.
The original question given to me I felt I did not give justice because I had a problem understanding it, due to my love of loud rock music slowly destroying my ears over the years. I can't repeat the question because of this, so all I can say is it had the terms mushrooms and it's affects on blood in it. My answer sort of touched on reishi because it was the only thing I could think of at the time.
Here's the deal, Reishi, like Red Reishi, has some pretty spectacular effects.  It has complex carbohydrates known as water-soluble polysaccharides, triterpeniods, proteins and amino acids¹ that provide the active blood pressure reducing effect
This is a tough one to research, but it seems like you just need to ask the right questions. The major player in Ganoderma is ganoderic acid, which is made up of triterpenes and polysaccharides. Studies have shown that both chemical strands, by themselves, have quite a few potential effects on health^[2]. By itself, ganoderic acid has pretty effective medicinal properties, which have been studied primarily in China, where the mushroom has been popular for medicine for years. The studies on the effectiveness of the preparations are still under way, but studies since at least 2006 have been positive^[3].
It's used for the treatment of a wide variety of things, like lupus, bronchitis, anorexia, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular conditions^[2]. It's the trierpenoids that have been found to work the best for hypertension, working as ACE inhibitors causing the blood vessels to expand. The polysaccharides have been observed to have anti-tumor and reduces cell damage caused by mutagens^[4].
So there's my best research to try and explain some of the effects of Reishi on the human body and the blood. Man, this was intense. I will be back next week.