Mistletoe for Cancer Treatment (II)
Mistletoe (Viscum album): MAGIC PLANT
We have all heard at one time on the properties of mistletoe. The white mistletoe, league or visco (Viscum album) is a plant semiparasit articulated in stems and evergreen. It belongs to the Santalaceae family and has male and female flowers. It is a plant that can grow to three feet and grow over the branches of various trees, mainly deciduous, like apple or poplar-but also on some varieties of pine trees which gives different characteristics. As the fruit is a berry-toxic, small white and pink.
The mistletoe was the magic plant of the Druids and Celtic but Central had already been used medicinally by the ancient Greeks. And according to its supporters used to treat epilepsy, infertility, menopausal symptoms, nervous tension, asthma, hypertension, headache, dermatitis… and cancer.Modern interest in mistletoe as a cancer treatment resurfaced early last century. Around 1900 Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, began using the herb Viscum album as cancer by detecting the product improved the resistance of patients and increased their energy to fight the disease. Being Ita Wegman in 1920 when a German doctor, Iscador introduced the first product of mistletoe as a treatment for cancer.
Anthroposophical Medicine is the only complementary medicine whose principles require to be exercised exclusively by doctors and was recognized as “significant” by the Council of Europe in 1999. Currently practiced in hospitals in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Britain and Brazil. And he has training centers and drug laboratories in different countries of Europe, USA, Russia, South Africa, Egypt and Australia. Moreover, social security covers its costs in Germany, Belgium, France, Britain, Holland, Italy, Finland and Switzerland. It has a wide variety of non-invasive therapies and 75% of homeopathic medicines are in development but there are some differences from that of other products of this type.
It added that currently the mistletoe, health rescued by Medicine Anthroposophical even has its own web space within the National Cancer Institute (NCI) U.S.. “The mistletoe, a plant semiparásita, has an interest as a potential anticancer agent, can be read on the page because NCI-derived extracts have shown that it kills cancer cells in vitro and stimulates the immune system cells both in vitro and in vivo. Two components of mistletoe, namely viscotoxin and lectins, may be responsible for these effects.”
The viscotoxin are small proteins that exhibit activity to cause cell death and stimulate immune system activity. Lectins, meanwhile, are complex molecules composed of two proteins and carbohydrates can bind to the outside of cells and induce biochemical changes in them. “Having the ability of mistletoe to stimulate the immune system, says the NCI, has been classified as biological response modifier. The biological response modifiers are a diverse group of biological molecules that have been used individually or in combination with other agents to treat cancer or to lessen the side effects of anticancer drugs.
Mistletoe, as we said, has extensive distribution in Europe. Especially in Germany, Switzerland and Austria where both homeopathy and anthroposophical medicine are accepted and disseminated. So there available extracts are marketed under a variety of names including those of Iscador, Eurixor, Helixor, Isorel, Iscucin, Plenosol and Anaboba Viscum. Some extracts are marketed in more than one name but all products are prepared from Loranthaceae Viscum album (European mistletoe). In Spain the Iscador-product produced by Swiss-Weleda can be found in pharmacies and homeopathic medicine under the trade name of VAF (fermented Viscum album).
Moreover, commercial products can be subdivided according to host tree species. For example, Iscador, an aqueous extract from fermented European mistletoe is prepared as a homeopathic remedy sold as-IscadorM (apple), IscadorP (pine), IscadorQ (oak) and IscadorU (the elms ). Mistletoe extracts are usually administered by subcutaneous although other routes are described as oral and intrapleural. And the total duration of treatment varies considerably between cases.
credit to: Antonio F. Wall