Mistletoes

Mistletoe isn’t just for Christmas, but it has more to offer for healing purposes.

Its called the plant symbolizing love, vitality and fertility. In ancient Rome and Greece, mistletoe is used for healing ulcers, treating epilepsy , menstrual disorders and spleen issues.

 

There are more than 1500 species of mistletoe , and out of these European Mistletoe – commonly known as Viscum Album in Latin is used in alternative  cancer therapy for more than a century.

 

Rudolph Steiner, an Austrian philosopher first recommended mistletoe extract in 1920 as an potential cancer treatment. Later, a Dutch physician ,Ita Wegman was the 1st person to use it for a cancer patient.

 

What makes mistletoe so special to help in  cancer?

Mistletoe contains several component of natural compounds in it such as lectins, viscotoxins, flavonoids, alkaloids , membrane lipids and many more. The most important compound of all these are the lectins. It is thought that lectins inside the mistletoe can modulate the immune system, help to improve immune defense.

Although each isolated compound has its own therapeutic effect, however the complete mistletoe extract has a more powerful anticancer property compared to isolated components due to its synergistic effect in the body.

 

Benefits of Mistletoe:

1. Increase number of circulating Natural Killer cells- these are the cells responsible to kill cancerous cells.

2. It has anti inflammatory effect . Stopping chronic inflammation in tissues and organs.

3. Powerful immune modulator - modulates immune system to give the correct reaction to pathogens, cancer affected cells.

4. Anti angiogenesis effect – it stops the growth of new blood vessels for the tumours. By this way, it cuts off the blood supply to the tumour and prevents the spread of cancer.

5. Biological response modifier- by reducing side effects of cancer treatment, and disease related symptoms.

6. Improve quality of life and increases survival rate in cancer patients.

 

Mistletoe can be a great tool to combine with other modalities of cancer treatment to help you. If you think this article has helped you and you wish to know more , please contact us at Wellness Origin .