Mistletoe- an evidence based therapy

If anybody is serious about trying mistletoe injections, it should be pretty easy to do.  (As pharmacists, we are taught to compound medicines as part of our training)

1. Obtain mistletoe (from internet or garden store)

2. Obtain DMSO (if this is your solvent of choice) - again from internet

3. Obtain 0.22 micron sterile syringe tip filters (from internet)

4. Obtain sterile syringes and needles (from friend with diabetes, or one that has undergone IVF treatments, or from animal supply store, or from a friendly pharmacist that doesn't mind dispensing syringes withougt a prescription because they don't want to drug users to spread disease) (I used to do this when i worked in retail pharmacy)

5. Soak mistletoe leaves in DMSO for a while - overnight should be long enough since DMSO is such a potent solvent.  If using water, I suggest warming it a little - to about 40 degrees C to aid the extraction. Strain solution through fine mesh.

6. Wash hands with soap and water. Remove syringe from sterile packaging.  Remove protective cover from filter tip, being careful not to touch the open end.  Remove the protective cover from the sterile syinge.  Without touching open ends, screw the syringe filter onto the syringe.  Uncap the other side of the syringe filter.  Place tip in mistletoe extract and pull back the syringe plunger to draw the solution through the syringe filter and into the barrel of the syringe. Holding syringe with injection end upwards, remove syringe filter and attach a sterile needle to the syringe tip.  Expel any air that is in the syringe.  If carefully filtered, the solution in the syringe is bacteria-free and ready to inject.  I suggest using it soon because god only knows what the DMSO will extract out of the syringe (that stuff is nasty, but Tucker's thread on the FDA and Big pharma advocates it as good stuff - who am I to argue?)

7.Inject

8. Report back here and let us know if your cancer was mitigated or cured.

Tucker, I can understand if you are a little nervous about making the product yourself since you have probably never done this type of thing before.  Not to worry, I have. And I am happy to make some up for you. I am very qualified... I earned my tuition for pharmacy school compounding sterile products (IVs) in a hospital pharmacy, and I spent several years supporting the manufacture of sterile products in a large pharmaceutical company, so I am very experienced using aseptic technique).  Lets get together.  I'll make a batch up for you and show you how to do it yourself for the future.  You'll have to inject yourself though. 

I have seen in your other posts, that you lament the lack of freedom to have treatments that are not approved by FDA.  I support your right to have these treatments.  I am absolutely serious.  I will help you if you would like to try it.  PM me with your information if you would like to discuss this further.

Name calling is not nice, especially when I was trying to help you obtain something you indicated you are interested in trying. 

I am not trying it because based on what I've read, I don't think it will be helpful.  You're the one who's been complaining that big pharma prevents you from getting treatments that you want.  I am trying help you get treatment you said may be helpful for you.

If you have access to alternatives, why are you always complaining about lack of access to alternatives?

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Some more information on mistletoe as a cancer treatment - from the British Medical Journal.

Mistletoe as a treatment for cancer

BMJ 2006; 333 doi: 10.1136/bmj.39055.493958.80 (Published 21 December 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:1282

1. Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine (Edzard.Ernst@pms.ac.uk)

Author Affiliations

1. <address>¹Department of Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Exeter EX2 4NT</address>

Has no proved benefit, and can cause harm

Most doctors in the United Kingdom will be surprised to learn from a case reported in this week's BMJ of a use for mistletoe (Viscum album) that has nothing to do with Christmas.1 Some patients with cancer inject themselves with extract of mistletoe in the hope of improving their condition. In continental Europe, at least 30 different mistletoe preparations are available. In Europe, most cancer patients use such extracts, at a total expense of about £30m (€45m; $59m) each year,2 and in Germany the insurance system pays for this treatment.

A Google search (20 November 2006) showed that 145 000 websites promote or mention mistletoe as a treatment for cancer. This much publicity may mean that many cancer patients in the UK will try mistletoe in the future or ask their doctor about it. It is therefore timely to discuss the value of mistletoe as an anticancer drug.

A century ago, Rudolf Steiner developed anthroposophy, a school of thought that led to innovations such as the Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming, and anthroposophic medicine. This approach to healthcare is based on intuitive thinking about assumed associations between four postulated dimensions of the human body (physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego), plants, minerals, and the cosmos.3

Anthroposophic medicine includes drugs, art therapy, rhythmic massages, special exercises, external applications, counselling, and anthroposophic nursing. These treatments are used "partly as adjuncts to and partly as substitutes for conventional medicine."4 Anthroposophic drugs are based on ancient alchemistic and homeopathic notions, far removed from the concepts of pharmacology. Many of these drugs are produced in unusual ways-some mistletoe preparations are fermented while other anthroposophic drugs are highly diluted according to homeopathic principles.

Steiner's intuition that mistletoe might help treat cancer is based on the fact that, like cancer, mistletoe is a parasitic growth that eventually kills its host. Inspired by Hahnemann's "like cures like" principle, he believed that an extract of mistletoe would cure cancer. Despite the implausibility of this idea, about 1000 in vitro studies have shown that mistletoe or its main constituents (alkaloids, lectins, and viscotoxins) do have anticancer activity.2 5 However, many plants have some sort of anticancer activity.6 Occasionally, this is useful therapeutically-vinblastine and vincristine are derived from the common periwinkle and Taxol comes from the yew tree. In most cases though, toxicity or lack of bioavailability prohibit the use of these compounds.

Proponents of anthroposophic medicine make two claims about mistletoe. Firstly, they claim that regular injections of mistletoe extract improve the natural course of cancer by slowing down or stopping tumour growth. Secondly, they say that such extracts improve the quality of life in patients with cancer.4

Many clinical studies of mistletoe exist, but their findings are inconsistent. Most of them are methodologically weak, and the less rigorous they are the greater the likelihood of a positive result. The conclusions of systematic reviews are therefore contradictory. Anthroposophical doctors, who tend to include unreliable primary studies, arrive at positive conclusions.4 In contrast, independent reviewers tend to focus on the most reliable evidence and regularly find that neither of the above two claims is supported by good evidence.7 8 9

In this week's BMJ, Finall and colleagues report a case of subcutaneous inflammation mimicking metastatic malignancy induced by injection of mistletoe.1 So how safe is this treatment? A wide range of serious adverse reactions have been noted, such as local reactions at the site of injection, anaphylaxis, dyspnoea, haemorrhagic colitis, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, joint pain, kidney failure, lymphangiitis, parasthesias, sarcoidosis, ulceration, and vertigo (Saller R. Zu den unerwuenschten Nebenwirkungen von Mistelpraeparaten. Drittens Mistelsymposium Otzenhausen, 20-22 November 2003).10

Findings from in vitro studies suggest that mistletoe extract may enhance the proliferation of some cancers.11 In addition, some patients with cancer may use mistletoe as an alternative to conventional treatments for cancer, rather than just a complementary treatment.

The claim frequently voiced by proponents of anthroposophic medicine-that mistletoe injections have no serious risks4-is therefore misleading.

Thus, mistletoe has been tested extensively as a treatment for cancer, but the most reliable randomised controlled trials fail to show benefit, and some reports show considerable potential for harm. The costs of regular mistletoe injections are high. I therefore recommend mistletoe as a Christmas decoration and for kissing under but not as an anticancer drug. At the risk of upsetting many proponents of alternative medicine, I also contend that intuition is no substitute for evidence.

I'm going to be starting mistletoe, to coincide with the end of my Herceptin.  I've read a lot of great things about it and Dr. Block has it on his list of worthwhile complementary therapies.  (I like that guy, no secret.  Think he is pretty much a genius.)  Anyway, I will be ordering it pre-made from Weleda - they are the source for Iscador mistletoe.   Weleda is based in Germany and it costs about $180/month.  I plan on doing a year.  I don't care if it is full of viscotoxins - I've already done ACT and Herceptin, so I'm clearly comfortable with using toxic substances to kill the cancer. 

It seems quite apparent to me that oranges posts are satirical.



Anyhow, tucker, which countries' insurance are you asking about?

Ladies, I do agree that the alt threads should remain just that. I don't think anyone is pro chemo, just that they believe in conventional therapy. As for orange, although it is not always possible to interpret tone on line, her post seemed rather tongue in cheek. Anyway, if we could all cut down on the rhetoric, sarcasm and name calling, we could all benefit from these boards.

Caryn

I thought that Suzanne Somers used mistletoe...

Suzanne Sommers does use Mistletoe injections.  My ND offered them as a treatment..they are very  expensive and I decided not to do them at this time since I don't have any lingering cancer in my body.  I opted for low dose Naltrexone, and my weekly IV infusions, which is less expensive, but has good results in preventing recurrence.  If I should have a reurrence, Mistletoe will become one of my lines of defense.  My ND imports it from Germany and it is the real stuff.  I would caution anyone about ordering off the internet as you just don't know what you are getting.