This week Gill Smith, stage 4 cancer survivor and author of Because You Can, discusses a recent article written about Mistletoe
therapy, just in time for Christmas…
Yesterday this was in a Sunday Times article:
It is often an excuse for an amorous
encounter at Christmas parties, but now mistletoe is being touted as a
potential treatment for cancer.
NHS patients in Scotland are being
treated with an extract of the plant in the hope it can boost the body’s immune
system and put cancer into remission.
At first, I thought this was new
news, but in fact:
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said
that in the past two years, 47 patients had been referred for mistletoe therapy
at its Centre for Integrative Care at Gartnavel hospital. NHS Lothian said it
had sent 42 patients to the clinic between April 2014 and March this year.
In England, two clinics are
listed by the website Mistletoe Therapy UK as offering the treatment with
possible NHS funding.
Mistletoe therapy has been available
for some time in this country, but it is good to see NHS making it available.
In Germany and Switzerland extracts of mistletoe are the most commonly used
adjuvant to conventional cancer treatments.
It was Rudolf Steiner who first
suggested mistletoe for cancer treatment in the early 1920s, but it has been
used as a medicinal plant since ancient times. The tradition of kissing under
the mistletoe started in ancient Greece.
I have been taking mistletoe for
about two years. Firstly, as Iscador drops, prescribed by the Royal London
Hospital for Integrated Medicine. NHS England recently withdrew their funding
for this, and other homeopathic medicines. Recently I have privately been using
injections, under medical supervision. The ampoules come from Germany and must
be kept refrigerated. I inject myself three times per week.
As with any complementary therapy I
will not know if it is working. It may enhance the effectiveness of
chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or even have some direct effect on reducing the
cancer itself and prolonging life. Which is also the case for other
complementary drugs and supplements that I take.
I’m very encouraged that the NHS is not ruling out
mistletoe therapy. Maybe we will slowly see more complementary treatments
becoming mainstream with NHS blessing. That would be a marvellous Christmas
gift.
