Mistletoe Health Article

Description

Mistletoe is a parasitic evergreen plant that lives on trees such as oaks, elms, firs, pines, apples, and elms. The parasitic plant has yellowish flowers; small, yellowish green leaves; and waxy, white berries. There are many species of this plant in the Viscacea and Loranthacea plant families. European mistletoe (Viscum album) and American mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum) are used as medical remedies. In addition to Europe and North America, mistletoe is also found in Australia and Korea.

Mistletoe berries are poisonous to cats and other small animals. There is, however, some debate about how toxic the berries are to humans, and there is controversy about whether it is safe to use mistletoe as a remedy. Mistletoe is also known as mystyldene, all-heal, bird lime, golden bough, and devil's fuge.

General use

Mistletoe is known popularly as the plant sprig that people kiss beneath during the Christmas season. That custom dates back to pagan times when, according to legend, the plant was thought to inspire passion and increase fertility.

In the centuries since then, mistletoe has acquired a reputation as a nearly all-purpose herbal remedy. In the seventeenth century, French herbalists prescribed mistletoe for nervous disorders, epilepsy, and the spasms known as the St. Vitus dance.

Mistletoe has also been used in folk medicine as a digestive aid, heart tonic, and sedative. It was used to treat arthritis, hysteria and other mental disturbances, amenorrhea, wounds, asthma, bed wetting, infection, and to stimulate glands.

For centuries, mistletoe also served as a folk medicine treatment for cancer, and the plant is currently used in Europe to treat tumors. Iscador is an extract of the European mistletoe plant that is said to stimulate the immune system and kill cancer cells. It reportedly reduces the size of tumors and improves the quality of life. One team of researchers in France has found evidence that mistletoe extracts increase the efficiency of the body's natural killer cells in destroying cancer cells. A German study published in 2002 indicates that Iscador does indeed inhibit tumor growth. Another recent German case study of an 80-year-old woman with metastasized breast cancer documented that the patient lived for 41 months after first being given Iscador, with good quality of life. Iscador is one brand name of the mistletoe extract in Europe, and other brand names include Helixor and Eurixor.

Other contemporary uses of mistletoe include treatment of rheumatism, anxiety, migraine headaches, dizziness, high blood pressure, relief of spasms, asthma, rapid heartbeat, diarrhea, hysteria, and amenorrhea. Research continues on the use of mistletoe to treat AIDS patients.

There are some differences among the species. American mistletoe is said to cause a rise in blood pressure, while its European counterpart is believed to lower blood pressure.

Although mistletoe appears to be a multipurpose remedy, there is disagreement among medical experts about the safety and effectiveness of this herb. The number of possible interactions with other medications described below indicates that mistletoe should be used with caution.