16 Mistletoe and Cancer Treatment.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
16 Mistletoe and Cancer Treatment.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm. Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Steagall, a medical doctor and cancer specialist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia, deeply affected by his grandmother's death from stomach cancer, as well as patients he cared for in medical training, he realized there has to be a better way to treat cancer. Dr. Stegall has a unique and innovative approach to treating cancer called integrative oncology, combining modern medicine with alternative therapies personalized to each patient. This podcast is designed to educate, support and give you a positive voice you can trust. We invite you to join us on this journey as we seek to change the cancer paradigm.
Speaker2:
Hi. This is Dr. Stegall. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Cancer Secrets podcast. Do you have a question you would like answered in a future episode? If so, please go to Cancer Secrets dot com and click on podcast at the top of the page. Look for the tab on the right side of the page that says Send voice mail. You can record your question straight from your smartphone or computer with your question. Be sure to tell us your first name, where you're from, and why you listen to the show. I will choose from the best questions and answer them on the air. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Hello and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Doctor Jonathan Stegall. This is season two and episode number 16. In today's episode, I'm going to discuss mistletoe and its use as an anticancer agent. If you're new to the show, please go back and listen to my introductory episode to learn more about me and my vision for this podcast. As always, we encourage you to listen with a loved one or friend. Learning and enjoying the show with a community will be more impactful than doing so alone. Today's show is going to be a great one as we learn more about mistletoe and how it can help us in our treatment of cancer. Most of us are familiar with mistletoe as the plant we kiss under during the Christmas holidays. But did you know that mistletoe also has important medicinal properties? Its historical use can be traced back more than 2000 years.
Speaker2:
Now. Mistletoe is a plant name given to many hemi parasitic plants. And we use the term parasitic because mistletoe relies on the host tree to obtain its nutrients. In contrast to most plants, mistletoe does not have a root, but rather sinkers which extract nutrients from the tree. There are nearly 100 species of mistletoe, and these species differ in their therapeutic actions, toxicities and geographic locations. All of the mistletoe species fall under the genus Vikram, so mistletoe and Vikram are used interchangeably. Despite being a parasitic plant in the wild, Viacom has a long history of safe use in medicine. The Druid culture considered the oak tree as sacred, possibly due to the fact that they obtained mistletoe from it. The Druids would perform a ceremony around the oak tree and proclaimed that mistletoe heals all things. Historical reports suggest that they use it to treat a wide variety of ailments and conditions. During the Roman conquest of Europe, people from various cultures exchanged healing methods. Visconti began being used heavily by both Greeks and Romans during this time. Celsus was one of the first to record the use of mistletoe around 50 B.C. Over the centuries that followed, skin was used to treat inflammatory conditions, gynecological concerns, epilepsy and even cardiovascular issues. Now several types of Wykeham have undergone rigorous scientific testing and this is especially true as it relates to cancer. Viacom used for cancer is mentioned in the literature starting in the early 1900s, and Viacom began being used around 1920 as an injectable agent for cancer.
Speaker2:
And this is how we mostly use it today. It's either an injection just under the skin or it's an intravenous drip. And research has subsequently shown that VCM has several notable effects. First and foremost, theSkimm is an immune system enhancing therapy. It exerts its immune effects through several mechanisms. The first is that it's been shown to increase the number of immune system cells. It makes sense that if we can increase the number of immune system cells in the body, then we can also improve the immune system's activity and effectiveness. And not only does this increase the number of immune system cells, it also increases the activity of these immune system cells. So these cells are not only more present, but they're also doing more things inside the body. And more specifically, mistletoe has been shown to increase the activity of various interleukins and cytokines, including interleukin one, interleukin two, interleukin six interferon, gamma and tumor necrosis factor alpha. Now, we don't need to go into each of those in detail, but just know that they're very important components of the immune system and increasing their activity is very important as we treat cancer. And interestingly, Viacom has also been shown to have a slight increase in body temperature, increasing the body temperature, as we know, is important for fighting infection. And we can see this with severe infections.
Speaker2:
When people develop a fever, this is the appropriate immune response to a significant illness. Now, mistletoe is not typically going to cause a fever, but it will result in a slight increase in body temperature. But the patient won't really notice it. Now, in addition to its immune system effects, Vikram also has cytotoxic properties, and cytotoxic just means cancer cell killing. And we believe that mistletoe does this through inhibiting a process known as protein synthesis by blocking the production of specific proteins. Cancer cell death via apoptosis occurs, and apoptosis is the term we use for programmed cell death. Normal healthy cells undergo apoptosis when they reach their program lifespan. And one of the main hallmarks of cancer is that this apoptotic signal is removed. So if we can do something to cause cancer, to undergo that programmed cell death, then we're making a lot of headway. And also Wykeham has an anti cancer effect as a result of its ability to block a process known as angiogenesis. Now, if you've listened to my other episodes, you've heard me talk about angiogenesis, and this is the process where new blood vessels are formed. And in the setting of cancer, new blood vessels are used to feed cancer and assisted in its growth and spread. So one of our main treatment objectives, regardless of the therapy we're discussing, is to try to halt this angiogenesis because we want to deprive cancer of nutrients and growth fuel as much as possible, and not surprisingly, most likely due to its anticancer effects.
Speaker2:
Mistletoe has been shown in studies to improve quality of life. Reductions in pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and insomnia have all been seen as positive outcomes in mistletoe study. And finally, and arguably most importantly, mistletoe has been shown to be compatible with many chemotherapeutic agents. There have not been any negative interactions between chemotherapy and mistletoe in any of the studies that have been performed. This compatibility was shown to exist even when chemotherapy and mistletoe were given simultaneously. Hi, this is Dr. Jonathan Stegall, medical doctor and specialist in integrative oncology. And I want to tell you about my new bestselling book, Cancer Secrets. This book is packed with valuable information you need to know about whether you're searching for information for yourself or for a loved one. In my book, you'll learn what cancer is and what it is not, as well as which treatments you should be focusing on from both modern medicine as well as alternative medicine. You'll also learn the ins and outs of nutrition and supplementation, as well as important information about having the proper mindset. I'm in the trenches every day with patients and I've shared my secrets in this book with you. Please go to Cancer Secrets and buy your copy now. There are several notable clinical studies that have been performed on mistletoe, and I'd like to discuss several of them now. The first is a study on patients with colorectal cancer treated with mistletoe.
Speaker2:
In these patients were treated from 1981 to 2001, so a period of roughly 20 years. And the study aimed to investigate overall survival. The treatment arm patients with colorectal cancer receiving mistletoe included 323 patients, and the control arm was much larger. And these were patients not receiving mistletoe, and they numbered 8121 patients and over the 20 year period. This study found that after ten years, 50.8% of the colorectal cancer patients were still alive, compared to just 41.9% of the control group patients being alive. This is a substantial increase in survival due to mistletoe. Another study looked at patients with leukemia and lymphoma, and a similar design existed where one arm of the study evaluated patients receiving mistletoe, and the other arm of the study served as the control group in patients not receiving mistletoe. This study was even more dramatic than the colorectal cancer study. After ten years, 81.4% of the leukemia lymphoma patients were still alive, compared to just 29.3% of the control group patients. A notable breast cancer study found that 86.1% of breast cancer patients receiving mistletoe were still alive after ten years, compared to just 61.2% of the control group patients who are not receiving mistletoe. Yet another study looked at mistletoe in melanoma patients. After ten years, 88.5% of melanoma patients receiving mistletoe were alive, compared to 57.3 in the control group. And finally, in pancreatic cancer, which we know is a very aggressive, deadly cancer, 13.6% of pancreatic cancer patients receiving mistletoe were still alive after ten years, compared to just 2.5% of pancreatic cancer patients not receiving mistletoe.
Speaker2:
And although these are very small numbers compared to a lot of other cancers, mistletoe showed a huge benefit in pancreatic cancer. When we look at the numbers, as you can see, there is plenty of evidence showing that mistletoe can be beneficial. Of course, as with many alternative therapies, we simply don't have the long term studies required to provide the proof that conventional oncology requires to incorporate it into the standard of care. And this, of course, is a shame. But as you know, my threshold for using a therapy is different for most other doctors due to its extensive clinical use worldwide for many years, coupled with solid scientific research supporting its use, I believe that mistletoe is a vital component in most integrative cancer treatment protocols. I want to point out that there are some contraindications to mistletoe therapy. Patients with brain or spinal cord lesions should not receive IV mistletoe. This is due to the fact that mistletoe treatment can cause some initial swelling in a tumor. And we don't want to cause this to harm the delicate structures in the brain or spinal cord. In addition, women in their first trimester of pregnancy should not receive mistletoe due to a lack of long term studies on the effect of mistletoe on the developing baby. Patients receiving immunotherapy, drugs such as KEYTRUDA, Opdivo, Yervoy and Herceptin, to name a few, should not receive mistletoe. We're really not sure at this point how mistletoe, due to its immune system effects, might interact with these new immunotherapy drugs.
Speaker2:
In addition, patients who have an acute infection with a fever should not have mistletoe until the infection has resolved. And again, this is due to mistletoe, those immune system effects. And finally, patients who have an allergy to mistletoe should not receive it as part of their treatment. For this reason, in my office, we do a test dose of mistletoe, which entails giving a small dose of mistletoe as an intradermal injection, usually in the abdomen around the area of the belly button. We give this just under the skin. We monitor the injection site for about 48 hours to see if a reaction develops. A little redness around the injection site is OC, but if the site becomes raised in puffy or causes notable itching, then these are signs of an allergy. And we would not want to use mistletoe therapeutically in that patient. However, assuming that the test dose went well and no other contraindications exist, we would proceed with therapy. In my office, we administer mistletoe intravenously in conjunction with low dose chemotherapy, and we found this to be a great combination. So the procedure in my office would be to put the mistletoe into a bag of normal saline and just drip it in over about 2 hours. And as I said, we give this with chemotherapy. So we're simultaneously giving the chemotherapy treatments for that patient at the same time.
Speaker2:
And this has worked very well. As with most other alternative therapies, mistletoe is not intended to be used as monotherapy by itself. It's best used in combination with other therapies as part of an overall integrative protocol. And as I'm sure you know, conventional oncology does not use mistletoe. So you'll need to find an integrative oncologist who knows how to use mistletoe and also how it's best used with other cancer therapies such as chemotherapy, intravenous vitamin C, etc.. I hope you found this information helpful. If you're not currently incorporating mistletoe into your protocol, I encourage you to seek a provider who is willing to do this for you. And if you don't have anyone nearby, we have patients come to us from throughout the United States as well as other parts of the world for our integrative cancer treatment programs. In my office, the Center for Advanced Medicine, thank you for listening today. As you can see, this is a topic I'm very passionate about and something that I feel is a great addition to most people's treatment protocols. In our next episode, episode number 17, we'll be bringing you more great content. Please subscribe to our podcast so you'll be notified when each new episode is released. And in addition, please follow us on social media. The Cancer Secrets Facebook page is a great way to stay updated regarding our podcast as well as my book and other important cancer information. Until next time, bye bye.
Speaker1:
Thank you for listening to the Cancer Secrets podcast. If you were encouraged by this show, please share it with a loved one or friend. Help support the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. The more reviews, the more friends like you can find the show. Finally, to learn more, visit us online at Doctor Stay Google.com. The Cancer Secrets Podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm.
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