Human disease is an elaborate dance between behavior, our environment, and chance. Medicine tries to tame human disease with science, but when our knowledge falls short, disease wins. This is too often the case with cancer. We spend billions of dollars each year trying to better understand it and develop tools to ease its effects.
Today, many allopathic medical practitioners are beginning to seek out a greater connection with holistic and integrative approaches. The authors of this book introduce one specific therapy and make a case for integrative health in general, including anthroposophically extended medicine, naturopathy, and other holistic approaches.
Mistletoe therapy has long been considered a viable treatment for cancer by the European medical community and is beginning to gain recognition in North America, as well. The mistletoe plant possesses many remarkable properties. As a therapy, it represents a rediscovery of ancient wisdom and shows us how the science of modern medicine might expand its reach and reconnect with a more human-centered medicine.
The book was structured following the syllabus for a three-day practitioner training hosted by the Physicians' Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (PAAM). The chapters highlight several of our key lectures in a condensed form. The book serves as an introductory summary of--not a replacement for--those intensive professional trainings.
This book is constructed as a journey and is meant to be read in its entirety, whether by a patient, a practitioner, a supporter of integrative oncology, or anyone who takes a deep interest in one's own health concerns. The text is accessible, and the reader does not need a science background to understand the majority of the content.
While this book should not be considered a treatment or diagnostic manual, it is intended to both prepare practitioners to begin mistletoe therapy training and to make this information available in an accessible form to anyone interested in learning about this approach to treating cancer.
Illustrated in color and b/w
"This book provides a progressive and interesting look at alternatives to traditional cancer therapies, focused on provision of natural remedies as a component of integrative cancer care, especially utilizing Viscum Album Extract (VAE).
"It begins with an important review of the history of cancer research, which provides the framework for modern day holistic approaches, especially regarding cancer cell metabolism and immunotherapy. Dr Johnson and Winters have assembled an outstanding group of authors with an in-depth knowledge of both the mechanisms of action, and clinical application, of anthroposophic medicine. All cancer care providers, including allopathic physicians, can benefit from reading this book and adopting adjuvant practices to augment traditional cancer therapies.
"The conclusions are provocative, calling for a more detailed look at more effective means to induce the immune response in cancer patients; and to tailor the type of host inflammation from a chronic low-grade smoldering condition, into a more robust acute and episodic response, which can perturb metastatic sites and cause regression of primary lesions. The appendices provide practical algorithms and treatment schedules. Please expand your thinking about the etiology and management of cancer by reading this book."
---- Jeffrey A Jones, MD, FACS, FACPM, FAsMA, OCL, Deputy Executive for Inpatient Services, Chief of Urology- OCL/MEDVAMC, Professor Baylor College of Medicine, Scott Dept of Urology/ Center for Space Medicine, Jamail-Abramson Chair in Urology Research