Health Benefits
According to LiveandFeel.com, an online database of medicinal plants, mistletoe is antispasmodic, calming and stimulates the immune system. Mistletoe extract is typically used to treat convulsive coughing, bronchic asthma and asthmatic attacks.
It’s calming properties ease the psychological tension caused by an asthamatics difficulty in drawing breath. In some cases, mistletoe is also used to treat epilepsy, hysteria, neurosis, dizziness, arterial hypertension, cardiac ischemia, hiccups, digestive and uterine cramps.
Mistletoe and Cancer
Proponents of mistletoe extract believe it also has cytostatic properties and can inhibit or suppress the growth or multiplication of cells. Part of this belief stems from the fact that mistletoe, like cancer, is a parasitic growth that will ultimately kill its host. For this reason, mistletoe extract is used by alternative medicine practitioners as a treatment for various forms of cancer. In addition to its alleged cytostatic properties, mistletoe is also used to reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy and to bolster the immune system of cancer patients, who often have weakened immune systems after bouts of chemotherapy.