If we talk about anthroposophical medicine we are talking about Rudolf Steiner and if we mention mistletoe in the Steinerian culture we are referring to the Viscum album .
Nothing new because the discovery of the properties of mistletoe in this key dates back to the years 1920/192 4.

Rudolf Steiner had observed how mistletoe grew far from the earth , in constant contact with air, light, sun and not subject to the forces of the earth, humus, dark and cold, radicalization and hardening.

It is a hemiparasite because in order to grow it needs to be hosted on a tree from which it draws sap without harming the host plant! It also grows perpendicular to the branch on which it rests, without following the shapes of the plant or responding to gravitational forces.

Instead, it maintains a spherical , balanced shape and does not absorb the water it receives, except in very low altitudes. These characteristics opened a world to Steiner on its use to counteract these energies that analogically govern degenerative diseases.

Mistletoe is currently used in both Germany and Switzerland for complementary cancer therapy and is even paid for by the national health service. Let’s see what characteristics the mistletoe possesses and how the preparation is presented in an anthroposophical key.

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The properties of Mistletoe

Through molecular pharmacology studies some cytotoxic proteins and lecithins have been discovered which on the one hand cause a process of tumor cell necrosis , induce apoptosis, programmed cell death, and on the other perform an immunostimulating action , developing the Natural killer cell activity, the production of Interleukin I and pro-inflammatory 6.

It seems that the intake of Mistletoe also improves the conditions resulting from the chemotherapy effect, with a decrease in pain, exhaustion, an increase in appetite and an improvement in sleep quality.

There are trials that testify interesting results in the treatment with mistletoe of tumors of the ovary, breast, liver, brain, in which the tolerability of chemotherapy and therapy times have improved.

The Anthroposophical Mistletoe

In anthroposophical medicine the mistletoe used is that of oak, apple and pine. It is fermented with lactobacillus plantarum and the one collected in the summer season is mixed with that collected in the winter season. The preparation thus obtained is used to support oncological therapies.

It is taken in various ways according to the disease and the doctor’s approach : oral, topical, subcutaneous, intravenous, intralesional, intracavitary.

Anthroposophical Medicine

What is meant by anthroposophic medicine ? First of all we owe to Rudolf Steiner the foundation of this medical approach to the sick and to the disease, starting from the 1920s . The epistemological thought that underlies anthroposophical medicine integrates man, nature, spirit, soul, material vision and etheric ; from this point of view, the disease is not to be ascribed to a single cell but to the whole organism.

Consequently, the therapeutic approach starts from conventional techniques to expand to vital areas that concern the individual, such as his environment, his thought, his feelings.

Anthroposophical medicine believes that the reality of man is quadripartite in the physical body in line with the mineral kingdom, etheric body in line with the vegetable kingdom, astral body in line with the animal world, and the spirit that concerns the organization of the I of the human being .

These kingdoms interpenetrate and influence each other giving life to continuous transformations in the passing of life , subject to constructive and destructive forces, in a continuous regeneration. Health is part of this cycle of transformation and must therefore be treated when it becomes disease with an approach that embraces and integrates all the aspects concerning the human being.