Mistletoe is that little sprig of green stuff with white berries that people hang in doorways during the holiday season to encourage kissing. Kissing under the mistletoe is an age-old tradition with an interesting history that I won't get into here.

Mistletoe is a parasite that grows in certain trees (apple, oak, maple, elm, pine, and birch, for example). Mistletoe can actually suck the life out of the trees that it lives on. But extracts from this "nuisance" plant have proven to kill cancer cells as well as to boost the human immune system. Do not go out and grab yourself a handful of mistletoe to eat, though. The cute little white berries of the mistletoe plant are very poisonous. Obtaining a mistletoe extract is a multistep process that is best left to professionals.

Mistletoe extracts can be purchased at health food stores; but actually in medical trials and studies, the mistletoe extract is administered by injection or intravenously.

The conclusions drawn from clinical trials of using mistletoe as a cancer treatment are mixed. There isn't much doubt that mistletoe extract does boost the immune system. Most researchers agree that mistletoe extract does, indeed, boost the immune system, but whether mistletoe extract is effective as a cancer treatment has not been established to any degree of medical certainty. There have been problems associated with all of the studies that have been done. Studies have only been conducted in Europe, and in every study, there were limitations - the study was too small, the results were mixed, the patient data was incomplete, the information about dosage and frequency was skewed, or there were problems with the design of the study.

Mistletoe may be our next best hope for treating cancer, but at this point, there is no proof of its effectiveness.