LAST MARCH, ACTRESS SUZANNE SOMERS SHOCKED SOME people when she announced that she not only had breast cancer, but she was using the popular European alternative remedy mistletoe (Viscum album), marketed as Iscador, to treat it. Oncologists sharply criticized Somers for her decision, and even alternative medicine advocate Andrew Well, M.D., expressed his concern over her treatment choice.

But not everyone thinks Somers's course of action is dangerous. "As healthy as she is, I think she made a good decision," says Cheryl Deroin, N.D., a naturopath and head of the nutrition department at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Ariz. Deroin points to the dozens of studies that show that mistletoe, in conjunction with conventional treatments, does help fight cancer. (Somers is combining mistletoe with conventional treatment.)

A study published this May in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine followed more than 10,000 German cancer patients. About one-fifth used Iscador and a conventional treatment; the rest received only conventional care. Researchers concluded that those who took Iscador lived 40 percent longer. For more herb research, complied by the University of Texas Center for Alternative Medicine Research, visit www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/utcam/therapies/mistletoe.htm.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Weider Publications
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