Ivelisse Page heals from stage 4 colon cancer with diet changes and mistletoe extract
It was in August of 2008 when Ivelisse Page realized that she was not well. She was a busy wife and mother to four home-schooled children, and she also ran her own business. But she soon found herself taking 3 hour naps and waking up from them still feeling exhausted. At first she thought that her busy lifestyle was catching up to her, but then realized that her behavior was not normal.
Ivelisse’s father had died of colon cancer when she was a young girl, and because of this she had been receiving early colon cancer screening. When she went in for a checkup it was discovered that she was severely anemic and needed a blood transfusion. She then received a colonoscopy which revealed a 5 cm tumor growing in her colon. Coincidentally, she was diagnosed at age 37, the same age as her father when he received his diagnosis. A surgery was scheduled to remove the tumor and it was discovered during that procedure that the cancer had spread to her liver…. The diagnosis was stage 4.
She says that the fear that surrounds a diagnosis of cancer is often more difficult than dealing with the disease itself. Although she admits to feeling overwhelmed at times, she was able to find comfort in her strong faith. She says that “God did not give her a spirit of fear,” and therefore she turned the outcome over to Him.
In her search for the right treatment, she interviewed 3 different oncologists but they all recommended the same chemotherapy protocols. Her husband had been researching various treatments and came up with some questions to ask the doctors. These two questions were most revealing:
- What were her chances of survival with chemotherapy, when taking her age and staging into consideration? The answer was 67%.
- What were her chances of survival without chemotherapy when taking her age and staging into consideration? The answer that one oncologist gave her was 57%.
When she heard the answers she decided that it just didn’t make sense to completely destroy her immune system with the chemotherapy for a benefit of only 10%. Though she did decide to stay under the care of this particularly honest oncologist, Dr Luis Diaz of Johns Hopkins for monitoring purposes only.
She later received two separate referrals from friends to see a naturopathic physician named Dr Peter Hinderberger, who is one of only 50 physicians in the U.S. that are allowed to prescribe mistletoe for certain cases. Hinderberger first learned about the treatment in the 1970s when he worked at a cancer clinic in Switzerland that specialized in alternative treatment. She told Dr Hinderberger that she had been researching the alkaline diet and taking various supplements and he responded that they were both good therapies to do, but he also recommended that she begin taking Mistletoe Extract (Iscador) to manage and prevent any future cancer. He explained that mistletoe contains viscotoxin, which is a poisonous substance that actively and directly kills cancer cells, has the ability to boost the cancer-fighting immune system via special proteins called lectins, can help prevent new blood-vessel formation, and promotes natural cell death she said she was very interested in using it. He also prescribed supplements that were based on her own specific deficiencies which were determined with blood analysis.
Because the cancer had also spread to her liver, she had surgery that removed 20% of that organ and the surgeon was able to obtain clear margins. She says that her naturopath prescribed supplements that would help support her body both before and after the surgery.
Therapies that Ivelisse used to heal from colon cancer:
- Mistletoe
- Supplements that met her own nutritional needs based upon her blood analysis
- She followed The Maker’s Diet: The 40-Day Health Experience that will Change Your Life Forever, by Jordan Rubin, but she took the extra step of eliminating all red meats
- She ate small amounts of organic chicken and wild caught salmon
- She ate organic free-range eggs
- She ate lots of organic fruits and vegetables, some were raw and some were cooked
- Drank fresh beet and apple juice every morning
- Ate lots of green salads
- Eliminated all processed foods
- No white flour or sugar
- She took Juice Plus, which is a food-based nutritional supplement.
Mistletoe -is used extensively in other countries for treating malignant and non-malignant tumors, and is often used as a complementary therapy to offset the harsh side-effects from conventional therapies. It also helps to stimulate bone marrow activity, can help to diminish tumor-related pain, and can help prevent recurrence.
There are a series of mistletoe extracts available and patients have be tested with the series to see which is the right extract for them. This is done by testing the various extracts until your body has a reaction that is similar to a mosquito bite. This reaction is considered a positive reaction, meaning that this is the right extract for you. The extract is then self-administered subcutaneously into the stomach by the patient. Ivelisse administered Iscador to herself every other day and continues to use this therapy twice per week to prevent recurrence. She says that it is a simple and painless procedure.
At her 3 year checkup- her oncologist at Johns Hopkins was amazed to see that her scans were all clear. She told him that she wanted other patients to have access to this therapy, to which he replied that even after witnessing the benefits of using mistletoe for himself, he cannot offer it to his patients because Mistletoe is not an approved therapy in the United States. This is because there has never been clinical trials held to confirm that Mistletoe is a safe and effective treatment for cancer.
In the absence of clinical trials it cannot be an approved therapy. Additionally, because mistletoe is a natural substance it cannot be patented; this means that pharmaceutical companies would not be able to make money off of it at the conclusion of the trials. Since there is no money to be made, they will not provide the funding needed to perform the clinical trials with it. Clinical trials often run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Clinical Trials with Mistletoe
Ivelisse was been able to bring together her oncologist Dr Luis Diaz, and her naturopath Dr Hinderberger, and other researchers in order to begin the first clinical trials with mistletoe in the United States which was expected to take place sometime in 2014 and is dependent upon funding.
In September of 2012, they began working with Johns Hopkins Hospital to implement phase one clinical trial of mistletoe as soon as their funding is available. The manufacturer of Iscador (Weleda) will be supplying the extract needed for the trials free of charge, and because Mistletoe is already approved in other countries it can go immediately to the human phase of the trial which will save them money and time.
It is estimated that they will need about $500,000 to complete phase one of the trial. Once this is completed they will be eligible for funding from the National Institute of Health and other cancer organizations. The trial is expected to take at least 5- 8 years to complete. So far they have raised over $400,000. Donations can be made to this online fundraising platform.
Ivelisse shares details of her diagnosis and more about Iscador and her Believe Big foundation.
Additional Resources
Read more about Mistletoe for cancer
Read more about alkaline diets
Read more about sugar and cancer
Visit her website @ Believe Big for more information.
Connect with Dr Peter Hinderberger of The Raphael Clinic of Maryland
The Maker’s Diet: The 40-day health experience that will change your life forever
Omega Nutrition Center Masticating Juicer