The Millstone Times December 2021

Q u e s t i o n a n d A n s w e r s a b o u t :

Mistletoe & Medicine By, Valerie Mancuso

Mistletoe is a semiparasitic plant that grows on trees, such as apple, oak, maple, elm, pine, and birch. It has been used for hundreds of years to treat medical conditions such as epilepsy, hypertension, headaches, menopausal symptoms, infertility, arthritis, and rheumatism. Mistletoe is one of the most widely studied complementary and alternative medicine therapies for cancer. In Europe, mistletoe extracts are among the most prescribed therapies for cancer patients. Mistletoe extracts are usually given by an injection under the skin (subcutaneous). Less common ways to give mistletoe include by mouth, into a vein (intravenous or IV), into the pleural cavity, or into a tumor. Most clinical trials using mistletoe extracts to treat cancer have been done in Europe. Many studies use mistletoe as adjuvant therapy in patients with cancer. Although these trials have reported mistletoe extracts to be effective, weaknesses have been reported. Few serious side effects have been reported from the use of mistletoe extracts. Side effects include soreness and inflammation at injection sites, headache, fever, and chills. A few cases of severe allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock, have been reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the use of mistletoe as a treatment for cancer or any other medical condition.

Interesting People Throughout History Nellie Bly- Investigative Journalist, Inventor By Pam Teel

Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Cochran, was born on May 5, 1864 in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania. The town was founded by her father, Judge Michael Cochran. Elizabeth had fourteen siblings. Her father had ten children from his first mar- riage and five children from his second marriage to Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Jane Kennedy. Elizabeth was an American journalist, an inventor, a charity worker, an activist, and a forerunner for investigative re- porting. Her father, Michael Cochran, went from mill worker to mill owner, and then to judge. His family lived very well until he died when Elizabeth was only six years old. His fortune was divided among his many children, leaving Elizabeth’s mother and her children with a small fraction of the wealth they once enjoyed. Elizabeth’s mother soon remarried, but quickly divorced her second husband because of abuse. They relocated to Pittsburgh after that. Elizabeth, Nellie, knew that she would need to find a way to make money. When she was 15, she enrolled in the State Normal School in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and an added an “e” to her last name to sound more distinguished. Her plan was to graduate and find a position as a teacher, but after only a year and a half, she ran out of money and could no longer afford the tuition. She moved back to Pittsburgh to help her mother run a boarding house.

In 1885, she read an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch that disturbed her very much. It basically stated that a women’s place was to be at home and to take care of the needs of her man. She was so angry about that statement that she sent an angry letter to the editor anonymously signed “Lonely Orphan Girl.” The newspaper’s editor, George A. Madden, was so impressed with the letter that he published a note asking the “Lonely Orphan Girl” to reveal her name. Elizabeth marched into the Dispatch offices and introduced herself. Madden immediately offered her a job as a columnist. Shortly after her first article was published, Elizabeth changed her pseudonym from “Lonely Orphan Girl” to “Nellie Bly,” a name her boss gave her from a character from a popular song by Stephen foster. As a writer, Nellie focused her early work for the Pittsburgh Dispatch on the lives of working women, writing a series of investigative articles on women factory workers. However, the newspaper soon received complaints from factory owners about her writing, and she was reassigned to women's pages to Continued on page 36...

10 The Millstone Times

December 2021