Essiac Tea

Instructions to prepare:

combine in a large stainless steal pot (never use aluminum):

• 2 liters filtered water
• 1/4 C  Essiac tea (the jar sold at The Apothecary is measured for 2 liters H2O)
• Bring to a slow boil, stir and cover
• Simmer 10 min
• remove pot from heat, stir and cover.
• Leave to rest 10-12 hours (overnight)
• Reheat to simmer and remove from heat (no additional boiling)
• Strain into jars or bottles and refrigerate

Take 1/4 cup (2 oz) daily. You may reheat, add water or drink down cold. You may also divide into two separate 1 oz doses.

The length of time depends on condition, type of cancer, and severity. Many people enjoy a frequent cup of Essiac tea as a preventative, along with a healthy diet and exercise.  There are many books writted about Essiac and studies published online. I recommend checking them out also.

Here is some more interesting Information about Essiac and Marie Caisse

Essiac (pronounced “es-ee-ack”) is an herb tea formula attributed to Canadian nurse Rene Caisse (reen-case) of Bracebridge Ontario, Canada. Rene claimed the formula was given to her by a miner’s wife who was seemingly cured of breast cancer by an herb recipe. These herbs were given to the woman by “a very old Indian medicine man.”

In the mid 1920s, Rene Caisse was head nurse at the Sisters of Providence Hospital in a northern Ontario town. While on duty, Rene was bathing an elderly lady and noticed that one of her breasts had a lot of scar tissue on it. Upon questioning the lady, she learned that the women had advanced breast cancer 30 years earlier. The woman further explained that she had met a old Indian medicine man who told her he could cure her cancer. She said that she had no money at that time, and didn’t want to have an operation anyway, so she went to see the Indian. He showed her certain herbs growing in the area and told her to pick them and make a tea and to drink it every day.

She had no reoccurrence of cancer to that day, 30 years later.

In 1922, Rene named the formula “Essiac” after the backward spelling of her own last name, Caisse. The recipe from “a very old Indian Medicine Man,” allows for many stories and theories. There has never been “proof” of the actual tribal heritage of the Medicine Man who offered this formula, as many Native American Tribes lived in the area at the time.

Rene Caisse spent her life working with this herb tea, until she died in 1978 at the age of 90. For a time, the Canadian Minister of Health allowed Rene to treat certain terminally ill patients in her Bracebridge clinic. According to Rene, many of the people she treated reported they were helped by the remedy while others claimed living with their illness was made more bearable.

In May of 1974 Rene Caisse wrote the following words to Dr. Chester Stock:  “It took years to find out the one herb that actually worked on the growth itself [i.e., Sheep Sorrel].  The other herbs I used to purify the blood and throw off any infection thrown off by the malignant growth as it regressed.”  [ESSIAC:  Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy, p. 23]

“The research showed Sheep Sorrel, the most acidic ingredient at pH 4.5, to be the one herb that had a directly destructive effect on cancerous cells.  All the initial experiments were carried out on laboratory mice:  ‘We found that on mice inoculated with human carcinoma, the growth regressed until it was no longer invading living tissue after nine days of Essiac experiments.'”  [ESSIAC:  Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy, p. 23, 24]

Rene Caisse described this process in detail in the following three paragraphs:

“Most importantly, and this was verified in animal tests conducted at the Brusch Medical Center and other laboratories, it was discovered that one of the most dramatic effects of taking this remedy was its affinity for drawing all the cancer cells which had spread back to the original site at which point the tumor would first harden, then later it would soften, until it vanished altogether or more realistically, the tumor would decrease in size to where it could then be surgically removed with minimal complications.

“In certain cases and at certain stages of the disease, the cancer would act as if it were ‘coming to a head’, similar to an abscess. It would then break down and slough away.  These people all reported that when the mass breaks, it isn’t like pus but like a cottage cheese substance that comes away.  Still other types will enlarge until the mass is localized, then loosen and reduce in size until there is nothing left, having been absorbed into and carried off by the blood stream and body waste.  

“I found also that no matter where the malignancy may be in the human body, surgery would be much more successful after six to eight treatments of Essiac, followed by further treatments once a week after the operation for a period of three months; then there would be no recurrence of the tumor.  In the case of breast cancers, the primary growth will usually invade the mammary gland of the opposite breast or the auxilla (armpit), or both.  My treatment, I found, reduced the secondary growth into the primary mass, enlarging it for a time.  When it became localized, it was encapsulated and could then be removed without danger of recurrence.  In one instance, a patient with breast cancer was instructed by her doctor to have six Essiac treatments before undergoing surgery.  After the fifth treatment, however, the cancer disappeared, with no recurrence.”  [THE ESSENCE OF ESSIAC, p. 124-5]

“It is very important to use the dosage as recommended, which was based on more than 54 years’ experience.  Rene was very concerned about this, which is why she personally administered the dose to her patients.  The herbs are very potent, and in particular Sheep Sorrel can have the effect of enlarging the tumor too quickly, so that it may burst, or a vital organ may be blocked because of its increase in size.  Sometimes the tumors will soften, dissolve into small pieces and be eliminated through the bowel or the urinary tract.  Cancer growths in the breast have been known to become encapsulated within six weeks to three months, and can then be removed surgically with little danger of metastasising in the future.  Cancers of the oesophagus have also become encapsulated and removed cleanly and safely by surgery.”  [ESSIAC ESSENTIALS, p. 38]

“Depending on special circumstances, very occasionally in her later years, she would sometimes advise an initial dose of one fluid ounce twice daily for the first five, ten or (rarely) thirty days before reducing to one fluid ounce a day.  Rene was always very particular about this because she was aware that sometimes, when patients first began taking the Essiac formula, their tumours might enlarge suddenly as though they were gathering back the cancerous cells that had metastasised.  When that happened, she either gave lighter doses or stopped treatment altogether for a time, to prevent a vital organ from becoming blocked.  It all depended on the nature and position of the tumour.  For example, primary brain tumours rarely metastasise and we have had no reports of this type of swelling when taking Essiac in these cases.  Essiac should never be administered intravenously.  During the early days of Rene’s pioneering research, she found that only Sheep Sorrel could be injected intramuscularly as an individual herb.”  [ESSIAC ESSENTIALS, p. 38]

*It should be noted that Nurse Caisse often treated cancer patients by injecting sheep sorrel solution at the tumor site, which would produce more dramatic and quicker results than just drinking the tea.  The injections could understandably create a situation in some cases where a vital organ might be blocked if the tumor rapidly increased in size.  However, sheep sorrel injections are no longer used.  She also used other herbs, too, and sheep sorrel root was a necessary part of the Essiac formula to achieve the results she achieved at the Rene M. Caisse Cancer Clinic.

There is another much safer method than injecting sheep sorrel solution in order to get sheep sorrel solution in the blood stream.  It is simply done by holding the sheep sorrel solution in the mouth for an extended period of time without drinking it.  Mali Klein covers this “sublingual” under-the-tongue method in more detail in THE ESSIAC BOOK, along with other uses for sheep sorrel solution.  However, one does not have to drink sheep sorrel tea separately–One can simply hold the four-herb Essiac tea in the mouth longer to give it time to absorb some of its healing qualities sublingually.

According to the authors of ESSIAC ESSENTIALS [p. 45], the following reactions may occur when treating cancer that demonstrate how Essiac works.  These are the intended effects, not “side” effects, of using Essiac tea as a remedy for cancer.  People without cancer do not have to be concerned about these effects since they do not have cancer or cancerous tumors.  Chemotherapy, for example, does have some very serious “side effects” which are printed on the black box warnings.  Chemotherapy can actually cause cancer as one of its side effects!  Chemotherapy can cause death as well amongst its many harmful side effects!

POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF USING ESSIAC TEA WITH CANCER

a)  swelling–occurs when metastasised cells gather into the primary tumour.

b) cottage cheese effect–resembling curds and clear liquid, occurs as the cancer breaks up and discharges from either the body orifices or from localised cysts or swellings.  A jelly-like substance can also be discharged or coughed up from the lungs.

c) more frequent passing of urine/defecation and other inexplicable discharges–occurring as the body detoxifies.  If the symptoms are severe, with related nausea and pain, stop taking the formula for a few days until all the symptoms have subsided.  When you start drinking it again, take half an ounce every other day, gradually resuming the original dosage.  Remember that all diseases have a life cycle and a rhythm of their own, so follow your own judgement according to what your body is telling you about the dosage it needs.

d) aching ‘on site’ and headaches, linked to the detoxification process, have been noted as sometimes occurring when taking Essiac after surgery.  Treat as for (c) and drink more water to flush out toxins from the body.

e) fever or chills–sometimes occurring when the Essiac starts working directly on the cancerous cells.

It should be noted that these effects may sometimes occur in people with cancer.  People without cancer can drink Essiac tea without concern for these possible effects.  In fact, the grassroots reports (aka “anecdotal evidence”) of Essiac tea use by people without cancer reveals it is a viable cancer preventive as well as a foundational health tonic.

This phenomenon begs the question:  Why suffer through the hell of chemo, radiation, surgery and astronomical medical bills when one can prevent cancer in the first place with a cup of Essiac tea on a fairly frequent basis coupled with a healthy diet and exercise?

Of course, Essiac tea cannot reverse the consequences of eating over-processed foods, many of which contain cancer-causing substances.  Therefore, the best health insurance one can obtain is a diet focusing on whole, organic foods while avoiding cancer-causing substances in over-processed foods, processed meats, fast foods, etc.

The word “organic” in this sense means that the plants are not sprayed with cancer-causing herbicides or pesticides and are not overly processed.  Raw foods are essential to a healthy diet and have been shown to stop cancer (see Dr Max Gerson’s diet) and diabetes (see Dr Gabriel Cousen’s diet).  The “Eating Right for Your Blood Type” research by Dr Peter D’Adamo is a very helpful tool to find which foods are highly beneficial and which foods are detrimental to one’s blood type.