Saturday, September 11th, 2010
I found this article about Essaic online in my travels and as a firm believer in natural cures for every disease known to man, whether it be a man made disease or not, I believe the Earth provides everything we need and pharmaceutical companies don’t want people to start realizing this!
This article was very interesting and I think if you’re suffering from cancer, “God” forbid, that this might be worth looking into. The article is about a combination of herbs that make a formula known as Essiac:
Discovered! A cancer-killing miracle from the frozen north…almost lost forever
by: Michele Cagan
It was 1977 and Iona Hale was in the fight of her life
Ted Hale was a strapping truck driver, but what his wife, Iona, was going through had him laid as low as you can imagine. He could not stop thinking about the six words the nurse at the hospital had told Iona.
“You’re not going to live long.”
They echoed in his mind, no matter how he tried to banish them. But Ted refused to accept his wife’s fate. Not when there was an alternative.
And Ted was a man of action.
So, his mind made up, he carefully took out his pistol and tucked it under his belt. He wasn’t taking any chances not when the stakes were this high.
He looked over at Iona the stomach cancer had reduced her to just 75 pounds and Ted Hale walked out the door.
He had been to see Rene Caisse twice before. The first time, she had reluctantly agreed to give him a small bottle of her miracle tonic, Essiac.
Whispered about reverently by cancer survivors, shunned by mainstream doctors
the miracle elixir could only be found if you knew someone who knew someone who knew Rene Caisse.
The effect was incredible. Almost immediately after taking the tonic, Iona had felt better. When her pain pills ran out, she told her husband not to bother picking up more. She wanted more Essiac.
But Rene Caisse was afraid. She had already been brought before government officials for her unconventional approach to treating cancer. She became less and less willing to give out the tonic. The next “patient” could be an agent of the government, ready to send her to jail.
Ted Hale wasn’t in a position to take no for an answer. He’d watched his wife, given only weeks to live, begin to thrive after treatments with Essiac. The cancer seemed to be literally draining from her body.
He had brought the gun in case he had to force the elixir from the aging Rene Caisse.
Thankfully, extreme measures weren’t necessary. Rene relented and supplied him with more. And did it continue to work?
Well, a few years ago, Iona Hale was interviewed for the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. She was 85 years old. Vibrant and energetic, she called her recovery “a miracle.”
It was this remarkable tale of a man’s love for his wife that first introduced me to Essiac. But it turns out that Ted and Iona Hales’ story is just one of the amazing stories surrounding this proven cancer cure.
The Native American cancer cure that was almost lost forever
The story of Essiac begins across a campfire, in the gold rush wilderness of northern Canada. In the early 1890s, Mrs. A (as Rene Caisse later came to call her) had come from England to join her prospector husband. You could walk for miles without meeting another human being. The stillness was, at times, unnerving.
Mrs. A had been in her new home, far from the conveniences of the changing world, for ten years when she began to feel soreness in her right breast. Over time, it became painful enough that she and her husband talked of leaving camp for the hospital in Toronto.
As they prepared for the journey, an old Ojibway Indian, a familiar face around the camp, appeared quietly. Without ceremony, he told Mrs. A he knew her condition was cancer. And then he said he could cure her.
For a moment, at least, she believed him. But then doubt crept in and they left for the busy streets of Toronto, where his words were soon forgotten.
There, doctors told Mrs. A the breast would have to be removed immediately. She thought of her friend who had died from breast surgery. Of others who had gone under the knife only to have the cancer return.
And then the woman did something that would change the course of alternative cancer therapy forever.
She refused the surgery and returned to the camp, ready to put her life in the hands of the Ojibway man.
He told her of four herbs, growing wild in the area, that would cure her. He carefully measured out portions, telling her how much to brew and for how long, teaching her so that she could repeat it without thinking about it. She was to drink the brew daily. He said it would put her body back into balance with the Great Spirit.
Twenty years later, she told her tale to Rene Caisse, then head nurse at the Sisters of Providence Hospital in Ontario. Another 55 years would pass before Ted Hale would appear at Rene Caisse’s door, demanding that same formula for his dying wife.
However, the story almost ended much earlier For a year, the notes on the concoction that had saved Mrs. A’s life sat untouched in Rene’s desk at the hospital. Life went on as usual until she went to visit an old friend, a well-respected doctor.
As they walked through his garden, the doctor stopped at a particular plant, lifting a leaf with his cane. If people would only take that herb, he told Rene, “there would be little cancer in the world.” With a shock, Caisse recognized it as one of the herbs in the formula relayed to her by Mrs. A. And at that moment, she decided that, if she were ever diagnosed with cancer, she would use her body as testing ground for the formula.
Her chance to test the brew came even sooner than expected. A beloved aunt was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given six months to live. Conventional medicine was helpless to relieve her suffering.
With nothing to lose, the doctor agreed to allow Rene to try the herbal medicine. I’m sure you can guess the end of that story: Rene Caisse’s aunt lived 21 more years.
More patients came to Nurse Caisse. The story was always the same
Miraculous and swift recoveries, cancer expelled from the body like waste
Lives that were only supposed to go on for weeks or even just days stretched into extra years. Rene soon became known as Canada’s Cancer Nurse, the person to go to when all hope was lost. She did not charge for treatment, accepting small donations only when offered.
Patients who had to be carried into her clinic for their first treatment were able to walk in on their own by the fifth or sixth visit. Her own mother, stricken with liver cancer, lived another 18 years after Essiac wiped the cancer from her body.
As patients of Rene Caisse started talking about the miracle of Essiac (Caisse gave the brew her name, only spelled backwards), she knew she must protect the ancient Indian formula. She would keep it a secret, safeguarding it from those who would use it for financial gain.
Word continued to spread. Doctors who doubted her work were welcomed into the clinic to observe, and left convinced.
However, the tales of Essiac attracted a different kind of attention, too. Despite a petition signed by 8 well-respected physicians, the Department of Health and Welfare in Ottawa sent two doctors to arrest her, with the charge of practicing medicine without a license.
The movement to silence her work had only just begun. Before Caisse’s death in 1978, she would be threatened with heavy fines and imprisonment, harassed, and brought before a specially created Cancer Commission. And what was her crimeproviding hope where there once was none?
Rallying to support their beloved Nurse Caisse, 387 of her patients showed up at the hearing by the Commission to testify on her behalf. Only 49 were called to testify, and the Commission dismissed them allyes, all 49 peopleon grounds that their testimonies were somehow invalid.
The pressure got to be too much. Fearing imprisonment, Caisse was deeply fatigued. She closed the clinic in 1942, and people like Ted Hale were forced to seek her out, desperate for the cure that had extended so many lives.
Four common herbs combine to form a super cancer killer
Throughout her life, Rene Caisse maintained that Essiac should be tested in clinical trials. She wanted to prove to the world that her faith in the formula was well founded.
Rene herself conducted two separate trials on mice given terminal cancer, keeping the first set alive for fifty-two days, longer than anyone else had been able to. The second set? 72 days. But she knew more was needed.
Every time a doctor showed interest, however, it was to be at the expense of her clinic. “Close your clinic, and come to the lab,” she heard time and again. But she refused to turn her back on the people who needed her most. How could she?
Her extreme fear of what would be done with her formula were it to fall into the wrong hands kept Rene Caisse from sharing it. She wanted it to belong to mankind as a whole. Of course, because Rene kept it a closely guarded secret, it could reach only those who knew about her and could make the journey to her home.
Her belief that the cancer industry is big business, not a charity, drove her to zealously protect the formula for most of her life. She maintained that she would be willing to turn over the formula if she were assured that it would be used to help ease the suffering of humanity, and that it would not be shelved to keep the way open for conventional treatment methods.
In October of 1977, she found a company that would fulfill the promise she demanded. The Resperin Corporation of Toronto bought the Essiac formula for just one dollar. The witness to the signing of the contract was none other than JFK’s personal physician, Dr. Charles Brusch, who had been a longtime supporter of Nurse Caisse’s work with Essiac.
For the first time, the miracle formula was revealed. Essiac is made of four herbs: Burdock Root, Sheep Sorrel, Slippery Elm, and Indian Rhubarb. All plants that could be found, as Caisse was fond of saying, at a roadside in spring.
In 1966, Hungarian researchers discovered anti-tumor activity in Burdock Root.1 It contains the oil inulin, which attaches to white blood cells and enhances their function. It also contains benzaldehyde, which has significant anti-cancer effects in humans. Rounding out the power of Burdock Root are vitamin A and selenium.
A staple of folk medicine, Sheep Sorrel was used in cancer treatment as early as the 1740?s. It is rich in vitamins and minerals, and contains chlorophyll, which helps to carry oxygen to the cells of the body. As a folk remedy, it has been used to relieve bruises and burns.
The third component of Essiac, Slippery Elm, has also shown anti-tumor activity and is an anti-inflammatory for the digestive system. It also lubricates bones and joints, and contains fatty acids. Fatty acids similar to those in Slippery Elm have been shown to boost the immune system in studies on mice.2
Finally, Indian Rhubarb Root, rich in iron, helps to purge the liver and the rest of the body of wastes. It, like Sheep Sorrel, contains aloe emodin, which have been shown to inhibit tumors in animal tests.3-4
However, few trials have been carried out on Essiac as a whole. Dr. Brusch conducted a few experiments at his medical center near Boston. One study on mice injected with human cancer cells showed that Essiac killed tumors at a higher rate than seen in control mice.5
Dr. Brusch even successfully used Essiac in his own battle with bowel cancer. He also wrote in a notarized letter that Essiac “reduces pain and causes a recession in [tumor] growth. Patients gained weight and showed a great improvement in their general healthIn some cases, if the tumor didn’t disappear, it could be surgically removed after Essiac with less risk of metastasis.”
In 1982, Resperin’s tests of the formula were shut down by the Canadian government, with claims that the testing procedures were flawed. One man involved in the trials, Ed Zalesky, aged 63, had been diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine. He was given two years to live if he gave in to dangerous radiation treatments.
He refused, was treated with Essiac, and in 1995 was still running the Canadian Museum of Flight seven days a week. Mr. Zalesky openly wondered why Essiac, which had saved his life, couldn’t be given a fair trial.
A more recently published trial on Essiac was conducted in 2004. This in vitro test of prostate cancer cells showed that at low doses Essiac may be able to inhibit tumor cell growth while enhancing immune response.6
In 2006, two studies, both conducted in Toronto, were presented at a meeting of Naturopathic Physicians. The first showed increased cytotoxicity toward prostate cancer cells as well as significant antioxidant properties.7 The second, in which Essiac was administered to rats, demonstrated Essiac’s positive effects on gastric protection.8
Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, it is hard to ignore the vast body of stories and testimonials claiming Essiac has saved lives.
So powerful it literally flushes cancer out of your body
On my desk is a stack, almost an inch thick, of letters and e-mails, all about how Essiac has changed lives. These stories are testament to the fact that, despite a lack of conclusive clinical evidence about the effects of Essiac, there is indeed something to the formula.
Consider the story told to me by HSI Panelist Dr. Allan Spreen. A father brought his 13-year-old son in to see Dr. Spreen because the boy had developed a firm, ugly mass on his knee.
Dr. Spreen urged the father to have it diagnosed, and when he did, it came back as cancer so bad that it would require experimental chemotherapy. The doctors told him he had no choice, that he had to go through this dangerous treatment, and that he would most likely lose the leg above the knee anyway.
And what do you think the father did?
Refused, of course. And then came the final blow. He found out he would be turned in for child abuse (yes, child abuse) for refusing medical “standard-of-care.” Experimental chemotherapy as standard care? That’s a good one.
So this man did what any other father would do when the life of his child is at stake. He fought for his child’s life by fleeing to Canada in the middle of the night. And that was the last Dr. Spreen thought he’d hear from the family.
Then, about three years later, a lanky teenager walked into his office. It was that same boy, no lump on his knee, both legs working just fine. The father followed behind, saying they couldn’t stay, because there was still an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
But he had wanted Dr. Spreen to see how Essiac had cured his son.
There are countless stories just like this one.
As I’m writing this to you, I’m looking at a letter with a photo attached. In the center of the photo is a Canadian penny. Surrounding the penny are black, squishy-looking masses, some half the size of the penny, some twice its size.
Tumors and pieces of cancerous tissue, passed by then 81-year-old Richard Schmidt.
He had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1985. In 1992, after ten surgeries related to the cancer, his wife received a call from the hospital. Richard was on life support in intensive care, in almost hopeless condition. Three weeks later, he was home, hardly able to walk, his doctor hinting he wouldn’t make it through another operation.
That’s when they spoke to a naturopathic doctor, who recommended Essiac. Richard’s wife, expecting the tonic would simply give him more strength, was shocked when those black chunks of tumor started passing with his urine. So great was her astonishment that she actually preserved the tumors in formaldehyde.
Soon, doctors could find no trace of the cancer in Richard’s body
He lived five more happy years, passing away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 86.
In 1994, Alwyn Hodgkinson, the past president of the West Coast Prostate Awareness Society, was told that a cobalt radiation treatment for his Stage D1 (terminal) prostate cancer might give him 10 months to a year of life after the treatment. Already in terrible pain and with a PSA of 13.9, he of course didn’t see this as good news.
His wife’s aunt showed up one day with a bottle of Essiac, and said he needed to “take it, or else.” He complied, and about a month later his PSA had already dropped to 1.4. His doctors said this was normal after radiation treatment, and he would need to schedule follow-up treatments every six months.
Only, he hadn’t yet had the treatment
Al gave in to his doctors and had the radiation treatment, but returned home in severe pain. Eventually, he looked at his counter full of prescription medications, decided that the side effects weren’t worth it, and flushed the lot of them down the toilet, deciding the only thing he would take from that point on would be Essiac.
Eleven years after his initial diagnosis, he wrote a letter to Essiac Canada International, telling them the cancer was completely clear and he was in the best health of his life. At a recent check-up with an oncologist, he was asked if he was on any “herbal schemes.” “Yes,” he said. “Essiac.”
The oncologist replied, “Don’t stop.”
Beware of buying imitation Essiac
Rene Caisse maintained throughout her life that it is not just the individual herbs that make Essiac so powerful; it is the carefully blended combination-each herb in a specific amount-that creates the real power in the potion. She believed the combination of herbs set up resistance in the body, cutting off the substances that feed malignant cells.
In beginning my research on Essiac, I was astounded at how many websites sell many different products–all with different labels, all called Essiac (or sometimes “essiac”). I enlisted the help of Dr. Spreen, who echoed the concerns that were already playing in my mind. He said care is needed in finding out who is the real deal, and which companies are just scamming people for a quick buck.
Many of the companies selling their version of Essiac claim to have “the” formula. They list the herbs that are, in fact, in Caisse’s original-but without the exact proportions she emphasized were so important, who knows if these blends actually fight cancer?
I found out that Resperin, the company that received the formula from Rene Caisse for one dollar, has since gone out of business, but not before transferring the rights to the Essiac formula to Essiac Canada International. They offer both the original powdered combination of herbs, as well as a more convenient liquid version.
Essiac can safely be taken in conjunction with other cancer treatments, and can be taken every day. In addition to being used for cancer treatment, Essiac can be used preventatively to keep your immune system healthy.
While Essiac Canada International does sell direct to consumers, I found the best price for their products to be at the online store VitaminShoppe. Ordering information can be found, as always, in the Member Source Directory below.
An even easier way to include your favorite powerhouse food in your diet
Ever since I received my first jar of Salba in the mail, I’ve been hooked. I add it to at least one meal a day-eggs, oatmeal, soups and stews-the only thing that’s held me back from adding it to everything is that it’s sort of a pain to grind.
Well, NorthStar Nutritionals has introduced a more convenient way to include your favorite super food in your diet. Salba Ground has all the same omega-3s, protein, fiber, and antioxidants of Salba seed. And it cuts out the need for that coffee grinder.
In case you missed it, we covered Salba in the March 2007 issue of the Members Alert. You can find it by logging on to www.hsionline.com and searching “Salba” in the archives.
MSD
Essiac, Essiac Canada International, www.vitaminshoppe.com. One 10.5 oz bottle is US$25.07. The Vitamin Shoppe offers a 30-day return policy. Details are on their website.
Salba Ground. NorthStar Nutritionals. Ph (888)856-1489 or (915)855-5415. A 9.5 ounce bottle (about 33 servings) is $29.95 plus $6.95 shipping and handling. HSI members get an exclusive 90-day extended guarantee. Ask for code MGROUND when ordering. www.northstarnutritionals.com.
References
1 Dombradi, C.A. and Foldeak, S. Screening report on the antitumor activity of purified Arctium lappa extracts. Tumori. 1966;52:173-6.
2 Ottenweller, J, et al. Inhibition of prostate cancer-cell proliferation by Essiac. J Altern Complement Med. 2004 Aug;10(4):687-91.
3 Kupchan, S.M. and Karim, A. Tumor inhibitors: 114. Aloe emodin: antileukemic principle isolated from Rhamnus frangula L. Lloydia 1977;39(4):223-4.
4 Masuda T. and Ueno, Y. Microsomal transformation of emodin into a direct mutagen. Mutat Res. 1984;125:135-44.
5 Russfield, A.B. Pathology report. Project no C-114 [Essiac experiments]. Cambridge (MA): Biotech Research Consultants; 1959.
6 Wong, C.K. et al. Immunomodulatory and anti-tumor polysaccharides from medicinal plants. J Int Med Res. 1994;22:299-312.
7 Kennedy, D.A. et al. In vitro analysis of herbal compound Essiac. Toronto. 2006.
8 Blair, J.N. et al. An in vivo analysis of the herbal compound Essiac. Toronto. 2006.