Interesting article on the benefits of Essiac Tea at this
link. A nurse in Canada named Rene Caisse (note that Essiac is her name spelled backwards) used this tea to treat patients at no charge. The recipe for the tea came from an Ojibway Native American medicine man.
Rene was told about this tea from an elderly patient she met in the hospital in 1922 who told a story of how 30 years earlier that she overcame breast cancer with this tea. Rene was given the recipe, which she then tried on her own family and cured them.
The original recipe consisted of four ingredients:
- 6 1/2 cups of burdock root (cut)
- 1 pound of sheep sorrel herb (powdered)
- 1/4 pound of slippery elm bark (powdered)
- 1 ounce of Turkish rhubarb root (powdered)
These amounts of ingredients combine to make 8 quarts or 2 gallons of the tea. Cutting each amount in half makes one gallon at a time. Some instructions say to mix all the ingredients well before placing them in water, store the dry herbal mix in a glass jar in a dark dry place, and take out one ounce per 32 ounces of water (one quart) at a time.
Which ever way you wish to parse it out, the herbs are boiled hard without a lid for 10 minutes, some say 20; then, cover with a lid and steep over night on the stove. In the morning, heat it up to steaming hot (not boiling), then let it settle and pour into glass or ceramic containers. Use stainless steel or cast iron pots for boiling, and glass or ceramic containers for storing. Keep the containers or container with the tea capped in a dark cool place until first used. After opening, it must be refrigerated.
The dosage depends on the condition. For immune tonic use or very mild ailments, 2 ounces once daily. Increase the frequency up to 3 times daily with up to 3 ounces each time according to the severity of the ailment, which is usually cancer. The refrigerated tea can be added to hot water or warmed up for consumption. Cancer patients undergoing other treatments, even with allopathic drugs, have used the tea as well.
However, cancer or AIDS should be treated holistically by abstaining as much as possible from toxic medicines, toxic foods, toxic household and cosmetic items, and toxic thinking. The cancer patient should also have a meatless diet of organic food and get as much sunshine and Vitamin D and C supplementation as possible. Using Essiac tea while indulging in old life style habits that probably started the cancer or any other disease is not the best way to heal.
Rene Caisse was constantly harassed by the authorities for her use of this tea even though she made no money from it. Right after she died, the authorities ransacked her home and burned her records. One other point the article makes is that "The quality of the ingredients is the most important aspect of beneficial Essiac."
