Herbal alternative to costly cancer treatments
September 1st, 2010If cancer isn’t a death sentence, it’s nonetheless lethal to the pocketbook.
Radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, or some combination of the three set patients back tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Healthcare insurance typically pays 80 percent of the total costs after patients shell out a deductible that can be as high as $10,000.
From Natural Health Dossier then, is a recipe for an herbal tea that was developed by a Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse, starting in the 1920s.
In 1922, Caisse noticed scarring on the breast of an elderly woman she was attending. The woman told her it was due to the breast cancer she’d been diagnosed with 30 years earlier.
The woman could not afford treatment but met a Native American medicine man who gave her a tea comprising eight herbs. The woman’s cancer went into remission for over 30 years.
Caisse studied the list of herbs in the tea. Months later she was chatting with a retired doctor who remarked that if people used sheep sorrel, there would be a lot less cancer in the world. She noticed that same herb was on the Native American healer’s list.
Caisse first tried the herb combination on her aunt and her mother. The former lived 21 years cancer free after being diagnosed with stomach cancer and given just six months to live. The latter lived 18 years after being diagnosed with inoperable cancer with weeks to live.
Caise opened a cancer clinic and treated thousands of cancer patients for free until 1938, when Canadian authorities compelled her to shut down the Bracebridge Cancer Clinic.
She then became a partner with Dr. Charles Brusch. They treated patients with the same eight-herb tea. Brusch even used it in his own fight against cancer.
Caisse eventually pared the Native American’s formula to four herbs: burdock root, Indian rhubarb root, sheep sorrel, and slippery elm. She named it Essiac, which is Caisse spelled backwards.
Two recent studies have shown that Essiac does combat cancer effectively. One in 2004 showed that Essiac inhibits tumor cell growth - and enhances immune response. The other in 2006 provided more evidence by showing that Essiac increases cytotoxicity towards prostate cancer cells and has huge antioxidant properties.
The tea formula:
- 6.5 cups of burdock root
- 1 lb. of sheep sorrel, powdered
- 0.25 lb. of slippery elm bark, powdered
- 1 oz. of Turkish rhubarb root, powdered
Mix the ingredients and store in a glass jar in a dark cupboard.
Use 1 oz. of herb mixture per 32 ozs. of water. Boil rapidly for 10 minutes (covered). Turn off heat and leave overnight (covered).
In the morning, heat until steaming hot and let settle for three minutes. Strain through a fine strainer into hot sterilized bottles and let cool. Store in a dark, cool cupboard.
Tea must be refrigerated after opening.
Those who do not have healthcare insurance, or do have it and don’t care for toxic Western treatments with delibitating side effects including secondary cancers, have nothing to lose by trying Essiac.
We all deserve the right to choose when our health and lives are on the line.
