Rene Caisse
 __________ Her Story __________

As luck would have it, she had met an old Indian medicine man who told her that he could cure her cancer with an herbal tea.  The woman took the medicine man's advice, and consequently she was still alive nearly thirty years later to pass on this herbal remedy to Nurse Caisse. 

About a year later, Rene Caisse was walking beside a retired doctor who pointed to a common weed and stated:  "Nurse Caisse, if people would use this weed there would be little cancer in the world."  Rene later stated:  "He told me the name of the plant.  It was one of the herbs my patient named as an ingredient of the Indian medicine man's tea!"  The "weed" was sheep sorrel. 

In 1924 she decided to test the tea on her aunt who had cancer of the stomach and was given about six months to live.  Her aunt lived for another 21 years, cancer free.

Rene Caisse (pronounced "Reen Case") later gave the tea to her 72-year old mother who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the liver, with only days to live.  Her mother recovered and lived without cancer for another 18 years.

In the ensuing years Nurse Caisse refined and perfected the original "medicine man's" formula.  She tested various herbal combinations on laboratory mice and on human cancer patients.  She eventually reduced the tea to four herbs:  burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm and turkey rhubarb.  She called the formula Essiac, which is her surname spelled backwards.  [Read "I Was Canada's Cancer Nurse" for more details.]

Rene Caisse devoted over fifty years of her life to treating thousands of cancer patients with Essiac.  So effective were her free treatments that in 1938 her supporters gathered 55,000 signatures for a petition to present to the Ontario legislature to "authorise Rene Caisse to practice medicine in the Province of Ontario in the treatment of cancer and conditions therein".  Unfortunately, due to the machinations of the Canadian Medical Association, the bill failed to pass by just three votes. 

WHAT DID DOCTORS SAY ABOUT RENE CAISSE'S TEA?

Rene Caisse operated her cancer clinic under the supervision and observation of a number of doctors.  Based on what those doctors saw with their own eyes, eight of them signed a petition to the Department of National Health and Welfare at Ottawa, asking that Nurse Caisse be given facilities to do independent research on her discovery.  Their petition, dated at Toronto on October 27, 1926, read as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

"We the undersigned believe that the 'Treatment for Cancer' given by Nurse R.M. Caisse can do no harm and that it relieves pain, will reduce the enlargement and will prolong life in hopeless cases.  To the best of our knowledge, she has not been given a case to treat until everything in medical and surgical science has been tried without effect and even then she was able to show remarkable beneficial results on those cases at that late stage.

"We would be interested to see her given an opportunity to prove her work in a large way.  To the best of our knowledge she has treated all cases free of any charge and has been carrying on this work over the period of the past two years."

Initially, Rene was not aware of the control that the medical/pharmaceutical establishment had over governments.  After the petition was delivered to the National Health and Welfare Department, she was continually threatened with arrest until she finally withdrew from public view.  Unlike Nurse Caisse, the medical establishment was more interested in making money than in helping people.  Essiac was cheap.  It could cut into the lucrative profits from radiation, chemotherapy and surgery--treatments that often did more harm than good.  Essiac is non-toxic.  Rene said, "Chemotherapy should be a criminal offense."                                                   

The story of Rene Caisse's struggle to make Essiac an official cancer treatment was told by Dr. Gary Glum in his book CALLING OF AN ANGEL:  ESSIAC, NATURE'S CURE FOR CANCER.  In a telephone conversation Dr. Glum stated that people who take Essiac on a regular, preventive basis do not get cancer.  Dr. Glum interviewed JFK's personal physician, Dr. Charles Brusch, who stated:  "I know Essiac has curing potential.  It can lessen the condition of the individual, control it, and it can cure it."      

Dr. Ralph Moss was appointed to the Cancer Advisory Panel that evaluates alternative cancer therapies for the government.  On his web site and in his book CANCER THERAPY, Dr. Moss points out that each of the herbs in Essiac has been scientifically shown to contain anticancer substances.  In his "Cancer Chronicles" [www.ralphmoss.com/essiac], Dr. Moss notes Essiac's rising popularity by comparing Essiac's low cost to a $150,000 bone marrow transplant. 

ESSIAC--MORE THAN JUST A CANCER TREATMENT

Dr.Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin became interested in Essiac and even offered Nurse Caisse research facilities to test it.  According to Rene, Dr. Banting stated that "Essiac must actuate the pancreatic gland into normal functioning".  Even today diabetics are using Essiac to improve their condition and many have gone off insulin entirely. 

Essiac has become widely known for its remarkable ability to boost the immune system and detoxify the body.  Many people who drink Essiac tea regularly report feeling healthier with less incidence of colds and flu.  Burdock, for example, has a well-established reputation for detoxification and support of the liver and organs of elimination. 

BURDOCK ROOT

(Arctium lappa)

For centuries burdock root has been regarded as an effective blood purifier that neutralizes and eliminates poisons from the body.  Burdock contains a volatile oil--especially in the seeds--that is eliminated through the sweat glands, taking toxins with it and alleviating skin problems.  Burdock contains niacin, which is known to eliminate poisons from the body, including radiation.  Burdock also supports the bladder, kidney and liver and has been said to dissolve kidney stones.  It also contains an abundance of minerals, particularly iron.  Studies have shown anti-tumor activity in burdock.  Japanese scientists have isolated an anti-mutation property in burdock, which they call the "B factor".  The Japanese grow burdock root for food as well as medicine.  A memorandum from the World Health Organization revealed that burdock was active against HIV. 

SHEEP SORREL

(Rumex acetosella)

Rene Caisse isolated sheep sorrel as the main Essiac herb that caused regression of metastasized cancer and reduction of tumors.  She used the whole herb including the roots.   Dr. Ralph Moss points out that sheep sorrel contains aloe emodin, a natural substance that shows significant anti-leukemic activity.  Sheep sorrel contains antioxidants, is diuretic and has been used to check hemorrhages.  It has also been used for food.

SLIPPERY ELM

(Ulmus rubra/fulva)

The inner bark of the slippery elm tree is well-known for its soothing and healing properties.  It reduces inflammations such as sore throat, diarrhea and urinary problems.  It has been regarded as both a food and medicine.  Dr. Moss noted that "slippery elm contains beta-sitosterol and a polysaccharide, both of which have shown [anti-cancer] activity.

TURKEY RHUBARB ROOT

(Rheum palmatum)

Turkey Rhubarb has been shown to have anti-tumor activity.  It is diuretic, anti-inflammatory,  anti-bacterial and has been used extensively to relieve constipation.  It is medicinally more potent than garden rhubarb root and is more patatable.

CAVEAT EMPTOR*
[Let The Buyer Beware]

Due to the ever-increasing popularity of ESSIAC, numerous entrepreneurs have jumped on the Essiac bandwagon with their own four, six, or eight-herb products.  Unfortunately, Rene never published the formula and it appears that she experimented with different herbal combinations.  Therefore, it is understandable that there would be controversies over who has the correct formula or the best product.  Curiously, ESSIAC didn't become a trademark name until several years after Dr. Glum published the ESSIAC recipe.  Yellow dock or garden sorrel is sometimes substituted for sheep sorrel.  Imported turkey rhubarb may be irradiated, fumigated or both.  So how do you know if you are buying the real, unaltered Essiac? 

I often receive emails from people who report being confused about Essiac tea after visiting various web sites with conflicting information.  This wealth of misinformation that has obfuscated the Essiac formula has compelled me to help clarify the issues with documented evidence.  Unfortunately, Rene is not alive today to remind people that it's all about "helping suffering humanity", not money.  As Rene stated in "I Was Canada's Cancer Nurse", "respect and love of our fellow man are more important than riches."  Sheila Snow, author of ESSIAC ESSENTIALS, knew Rene Caisse personally and fortunately has obtained a great deal of documentation to dispel much of the confusion about Essiac tea.

Essiac is truly a multi-cultural phenomenon.  So here are the plain, non-commercial facts: 

1) Essiac marketers often claim that Essiac is an Ojibway Indian formula.  Unfortunately, there is no hard evidence to substantiate this common belief.  In "I Was Canada's Cancer Nurse" Rene Caisse referred only to "a very old Indian medicine man" without naming any specific tribe.  Sheila Snow has researched this issue [See ESSIAC ESSENTIALS] and found that the "old Indian medicine man" could have been a member of the "Algonquin, Cree, Cherokee, Huron, Iroquois or Ojibwe" tribes living in northern Ontario in the late 1800s.

2) Turkey Rhubarb (rheum palmatum) is native to China and Tibet, not northern Ontario, so it appears unlikely that it was a part of the original medicine man's formula of indigenous herbs in the late 1800s.  Even today turkey rhubarb has still not established itself as a wild herb of North America.  "The [turkey] rhubarb rhizome official in the British Pharmacopoeia, 1914, must be collected in China and Thibet.  English-grown rhubarb is inferior to the official rhubarb in medicinal qualities."*  Even the 1931 edition of A MODERN HERBAL reports that "We still depend upon Northern China and Thibet for Rhubarb."* It appears then that turkey rhubarb was an Asian-sourced modification made by Rene Caisse in her efforts to refine the formula. 

Since the modern North American diet of over-processed foods can cause chronic constipation which can promote cancer, Rene Caisse's decision to include turkey rhubarb in the formula appears to have been a wise one.  One of the first benefits that I noticed when I first began drinking Essiac tea was that my bowel movements normalized.  After drinking Essiac tea for four years, I embarked on a thorough colon cleanse and discovered that my colon was already clean from daily use of Essiac tea.  Several well-known American herbalists believe that 80 to 95 percent of all illnesses are due to unclean colons.  Turkey rhubarb is now being grown commercially in North America, and that may very well be due to the ever-increasing popularity of Essiac tea. 

3) Burdock and Sheep Sorrel are not native to North America.  It appears that both burdock and sheep sorrel were brought to this continent from Europe by early settlers who then passed on their knowledge of these two herbs to the local tribes.  Burdock and sheep sorrel eventually spread throughout North America where water was sufficient.  Unfortunately, they are often referred to as "weeds". 

4) Slippery Elm is the only Essiac herb native to North America. 

In spite of the numerous, conflicting claims as to what the original Indian "medicine" man's formula was, no one has yet offered any verifiable evidence to settle that issue.  Some claim it was a four-herb formula while others claim it was an eight-herb or six-herb formula.  Many of these claims state that turkey rhubarb was one of the original herbs.  Rene Caisse did experiment with a number of herbs and changed the formula through time.  She finally settled on her four-herb formula.  Since this four-herb formula was demonstrated by Rene Caisse and untold cancer patients to be an effective, health-giving remedy that has stood the test of time, the debate over what the original formula was may very well be a moot point.   

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