Essiac and Florescence Herbal Cancer Therapy

                            Essiac & Florescence Cancer Therapy
                               (An Excerpt From Cancer Cures & Cover-ups)




Aboriginal Herbal Medicine

The history of the Essiac and Flor-Essence herbal therapy began in 1922, popularized by a Canadian Nurse by the name of Rene Caisse (Essiac backwards). Rene learned of it from a woman reportedly cured of a late stage breast cancer, using a natural remedy provided by an Ojibwayan medicine man, prepared from locally available, common herbs. With the list of ingredients and preparation methods in hand she brewed a tea that was first tried on her Aunt who had been diagnosed with terminal stomach and liver cancer and given less than 6 months to live.

Her case being considered hopeless, Rene approached her physician about trying the herbal tea, to which he quickly consented, given that there was nothing more that medical science could do for her. She drank the tea for two months and showed constant improvement, eventually recovering fully and lived another 21 years to a ripe old age.   Rene and Dr. Fischer continued to treat terminal patients with great effect for the next decade, their work eventually becoming common knowledge. Rene also performed extensive tests on mice that had been inoculated with human cancers to aid her understanding of the therapeutic action of the herbal remedy. Some constituents of the formulation where found to be more effective when administered hypodermically.

Prompted by the dramatic results they had witnessed in there own terminal patients, nine licensed physicians went to the unusual extreme of petitioning Canada’s Department of Health and Welfare to permit Rene to conduct large scale clinical testing. The lobbying efforts of this group of physicians eventually resulted in a bill being presented before the Ontario Legislature accompanied by a list of more than 200 patients that swore they had benefited from the treatment and a petition signed by 28,000 other supporters. The special bill was specifically worded to give Rene freedom to treat cancer patients without fear of reprisal from medical authorities who were becoming more and more aggressive in their harassment of her small clinic in Bracebridge.

The Ministry of health countered with the “Kirby Bill” which was presented specifically to force Rene to reveal the formula or shut her down with threats of prohibitive fines and incarceration. It is a tragic and shameful irony of the story of Essiac that a natural herbal remedy provided by the Creator and freely shared without any conditions by a humble Indian would come to be so jealously guarded and the focus of an ugly power struggle in the hands of more “civilized” men.

Rene concluded that one of the herbs in the formulation caused the tumours to go into remission while the others purified the blood of diseased tissue and other infectious agents sloughed off by the malignancies. Based on her intimate knowledge of disease and extensive experience treating cancer, Rene was convinced that cancer was a systemic disease spread through the blood, not a localized disorder as is the present view of conventional oncology.

The once religiously guarded herbal formula has since become public knowledge posted on the internet including detailed instructions on how to brew the tea which can be prepared for the modest cost of approximately $50/gallon.   The original 4 herb formula is said to be composed of 67.7% burdock root, 21.6 % Sheep Sorrel, 5.0% Indian rhubarb root and 5.0% slippery elm bark (dry weight basis) brewed as a tea according to a specific protocol to ensure maximum potency.   Other variations of this basic formula exist but these four herbs are common to them all with minor variation in the proportions claimed as optimal.

As to their therapeutic merit, burdock is believed to eliminate free radicals and purify the blood, slippery elm is said to dissolve mucous deposits in tissue and glands, soothing inflamed organs and membranes and mobilizing the bodies immune arsenal.   Indian rhubarb reportedly aids the body and especially the liver to rid itself of toxins and waste products, improving metabolic function.   Sheep sorrel is said to nourish and enhance the function of the endocrinal system. All of the basic constituents have historically been used as foods and herbal supplements and are extremely rich in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. Compatibility with other medications is claimed to be of little or no concern.

Dr. Charles Brusch, John F. Kennedy’s personal physician, and a strong advocate of Essiac later formulated an eight-herb version with small amounts of four additional herbs intended to increase potency, now marketed under the trade name Flor-Essence. This formulation is said to consists of 60.5% Burdock Root, 19.5% sheep sorrel, 4.8% rhubarb root, 4.8% slippery elm bark, 4.8% kelp, 2.4% blessed thistle, 2.4% red clover, 0.33% watercress. Sheila Snow, a long time friend of Rene has documented a long list of potential therapeutic benefits reputedly observed in her decades of investigation.

A partial list of these many benefits includes regulation of cholesterol; prevention of fatty deposits in arteries; removal of toxins from the fat, lymph, bone marrow, bladder and bowel; counteraction and removal of toxic metals such as mercury, lead and aluminum; enhanced lecithin production; neutralization of acids; increased oxygen in the tissues; improved resistance to damaging effects of radiation; prevention of gall bladder and kidney stones; accelerated healing of wounds; protection against free radicals; increased red cell production and longevity; maintenance of the sodium/potassium balance; increased effectiveness of insulin; reduced toxin processing burden on the liver; inhibition of tumors; and strengthening of the immune system. What clinical or anecdotal evidence there is to actually support all these claims is not entirely clear, but the numerous common denominators with other alternative cancer treatments are indeed very compelling.

Canadian health officials continually tried to shut down her Bracebridge clinic, but thanks in large part to influential sympathizers and legions of street level supporters, they never really succeeded. The constant harassment however, gradually wore down her resolve to continue her fight to bring Essiac to the public as a reputable Cancer treatment, with full backing from the medical establishment. The situation first came to a head in 1939 with the establishment of the Royal Cancer Commission, which was charged to investigate alternative treatments forcing proponents to reveal proprietary details of their work or face incarceration. Their primary target was Essiac, which had become very well known through extensive media coverage and word of mouth testimonials from her numerous patients.

Rene would come to view official medicine in all its political forms as her mortal enemies. She was convinced that the Canadian Cancer Society was a total farce and not the least bit interested in finding a cure. There was simply too many people, making too much money, a reality she viewed as fundamentally evil; essentially an act of grand larceny. It is conservatively estimated that during the four decades that Rene treated 40,000 ostensibly incurable cancer patients, that the vast majority found significant relief and in many cases full recovery. Official medicine continues to ignore such living proof as purely anecdotal and without merit, again displaying an attitude of intellectual arrogance. Attempts to perform official clinical trials were scuttled by Canadian Health and Welfare to ensure that official claims of efficacy could not be supported.

More recently an article entitled “Back from the Brink” appeared in Canada’s independent national news magazine, REPORT (00/12/04) detailing the rapid recovery of John Scrymgeour, a prominent Alberta oil tycoon who was in the terminal stages of prostate cancer, given up as a hopeless case after a 10 year battle with the disease.   Near death, and confined to a wheel chair, he was dependent on round the clock nursing care when he started taking Essiac tea twice a day. Almost immediately he began to show dramatic improvement. A year later at age 79 he was back in good health and playing his usual two rounds of golf a week.

Other equally dramatic recoveries have been reported amongst the many thousands of North Americans that now use the tea daily as a “natural health supplement”, with no curative benefits claimed, a labelling designation which skirts around the regulatory “Nazis” but also prevents many from realizing its proven benefits. There are of course a wide variety of other herbal based treatments that can be employed effectively, in various capacities against cancer. Hoxey therapy and Essiac are but two of the most prominent formulations.

© 2006, 2007