HOME > ESSIAC FACT CHECKING
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ESSIAC FACT CHECKING
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ESSIAC CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
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The Truth About Essiac Tea
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If you’re looking for accurate and documented information about Essiac tea you’ve come to the right place. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation about Essiac tea on the internet. I have been researching and documenting the truth about Essiac tea for the past twenty years in order to set the record straight. “We have the receipts”, as they say.
How It All Began
The history of Essiac tea goes back more than a century and all of the principle people involved are no longer living. Therefore, the only sources of accurate information are the writings as well as the audio and video recordings from these key people: Rene M. Caisse, Mary McPherson, Sheila Snow and later Dr. Gary Glum and Barbara Kokotsis.
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The main source of information was nurse Rene Caisse, who developed the Essiac formula from a list of herbs she obtained from a patient. In the mid-twenties Rene Caisse was head nurse of the Sisters of Providence Hospital in northern Ontario when she noticed a scar on the breast of a woman who had moved there from England. The woman explained that she had breast cancer in the 1890s. Her doctors said the cancer was advanced and her breast needed to be removed at once.
However, an “old Indian medicine man” said that she could heal her cancer by making a tea from certain herbs growing in the area. So the English woman decided not to get the surgery and instead began using the herbs that the medicine man had shown her. The herbal tea healed her cancer. Rene Caisse obtained the herbal formula about thirty years after the fact so Rene never actually met this medicine man.
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Rene Caisse gave the tea to her mother and aunt who had cancer. Both were healed by the tea. Rene Caisse then used the scientific method and clinical experience in researching her Essiac tea formula, which was a modification of the native herbalist’s formula for breast cancer. Rene’s research was in contrast to the native approach of intuition and traditional herbal knowledge passed on through centuries of living in harmony with Nature. In this sense it was a merging of two quite different cultures. Also, three of the herbs in Rene’s final Essiac formula were originally not native to North America and were brought over from Europe.
Slippery Elm was originally the only native herb in the formula. Sheep Sorrel and Burdock were native to Europe and were brought over when Europeans began settling in North America. Burdock and Sheep Sorrel seeds soon spread and became established herbs in North America. That is how Burdock and Sheep Sorrel became part of the “old Indian medicine man’s” tea, thereby making Rene Caisse’s Essiac a multi-cultural tea.
Rene Caisse’s inclusion of Turkey Rhubarb is a bit more complicated to explain. Turkish Rhubarb (Rheum palmatum tanguticum) was used widely in Europe as a laxative. Turkey or “Turkish” Rhubarb was actually a Chinese herb (Da Huang) but gained its name because it came to Europe via the trade route through Turkey.
Initially, Rene used “Indian Rhubarb” which was a different herb from India or from Indonesia via the trade route through India. To complicate the matter further, there were indigenous herbs growing in what is now Canada called “Indian Rhubarb”. So what type of rhubarb the “old Indian medicine man” was using is not entirely clear. Click here for more in depth information about “Turkish” and “Indian” Rhubarb.
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Rene Caisse was very secretive about the herbs in what she called “Essiac”, which was her surname spelled backwards. Given her reticence to publicly divulge the Essiac formula, the most important question to ask is:
What was the final Essiac tea formula that Rene Caisse settled on after doing all of her research with laboratory mice and her clinical experience with cancer patients?
The answer to that question came from her best friend and helper, Mary McPherson. Mary was the only person that Rene Caisse personally taught how to make Essiac tea. So she knew what the formula was but had to promise never to reveal the formula.
However, due to the controversy over what the actual Essiac formula was, Mary McPherson settled the controversy by filing a sworn affidavit in the Town of Bracebridge in 1994 revealing the identity of the four herbs, the formula and how to brew the tea. Dr. Gary Glum had previously publicly released the Essiac tea formula and recipe which he had purchased from one of Rene Caisse’s former patients.
In 2003 I obtained a certified copy of Rene Caisse’s Essiac tea formula and recipe from the Town of Bracebridge. You can see a scanned copy of the certified affidavit here.
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Click on the Topics Below to Separate Essiac Facts from Fiction
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To learn more about Essiac tea, be sure to visit our Frequently Asked Questions page, “Essiac FAQ” where you can read well-researched, referenced and documented information about Essiac tea.
Good Health to You,
Huck L. Berry
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The information on this website is for educational and historical purposes and not to be construed as medical advice. Everyone’s body is different so there is no one-size-fits-all for health issues. It should be noted that medical doctors are not usually taught about such subjects as herbal medicine, nutritional supplements, non-pharmceutical approaches to health, etc. Therefore, choosing an appropriate health professional is a human right and that is up to the individual seeking health improvement.
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