The "Truth" About Essiac
author unknown, modified by L. Drake
The early essiac formula consisted of four herbs: Burdock Root , Turkey Rhubarb, Sheep Sorrel, and Slippery Elm. Dr. Brusch and Rene Caisse, after clinical trials, added Red Clover, Kelp, Blessed Thistle, and Watercress.
According to herbalist Barbara Mowbray, burdock root has been used for centuries. Eaten as spring greens it stimulates production of bile and helps liver function. As a first year root, dug in autumn, it is used as a blood purifier. It has renown for reducing the pain and swelling of arthritis. An extract of the root contains inulin (which, despite the similar sounding name, is not related to insulin.) There are many other qualities, but perhaps most germane is its reputation for tumor regression long used in macriobiotic diets. This perhaps points to the remarkable results cancer sufferers find when using essiac.
Turkey Rhubarb, used as stems, now find its way in puddings and pies. The root stock is both laxative and astringent, depending upon the dose. It is effective for diarrhea and known to work in removing debris and cleansing for the bowels. In Chinese medicine, it is used to treat fevers and has been used to treat chronic liver problems (liver toxicity is often found in cancer patients.)
Sheep Sorrel has been used to treat scurvy, strengthen the heart and cool the liver. The fresh leaves contain a number of acids, which makes them a delicacy in fresh salads. Sheep sorrel is respected as a diuretic and a treatment for blood disorders, including assisting with skin problems. A decoction can be used internally or externally. Rene Caisse, in her fifty years of working with cancer patients, believed it to be effective in breaking down tumors as well as alleviating degenerative diseases.
Slippery Elm (or the inner bark thereof) is used to heal wounds and is known for its blanketing effect on the mucous membranes of the digestive system. It is soothing for sore throats, and coats the intestinal tract, producing speculation that its role in the essiac formula is to protect, when toxins are released. It is nutritive as well, used by Native Americans for food when none other was available. Slippery elm is one of the world's best known herbal remedies. The principle component of slippery elm bark is mucilage. Mucilage is a naturally formed viscous or sticky fiber which consists of gum dissolved in the juices of a plant. The mucilage in slippery elm bark is similar to that found in flax seed.
Slippery elm is one of nature's miracle cleansers. Its sticky substance seems to dissolve mucous that has been deposited in organ tissue, lymph glands, and nerve channels. Its lubricating action protects and softens all the membrane linings of the body, especially damaged and inflamed areas. It buffers the effects of increased discharge of urine through the urinary tract. Slippery elm bark's sticky quality also lubricates the bones and joints, gathers up dissolved toxic waste material from all areas in the body including the bowel and then helps to discharge them. As the mucilaginous material passes through the alimentary canal, it coats the organs over which it flows with a sticky film. This action reduces irritation, reduces sensitivity to acids and bitters, and most importantly slows down the entry of harmful chemicals. Slippery elm can help reduce the pain of ulcers and eventually heal them by restoring normal mucous coating to irritated tissues.
When applied externally, slippery elm bark has been shown to have extraordinary healing properties as well. The mucilage penetrates wounds and covers them. Impurities are drawn out of abrasions, abscesses or ulcers. Slippery elm bark reportedly has the ability to grow new cells to repair tissues. The new cells form fresh skin which readily forms over sores and quickens the healing process.
It has been reported that tumors are reduced in female organs when a suppository made with water and a powder made from slippery elm bark is used. Inflammation of the vagina and uterus have been relieved with a douche containing a decoction of the bark. Slippery elm bark also produces an antibiotic and antimicrobial effect.
During the clinical trials of essiac conducted by Resperin in 1978, Ed Zalesky, who was 63, had been diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine. Four feet of "gut" had been taken out but cancer was still left. "They said I had six months without radiation and two years with radiation.'' He is now (1993) running the Canadian Museum of Flight seven days a week.
Essiac began decades ago when a Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse, received a herbal recipe from an elderly female patient, who was in an Ontario hospital where Rene was the head nurse. The recipe she received contained 8 herbs, reportedly given to the woman years before by an Ojibwa medicine man. The man offered his help because he knew the woman was suffering greatly from breast cancer. The patient recovered from her cancer and saw no return during the span of the next 30 years. In 1922, she gave Rene the recipe in response to Rene's request that it may possibly help others.
Rene used this recipe two years later on her aunt, who was terminally ill with stomach and liver cancer. Her aunt recovered and lived another 21 years, eventually dying of old age. Rene and her aunt's doctor began experimenting with the herbal tea, and research began on mice. The doctor, Dr. R. O. Fisher, began using essiac on his terminally ill patients, and some improved greatly.
Rene and the doctor began to vary the formula. They injected one herb (Sheep Sorrel) and administered the others orally in liquid form. Obviously, the Ojibwe medicine man and his people had never injected it; they simply made a tea, but researchers want to examine things to find out what makes them "tick", and so Rene became a researcher.
Only one herb could be injected, and only into the muscle. It was painful for many very sick people, and many, very emaciated, hardly had any muscles for the injections. This method was used for some years and there were known successes about which stories were written. There were failures too, as many sufferers were so far gone, they had little time left. In others, the disease had damaged vital organs beyond repair.
The formula used varied slightly over the years from the original that the woman received from the medicine man in 1892. This change happened as patients were monitored and results were compared. In 1959, Rene Caisse went to the Brusch Medical Clinic in Cambridge, Massachusetts to join Dr. Charles Armao Brusch, MD, (private physician to President John F Kennedy). She became partners with Dr. Brusch, with the intent of forming the "Rene Caisse Cancer Research Foundation", a charitable foundation, whose purpose was the utilization of this treatment for cancer in humans. They stayed partners, co-developers and co-owners until Rene's death in 1978 at the age of 91. The essiac formula, as used at that time, was still partly injected, with the rest of the herbs taken orally.
Dr. Brusch, a medical doctor of noted background, had developed an interest in other natural forms of healing; the objective always the "well-being" of the patient. He had set up the first acupuncture clinic to collect research data, and it was operating in his medical clinic when Rene Caisse arrived in 1959. He was the first doctor in the Western hemisphere to initiate a plan similar to Medicare within his clinic for those without money for medical help. He was extremely interested in herbs and their power to heal, which he learned from a long-time friend, a master herbalist from Lathrop, Missouri.
Dr Brusch was not impressed with the injection as it was being used at the time, and further research began. Experiments were done with injectable solutions, each vial containing a different herb in the formula. They failed to isolate a single outstanding herb. Reactions and results were not so good, so the injections were stopped and the medication returned to a larger oral medication. It was proven that best results were obtained by the combination of the proper active herbs, and not in just one of the herbs. A double blind study was done in which other herbal formulas were used, all of which proved to be inferior.
Some of the positive results obtained were: cessation of pain, increased appetite (emaciated patients gained weight), improved sleep, feeling of well-being, energy, a noted decrease in depression, anxiety and fear, and a prolonging of life and a decrease of nodular masses. Dr Brusch felt that the herbal tea identified the toxins, gathered them, broke them down, and discharged them.
Through the years some essiac testing was done at noted facilities such as Sloan Kettering, Northwestern University, and Christie Street Hospital in Toronto, as well as many others. However, as Rene Caisse would never reveal the full formula, conclusive results remained incomplete. In 1975 she only passed the injectable herb over to Sloan-Kettering to test. They commenced to freeze it - the ONE thing you cannot do with these herbs - and rendered it useless to test. Rene withdrew it immediately from them with disdain.
In 1977, following a lengthy and in-depth article in a national Canadian magazine "Homemaker's", a retired chemist (David Fingard) was shown the article, and was fascinated by reading that Nurse Caisse had never given the formula to anyone (other than her partner with whom she worked). He determined that he would go and see her and talk her into releasing the formula to him. He had never heard of the woman before, even though she lived and worked in the same province, and many stories had been written about her.
Gradually the chemist increased his proposals to Rene, for she kept turning him down. She had already had at least eight large offers over the years to disclose the formula, but always declined, because she believed it would exploited. Finally, Fingard told both Rene Caisse and Dr. Brusch that he was going to be financially funded by a large Canadian mining corporation, and that he would open five clinics across the country to treat terminally ill cancer patients free of charge, if they would only release the formula to him. Rene and Dr. Brusch felt that perhaps this was the last chance to get the herbal tea "out" to the people who needed it the most - the terminal, the hopeless!
When a contract was drawn up on Oct 26th, 1977, there was very little in it for Rene, who had given 56 years of her life to this herbal tea. Dr. Brusch, who was to share any royalty with Rene, withdrew in this capacity and became only a witness to the signing of the contract. Rene reluctantly passed over a four herb formula that day in 1977, as she already had great doubts about what she had been told. Her doubts proved to be true when nothing seemed to be happening and no clinics were ever opened. To this day no royalty has ever been paid from this contract to the "Rene Caisse Estate". She gave it away FREE for 56 years, and has been cheated ever since. THIS CONTRACT WAS MATERIALLY BREACHED.
In 1978, nurse Caisse signed over the rights to her essiac formula, before she died at the age of 90, to the Resperin Corp. and Dr. Brusch. Brusch claimed to have cured himself of cancer of the lower bowel with essiac treatments.
In 1978 Rene Caisse died. Her "hey-day" was from 1924 to 1942, after which she closed her cancer clinic, which she had operated for 8 years in Bracebridge, Ontario. At that time, the medical powers-that-be formed a "Cancer Commission" which had the power to decree what could be used to treat cancer. Rene feared being charged, even though all around her, including many medical doctors, were completely aware of her outstanding successes. Dr Brusch continued to work with the formula they had developed and many of his patients were the beneficiaries.
In 1984, Dr Brusch was interviewed by a long-time radio producer and broadcaster, Elaine Alexander, who broadcast out of Vancouver, Canada. This woman, as the producer of a highly listened to radio "talk" show, produced a few programs on this herbal tea in the mid '70's, and had researched it in-depth for many years. In 1984, as a broadcaster, she introduced a new program called "Stayin' Alive". This show was a health-oriented show concerned with informing the listeners of the best in alternate and more natural ways of restoring health. On this show she again reported on this famous though underrated story.
The listener response was massive and seven 2-hour programs were produced covering the herbal tea in every aspect. Dr. Brusch was interviewed a number of times, as were others of importance to the story. Elaine and Dr. Brusch became friends. He was impressed by her long research of the subject, and her genuine interest. In 1988 they became partners legally and he passed to her a number of the herbal formulas on which he and Rene worked at his clinic during the time they were partners and co-owners.
Much mis-information is being written about this old story, and errors are being perpetuated by those fascinated by the history, but lacking in knowledge of the FACTS. Included in this mis-information is a WIDELY DISTRIBUTED INTERVIEW WITH A FORMER CHIROPRACTOR, Gary Glum. He was interviewed by an Elizabeth Robinson in the "Wildfire" magazine out of Spokane, Washington, VOL 6 NO 1, 1992. In this interview Mr Glum states, in speaking of a friend of Rene Caisse's, Mary McPherson:
GLUM: "Mary worked with Rene, beginning in the 1930's, and she had in her possession all the documents that had to do with Essiac over lhe last 40 years that Rene had administered it. All the documents Rene had were destroyed by the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare at the time of her death in 1978. They burned all the information in fifty-five gallon drums behind her home."
FALSE
FACT: The retired chemist, David Fingard, took all the documents of any value that he required in Oct 1977, when Rene Caisse and Dr Brusch agreed to pass over a four herb formula to him. They believed this man when he claimed he was funded by a leading Canadian mining corporation. This proved to be a complete exaggeration. The documents that were still in Mary McPherson's possession, were ones NO ONE WANTED. All the good stuff was taken. Glum ended up with the residue, which he presented as all the "important documents".
Interviewer: "You mention that the Brusch Clinic in Massachusetts worked with Rene Caisse and with Essiac during the early 1960's. Is this clinic still doing research with Essiac?"
GLUM: "Dr. Brusch presented his findings after ten years of research. He had come to the conclusion that, in his own words: "Essiac is a cure for cancer, period." Whereupon the federal government issued a gag order and said: "You've got one of two choices, either you keep quiet about this or we'll haul you off to military prison, and you'll never be heard of again. So we never heard another word out of him!"
FALSE
FACT: Dr. Charles A Brusch, MD, was NEVER threatened by anyone and he NEVER kept QUIET about it as evidenced by his appearance on Elaine Alexander's radio program in 1984, '85 and '86, strongly stating the case for all to hear. These shows were heard BEFORE Glum came upon this Canadian story and produced a book in 1988.
FACT: Dr Brusch was so ANGRY upon reading this article, and the MANY FALSEHOODS contained within it, and also with the fact that the INTERVIEWER HAD NOT CHECKED WITH HIM. He published a NOTARIZED letter, publicly stating his feelings about this kind of fabrication, (and about it being re-copied and spread around) in "Country Health" a national Canadian health magazine, Vol 11, NO 1 WINTER 1993.
GLUM: "The Sheep sorrel is the herbal ingredient in Essiac that was found to be responsible for the destruction of cancer cells in the body. That research was done by Dr. Chester Stock at Sloan-Kettering in New York. They gathered that information, then withheld it from the general public, and gave it to the Canadian Ministry of Health & Welfare. The Canadian government then immediately banned that herb from sale and distribution."
FALSE
FACT: Sheep Sorrel (rumex acetosella) has NEVER been BANNED in Canada, and is NOT NOW.
Interviewer: "What about the records of the Brusch Clinic?"
GLUM: "All that material has been destroyed also."
FALSE
FACT: Dr. Charles Brusch turned all material over to his partner, Elaine Alexander.
GLUM: "So I went to Dr. Brusch's home in Cambridge Mass, where upon he delivered to me the only material he had left in his files on Essiac"
FALSE
FACT: Dr. Brusch gave Glum a few pieces of no importance, and a few documents on his own case. Why would Dr. Brusch empty his files of the years of his work, and give this to a complete stranger coming to his door?
GLUM: "Previous to my book (1988), none of this information was available to the general public at all. The public had no information outside of a few assorted articles."
FALSE
FACT: INNUMERABLE interviews and articles about essiac had long been reported since the early 1930's, when the first major story was published in the "Toronto Star". Then radio, TV and a video documented what was happening over the following years. Elaine Alexander produced a few radio shows on this in the mid '70's and later interviewed many principals involved in 1984, '85, '86. Glum's book was not published until 1988.
GLUM: "I also worked with the AIDS project in Los Angeles through their Long Beach and San Pedro districts. They sent 179 patients home to die. The project gave me five of these patients. I took them off the AZT and the DDI and put them on Essiac three times a day. Those are the only people alive today. The other 174 are dead."
FALSE
FACT: APLA (Aids Project Los Angeles) does NOT provide MEDICAL SERVICES. There are NO Long Beach or Sand Pedro districts. APLA does NOT give clients to researchers for clinical trials. APLA is a COMMUNITY BASED AIDS service organization, which only provides SOCIAL SERVICES and EDUCATION. The study Glum cites in many articles NEVER OCCURRED.
For those who want to know more about Essiac, there is a book on the marketplace called "The Essiac Report". Written by Richard Thomas, it was published in Dec 1993, by ATIN (the Alternative Treatment Information Network), Los Angeles. This book covers the history of Essiac from 1892 to the present, with much documentation, pictures, testimonials, and pertinent information as to usage.
