Essiac Tea: The Modern Miracle

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Excerpt from Report Magazine, December 4, 2000, By Marnie Ko

 

One year ago, John Scrymgeour appeared to be on his deathbed. The

long-time Calgary business-man had all but lost a 10-year battle

against prostate cancer. Conventional chemotherapy and radiation

treatments had been tried, had ultimately failed, and the doctors

had given up. For the first time in his life, Mr. Scrymgeour was an

invalid, wheelchair-bound, barely able to move his legs and

dependent on round-the-clock nursing. But in what many assumed were

his dying weeks, Mr. Scrymgeour learned of a herbal tea dismissed as

quackery by most oncologists. He began drinking it, and has been

taking it twice a day for the past year. Today, at 79, Mr.

Scrymgeour is out of the wheelchair and playing golf twice a week.

Blood tests indicate his cancer cell-count is way down. He credits

the tea, named Essiac, for his second chance at life.

 

Two years ago Gaetano Montani was diagnosed with small-cell lung

cancer and given a life expectancy of just six months, even under

aggressive conventional treatment. " We were told that this type of

cancer was the most vigorous, and was inoperable, " says his wife,

Carolyn. " My husband's chance of survival was especially terrible--

he had already suffered burns in a fire, two previous heart attacks,

open-heart surgery, a stroke and gallbladder surgery. " But soon

after, the Indiana couple's youngest daughter brought home a box of

Essiac. The cancer specialists more or less shrugged their

shoulders, so Mr. Montani began drinking the tea. Like Mr.

Scrymgeour, he kept right on drinking it. Soon after, says Mrs.

Montani, his cancer was gone.

 

Cancer continues to exact a grim toll, but there are a remarkable

number of stories of people suffering its worst forms who recover

from it, apparently thanks to alternative therapies such as Essiac.

Their scientific foundation remains shaky. Alternative therapies

range from entirely unknown to barely studied though promising to

utterly discredited. Still, Canadians and others eagerly embrace

almost anything offering hope against this array of usually deadly

diseases. There will be more than 130,000 new cases of cancer

diagnosed in Canada in 2000, and 65,000 will succumb to cancer this

year.

 

A random survey of Ontario breast cancer patients, published in the

Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that 67% of respondents were

using alternative medicine. Americans are estimated to be spending a

staggering $27 billion per year on alternative cancer treatments.

The alternatives include radical diet changes, green tea, a

derivative of shark cartilage, and a host of herbal remedies. The

two most credible alternatives appear to be Essiac and a compound

known as 714X. Both, interestingly, were developed by Canadians, the

first by a nurse in the 1920s, the second by an ostracized Quebec

physician in the '70s.

 

Many certified oncologists continue to be disturbed at the scarcity

of methodologically rigorous studies of alternative remedies. But to

cancer sufferers, these are merely pedantic objections. A major

attraction is that the alternatives are far less physically harsh

than the three conventional approaches--surgery, radiotherapy and

chemotherapy, which critics have dubbed the " slash, burn and poison

trio. " When mixed with hope and desperation, plus the powerful

testimonials of those who say they were cured, the alternatives have

almost irresistible appeal.

 

Although these remedies exude a faint odour of mysticism, the people

who take them seem to be sensible enough. Mr. Scrymgeour, for one,

made his name in Alberta's oil patch, an industry not without its

own purveyors of false hopes and costly tricks. Several decades ago,

he became an entrepreneurial legend, founding and running Westburne

International Industries until 1986, later retiring to Bermuda and

New York. He is also a major patron of Vancouver's Fraser Institute,

and a part owner of this magazine.

 

Mr. Scrymgeour's comfortable retirement routine was brutally

interrupted, however, with the news he had cancer. He found out on

Valentine's Day 1990, and it inspired in him an instant resolve: he

was determined to beat it.

 

He was able to obtain the best of conventional treatment, and it did

initially lower his count of PSA, prostate-specific antigen, the key

measure of the activity of cancer cells in his body. But the cancer

returned last year with a severity that convinced doctors Mr.

Scrymgeour had little hope. In the 11th hour, a friend told him

about a Canadian nurse who had reportedly healed thousands of

ostensibly incurable cancer victims using four common herbs. Today,

Mr. Scrymgeour's PSA count is almost non-existent, and he is fully

satisfied there is only one reason: his twice-daily dosage of Essiac

tea.

 

Essiac users are now estimated to number in the thousands across

North America. One user's wife saved what she believed is physical

proof of its effectiveness. Richard Schmidt was diagnosed with

bladder cancer in 1985. The Torontonian had nine operations to

excise tumours from his bladder. At one point, he was comatose, on

life support and suffering a severe infection, pneumonia and kidney

failure, all while requiring another tumour operation. In short, he

was considered a near-hopeless case.

 

Mr. Schmidt's wife Hannelore in desperation sought out a naturopath,

who recommended Essiac. After three weeks of drinking the tea, black

chunks of tumour and skin began passing with his urine. Mrs. Schmidt

preserved 40 pieces in a formaldehyde-filled jar (see photo above).

Soon doctors could find no more cancer. Mr. Schmidt recovered to

thoroughly enjoy his early 80s, gardening and puttering about the

couple's home. At 86 he suffered a stroke and passed away

peacefully, cancer-free. " Essiac brought him many good, happy

years, " recalls Mrs. Schmidt.

 

The family of Luke Stevens will likely put it similarly some day,

although Mr. Stevens is still very much alive. Four years ago, the

then-17-year-old son of a South African chiropractor developed a

giant cell tumour on his left knee, which grew so rapidly it

destroyed most of his upper tibia. Surgeons removed the tumour and

rebuilt the boy's tibia. Four months later, Mr. Stevens' body

rejected his bone graft and the tumour returned with a vengeance,

breaking through the skin and growing into a hideous, fist-sized

mass. Mr. Stevens' father grew disillusioned with oncologists,

ignoring their advice to amputate his son's leg and begin massive

chemotherapy.

 

Then the elder Stevens heard about 714X. Developed by Dr. Gaston

Naessens, a French-born scientist living in Rock Forest, Que., 714X

is a mixture of nitrogen, camphor and mineral salts. It is

administered via injection into the lymph node in the right side of

the groin. Working on the lympatic system and supplying nitrogen to

cells, 714X is believed to aid the body's defence systems.

 

Now 77, Dr. Naessens also claims to have invented a revolutionary,

dark-field microscope he calls a somatoscope, which permits the

unique and unprecedented observation of living blood. This, he says,

led to his discovering a primitive biological entity which he takes

to be a precursor to DNA. He labelled it a somatid, and after

comparing the blood of healthy and diseased individuals, noticed

that its life cycle provides an uncanny indicator of the state of

the body's immune system. Dr. Naessens says he can predict the onset

of degenerative disease up to two years before other noticeable

symptoms, in time for possibly preventative changes to diet or

lifestyle.

 

At Dr. Naessens' lab, the somatoscope vividly showed Mr. Stevens'

blood trying to fight off a ravenous cancer. He began 714X treatment

immediately. The changes were swift and astonishing: the tumour

disappeared. Subsequent X-rays documented 100% bone regeneration,

considered medically impossible. Today, at 21, Mr. Stevens attends

university and rows on his school's team. He gives all the credit to

Dr. Naessens' therapy.

 

Alternative therapies have stirred up a host of controversies, some

of them remarkably bitter, among both competing purveyors and an

increasingly divided medical community. A growing number of doctors

appear willing to roll some alternatives into their anti-cancer

regimen, if only because it makes patients feel better. Matthew

Fink, president and chief executive of Beth Israel Medical Center in

New York, explains, " It would be silly for doctors and hospitals to

ignore something that will be a large part of healthcare for years

to come. " Nearly one-third of U.S. hospitals with 500 or more

patient beds now offer alternative therapies.

 

In Canada, some oncologists are joining forces with holistic

practitioners to research popular herbal treatments. One example is

Vancouver's Tzu Chi Institute for Complementary and Alternative

Medicine. The institute works closely with oncologists from the

Fraser Valley Cancer Centre, blending conventional medicine with

alternative therapies.

 

Such alliances will also at last help subject alternative therapies

to rigorous study. Dr. Darlene Ramsum, Tzu Chi's research manager,

reports two now underway. A Phase I study on 714X has just been

completed, revealing no adverse reactions. Patients are currently

being enrolled for a Phase I trial of Flor-Essence, a herbal tea

similar to Essiac. Half the participants will receive palliative

chemotherapy while drinking Flor-Essence. The rest will undergo

chemotherapy and receive a placebo. All have late-stage colo-rectal

cancer. In January, the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto

will begin the first human clinical trials of Essiac.

 

Two years ago, a task force of the Canadian Breast Cancer Research

Initiative reviewed available laboratory research into six popular

alternative therapies, including Essiac and 714X. The review

discovered that each of the herbs in Essiac has been shown to

trigger biological activity, defined as an effect on the structure

or function of cells, tissues or organs. Burdock root injected into

mice with transplanted solid tumours, for instance, appeared to

inhibit the tumours. The review noted that much of the research was

limited to individual herbs, which may not capture the

true " synergistic interaction " of herbal blends.

 

Encouraging results came recently for 714X as well, although prying

the results out of the researcher who conducted the study required

litigation. Dr. Naessens' company, Cerbe Industries, funded the

study, but to preserve its integrity, out-sourced it to Toronto

researcher Dr. Diane Van Alstyne, who in turn hired another

researcher at the prestigious Boston Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Lili Huang was not told what product she was testing. The

researcher's in-vitro immunological testing concluded that the

unknown product played a role in killing tumour cells and appeared

to elevate immune-system response. However, once the researcher was

told she was testing 714X, she " misplaced " the original data and

results. Dr. Naessens' company had to sue to obtain the study it had

paid for.

 

The episode suggests professional jealousy and resentment are an

added factor in the ongoing war between conventional medicine and

alternative therapy. Dr. Ralph Moss, a prominent Brooklyn-based

alternative medicine advocate, charges that as long as billions of

cancer-related dollars flow through pharmaceutical giants and

research institutes, conventional medicine has little motive to find

a real cure. Least of all, he notes with great cynicism, one from an

easily harvested weed like burdock.

 

Government health agencies, in their role of protecting the public

from useless or harmful products, represent another major obstacle

to acceptance of alternative therapies. Dr. Naessens, for one, has

experienced vicious and almost uninterrupted resistance in his

nearly three-decade fight to have 714X granted official drug status.

Although he has some influential supporters, he was twice arrested

and fined heavily for practising medicine without a licence.

 

After three of his cancer patients died, Dr. Naessens was charged

with criminal negligence causing death. He was acquitted, perhaps

because the prosecution's claim that 714X caused the deaths of

patients written off by conventional medicine was a tad dubious. An

uneasy truce was reached in 1990, when Health Canada made 714X

legally available through its Special Access Program. The seriously

ill can order the product through a physician, and 15,000 Canadians

have already done so.

 

Essiac once faced the same predicament, but its manufacturer

adroitly sidestepped its foes by re-labelling Essiac a health food

supplement, with no medical claims. For this reason, Essiac can be

purchased easily, and sales are well into the millions. A 12-week

supply from manufacturer Essiac International sells for about $360.

714X, meanwhile, in Canada costs $100 for a 21-day program of daily

injections (hypodermic needles are extra). 714X is sold in 55

countries.

 

Many oncologists readily admit conventional cancer treatment is

usually not a cure. Cancer surgery is painful and often disfiguring.

Chemotherapy causes nausea, vomiting, festering sores, loss of

appetite, hair loss and gradually diminishing white blood cell

counts, forcing many patients to discontinue therapy. Less widely-

known side effects are reproductive abnormalities, liver and

chromosomal lesions, and cardiac damage. Surveys have revealed the

shocking statistic that 80% of oncologists would not follow their

own treatment protocol. Worst of all, the recurrence rate for cancer

is distressingly high; even amputating a limb does not guarantee the

cancer will not show up elsewhere.

 

Astronomical sums have been poured into conventional cancer

research, drug development and upgraded radiation equipment, with

only limited effect. If current trends continue, cancer death rates

will easily surpass those of cardiovascular disease within 10 years.

As it stands, one out of every three women and two out of every five

men will develop cancer during their lifetime.

 

But many physicians and oncologists remain sceptical of what role,

if any, alternative therapies might play in the fight. Many doctors

translate the ancient dictum " First, do no harm " into " If in doubt,

don't do anything. " They fear alternative therapies are at best

clever ways to separate desperate people and their loved ones from

their money. At worst, they could be poison.

 

History is littered with tragic examples. A 19th-century treatment

for leprosy, for example, later proved to be largely arsenic. Dr.

Lloyd Oppel, a White Rock, B.C., physician, slams medical journals

for " bending over backward to accommodate articles on unconventional

treatments. " The majority, he believes, have " no scientific basis

and at best offer false hope. "

 

Nor has it helped that alleged panaceas pop up with distressing

regularity, gaining a near-fanatic following before being

discredited. In the '40s, injections of useless Koch Antitoxins made

headlines. Krebiozen, concocted from the blood of horses inoculated

with a disease-causing fungus, was in vogue in the same decade. In

the '50s, it was the Hoxsey herbal cure, which actually employed one

of Essiac's herbs. Laetrile attracted thousands in the '70s, only to

collapse in disrepute, and immuno-augmentative therapy was a

buzzword in the '80s. Some people still believe in these remedies,

but medical science insists they do not work.

 

To a man like John Scrymgeour, back from the brink of the grave,

these people should stop defending old turf and take another

look. " My whole tumour is practically gone, " he declares. " Now, my

urologist has put other patients on Essiac. I'm the proof. A year

ago, my legs were like lead. " Mr. Scrymgeour still walks with a

cane, but only by choice. " I get great respect in the streets of New

York with my cane, " he chuckles. " People open doors for me. "

 

Just what's in Essiac?

 

The four main botanicals in Essiac tea--sheep sorrel, burdock root,

the inner bark of slippery elm and Indian rhubarb--are each

purported by herbalists to have beneficial effects. Sheep sorrel

acts on the endocrinal system. Burdock root apparently eliminates

free radicals and purifies the blood. Slippery elm is believed to

dissolve mucous deposits in tissue, glands and nerve channels,

soothing inflamed membranes and organs. And Indian rhubarb

reportedly helps the body, especially the liver, rid itself of

wastes and toxins.

 

The Ojibwa Answer to Cancer

The cancer treatment known as Essiac dates back 80 years in its

known form, and may be hundreds of years older than that. In the

1920s, a Canadian nurse named Rene (pronounced Reen) Caisse met a

woman whose breast cancer had apparently been healed by a tea brewed

from herbs provided by an Ojibwa Indian medicine man. Mrs. Caisse

wrote down the formula and later used it to treat thousands of

cancer sufferers. She called it Essiac, her name spelled backwards.

 

Even then, conventional medicine considered Essiac quackery.

Throughout her life, the nurse faced numerous charges of practising

medicine without a licence. Health officials repeatedly tried to

shut down Mrs. Caisse's Bracebridge, Ont., clinic. But each time,

well-placed sympathizers or her legions of supporters intervened. In

1938, 55,000 signed a petition in her favour.

 

Mrs. Caisse continued to treat patients at no charge for decades--an

estimated total of 40,000. She claimed to have performed experiments

on mice that suggested Essiac's benefits, but no official or

clinical trials were ever performed. She adamantly refused to

provide the miracle tea's recipe to authorities, fearing they would

misuse it. But shortly before her death in 1978, by now well into

her 90s, she relented, selling the recipe to Resperin Corporation,

now Essiac Canada International, which owns the trademark for Essiac.

 

Dozens of would-be competitors have since tried to capitalize on

cancer sufferers' growing belief in Essiac, trotting out claimed

duplicates or imitations. Their rivalry is fierce, with insults and

litigation threats flying freely. Los Angeles chiropractor Gary Glum

maintains he obtained Mrs. Caisse's original recipe from her

friends. Dr. Glum penned Calling of an Angel, one of several Caisse

biographies.

 

He apparently felt no similar calling, however, reportedly charging

$560 for two cups of dried herbs claimed to be Essiac. Earlier this

month, Dr. Glum ceased sale of both book and herbs, turning to

another venture--seeking participants in the trial of an alleged

cancer remedy of unknown provenance known as Se-Kret, in conjunction

with a Chinese hospital.

 

Flor-Essence is another ostensibly Essiac-like formula, first

promoted by Vancouver radio host Elaine Alexander. Ms. Alexander

also claimed to have the original Essiac formula, which she sold to

B.C.-based Flora Manufacturing. Ms. Alexander died of breast cancer

in 1996.

 

A handful of purported Essiac recipes have popped up on the

Internet. They appear to have essentially the same herbs, but in

different proportions. Some Web-savvy cancer patients are even

trying their hand at growing the backyard herbs, saying they can

make Essiac tea for about four cents a day. Essiac International,

based in Ottawa, is quick to point out that in its contract with

Mrs. Caisse, the nurse swears the company alone has her true recipe.

Essiac International's tea is also the product used by the three

cancer survivors profiled in the accompanying story. T.P. Maloney,

Essiac International's president, says he takes Essiac

prophylactically, and that he does not have cancer.

 

Last month, a memorial in honour of Mrs. Caisse was unveiled at the

site of her former Bracebridge clinic. Before a large crowd, Mr.

Maloney presented a bronze statue, paid for by his company, of the

woman who made Essiac available to humanity.

http://www.florainc.com

 

http://www.essiac-resperin.com/en/report01.html

 

 

 

 

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