Essiac Essentials

abdominal cramping. Burdock root in concentration could overly stimulate the uterus and “may precipitate a symptomatic crisis in severely toxic conditions or where eliminatory channels are deficient”. — Simon Mills, 1994
    Good intention can never be a substitute for knowledge and experience, especially when someone else’s life and wellbeing are at stake. A terminal diagnosis is a terminal diagnosis and deserves the very best of all treatment, both in conventional and alternative therapies.
    If you don’t agree, wait until the day comes when you are sitting in the chair opposite the doctor and he is looking everywhere but directly at your face, because he doesn’t know how to tell you that he has run out of ideas. When the void opens at your feet and making up a bottle of this herbal tea might be the only hope you have left, you will want it to be made of the very best herbs in correct proportion to give you the best possible chance of quality and quantity of life.
     
    Myth: The herbs should only be mixed according to the phases of the moon.
    Reality : This is entirely a matter of personal belief and no one has the right to impose their theories on any one else. What might be correct according to one system of belief may directly belie another. Diseases have a more impartial view; they happily affect anyone, regardless of whatever godhead.
    If your belief system dictates that the herbs must only be harvested and mixed at a certain point in the cycle of the moon, then please follow that. If the weather, family and work obligations or urgency connected with the gravity of a diagnosis mean that you can only harvest the herbs or make the tea at whatever time is available, please be assured that the herbs will be just as potent for you.
     
    Myth: If you don’t like the taste, it’s OK to wash Essiac down with an alcoholic drink.
    Reality : You stand a very good chance of vomiting if you do. It appears that Essiac does not mix gladly with alcohol, especially spirits. The body recognises alcohol as a poison and the tea seems to agree. We have had several reports where people have refused to carry on taking the tea because they vomited very soon after drinking it alongside their customary alcoholic night-cap.
    However this does not mean that you cannot enjoy a glass of wine with a meal or a drop of any other favourite tipple at some other time of the day, if you absolutely must.
     
    Myth: It’s not necessary to steep the herbs for ten to twelve hours.
    Reality: The roots and the bark need time to fully absorb the water in order to release their medicinal properties. The old native medicine man, who was the originator of the formula, boiled and steeped the herbs, Rene did the same. Like she said, “If it works, don’t change it.”
     
    Myth: The four herbs work equally well in tincture and capsule form.
    Reality: Having tried both, we can only say that we choose not to use either of them.
    In capsule form the herbs are uncooked, they have not been soaked or steeped to extract the full medicinal properties. They have also been ground down to a very fine powder. Anyone who has ever ground roots or herbs knows that you have to monitor the process very carefully so as not to subject the herbs to the excessive heat engendered by the mechanical grinding process. The finer the powder, the longer the herbs are in the machine and the hotter they get. The capsule contains the dried herbs in concentrated form and can present an absorption problem for some people with digestive disorders.
    Tinctures can be made by combining powdered or thoroughly crushed herbs with alcohol diluted with water to make a 50% solution. This mixture is shaken and allowed to stand in a warm place for two weeks, shaken and stirred daily. The resulting liquid is strained off from the herbal residue, taking care to squeeze out as much of the extract as possible. The tincture is kept in a dark bottle and administered by dropper in amounts averaging from one to thirty drops, depending on the herb used. Some tinctures on the market are sold in plastic bottles, which is definitely not a good idea.
    Rene never considered using the herbs in tincture form as she believed that the traditional boiling method was by far the best method, and the cheapest.
    The old medicine man didn’t do it; she didn’t do it.

     
     

Chapter Nine

The Evidence — What they Said Then

     
    Many people have played a part in the history of Essiac — including doctors,