Photo courtesy of Arty Zen

Essiac tea is a kind of herbal tea that was first created by Indians belonged to the Ojibway Indian tribe. The main ingredients of this tea include Slippery Elm Bark, Sheep Sorrel, Red Clover, Burdock Root, and Blessed milk thistle.

This herbal tea was first known to public when a nurse named Rene Caisse from Canada.
Historians noted that nurse Rene acquired the recipe from one of her patients who actually recovered from cancer using this herbal remedy.

Later nurse Rene opened a clinic with the name Essiac. It’s not certain if it was a coincidence is that her name Caisse is actually the word Essiac spelled backward.

Nurse Rene then uses this recipe to treat all of her patients who suffer from cancer. This recipe only contains 4 kind of different herbs.There are 2 major studies on this herbal tea and its claim to slow the growth of tumor conducted by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer center from 1959 to 1970.

However, there is not yet proof on such effects despite numerous of testimonials from cancer patients. One of the problems is that there are numerous of herbs and roots in an essiac tea. Sometimes the number of herbs in a recipe can reach 8.

Other claims on the health benefits of this herbal tea include reducing inflammation, lubricating bone and joints, enhancing cell restoration, and providing energy. These health benefits are often associated with herbs such as blessed milk thistle, red clover, and slippery elm bark.

Thus, we probably should have looked at the benefits of each of the ingredients to actually prove the health benefits of the whole recipe. For example, Burdock and Indian rhubarb may have some anti-carcinogen effects that can slow the growth of tumor. Herbal remedies are often ancient medicine.

There wasn’t any scientific experiment conducted in China or India in 8th century to prove specific effects of a certain herb but rather physicians observe the effects on their patients. Scientific facts are great because they only prove the truth. However, if you can’t prove something yet doesn’t mean that it can’t be true.

It’s probably a good idea to test the effects of essiac tea more to either dismiss its effects on cancer cells or to prove that this herbal tea does have other health benefits.

Scientist often stated that people often improve their conditions by will. It’s what we call “placebo”.
It means that you will get well because you “believe” that the treatment or drug you are receiving will help you. In some cases, the drug or treatment doesn’t have any effect but rather you psychological belief is what help you recover.

Researchers have said the same thing about this herbal tea. Whether this is true or not, no one is really certain. One example is vitamin C. People often believe that vitamin C can help you prevent or relieve cold and cough. Many studies supported this, other rejected. Scientists did many tests to see if vitamin C is just a placebo. The margin of chance and truth is uncertain, thus no one can tell for sure.

Therefore until now, it’s very common to see mothers encourage their children to drink orange juice when they got a cold. Until something can entirely dismiss the effects of essiac tea, it’s up to you and me, the consumers to find out whether essiac tea can really be a cancer remedy or just another placebo.

References: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Essiac_Tea.asp?sitearea=ETO. Accessed July 30, 2007.