August 27, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Essiac: herbal formula is still effective
... and still unapproved
by Claire Cummings
In the 1920's Rene Caisse developed a herbal remedy that is believed to have positive remedial action on cancer. The Canadian nurse named her formula essiac, which is a reversal of her surname. Essiac is made by blending four commonly available herbs, Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), Burdock (Arctium lappa), Slippery elm bark (Ulmus rubra) and Turkey rhubarb (Rheum polmatum) into a decoction.
Rene opened a cancer clinic and treated hundreds of people who had been given up on by conventional medicine as terminally ill. At one point she even took on the Canadian government for the right to do so. Her results were sometimes outstanding and although she never claimed essiac was a cure for cancer, many of her patients did. Yet today a clinical trial of essiac has not been performed. Is this because at trade prices a year's supply only costs £3.72?
What makes a medicine 'alternative'? Many modern medicines are derived from natural sources. Aspirin's main ingredient Salicin, is derived from the bark of the Willow tree. If I use ground Willow bark as a pain reliever that's 'alternative' but if I swallow an Aspirin that's modern 'conventional' medicine.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine ground Willow bark to use as a pain reliever in 200 B.C. Over 3,500 years ago the Egyptians were known to have used an infusion of willow leaves for rheumatic diseases and back pain. A German chemist experimented with salicin and created salicyclic acid. Felix Hoffmann, a chemist at Bayer in Germany, chemically synthesized a stable form of salicylclic acid that became aspirin's active ingredient, and Bayer bottled it for sale in pharmacies.
The essiac herbs came to Rene Caisse's attention in the 1920's while she was working as a nurse. An elderly patient claimed that her breast cancer had been sent into remission after using an eight herb formula prescribed by a native American herbalist thirty years previously. Rene noted the ingredients and when her own aunt became ill with cancer persuaded the Dr. Fisher to let her treat her aunt with the herbal formula. Rene's research evolved the original eight herb formula into the four herb formula known as essiac. The results were outstanding and Rene's aunt lived for another 21 years. Dr. Fisher was so impressed he began to send patients to Rene that had been given up on by conventional medicine as terminally ill. He became the first of many advocates for Rene's treatment.
Rene opened a cancer clinic in Bracebridge, Ontario, where she treated thousands of people for free. The results she obtained treating people with cancer can only be described as miraculous. These results are recorded by the 1939 Cancer Commission set up by the Canadian government to investigate Rene's work. Patients from the Bracebridge clinic described under oath how their cancers were broken down and passed out of their bodies.
In total over 50,000 signatures were collected in support of Rene's work. The first petition was signed by eight doctors in 1926 and sent to the National Health and Welfare Department in Ottawa. The response was to send Dr. Arnold and a colleague to arrest Rene for practising medicine without a license. However when they arrived and saw the eminent physicians working with and supervising Rene they did not make the arrest. Instead, Dr. Arnold became very interested in Rene's results and her work and arranged research facilities for her. The last petition was presented to the Canadian Government in 1938 with a Bill requesting that Rene Caisse be allowed to practise medicine in Ontario in the treatment of cancer. The bill failed by only three votes.
The Bracebridge Clinic closed in 1941. Rene continued to provide essiac latterly for free from her kitchen with the help of Mary McPherson. Right up until her death in 1978 aged 90, she fiercely guarded the formula, only revealing it to a trusted few. She sold the Resperin Corporation the formula for $1 but it is now believed that she may of sold them the wrong formula. Mali explains: "Rene didn't help when she was alive because she used to give them samples of the formula which clearly weren't correct. We have good reason to believe that she gave the wrong formula to the Resperin Corporation. It's bourne out with research she actually sold them the wrong formula on purpose."
So in a way she shot essiac in the foot herself by trying to protect it right to the last. She didn't ultimately do it any good by doing that. Luckily Mary McPherson had made it up with her and Mary's formula was published in an avadavat on 24th December 1994 in Bracebridge."
If essiac had no merit as a treatment for cancer then the Bracebridge clinic would not have existed and the Canadian government would not have wasted time and money investigating her work. Essiac continues to draw interest from the scientific community to this day and is used by many people all around the world. As yet a full clinical trial has not been performed despite the wealth of evidence from the Bracebridge clinic and the anecdotal evidence that continues to accumulate.
Mali Klein was introduced to the essiac herbs after her husband Greg fell ill with a brain tumour. While serving in Vietnam he survived being shot in the head and recovered to become a Buddhist monk. "One of the nuns brought him the Sheep sorrel herb from California and he started on that. He had three weeks to live at the time but he did really well. He was reading again and he was feeling a lot better. He lived double the prognosis time and he died very well in a friends house in the South of France with no pain, no morphine, no hospital. He was only properly bed-ridden for the last 24 hours". Mali wrote a book about her life with Greg called 'A Future Beyond the Sun'. The book is intended to be the ambassador for the Clouds Trust.
Clouds Trust is a secular charity based in Hampshire, England that continues to investigate the efficacy and costs of complementary medicine, particularly in relation to cancer. Mali Klein is the founder of Clouds Trust and co-author of Essiac Essentials and The Secrets of Rene Caisse's Herbal Pharmacy with Sheila Snow. Sheila worked alongside Rene Caisse for three years and collected many valuable quotes and insights. Mali and Sheila have unique access to archives of information and have interviewed many reliable sources.
The Clouds Trust endeavours to follow Rene Caisse's exact procedure in processing the herbs and making up the recipe in order to promote awareness of the qualities of the correctly crafted formula. "The trouble is, most of the people doing studies- how do we know what quality of essiac they are using, how do we know they have got the right formula? I think a clinical trial would be very necessary. I've always said from the beginning of Clouds Trust that I was very willing to donate any amount of the herbs for a proper trial if only someone would do one. And nobody has bothered."
At trade prices the Clouds Trust estimates that a years supply of essiac would cost £3.72. "It's a very closed shop the pharmaceutical world. The bottom line of it - Sheep sorrel is too cheap. Most people have it growing as weeds in their gardens. It's classified as a pernicious weed and it's not expensive to produce," says Mali.
Rene Caisse treated the majority of her patients in the 1930's with an injection of Sheep Sorrel solution. "A lot of them didn't even need the herbal tea so it is the most important thing. The quality of the Sheep Sorrel herb is of paramount importance. There are very few people on this planet who know how to harvest it properly or to process it properly. Most of the stuff on the market is completely inferior. I know because I have been sent many, many samples". The name essiac is a blanket term used by Rene to describe the four herb solution and the Sheep Sorrel solution. As Rene achieved such amazing results in her Bracebridge clinic it is important to understand her procedures.
Vincristine and Vinblastine are drugs used in conventional chemotherapy. They are both derivatives of the periwinkle plant found in most gardens. "Sheep Sorrel is far more potent than Periwinkle. Sheep Sorrel is the one that acts directly on the cancer. People can't use it by injection as Rene did, because that's illegal at present. They use it topically, as a mouthwash, enema and douche and they get some pretty amazing results with a Sheep Sorrel decoction, alongside the four herbs," says Mali.
The British Columbia Cancer Agency began a trial of essiac (which is also sold as Floressence) but was forced to close the trial. Dr. Ursula Lee, medical oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency, describes the problems experienced: "I think it will be near impossible to conduct good scientific/clinical trials of alternative products for a number of reasons. One being that these products are freely available; in clinical trials, the drug being tested is restricted to study patients. Another reason is that there are too many producers of these compounds so there is a quality control issue. A third reason is that the producers are not keen to participate in trials since they are doing very good business with no evidence whatsoever, so why rock the boat? A fourth problem is that there is a lot of information and misinformation about products that patients accept as truth and do not question. They form their own opinion as to whether or not they want to use something and therefore would be unwilling to participate in studies where it is dictated to you whether you get the drug or not.
"There appears to be a reluctance on the part of physicians to participate in these trials, maybe because there is a feeling that these are not really hard core science questions. Also in times of diminishing research funding, this may not be a high priority," Dr. Lee noted.
"The Rene Caisse story is well known and had nothing to do with the BC Cancer Agency participating in this study. There is a huge amount of information, and misinformation, about 'cancer cures' but without any evidence grounded in well conducted clinical trials to support these claims. Without clinical trials there is no objective means of determining what is useful and what is harmful."
Many widely used medicines and chemotherapy drugs used today are plant or animal based products. "Paclitaxel, is extracted from the bark of the yew tree. So you see, many of our drugs are, in fact, 'natural'. Vincristine , like all other chemo drugs, was put through rigorous scientific trials to prove its benefit" says Dr. Lee." There is no evidence to support essiac's claims of effectiveness as a cancer treatment. There is also no good evidence to say that it is harmful."
And this is how the situation will stay until a clinical trial is performed. Essiac will continue to have a mythical status and be supported by anecdotal evidence. Perhaps the fate of essiac will mirror the history of Aspirin. If this new essiac based on a 'wonder drug' cancer remedy ever does hit the shop shelves, spare a thought for the humble Canadian nurse Rene Caisse, who produced essiac for over fifty years in her own kitchen.
Claire Cummings is a freelance journalist who began researching essiac when a family member became ill will cancer. She can be reached at CCummings2003@aol.com