Essiac herbal tea review

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warnings to 25 companies regarding the marketing of their products as cancer cures. One of the products on the list is “an herbal tea called Essiac.” Of the companies receiving the warning letters, 23 are located in the USA, one in Australia and one in Canada. The company that makes Essiac is located in Canada, as the herbal tea was created by a Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse, who named Essiac by spelling her name backwards.

The warnings were issued because marketing campaigns claimed to cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent disease — and have not been shown to be safe and effective — the FDA has not approved them. Therefore, the companies may be violating U.S.  federal law.

We have not seen the complete report of the FDA yet, so we are not positive that the original makers of Essiac are involved in this situation. We know that, as the recipe for Essiac herbal tea is quite well known, there are several companies, located in the USA and Canada, that make it, and it could easily be one of these unauthorized corporations that are now taking the heat for their marketing claims.

It has long been our belief that natural, herbal substances, such as Essiac should not be regulated, especially as there is a significant body of anecdotal evidence that points to Essiac being helpful in making the body stronger and more able to resist and recover from cancer.

The anecdotal evidence that Essiac is effective as an alternative cancer treatment continues to mount. Today we see in a news item in the Kingman Arizona Daily Miner newspaper that 67 year old Mr. Jim Boyles credits Essiac as helping with the reversal of his prostate cancer. Mr. Boyles was diagnosed in February 2007 with stage nine prostate cancer, and at the time his weight had dropped from 170 to 109 pounds. He was told that he would need a prostectomy, the removal of his prostate gland and the adjacent lymph nodes followed by chemotherapy and then hormone therapy to regulate his testosterone level.

Mr. Boyles and his wife started doing research on alternative cancer treatments, including herbal tonics, and he started taking Essiac herbal tea. “Jim takes Essiac tonic that contains burdock root, which is known to kill cancer cells” Mrs. Boyles is quoted in the article as saying. “It also contains sheep sorrel, slippery elm and turkey rhubarb.”

Additionally, the couple takes part in sprint running and bodybuilding, as they feel that pumping oxygen into body cells is also useful when fighting cancer.

Now, 16 months after his diagnosis, Mr. Boyles’ weight is up to 125 and he says he feels great. He reportedly had a bone scan done at his hospital in April and no metastasing was found. Although his PSA reading has dropped from 8.8 to 5.2, it is still too high, but he is pleased it is moving down.

The complete text of the article about this Essiac testimonial is available at www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=15900.