Essiac Tea

Since visiting the FAR Clinic in Utah, I've been feeling like all our eggs are in the one proverbial basket.  I've said to friends that I don't have any more ideas on what to do to fight Lyme, beyond what we're already doing.   Lyme is like this dance, 2 steps forward, 2 steps back is common for the disease/healing.  It's why some doctors believe that you need to change your treatment protocol every 6 months - to keep the little spirochetes on their toes.  But as the "brains" of this operation, I research a lot and try to take it all in.  Sometimes, things hit me but I don't pursue them until the idea resurfaces much later.  And this week when I started getting down, it wasn't long before my mind jumped back to something I considered previously.

Essiac Tea.  Have you heard of it?  It has been around a long, long time as an alternative treatment for cancer.  Some sources claim it was the Ojibwa tribe's answer to cancer.  This link claims that evidence is lacking to trace this back to one specific person or tribe.  However, Rene Caisse was a Canadian nurse who brought this cure to more common circles in the 1920s.  Essiac tea (note that Essaic is Nurse Caisse's name backwards) is a blend of burdock, sheep sorrel root, slippery elm, and turkey rhubarb.   These herbs are placed into boiling water, steeped for 10 minutes, left to sit for 10-12 hours, and reheated gently to steaming but not boiling.  The brew is then strained and funneled into jars for refrigeration.  A patient is to drink 2 tablespoons up to 1 oz. daily on an empty stomach.  You can read more about Rene Caisse here.  The brew is full of anti-oxidants, helps with inflammation, and is known to boost the immune system.

Essiac tea entered my life a 18 months ago.  Ty Bollinger's "The Truth About Cancer" series was being released one episode at a time.  I didn't know anyone with cancer when I was watching the series, but I was glued to it.  After the 4th or 5th episode, I decided I had heard enough about Big Pharma's hold over the cancer industry, and I decided if cancer ever came into my life, I would be denying Western medicine's treatments of chemo, radiation and surgery.  I kid you not.  Less than a week later, our Big Dog was diagnosed with 3 mast cell tumors (MCTs), all of which had active cancer.  The vet handed me a quote of $1600 with no guarantees.  If they don't get it all in the first surgery, they have to go back in.  And, one of his tumors was EXACTLY where they give him his vaccinations.  Hmmmm.

So, Big Dog is my buddy.  I'm his human.  It wasn't the money - I'd have spent anything on him at the time.  But having the documentary fresh in my mind, I denied their surgery and lack of guarantee, and sought out a holistic approach.  One of the strategies we used with Big Dog was this Essiac tea.  It's a very earthy, mellow drink that really isn't like traditional tea at all.  It isn't something you could ever OD on - I have tasted worse things, but doubt I could ever drink this tea for pleasure.  Big Dog drank it ok, especially if it was cut with chicken or beef broth.  It was part of a multiple step treatment that involved other things, so I cannot say for sure that it was helpful.  The folks at Cancer Tutor have a lot written on Essiac tea as it pertains to a cancer diagnosis.

Why would I consider using Essiac tea for someone with Lyme?  First, it's very good at detoxing (detox info)and helps support the liver to clean out toxins.  Lymies typically struggle with detox because of the die off from the spirochetes that happens when they battle the bacteria.  We have taken other supplements to help detox, like liposomal glutathione and Pekana Big 3, but I'm not completely confident than these supplements have helped enough.  I started researching to see if any other Lyme patients have tried Essiac with good results.  My search hasn't been very thorough yet, but since I have the tea and Big Dog could benefit from another anti-cancer treatment with it, why not see if it'd help with Lyme?  It's completely non-toxic.  It's safe.  It's healthy.  It's natural.  Best part, I already had a pouch of herbs in my cabinet.  I brewed my tea this morning.  It'll be ready for consumption tonight and I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

Front of the brand I used.

Back of the brand, sheep sorrel roots are important.

After I dumped it in, you can see its earthiness.