New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans (NAFPS) review: Slander and libel

https://web.archive.org/web/20140417184759/http://www.newspapers-online.com/innisfil/?p=7976

It was called the "Ojibwa cancer cure" decades ago. The recipe involves the whole sheep sorrell plant including the root. The root is the most important part. The Ojibwe of northern Canada do consider chaga a cure for cancer tumours. Cree Healers call it Poashkan. Ojibway Healers call it Cha'a'ihtthi. The Russians made chaga tea famous after Chernobyl but it was also used for centuries by the First Nations.

Essiac: A Native Herbal Cancer Remedy
by Cynthia B Olsen

Black Root Medicine - The Original Native American Essiac Formula
by Mali Klein written in collaboration with Moke Eagle Feathers and Sheila Snow

The Cure is in the Forest - The Healing Powers of Wild Chaga
by Dr. Cass Ingram

The Essiac Story by Donna M. Ivey in her book "Clinic of Hope":

"In 1922 Rene was tending to one of her patients when she noticed some scar tissue on her breast. The woman informed her that it used to be breast cancer but was healed by an Indian Medicine Man from the Ojibwa tribe with an herbal tea. Eventually, that woman gave the herbal tea formula to Rene who named it “Essiac” which is her last named spelled backwards.
Two years later Rene's aunt developed cancer. She decided to take the opportunity to test the tea on her aunt. After obtaining permission from her aunt's doctor Rene started giving her the tea. After approximately two months of drinking the tea three times daily, her aunt was cured and went on to live for 20 more years. Rene's mother was cured of her liver cancer as well, surviving for another 18 years.

Rene eventually opened up a clinic and cured thousands of people from various cancers for little or no fee. Most of her patients were people that had been through the mainstream medical system and had been told they were going to die. They were coming to her for “last chance” treatments. Rene gave treatments of Essiac both orally and intravenously. The vast majority of those that had no damage to major organs survived and lived long normal lives, but of course there were some who didn't make it. All in all her success rates were far superior to the medical establishment and most of her patients were experiencing recoveries.

In 1937 Rene was contacted by Dr. John Wolfer, the director of a tumor clinic at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, IL. He wanted to do clinical trials and arranged for 30 terminal cancer patients to be treated with Essiac Tea under the supervision of five doctors. Rene agreed and crossed the border into the US with her bottles of Essiac Tea. After 18 months of trials the supervising team of doctors concluded that Essiac Tea “prolonged life, shrank tumors, and reduced pain.”

Meanwhile back home Rene had been treating up to 600 people per week at her clinic and the outstanding success of her treatments eventually caught the attention of the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Canadian Parliament. A legal battle ensued. Rene had so many supporters that she was able to gather 55,000 signatures on a petition to allow Essiac Tea to be an officially recognized cancer treatment. The Ontario Legislature voted and she came up only three votes short of making it happen.

This led to a back and forth battle between her and the Canadian officials. They pressed for government trials but she refused to give them the formula unless she got in writing that she wouldn't lose the rights to it because her loyalty was to the people and she wanted to keep treating them for free. They never provided any guarantees that she'd be keeping her formula rights therefore she never gave it to them.

Rene also had visitors coming in from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. They visited her regularly trying to get her to divulge the formula. She never complied. Eventually the threat of imprisonment scared Rene into hiding and she closed her clinic doors in 1942. Rene passed away in 1978 at the age of 90. Prior to her passing she had signed the rights to the Essiac Tea formula over to Dr. Charles Brusch, an old friend that she could trust and former personal physician to John F. Kennedy. Brusch himself had used Essiac to cure his own cancer, and was indebted to Rene. She also signed the rights to the formula over to the Respirin Corporation of Toronto to test, manufacture and distribute Essiac Tea. The formula eventually became public after Rene gave it to her best friend, Mary McPherson. The certified true copy of Mary McPherson's two-page affidavit was provided by the Commissioner of Affidavits of the Town of Bracebridge, Ontario. Mary McPherson's affidavit is the only verifiable, legal evidence of Rene Caisse's hand written Essiac formula.

Case history archive books 1-6 with Rene Caisse's patients is found here under archive https://essiaccouncil.org/members/mali-klein/ along with other important information.

From "First Nations Traditional Medicine Diet" by Georgina Hnatiuk: Main staples of Traditional Diet: "Grasses/Rhizomes/Greens : RHUBARB, Wheat Grasses, Horsetail, Plantain, Buckwheat grass, Plantain, Lily Flower and leaves, Cat Tails bamboo, Ferns, Grasses, BURDOCK, Mustards, SORELLS, Dandlions, Rose bushes, Clover, DECIDUOUS TREES {Slippery Elm} All of these ingredients are detoxifying, tonifying and strengthening. Many are Anti-Cancer and preventative." She goes on to write: "Sheep Sorrel Cancer Cure. Grows readily all over North America as a weed." She tells Essiac Story and shares why store brand is less effective (the store brand is diluted). She goes on to write, "Chaga Fungus: Birch Fungus: Purifies blood, stops Cancer Tumors from growing".

Ancestral Voices employee Hayley Doxtater said aboriginal remedies are becoming increasingly popular. She pointed to a cancer treatment — one of the traditional cancer treatments available at Ancestral Voices Healing Centre on Six Nations reserve -- a collection of herbs including slippery elm, turkey rhubarb root, burdock root, sheep sorrel (whole plant including the root) {Essiac with the addition of Cat's Claw}­ — "We have people come in here who are so happy that something works," she said. “They’ll say ‘That stuff is amazing!’" National Post article October 16, 2014

"Mshkikiwaaboo: Weeds are Medicine
In the 1920’s: An Ontario nurse named Rene Caisse was introduced to a traditional Ojibwe medicine. This medicine would come to be known as Essiac, her named spelled backwards. Caisse would run a clinic in Bracebridge providing this herbal remedy to cancer patients with notable success.
In our backyards, the parks, forests and country near our homes is a vast collection of powerful herbal medicines that have been used with great success by the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe and nations of the Three Fires Confederacy), Haudenoshaunee (the 6 nations confederacy of the Long House), the Wendat (Hurons) and other nations for thousands of years." J Andrew Baker, Indigenous Herbalist, Simcoe County, Ontario

"Is it true that Essiac was also called Ojibwe tea or the Ojibwa cancer cure?" Yes, Essiac tea was also known as Ojibwe tea or the Ojibwa cancer cure due to its origins in the Ojibwa First Nations people of Canada.

Is it true that the Ojibwe consider chaga a cure for cancer tumours?" "Correct. I personally know it works" A. Travenard Ojibwa medicine woman.

When you get chemotherapy, the first thing it wipes out is your red blood cells. You have anemia. And there's a drug for that called epogen. The second thing, it wipes out the cells called neutrofils that prevent infection. There's a drug for that called neupogen. But the most important thing it wipes out is your NK and T cells, and that's called lymphocytes. It turns out the only thing that protects your body against cancer is your lymphocytes, meaning the NK cells and T cells. We now know that anybody getting chemotherapy, anybody getting radiation, within a day or two you wipe out the only cells that matter... ie, the cells that kill cancer.” — Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, surgeon and medical researcher

Consult with a Naturopathic doctor before taking the teas. 2 cups of chaga tea a day is the limit.

I apologize for not including the full sources in my article in a small community newspaper I volunteered for in 2014, a newspaper that no longer exists and hasn't existed for over a decade. The intent of the article was to provide information for people dealing with cancer and to give credit where it was due in Canada for these historic teas. I grew up in Muskoka where Rene Caisse's cancer clinic was located, at the old Lion's Hotel in Bracebridge, Ontario. Her story is well known in Bracebridge and surrounding area and is taught in classrooms. Bracebridge is located just south of Indian River which is shared with the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.