The History of Essiac Tea

Essiac tea has been around since the early 1920s when nurse Rene Caisse found its benefits for one of her own patients that was suffering from breast cancer. Today, there are many companies online selling “Essiac tea” that is not actually the original recipe that Rene Caisse made. However, there are retailers that do sell the original formula.

Canadian Nurse

Rene Caisse was a Canadian nurse and in the 1920s she spoke to one of her elderly patients about breast cancer that had been diagnosed 30 years previously. The doctors told Rene's patient that she would die without the removal of her breast. The patient met an Indian medicine man that told her he could heal her cancer with herbs. The cancer never returned and the patient never had her breast removed.

This story is what peeked Rene Caisse's and she began working with a retired doctor who had extensive experience with herbs. It was at this time that she began mixing the special herbs with haste due to her aunt being newly diagnosed with stomach cancer and not expected to survive past a few months. After her aunt received the tea nurse Caisse gave to her she went on to live another 20+ years.

The main ingredients in the Essiac tea that Nurse Caisse created had a combination of slippery elm (inner bark), sheep sorrel, Indian rhubarb root, and burdock root. 

Doctor Referrals to Rene Caisse

As doctors began to get wind of the tea combination the Rene Caisse had made and the many medical doctors began to take notice of the fact that the Essiac tea was helping cancer patients that were given no chance of survival through traditional medical. There were research labs set up to being investigating the herbs used in the tea and many doctors began referring patients to Rene Caisse.