Essiac

* 6 1/2 cups of burdock root (cut)

* 1 pound of sheep sorrel herb (powdered)

* 1/4 pound of slippery elm bark (powdered)

* 1 ounce of Turkish rhubarb root (powdered)

These amounts of ingredients combine to make 8 quarts or 2 gallons of the tea. Cutting each amount in half makes one gallon at a time. Some instructions say to mix all the ingredients well before placing them in water, store the dry herbal mix in a glass jar in a dark dry place, and take out one ounce per 32 ounces of water (one quart) at a time.

Which ever way you wish to parse it out, the herbs are boiled hard without a lid for 10 minutes, some say 20; then, cover with a lid and steep over night on the stove. In the morning, heat it up to steaming hot (not boiling), then let it settle and pour into glass or ceramic containers. Use stainless steel or cast iron pots for boiling, and glass or ceramic containers for storing. Keep the containers or container with the tea capped in a dark cool place until first used. After opening, it must be refrigerated.

The dosage depends on the condition. For immune tonic use or very mild ailments, 2 ounces once daily. Increase the frequency up to 3 times daily with up to 3 ounces each time according to the severity of the ailment, which is usually cancer. The refrigerated tea can be added to hot water or warmed up for consumption. Cancer patients undergoing other treatments, even with allopathic drugs, have used the tea as well.

However, cancer or AIDS should be treated holistically by abstaining as much as possible from toxic medicines, toxic foods, toxic household and cosmetic items, and toxic thinking. The cancer patient should also have a meatless diet of organic food and get as much sunshine and Vitamin D and C supplementation as possible. Using Essiac tea while indulging in old life style habits that probably started the cancer or any other disease is not the best way to heal.

The quality of the ingredients is the most important aspect of beneficial Essiac. There are too many watered down versions out there. Dr. Glum has stated that some providers are using irradiated herbs and even replacing sheep sorrel herbs, a common weed declared as illegal for use in Canada, with curly dock, a weed similar to red sorrel. This is critical since it has been laboratory tested and proven that sheep sorrel is the actual cancer cell killer in Essiac Tea.

The other ingredients combine for a synergistic immune booster and blood purifier. Even as important is the fact that Rene Caisse used the whole sheep sorrel weed, roots and all. She discovered the roots to be very critical for sheep sorrel's efficacy. Most Essiac herbal or ready made tea providers use only the leaves of sheep sorrel even if they do use the weed. It's easier and cheaper to harvest the leaves from the weeds while leaving the roots intact to grow more leaves.

To avoid irradiation, order via commercial overland courier services, such as UPS and FedEx, not the postal service, which is required to irradiate herbs. Even if flown in by a commercial service, there is a strong chance of irradiation, especially if coming from another country. This is a problem with Turkish rhubarb root, which is not naturally indigenous to America.