How Long Can Dry Herbs Be Stored
The way dry herbs are stored dramatically effects how long they will keep. If you store them in plastic containers in light places they will not keep very long. Plastic bags are not a good choice for storing herbs. If you store them under a vacuum seal in glass jars in a dark cool place they can keep a very long time. When you buy any dry herbs, whether they are mixed already or separate, it is a good idea to become familiar with how they smell. When they lose their fragrance they are not good anymore. Leafy herbs do not keep as long as roots and stems. Cut herbs or chunks keep longer than powdered herbs, especially if they are not stored very carefully. As a rule of thumb dry herbs can be kept for a year, but this is a very general rule, totally dependent on how you care for them.
Risks And Side Effects
If decide to try this herbal tea for any health concern, its best to first speak with a professional who can help you decide if its a smart choice and guide you to a proper dosage and duration of use.
Because there hasnt been enough research done in children, its not known if giving this herbal mixture to children is safe.
What are the side effects of Essiac tea? There are few reported side effects, however makers caution that consumption can potentially contribute to increased bowel movements, frequent urination, flu-like symptoms, swollen glands, headaches, and skin redness or inflammation. Some of these possible side effects can likely be related to increased detoxification of the body.
Check with your doctor before consuming it if you are diabetic, taking anticoagulant drugs, or if you have had a cholecystectomy .
If you have osteoporosis, you should also consult with a physician since the oxalic acid present in the mixture can interfere with calcium metabolism. If you are taking any cardiac glycosides, ask your physician to monitor you closely for possible toxicity of the drug. Some constituents in this tea may assist the body to utilize these types of drugs more efficiently.
There are several other groups of people who will likely not benefit or might have adverse effects from the consumption of Essiac tea.
If you notice any adverse effects after consuming this tea, then you should stop taking it right away and consult with your doctor.
Potential Risks Of Essiac Tea
Generally speaking, essiac tea has been known to cause discomfort. One woman reported symptoms including nausea, anorexia, myalgia , fatigue, and abdominal pain following consumption of essiac tea over the course of six months. According to the manufacturer of the brand Flor essence, other side effects of the tea may include:
- Increased bowel movements
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Limited Research On Effectiveness
Current research on Essiac tea is limited, and most available studies are in animals and individual cells in a lab rather than in humans.
Additionally, though its effects on cancer have been studied, research on other health claims of Essiac tea such as its detoxifying and immune-boosting properties is lacking.
In fact, many of the purported health benefits of Essiac tea stem solely from anecdotal reports.
Furthermore, the product has not been approved for the treatment of cancer or other medical conditions by the FDA .
It may also be associated with numerous side effects, including nausea, vomiting, frequent urination and increased bowel movements .
Therefore, more research on Essiac teas potential effects on health is needed before it can be recommended.
Summary
Current research on the effects of Essiac tea is limited to animal and test-tube studies, as well as anecdotal reports.
Permission To Use This Summary
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The best way to cite this PDQ summary is:
PDQ® Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board. PDQ Essiac/Flor Essence. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated < MM/DD/YYYY> . Available at: . Accessed < MM/DD/YYYY> .
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The Discovey Of Essiac Tea
The story of essiac tea is very colorful and dramatic. In the 1930s a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse began treating cancer patients using a tea made from local herbs and plants. Caisse claimed that the recipe originated with an Indian medicine man of the Ojibway Nation and that she had obtained the secret from a woman who had been cured of breast cancer by this medicine man. At the time, the tea was not known as essiac tea that name was given to it later in an effort to commercialize it.
Caisse claimed that after acquiring the recipe she tried it on her aunt, who was terminally ill with stomach cancer. The aunt recovered.
Portrait of One-Called-From-A-Distance, An Ojibway Chief
Caisse then began treating patients with this tea, and it is claimed that hundreds were cured. As her reputation spread, people came from all over to try the essiac tea. The medical establishment was skeptical, but some doctors who came and observed her clinic went away convinced.
Dr. Benjamin Guyatt Leslie, head of the department of anatomy at the University of Toronto, at the time stated:
Doctor Emma Carlson, from California, stated:
“I came pretty skeptical, and I was determined to stay only 24 hours. I stayed 24 days and I witnessed incredible improvements of terminally ill patients diagnosed with no more hope and terminals, to heal. I examined the results of 400 patients “
Anyone Taking Essiac Tea For Breast Cancer
Asked by on Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Anyone taking Essiac Tea for Breast Cancer?
I have been drinking this tea and today I found a study which does not support the benefits of this tea. CONCLUSION: Flor-Essence and Essiac Herbal Tonics can stimulate the growth of human breast cancer cells through ER mediated as well as ER independent mechanisms of action.
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History Of Essiac Tea
The original recipe for this powerful Essiac Tea herbal blend was handed down through word of mouth by Northern Canadian Ojibway Indians for hundreds of years! In 1922 it eventually reached the ear of Canadian Nurse Rene Caisse who became famous for her use of it with cancer patients. She called it ESSIAC TEA and revealed the ingredients before her death in 1978.
Rene Caisse was scorned by many, although she never claimed that Essiac cured cancer. She found that it helped hugely with pain relief and in a 2003 article in The Globe and Mail newspaper titled What Else Could it Have Been But a Miracle? it reported some cancer patients who had been given weeks to live, reported as being cancer-free decades after using the tonic.
Despite attacks to her reputation, legal trouble for her treating patients without a license, and being dragged into court countless times, Nurse Caisse never stopped helping her patients. The fact she wasnt charging for her tea is probably the only thing that kept her out of jail.In 1938, she received more than 55,000 signatures on a petition to allow her to continue giving her tea to patients who were told nothing could be done to treat their disease.
Challenges In Defining Alternative Medicine
Prominent members of the science and biomedical science community say that it is not meaningful to define an alternative medicine that is separate from a conventional medicine because the expressions “conventional medicine”, “alternative medicine”, “complementary medicine”, “integrative medicine”, and “holistic medicine” do not refer to any medicine at all. Others say that alternative medicine cannot be precisely defined because of the diversity of theories and practices it includes, and because the boundaries between alternative and conventional medicine overlap, are porous, and change. Healthcare practices categorized as alternative may differ in their historical origin, theoretical basis, , and in their relationship to the medical mainstream. Under a definition of alternative medicine as “non-mainstream”, treatments considered alternative in one location may be considered conventional in another.
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Research On The Individual Ingredients In Essiac
Research conducted on the herbs in Essiac show they have compounds that protect DNA from damage and can influence the immune system, but they also have the potential to promote cancer growth.
- Roots of burdock and rhubarb have shown anti-cancer effects in test tube and rat studies. But these roots also contain carcinogenic compounds that cause and promote cancer.
- A 2008 Chinese study published in Lung Cancer showed rhubarb extract significantly reduced pulmonary toxicity and improved lung function among lung cancer patients receiving radiation therapy.
- Slippery elm bark contains mucilage, a gelatinous substance that may relieve coughs and throat irritation. It may offer relief to pleural mesothelioma patients coping with pulmonary symptoms.
- In 2007, Anticancer Research published a Canadian study that was conducted in a lab with no human test subjects. It revealed Essiac contains more antioxidant properties than red wine or green tea. No antibacterial effects were observed. But Essiac did stimulate several immune system cells and enzymes.
- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health examined the antioxidant power of Essiac in a 2006 study that was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology. The study found Essiac protected DNA from free-radical damage. This DNA-protective effect wont repair damage that already led to cancer, but it could have a preventative effect with long-term use.
The History Of Essiac Tea:
Essiac tea is named for Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse who developed the formula for her Essiac tea recipe from an ancient remedy used by Canadian first nation tribes, It literally means Tea of Life.
Essiac is Renes last name spelled backwards. She learned of the Essiac tea herbs from one of her patients who had recovered from advanced breast cancer 30 years prior This patient had learned of the herbs from a native medicine man and recovered from her cancer while only drinking the tea from the herbs.
Rene began using the Essiac tea blend on some of her cancer patients who were deemed lost causes and had great and surprising success. She opened and ran her own clinic for over 30 years Read Rene Caisses own words about this HERE. She helped thousands of patients heal using her Essiac tea recipe and became known as Canadas Cancer Nurse.
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Facts About Essiac Tea
1. Rene Caisse was a nurse living in Canada who for a period of almost 60 years treated hundreds of people with an herbal remedy she called Essiac.
2. Essiac tea is made from 4 main ingredients.
3. When Rene Caisse set up her clinical trials in Canada to test Essiac, she was given government permission to treat terminally ill cancer patients.
4. In 1937 Essiac came within three votes of being legalized as a treatment for cancer.
A demonstrated healing tea that has helped tens of thousands of people has been recreated for your health benefit. There is only one healer when it comes to any issues dealing with the human body, that would be none other than THE BODY ITSELF!
So please STOP looking for man and drugs to do something that the body can do on its own if given the appropriate tools. Man and or drugs did not create the body nor can he replicate it, so why would you believe that they can heal it?
THERE ARE NO CURES FOR ANYTHING, AS NONE ARE NEEDED!! The body has the answers you seek just pay more attention and listen closely.
Do Not Turn A Blind Eye
How are you expected to manage your health goals when powerful organizations trump every move made in the quest for alternative cancer treatments?
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Alternative Cancer Treatments Conspiracy
Caisse explained that her efforts to perform clinical research on the effectiveness of Essiac faced challenge as a result of nothing less than a conspiracy against finding a cure for cancer . Do you agree?
The cancer industry is comprised of a complex network of corporations which make profit from cancer patients seeking an end to their suffering. Pharmaceutical companies produce chemicals that are known to cause cancer as well as toxic cancer treatment drugs. In fact, AstraZeneca is a drug company which originally created National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Take note to the campaigns lack of drive to find a cure for the problem.
Cancer Research On Essiac
Scientific research on Essiac has yielded mixed results, but the consensus is clear that it cannot cure cancer.
All human clinical trials were either stopped by government authorities or kept hidden from the public. An unpublished 1977 report of a Phase II clinical study of Essiac in cancer patients found the tea did not affect survival or shrink tumors.
Nonhuman studies have found evidence that Essiac both slows and promotes the growth of different cancers, according to a 2005 National Cancer Institute review of Essiac research. Some studies found Essiac had no positive or negative impact on cancer.
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Who Should Not Take Essiac Tea
- If you are pregnant, nursing or trying to conceive.
This tea contains constituents which may increase blood flow to the pelvic region and stimulate menses. Properties of this tea may pass through the mothers milk to the infant.
- If you have kidney disease, are prone to kidney stones, or kidney infections.
The varying amounts of oxalic acids in this tea are irritating to the kidneys.
- If you have ulcers or colitis.
The Turkey Rhubarb has an action of being a laxative or cathartic . Some properties in this root can be highly irritating to ulcers and colitis, exacerbating these conditions.
- If you have tumors that are encroaching on a major blood supply or an area of an organ that expansion of the tumor could have dire consequences.
Consult with your doctor to find out if this applies to you. In Renes work, she reportedly noticed that in the beginning phase of a person taking this tea, the tumor could appear to enlarge before it began to break down.
- If you have a brain tumor.
In Rene Caisses work, she noticed that many times the tea seemed to make the tumor initially grow, then break down. This can be extremely detrimental in the brain tissue. Rapid or excess growth can put pressure on areas of the brain that affect body/mental function.
Ingredients:
Alkaline Water, Sheep Sorrel, Burdock Root, Turkey Rhubarb,Slippery Elm Bark
Evaluation Of Cam Therapies
It is important that the same scientific methods used to test conventional therapies are used to test CAM therapies. The National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health are sponsoring a number of clinical trials at medical centers to test CAM therapies for use in cancer.
Conventional approaches to cancer treatment have generally been studied for safety and effectiveness through a scientific process that includes clinical trials with large numbers of patients. Less is known about the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative methods. Few CAM therapies have been tested using demanding scientific methods. A small number of CAM therapies that were thought to be purely alternative approaches are now being used in cancer treatmentnot as cures, but as complementary therapies that may help patients feel better and recover faster. One example is acupuncture. According to a panel of experts at a National Institutes of Health meeting in November 1997, acupuncture has been found to help control nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and pain related to surgery. However, some approaches, such as the use of laetrile, have been studied and found not to work and to possibly cause harm.
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Claims Of Essiac As A Cancer Cure Are Anecdotal
The claims that Essiac cures cancer are anecdotal, meaning self-reported and not proven by scientific research. Clinical studies have not found evidence that Essiac can cure cancer. But research has found it high in antioxidants.
- A 2006 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology shows Essiac contains antioxidants that protect against DNA damage. Antioxidants also help to counteract the effects of aging and exposure to carcinogens such as asbestos.
- A 2007 study published in Anticancer Research reported Essiac has greater antioxidant properties than red wine, green tea and cocoa.
Overall, scientific research has confirmed Essiacs antioxidant power and presented no evidence it can cure cancer.
In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited a brand of Essiac tea on a list of fake cancer cures that consumers should avoid.
The FDA has not approved Essiac or Flor-Essence to treat cancer or any other medical condition. Companies sell Essiac and Flor-Essence as herbal dietary supplements, which the FDA does not regulate.