The communities include the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, Calif., Mendocino County, and communities served by Northern Valley Indian Health, Inc., which include Glenn County and portions of Butte, Tehama and Colusa counties.

“This will be a unique situation in which university health researchers will collaborate with community members to teach them how to perform research on their own communities, to ensure that the research is culturally appropriate, acceptable and helpful,” said Dennis Styne, study principal investigator and the Yocha Dehe Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology.

“Community members will collect data about their community’s health habits to, for example, learn what kinds of healthy foods and exercise resources are most helpful, and select and design the most effective interventions,” Styne said.

Over one-third of all American Indian adults nationwide are obese, compared with about 22 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Among the Native American communities participating in the study, nearly 68 percent of adults are obese and 24 percent of children between 2 and 5 years old have body mass indexes in the 95th percentile for their ages.

Obesity is associated with type-2 diabetes, which can result in heart and kidney disease, nerve damage and blindness and lead to premature death. The condition has been described as a “disease of disparity,” disproportionately affecting low-income and ethnic minority populations. American Indians are 2.6 times as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. Nationwide, the number of Native Americans diagnosed with diabetes doubled between 1991 and 2001. In the Round Valley and Northern Valley Native American communities, 11 percent are affected by type-2 diabetes.

“The Native American community is disproportionately affected by diabetes and heart disease, hypertension, lipid problems and other diseases of disparity,” Styne said. “They are aware of the importance of the conditions and are committed to working to turn the tide.”

Styne said that the two-year research initiative will train community members as research associates in the use of community-based and community-governed participatory research techniques, to ensure engagement in improving their health. The UC Davis researchers will work collaboratively with two established community-health centers that serve the Native American communities, the Round Valley Indian Health Center and Northern Valley Indian Health, Inc., with the full support of their boards of directors.

Partners at Round Valley will include Edward Whipple, outreach prevention coordinator at Round Valley Unified School District, fitness and health instructor at Mendocino Community College and an enrolled member of the Round Valley tribe; and Diann Simmons, a consultant with the Round Valley Sustainability Program. At Northern Valley Indian Health, UC Davis will partner with Vicki Shively, a nurse and member of the Choctaw Nation who has served for seven years as the center’s community health director.

The study’s co-investigators will be: Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, training director of community-based participatory research for the project and a member of the Choctow Nation who is a senior research fellow at the University of Washington and a visiting assistant researcher at UC Davis; Diana Cassady, associate professor of public health sciences, who will collaborate on evaluation of the FitKid and FitTeen programs in Round Valley schools; and  Karen Jetter, assistant research economist at the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis, who will direct training in socioeconomic survey methods.

An important aspect of the research — and a longtime goal for Styne and his partners —  is development of a Northern California Institutional Review Board, the Nor Cal Tribal Institutional Review Board, to review and approve research projects identified by these communities. This work will be supported by the UC Davis Health System Institutional Review Board. Another important feature of the partnership will be the use of telemedicine through the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology, which uses real-time video conferencing to provide education and group interaction as well as specialist and subspecialist consultation for patients and physicians in remote rural areas throughout the state. James Marcin, professor of pediatrics and director of the UC Davis Pediatric Telemedicine Program, will direct this work.

“Tribal communities across California have been involved in various studies for decades, but lack of involvement in the planning of studies and the transient presence of researchers often has led to distrust of health research among some members of the American Indian community,” Styne said. The direct involvement of community members in the future research should help to overcome this tendency and foster improvement in their health, he said.

Styne’s commitment to improving health for Northern California Native American communities stretches back more than 15 years, including seven years with the Round Valley and Northern Valley communities. He has helped Native American communities implement a variety of health-care intervention programs, including the Fit Kid and Fit Teen pediatric obesity programs developed for children at UC Davis and adapted for the Indian community.

“I realized long ago that childhood obesity was going to cause major problems for Native American communities and was able to discuss this with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation (previously known as the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians),” Styne said. “They had the foresight to recognize how important this issue was for their community and started supporting our work with annual gifts and then with the endowment of the Yocha Dehe Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology to ensure its continuation long into the future.”

Styne said the Fit Kid program has been introduced into the Round Valley school system and now is a part of science class in the 6th grade. “The community members have said that the programs that we have worked on together have definitely enhanced their quality of life and their health,” he said.

The UC Davis School of Medicine is among the nation’s leading medical schools, recognized for its research and primary-care programs. The school offers fully accredited master’s degree programs in public health and in informatics, and its combined M.D.-Ph.D. program is training the next generation of physician-scientists to conduct high-impact research and translate discoveries into better clinical care. Along with being a recognized leader in medical research, the school is committed to serving underserved communities and advancing rural health. For more information, visit UC Davis School of Medicine at www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/medschool/.

This post brought to you by the author and TribalBiz.com

The program, called the IHS/ACF Domestic Violence Project, began in 2002. It included routinely screening women for domestic violence when they sought services at more than 100 participating IHS facilities in 18 states as well as training staff members at these facilities and domestic violence advocacy programs across the country on domestic violence health system change, the development of community-wide domestic violence response teams, creating patient education materials and other components.

When the program began, only 4 percent of women at IHS facilities were screened by doctors and nurses for domestic violence. By 2009, when the program ended, 48 percent were being screened.

“In Indian country, health care providers are often the first responders to domestic violence, and the health care setting offers a critical opportunity for early identification and primary prevention of abuse,” said Anna Marjavi, FVPF program manager and co-author of the Promising Practices report, said in a press release.

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

The controversy Essiac inspires raged in Canada since the 1920′s every few years in the public glare of the press, involving the highest medical, legal and political circles in Canada. But always that controversy centered on this one woman in the tiny village of Bracebridge, pop 9,000 or so. Rene Caisse was an unlikely public figure. She was a skilled nurse who didn’t crave attention or money. “I never had $100 I could call my own” she used to laugh. She didn’t charge a fee. She accepted only voluntary contributions – fruits, vegetables or eggs as often as not – from those who could afford them, and she didn’t turn away people who couldn’t make any payment at all.

The mayor of Bracebridge, Jim Lang, gave me a friendly greeting, said he was happy that someone was looking into the story of Rene Caisse, and got right to the point: She cured people that were given up on by doctors – totally given up on. They said, “You’re going to die and there is nothing we can do about it. And then they went to Rene and 20 years later they were still walking. I know that for a fact because I knew Rene for probably 25 years.”

She refused to reveal the formula to the Canadian government, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York – the world’s largest private cancer research centre – and the National Cancer Institute, just to name some of the institutions that wanted the formula at one time or another. She wouldn’t give them the formula until they would admit that Essiac had merit as a treatment for cancer. They refused to admit any merit until she gave them the formula. There were legitimate arguments made on both sides. The result was a tragic standoff.

This book tells the incredible story of Rene Caisse and her lifetime battle to bring forth Essiac, and reveals for the first time publicly how to acquire the formula to prepare Essiac in the privacy of your own home.

“The results we obtained with thousands of patients of various races, sexes and ages, with all types of cancer, definitely prove Essiac to be a cure for cancer. All studies done in four laboratories in the United States and one more in Canada fortify this claim.”

Dr. Charles Brusch M.D. personal physician to the late President John F Kennedy
Calling of an Angel
233pp ISBN 0-9620364-0-4
$35.00
Silent Walker Publishing
PO Box 92856
Los Angeles, CA 90009 2130271-9931

INTRODUCTION

Rene Caisse was a nurse living in Canada who for a period of almost sixty years treated hundreds of people with an herbal remedy she called Essiac. She discovered this remedy through a patient in the hospital where she worked who had been cured of cancer. The patient had used an herbal remedy given her by an Ojibway herbalist.

Rene left the hospital in 1922 at age 33, and went to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada where she began administering Essiac to all who came to her. The majority of those whom she treated came on referral with letters from their physicians certifying they had incurable or terminal forms of cancer and that they had been given up by the medical profession as untreatable.

Rene began gathering the plants and preparing the herbal remedy herself in her own kitchen, in a building lent her for her patients. She administered Essiac both orally and by injection. In cases where there was severe damage to life support organs, her patients died — but they lived far longer than the medical profession had predicted, and, more significantly, they lived free of pain. Still others, listed as hopeless and terminal, but without severe damage to life support organs, were cured and lived 35-45 years (many are still living).

So startling was the effectiveness of this simple herbal remedy, it could not be ignored, and the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Parliament became involved. Friends, former patients, and grateful families petitioned Canadian officialdom for Rene Caisse’s right to administer the remedy to anyone who asked for it without the threat of interference from authorities. Fifty-five thousand signatures were collected on the petition. In 1938, Essiac came within three votes of being legalized by the Ontario government as a remedy for terminal cancer patients.

The story of Rene Caisse, her life, her work, and the effectiveness of the remedy she named Essiac, is told in a book Sun Bear received Calling of an Angel by Dr Gary L. Glum of Los Angeles. After reading the book and finding it to be informative, well documented and moving, I decided to interview Dr Glum. I verified the basic information in this book through Canadian sources, one an herbalist who knows of Rene Caisse and her work and who has personally made and successfully used Essiac.

As I completed my second conversation with Dr Glum, he said, “You’re opening a Pandora’s Box here, publishing this interview about Essiac.” I disagreed, but began thinking about Pandora’s “box”. In the story of Pandora most well-known today, she is sent to the gods to curse humanity for offending them.

Pandora is given a “box” or container with instructions not to open it, which the gods know she will disobey. When Pandora does open the box, famine, war, plague, disease, pestilence — all the ills of humanity — are released. Then at the last comes hope, an antidote to despair.

But according to Barbara Walker’s Encyclopedia, Pandora — whose name means “all giving” was originally an image for Mother Earth. She had, not a box, but a honey vase like the Cornucopia from which flowed all life and creativity, as well as death and rebirth — Earth’s gifts to her children. Because we are natural beings in a natural world, it seems appropriate that a simple remedy composed of four common herbs, gifts of Earth, would suggest so much promise for us today.

INTERVIEW WITH DR GLUM

Elisabeth Robinson: To begin with, Dr Glum, can you tell us a little about how you became interested in the story you tell in Calling of an Angel, and how you learned about Rene Caisse and her work?

Dr Gary Glum: A personal friend of mine knew this woman, whose name I have promised not to reveal, who was living in Detroit, Michigan. Twenty years ago she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in a Detroit hospital; where she was eventually given up as incurable and terminal. She was given about ten days to live.

She convinced her husband to make a trip to Bracebridge, Canada where she went to see Rene Caisse. She was treated with the herbal remedy developed by Rene — Essiac — and in a short time she didn’t have a cancer cell in her body. So after that time this woman began dedicating her life to disseminating information about Essiac in the United States. When I met her, she was the only person in possession of the original herbal formula who would relinquish it. I got the formula for Essiac from her.

That’s how it began. When I started, all I had was a piece of paper. I thought, what am I going to do with this? I decided, the best way to go would be to find the information behind Essiac and put it in book form and bring it to the world.

I learned about Rene Caisse from Mary McPherson who was a very close personal friend of Rene’s, not only a friend but also a patient. Mary’s mother and her husband were also patients. They were all treated for cancer and cured by Rene.

Mary worked with Rene beginning in the 1930′s and she had in her possession all the documents that had to do with Essiac over the 40 years Rene administered it. All the documents Rene had were destroyed by the Canadian Ministry of Health & Welfare at the time of her death in 1978. They burned all that information in fifty five gallon drums behind her home.

ER: Why?

GG: Because they don’t want this information in the hands of the public or the press or anybody else. They indeed found out what Essiac was in 1937. The Royal Cancer Commission hearings had then come to the same conclusions that Rene had – that Essiac was a cure for cancer.

ER: What is Essiac exactly?

GG: Essiac is a non-toxic herbal cure for cancer that’s been in use with us since 1922. It’s a formula made from four very common herbs.

ER: I would guess that virtually every person in the U.S. today has been touched by cancer, either personally or through a loved one. If this information is true, and the effectiveness of this remedy is actually medically documented, many lives could be saved. Why do you think the information on Essiac is not more widely known?

GG: The information is withheld because cancer is the second largest revenue producing business in the world, next to the petrochemical business. Money and power suppress this truth.

No-one has ever sought to cure cancer – only control it. I mean, the research institutes, federal governments, pharmaceutical companies, anybody that has a vested interest in the health care of cancer, including the American Cancer Society, any of these stalled benefactors to those who have contracted the disease – all of these institutes are involved in the money and power around cancer.

These institutions have influence over government and regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration.. The FDA recommends only allopathic treatments for cancer and other life threatening diseases. It does not approve nor make legal alternative treatments of any kind.

ER: You’re saying the Essiac is in a position similar to, for example, laetril.

GG: Yes, the only reason laetril was stopped – and it couldn’t be stopped any other way – was through the insurance companies. The insurance companies sent down a directive to all allopathic physicians stating that they could not cover them in any malpractice suit in the event they were treating people with any substance not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

ER: In your book you mention that the Brusch Clinic in Massachusetts worked with Rene Caisse and with Essiac, during the 1960s. Is this clinic still doing research with Essiac?

GG: Dr Charles A Brusch is not practicing at this time. He was a personal physician to the late President John F Kennedy. Dr. Brusch worked with Rene Caisse from 1959 to 1962. He worked with thousands of cancer patients. He also worked with the Presidential Cancer Commission, with others like Dr Armand Hammer, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Brusch presented his findings after ten years of research. He had come to the conclusion that “Essiac is a cure for cancer, period.” All studies done at laboratories in the United States and Canada support this conclusion.

Whereupon the Federal Government issued a gag order and said, “You’ve got one of two choices, either you keep quiet about this or we’ll haul you off to military prison and you’ll never be heard of again,” so we never heard another word out of him.

Brusch’s Essiac patients included Ted Kennedy’s son who had a sarcoma in his leg, and who had his leg amputated. He was being treated at the time by the Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Farber didn’t know how to save him, because no-one had ever lived with this type of sarcoma. So what he did was go to Dr. Brusch and say, how are we going to save Ted Kennedy’s son? And Dr. Brusch made the suggestion to put him on Essiac, and after they did, he didn’t have a cancer cell in his body. But all this information has been hidden from the public.

ER: Why?

GG: As I said, money and power.

ER: Do you know whether the remedy is being used or tested anywhere today in the U.S. or Canada?

GG: Right now Essiac is being used in every state in the United States, it’s throughout Canada and into Mexico, its in Australia, Europe, Asia, and, recently, also in Africa. And the message of Essiac is beginning to make it’s way worldwide. But it’s still known on a very limited basis.

Of course now you also have the problem of herbal distributing companies throughout the world that are substituting …low dock and curly dock for sheep’s sorrel, which is one of the crucial ingredients in Essiac.

The sheep’s sorrel is the herbal ingredient in Essiac that was found to be responsible for the destruction of cancer cells in the body, or their amalgamation where …astasized cancer cells actually return to the original tumor site.

That research was done by Dr Chester ….ck at Sloan-Kettering in New York for over a three year period. But when they gathered that information, they withheld it from the general public – yet they gave it to the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Canadian government then immediately banned the herb for sale and distribution.

ER: Banned a common weed like sheep’s sorrel?

GG: Yes, sheep’s sorrel is just a common weed that grows in abundance throughout North America. Just a common weed. (Note: After this interview was completed, Wildfire learned from an herbalist in Canada that the Canadian government has recently banned St John’s Wort, also a common weed frequently used by herbalists.)

ER: Well, it seems banning sheep’s sorrel would not be very effective if you could identify it for yourself.

GG: Yes, it’s just a question of identifying the plant and then harvesting it correctly and drying it properly and then putting it together with the other herbs.

Rene would harvest the sheep’s sorrel -Rumex acetosella- when it was four to six inches high. She cut it back and would let it grow up again, and she’d cut it back again. She would do that about three times and then she would let it go to seed. It will grow to about 14 or 18 inches.

She would take the herb cuttings home and lay them out at room temperature to dry them. She let the cuttings sit there for three or four days before she’d begin turning the herbs. Then she’d turn them every two days until they were properly dry, which took about ten days to two weeks. It takes about a bushel of harvested sheep’s sorrel to produce one pound of the dried powdered herb which is used in the formula.

ER: Do you have the formula? It’s not in your book. You do mention a video in the book.

GG: Yes I have it. Anyone can get it from me, free of charge. We don’t sell the video anymore. We simply mail the formula to anyone who asks for it.

ER: Sun Bear told me you had problems getting the book published and distributed. What kind of problems?

GG: There wasn’t a publishing company that would publish it. No one wanted to run the risk of a wrongful death suit. So I published the book myself. And as soon as I did, the IRS came in and slapped about a half a million dollars in tax liens against me and said, “You know this has got nothing to do with taxes. It’s all about cancer.” They actually started hauling the pallets of books out of my medical practice offices and confiscating them. I also had thousands of books that were confiscated by the Canadian government at customs. I have never received any of those books back. The only ones I have now are hidden in storage facilities.

ER: That’s incredible – why do you think they are so interested in keeping this book out of circulation?

GG: Money and power, as I’ve said. Cancer is the largest revenue producing business in the world next to the petrochemical business. In Canada the book is being held up by the Ministry of Health & Welfare because they say it is “advertising.”

ER: Advertising what? The video you don’t sell any more?

GG: No, a cure for cancer.

ER: Can you explain what you mean by the publishers fearing a wrongful death suit?

GG: What you’re dealing with is giving people a formula that they can make and use in the privacy of their own homes without the approval of the AMA or FDA or anybody else. If an attorney or any family member should decide, for whatever reason, that the reason someone expired was from the use of Essiac, then you are putting yourself up for a wrongful death suit. The contention is that if it isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration, there’s no legality in using it when you’re dealing with a life threatening disease.

When Rene Caisse set up her clinical trials in Canada to test Essiac, she was given government permission to treat terminally ill cancer patients who had been given up for hopeless by the medical profession. That was one criteria. Secondly, this was all to be certified by a pathology report. And third, she could not charge anything for her services. She agreed to all these criteria and proceeded to treat people with Essiac. Many she treated were still here 35 years later to bury her when she died at age 90.

The best that anyone can do is try to disseminate this information to the public and let people make their own choices. That’s all you can do. And just say, look, if you feel that Essiac has value in your life and the lives of your loved ones, you have the right to use it in the privacy of your own home and without anyone’s approval.

You know, in 1937 Essiac came within three votes of being legalized as a treatment for cancer. People had garnered over fiftyfive thousand signatures on a petition to allow Rene to continue to use Essiac. The only reason the vote fell short, she found out years later, was that the College of Physicians and Surgeons met and said to the Parliament, if you don’t respond to the political pressure and legalize Essiac, then we’ll take a sincere look and give this woman a fair hearing. So Parliament didn’t legalize Essiac.

So following the Royal Cancer Commission hearings Rene was allowed to continue her practice but only within the criteria I mentioned before, which allowed the Ministry of Health & Welfare to restrict peoples access to Essiac treatments.

I know this because I have a copy of the hearing transcripts which I got from Mary McPherson, which is some of the information that didn’t get burned when Rene died.

ER: You mentioned earlier. What exactly was burned?

GG: All her research for that 40 year period of time. All the names, all her clinical data that she had collected. All her files.

ER: What about the records of the Brusch Clinic? It seems these would be convincing evidence.

GG: As far as I know all that material has been destroyed also. I knew that Rene had worked with Dr Brusch from 1959 to 1962, so I went to Dr Brusch’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts whereupon he delivered me the only materials he had left in his files on Essiac. One of those files was his own personal file where he had treated and cured his own cancer with Essiac. I have his personal records.

All the information in my book is verified by a sheet of paper with a signature and date on it, and those sheets and signatures are all originals. They are not copies.

ER: Have you had any personal experiences with Essiac?

GG: Yes, I can give you an example. He was a twelve year old boy named Toby Wood. He had acute lymphoblastic, which is one of the most virulent of all leukemias.

He had been on chemotherapy for four years and radiation for three. His mother’s only hope in life was to find a cure for him. She went everywhere. She tried every alternative treatment.

Her last stop was Dr Alvados in Athens, Greece where her son’s white blood cell count was 186,000. He had no red blood cells or platelets. He was hemorrhaging to death. So they transfused Toby in Greece, and put him on a plane to Alaska where he was given five days to live.

I met his mother’s sister in Los Angeles while I was putting the book together and she asked if there was any credibility here. We sat down and talked. She then borrowed the money for a flight to Anchorage, and delivered a bottle of Essiac. By the time she got there Toby had three days to live. He was in a state of complete deterioration. He was given the Essiac and all the hemorrhaging stopped within 24 hours. Within three months all his blood tests were normal. I arrived in Alaska later that year and met him.

Toby Wood did die, and we finally found a pathologist who would do an exhaustive autopsy. We knew that he didn’t have leukemia anymore. We wanted to find out the cause of death. It took four months to get the report back. The pathologist autopsied the brain, testicles, and all life support organs, including the bone marrow. No blast cells were found in any life support organ. There were a few stray cells in the testicles and the brain. Cause of death was damage to the myocardial sac of the heart, a result of the chemotherapy.

This was the first report anywhere in medical history of anyone surviving lymphoblastic leukemia. That information was taken to AP and UPI but they said it was not newsworthy.

Our information on Essiac has been sent around the world twice through Publishers Weekly magazine in a huge two page ad. We received no responses at all from any publishing company worldwide, no producers, no directors throughout the United States, no talk show programs, none of that. We can’t access the media. In fact we talked to Philip Scheffler, producer of 60 Minutes. He read the book and we called him to ask him what he was going to do about it. He said, nothing. I said all the information in the book is verifiable. In other words it’s the truth. I said if you’re 60 minutes why don’t you expose me and Essiac as a fraud. He said. nope, can’t do it.

We took it to Joe Donally who is the executive news producer for ABC in New York. We said why not give it to Peter Jennings, Geraldo Rivera, Ted Koppel, one of those? He said, nope. We asked why not? He said because his phone lines would be invaded with 65,000 phone calls. We said, how sympathetic do you think a parent whose child is dying from leukemia would be to your 65,000 phone calls. He went on to say he’s got a mortgage on his house and he’s looking forward to retirement.

So that’s the problem. No one wants this information disseminated. And it’s not just the media, either. It includes the herbal companies who are now substituting curly dock for sheep’s sorrel. So people are getting the wrong ingredients for Essiac, not to mention the five or six other formulas that are circulating which are different from the one I send out. These false formulas are being disseminated. There is a disinformation campaign going on here, somehow.

ER: Has this disinformation campaign started just since your book has been out?

GG: Previous to my book, none of this information was available to the general public at all. The public had no information outside a few assorted articles. Certainly the Essiac formula was not available to the general public at all. All that information was held by the Resperin Corporation in Toronto, Canada, which supposedly is a private institution.

However, they work hand in glove with the Canadian Ministry of Health & Welfare, who works directly with the American Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The Essiac formula was never given to anyone by Resperin.

ER: Did the Resperin Corporation do any research on Essiac?

GG: They’ve done research since 1978 when the formula was relinquished to them by Rene for the purchase price of one dollar. As soon as they got the formula, they told Rene they had no further use for her. She had been under the distinct impression from the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Resperin Corporation that she was to lead research activities that they so desperately wanted to put together.

But Rene had already done clinical trials. She had names and records. She thought the Resperin Corporation was politically powerful and had money enough to get Essiac into the public sector without compromising her values. Then she found out the Corporation was working closely with the government and administration and the Ministry of Health & Welfare.

So now people who were terminally ill given up as hopeless had to go through a federal bureaucratic maze to get the remedy. By then, for most of these people, it was too late. But even when people were cured, that information was not released to the public.

Resperin ran research tests on Essiac. One test was done in Northern Canada and the documents were falsified. For example, one man was listed as dead who a few months later knocked on Rene’s door and said, “You know I want to thank you for the Essiac and for being part of this experimental program. Yet he was listed as dead in the research findings.

ER: It’s beginning to seem amazing to me that any information at all about this remedy has survived the “conspiracy of silence” or outright destruction of records and so on.

GG: The only reason Essiac is known to the public is by word of mouth and because Essiac is what it is. What will keep Essiac known is it’s effectiveness. Rene said it years ago. She said, look, if Essiac doesn’t have any merit let me put it out there. If it doesn’t have any merit it will kill itself. Of course she knew full well if people had the correct herbs, the remedy would stand on its own.. And that is exactly what Essiac has done over this period of time that we’ve been disseminating the information.

Rene also found that Essiac was a strong preventative. These findings were substantiated by Dr Albert Schatz at Temple University who discovered the cure for tuberculosis.

Rene also found that Essiac would normalise the thyroid gland. My wife was on two grains of thyroid since the sixth grade. After I met her, she started taking Essiac, and she hasn’t taken a grain of thyroid since.

Rene also found that Essiac would heal stomach ulcers within three to four weeks. She felt that ulcers were a precursor to cancer.

Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, wanted to work with Rene. She had clinical cases where a person on insulin discontinued it with the Essiac, since no one knew how Essiac interacted with the insulin. Apparently Essiac regulated the pancreas in cases of diabetes mellitus. So these people then came insulin free.

Another thing I’ve found with Essiac is that I’ve experienced almost perfect health. As you get older you think, well, I’m forty now, these things happen. Well, these things don’t have to happen. Since I’ve taken Essiac, I’ve experienced almost perfect health. It’s amazing. I sleep like a baby, have all kinds of energy, and no sickness, not even a cold or the flu.

I also worked with the AIDS Project Los Angeles through their Long Beach and San Pedro districts. They had sent 179 patients home to die. They all had pneumocystis carinii and histoplasmosis. Their weight was down to about 100 pounds. Their T-4 cell counts were less that ten. The Project gave me five of these patients. I took them off the AZT and the DDI and put them on Essiac three times a day. Those are the only ones alive today. The other 174 are dead.

ER: That is incredible – but what kind of lives are they leading today?

GG: They’re exercising three times a day, eating three meals a day. Their weight is back to normal. For all intents and purposes you wouldn’t know they had a sick day in their lives. But this information is not being disseminated either, because AIDS is on the horizon as another big moneymaker. The chairman of the AIDS Project in Los Angeles makes over $100,000 a year.

Even the alternative health care professionals are out there to control, not to cure. Alternative medical practice is just as mercenary and deceptive as the allopathic. No one wants a cure for cancer or AIDS.

The alternative people are also in it for the money. What you’re finding with Essiac is that it is not even allowed into the arenas of the alternative health care. So really what you’ve got out here is people continually perpetrating these lies against mankind. For money. For money and power. It’s that simple.

Really once you think about it, the only reason we don’t have solar power is that no one’s figured out a way to sell Exxon the sun. It’s true. If they could, you’d have solar power. You know you’d have it.

ER: So, in your own personal experience, this herbal remedy works to “cure” cancer, thyroid conditions, diabetes, AIDS, ulcers…

GG: It also cures the common cold. Essiac elevates the immune system. I’ve been taking one ounce a day for seven years, and in seven years I haven’t had a cold, flu or virus.

ER: And all of this from a simple Native herbal remedy?

GG: Yes. Although Rene did alter it. She altered it with Turkish Rhubarb root -rheum palmatum . Turkish rhubarb root has a 5,000 year history. It actually came up from India into China and then was taken by the British.

ER: Turkish rhubarb root is not native to this country, nor available here. Herbs from foreign countries are fumigated and irradiated, so is it a good idea to use the Turkish rhubarb root?

GG: You can substitute ordinary rhubarb root. The other two ingredients are burdock root -arctium lappa – and the inner bark of the slippery elm -ulmus fulva . They are easy to obtain, usually. Sheep’s sorrel -rumex acetosella is what destroys the cancer cells. The other three herbs are blood purifiers.

Essiac elevates the enzyme system and gives all cancer patients and all AIDS patients the enzymes that have been destroyed. Essiac elevates the enzyme system; it elevates the hormone system, which elevates the immune system, so the body can cure it’s own disease.

ER: What about quantities?

GG: Even its worst enemy could never lay claim that Essiac had any deleterious side effects whatever. You can take Essiac safely, through all the clinical trials that have been done, up to six ounces a day. That’s two ounces in the evening, two at midday and two in the morning. That’s a high dosage. Rene had the correct herbs and she used as little as one ounce a week.

But look at the difference between then and now. The food didn’t have carcinogens in it, and neither did the water, nor the air. So what have we done? We’ve killed the air, killed the water, killed the food. So what’s left?

Nationwide, in the water we drink, over 2,100 organic and inorganic chemicals have been identified, and 156 of them are pure carcinogens. Of those, if you have a tumor, 26 are tumor promoting , so they make the tumor larger. But of course this information is not available to the public either. Those figures are from tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency which have never been distributed to the public.

ER: How did you get the information?

GG: From a Ralph Nader organization out of Washington DC. The media has not disseminated this information. Another problem is that very few people read books any more. We can only hope they’ll read Calling of an Angel . Of course the problem right now is people getting the right herbs.

ER: Anything you’d like to add before we close this interview?

GG: I would like to say that I didn’t do all this research because I feel I have a responsibility to other people. I did it because I have a responsibility to myself. I know that I’ve done all I can do to disseminate this information to the people.

I was the first person to release this information to the public and say, here it is, here’s the formula, here’s the story. So now the story is out there and look what is happening – its getting killed through a disinformation campaign. I mean Harvard, Temple, Tufts, Northwestern University, Chicago – all these institutions have tested Essiac with the right stuff, and they all came to the same conclusions as Rene Caisse. But all that information has been buried.

ER: Gary, it’s been very interesting to speak with you.

GG: It’s been a pleasure. You’re opening a Pandora’s Box, you know, publishing this interview.

ER: I think you’re the one who’s done that.

Dr Gary L. Glum, until some years ago, was a chiropractor with offices in Los Angeles California. His clients included well known professional athletic teams and Olympic teams.

In 1988 Dr Glum published Calling of an Angel, the story of Rene Caisse and Essiac. Some years ago he closed his practice and now devotes his time to investigative writing.

The official formula is provided below. Please note that Essiac is not distributed or sold through this site or through East West Network. For distributors, please check Essiac in Search Engines and verify correct ingredients.

Subject: Essiac Ingredients

MESSAGE: The Essiac ingredients are available in proper quantities.

1 lb 5oz – Burdock Root c/s (6 1/2 cups)

1 lb – Sheep Sorrel Lvs., Pwd

4 oz – Slippery Elm Bark, Pwd

1 oz – Turkish Rhubarb Root, Pwd

Makes 10 -two gallon batches

Also available 12 x 16 Amber Glass bottles with caps  – They hold first 2 gall batch

DIRECTIONS TO PREPARE ESSIAC

FIRST READ DIRECTIONS THOROUGHLY

SUPPLIES NEEDED
2-3 gallon stainless steel pots with lids
1 – strainer
1 – stainless or wooden spatula
1 – funnel
1 – timer (optional) New amber glass bottles with caps.

You will need:
8 oz Measuring cup of Essiac from mixed materials
2 gallons distilled water

Bring to a hard boil (Takes about 30 minutes) The lid is on all the time (Except while stirring). Put in Essiac Herbs – Stir – Boil. Boil hard for 10 mins (Adjust flame as needed). Turn off stove – let sit for 6 hours. After 6 hours stir thoroughly, let sit for 6 more hours. After the last 6 hours, turn heat on and bring to boil. At boiling point turn off the heat, strain into pot #2 – Clean pot #1 – strain back into pot #1. Immediately pour into bottles and put the caps on (12 x 16 oz bottles). Must be bottled hot. Store in a dark cabinet.

DIRECTIONS FOR USE OF ESSIAC

Take Four Tablespoons of distilled water. Heat the water. To the heated water add Four Tablespoons (2 oz) ESSIAC. Mix and drink. To be taken at bedtime on an empty stomach. At least 2 hours after eating. Can be taken in the morning on an empty stomach. If taken in the morning do not eat for at least 2 hours after taking.

ONCE OPENED KEEP REFRIGERATED

This post is brought to you courtesy of the author and TribalBiz.com.

Advocates hope it will be harder to miss the import of what Cedar Bough does for Native American youths in Oregon, and beyond.

Cedar Bough, a residential center run by ChristieCare that treats mentally ill Native American and Native Alaskan youths, opened a year ago on the site of a former operator that was shut down by the state.

In that time, the center has treated more than 60 kids from middle through high school. The center, which includes academics, equine therapy, counseling and more, is especially vital for youth who face a high risk of substance abuse, foster placement and juvenile detention.

But for Cedar Bough even to open its doors, administrators at parent ChristieCare first had to close their mouths.

They were, after all, a non-Native organization offering to house and treat the youths of tribes with a long history of abuse from white America. Memories of children being taken from tribes, ordered to cut their hair and prevented from learning their culture remain fresh.

The historic context played out in countless meetings.

ChristieCare executive director Lynne Saxton recalls tough, early meetings with Native Americans tinged with distrust and fear.

During one meeting, growing red-faced as others spoke, Saxton knew she couldn’t become defensive. She told herself, “I’m going to listen if this goes for two hours.”

“There were years of working and trust-building and tons of conversations about our deficits in serving Native Americans,” Saxton recalls. “There is so much to honor and respect in their cultures. Doing that well is not easy work.”

ChristieCare tackled the issue directly and formed a monthly Native American advisory council, which includes members of the Native American Youth Authority, Native American Rehabilitation Association, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, tribes and others. Native American spiritual leaders performed a cleansing ceremony of the wooded site before it opened. A ChristieCare staff member traveled the state visiting every recognized tribe six months before the doors opened.

ChristieCare also hired Sande Bea Allman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and a well-known local leader as cultural liaison on staff at Cedar Bough.

Allman acknowledges that some Native Americans question whether a non-Native organization could help their kids. She points out that ChristieCare asked for help and shows a commitment to getting better. They listen to their consultants and attend local powwows to meet more people.

Allman was excited, too, to work with an organization dedicated to helping Native youths.

“I’ve known for years this service was needed,” she said. “They really need help, both psychological and social.”

At school, she acts as a translator, tipping teachers off to cultural no-nos, such as not touching someone’s hair, which is considered sacred. She explains the rites around death to non-Native staff so they’re not surprised when clients attend funerals.

Her role could feel weighty, tasked as she is with translating a multitude of traditions across many tribes. But Allman says she is grateful. “I would rather people have the right answer than just read something out of a book and assume that’s what it means to be Native.”

Of course, not all the youths are enmeshed in their culture. Some come from reservations, but many others live in urban environments. They may not know their tribal bloodlines let alone cultural expectations or the history behind cedar bark crafts.

To help, Cedar Bough classes include Native history taught by trained staff, one third to half of whom are Natives. A traditional blessing begins lunch and dinner. Native grandmas come in to teach traditional crafts, such as beading.

Drum circle every Wednesday connects youth with elders, and the center offers culturally appropriate foods and activities, including canoe trips and huckleberry picking. Kids often come to Cedar Bough through referrals from their tribal mental health providers and have come from as far away as California.

“A lot of reservation communities have very little access to child psychiatry,” program director Becky Greear said.

Cedar Bough sets up individual education plans for those who need one to partner with their mental health counseling. Older teens can catch up on high school credits, get ready for community college or prepare for a job training program.

The goal is to return youth to their homes as quickly as possible, feeling stronger and better equipped to cope, Greear says.

But before residents leave, they receive a hawk feather to place on a staff that Allman keeps in her office. The feather represents a step on their journey.

In the future, Cedar Bough officials hope to offer enough follow-up services to ensure that kids receive stable care after they return home, Greear says.

ChristieCare, which started out as a religious charity but morphed into a major mental health provider, prides itself in going beyond traditional treatment, Saxton says.

That manifests in different ways, such as a recent PlayWrite camp at Cedar Bough that gave voice to the teens’ emotional experiences and the forum to confidently share them with others.

“No one deserves a good life more than the children we serve,” Saxton said. “Our job is to make sure their life can be defined by their strengths and not just for their challenges.”

This post brought to you by the author and TribalBiz.com

The first mistake in both debates is to blindly trust the government. Just because the government says the healthcare solution is going to improve the system, hesitation is wise. How many people actually know the details of this healthcare bill? The rumor disseminated by Sarah Palin about death panels may appear preposterous, but it is partially true. Many advocates and forefathers of the bill believe that healthcare should be prioritized and the elderly may not fall within those priorities. While many liken this to saving 1000 people by letting one individual fade out, it has many more ramifications.

The first concern is the precedent such a priority sets. Even if the US could somehow come to a consensus that the elderly are the least priority (which I do not believe we can nor should do), this is a very dangerous trend. Perhaps the next group to get ousted from health coverage could be my group or your group (an ethnic group, mentally handicapped, whoever else is believed the weakest link). History and common sense urge caution with the government and that life should never be prioritized. Historically, the government has tried to commit genocide against the native peoples, provided them such little healthcare that infant mortality is high, it would be a mistake to naïvely believe that the government may actually have empathy for the tribes and not sacrifice them.

A second problem with the proposal is more obvious, maybe some Americans do not respect the elders, but tribal people have traditionally held the elders in high esteem. Taking away their health care eliminates their opportunity to freely choose how to live out the rest of their lives. It also eradicates their opportunity to continue to guide and impart wisdom (for we know that the young are often foolish as we see with this debate). Any attack on the elderly is not only an attack on life, but on many of our cultures.

Finally, speaking of improving funding for Indian Health Services, the amount is so dismal, it is a mere parlor trick to deceive and temporarily win favor. The stimulus is expected to cost nearly 24 trillion US dollars, yet we certainly know the money is hardly reaching the tribal peoples. Appeasing and deceiving a group is certainly not the same as Change. If the Administration is serious about Indian Health Services, the program needs to be considered very carefully and serious money needs to be invested or the program needs to be changed (yes another program to reform).

Indian Health Services and healthcare reform are two different programs, but if the government is incompetent at one, why should the exploited tribal peoples have any faith in the other? The only thing we can know to be true is history– the history of tribal exploitation and government mismanagement. Faith in the government’s word has proven deathly for the tribes.

A powerful new music video From Stilettos to Moccasins was released this week, the culmination of a unique project that gave voice to Aboriginal women healing from drug abuse, addictions and problems with the law, together with those who are helping them on their journey.

The video is part of a community-based research project conducted by the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation (NNAPF), and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA). The roughly four-minute video was shared at a national CCSA conference in Halifax this week and can be viewed on You-Tube at: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=1QRb8wA2iHs

The research project examined the role that identity and stigma have in the healing journeys of criminalized Aboriginal women in treatment for drug abuse at centres across Canada. The video is being used by the research team in the development of a discussion guide for workshops at addiction treatment centres across Canada.

“By creating a music video, based on the findings of academic research, we can increase our capacity to strengthen understanding about Aboriginal women’s treatment needs among a broad range of service providers and the general public,” said U of S sociologist Colleen Dell, Research Chair in Substance Abuse. “It also offers a unique and personalized message of hope and inspiration to women on their healing journeys.”

The song featured in the video was created at a workshop in February at Cedar Lodge on Blackstrap Lake, SK., with the professional collaboration of singer/songwriter Violet Naytowhow, a Woodland Cree from Prince Albert. Naytowhow and others who composed the song perform in the music video, which was presented in Halifax this week at the national conference “Issues of Substance” during National Addictions Awareness Week (Nov. 15-21).

“As a way of informing treatment practice, capturing the unique experiences of Aboriginal women who have recovered from their addictions in song is most inspiring,” says Rita Notarandrea, deputy chief executive officer of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

“We are merging these messages with academic literature and sharing this research with others, in the hope of achieving a greater impact on policy and practice of addictions treatment in Saskatchewan and across Canada,” says Carol Hopkins, NNAPF executive-director.

The team worked with Mae Star Productions, an independent Saskatchewan- based company, to produce the music video.

The multi-year collaborative research project was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health. The project involved interviews with more than 100 First Nations, Inuit and Métis women in treatment for illicit drug use.

Friendly Native American tribes shared their profound knowledge of healing with the first European settlers and introduced to them countless hitherto unknown medicinal and culinary herbs.

Many herbs are particularly useful for women’s problems, notably squaw vine and blue cohosh, both uterine tonics. The settlers in their turn brought with them the seeds and roots of their most valuable herbs, which took hold and flourished in their new environment.

The religious sect called the Shakers lived by agriculture and were also the first white Americans to grow and sell herbs in commercial quantities. The Native Americans of Canada, the United States, and Mexico based their concept of natural medicine on the Great Spirit, and on the Medicine Wheel, within which we are all born and travel on life’s journey.

The Wheel is made up of the Four Directions, each with its particular qualities and energies. Herbs are thought both to guide and to assist in healing. The Native Americans of the northeast recognized herbs to cure sore eyes, skin problems, abdominal complaints, and lung disorders, among other ailments. When they gathered the woodland herbs in high summer, the medicine men would begin by offering tobacco to the Four Directions of the Wheel and to the sky and earth. Herbs were gathered after ritual prayers and promises not to take more than was needed.

The Cherokee of the southeast recognized more than 100 types of medicinal herb. Some were used because they resembled the causative agent of the disease or because they looked like the part of the body affected. This compares with the medieval Western Doctrine of Signatures, where plants are named for their resemblance to body parts and used in remedies for that part. We know more about Cherokee medicine and herbal repertoire than any other Native American traditions because their great chief Sequoia developed a form of written language that was used to record rituals, prayers, and medicinal remedy recipes. The Cherokee believed that illness was caused by the spirits of dead animals, revenging themselves on human hunters, or by malcontented spirits or ghosts.

Diseases were named for their causes not their symptoms. Illnesses were cured by rubbing boiled herbs into the patient’s skin or blowing dried herbs over them through a cane pipe. Singing and ritual formulas were also important. Much of Native American healing centered around purification, not just of the body but also of the spirit. Heat was considered a great purifier, and “hot” herbs were often administered to induce violent vomiting. Sweating out toxins in the “sweat lodge ceremony” was central to curing disease and maintaining health, and also purified the body in preparation for enlightenment. Fresh or dried herbs were burned during the ceremony and the smoke was considered to provide a link with the spirit world. Sage was a particularly important herb, and was believed to be especially sacred. For modern Native Americans who live on reservations, the use of herbs and other traditional methods of healing remains vitally important and is still preferred to conventional medicine.

Some of the practices and remedies are from specific tribes, but more often these are all gathered together and the origin of a specific treatment has been lost among the ages.

As well it should be, perhaps, for the tribes of North America all believed one thing in common, that we are all at one with every other living thing in the sky and earth, and the elements are here for us to draw on their strength and cure disease, if only we would stand still long enough to listen. We are talking about medical practices over 40,000 years old. Traditions, cures, dances and remedies handed down through orally within a family and tribe.

It is an interesting fact that the Native American Medicine tradition was going on around the same time as TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) on the other side of the world, and that both these traditions of practicing medicine are similar to Ayurveda ( medicine from India), in yet another part of the world.

All are based on the same beliefs-that your lifestyle and natural setting be taken into consideration before a specific type of treatment is recommended. Balance is the goal when achieving perfect health and emotional spirit. The subtle differences in the practice of such medicine are that cures and herbs are specific to the regions and the types of indigenous plants that are used.

These plants are believed to have their own spirits and therefore their individual intelligence, so that the plants are often consulted as to how best to help the patient. The plants are asked for permission to harvest them, and then gratitude is shown after the harvest, a practice which also can be found in ancient Celtic cultures. In Wales, pieces of copper or other metal were buried near the plant or under the tree from which the bark, root, or leaves had been harvested, in North American Medicine; tobacco is often used as an offering of gratitude. After these medicinal plants are harvested, they are applied in conjunction with chants, prayers, and dances to increase their power and to ask the spirits to help with the healing process.

A purification procedure is used before and after the healing session; smudging is to burn an herb and let the smoke wash over you and the room in which the treatment will be/was performed. Healers smudge between each session to purify and cleanse them and to release ant energy they might have gathered from the sick patient.

Sage and cedar drive away the negative energy, like the energy released with the pain from a sick person, or the negative energy the healer has picked up as a result of taking the pain from the patient and into them.

Far from the cooking spice, sage grows wild in many dry parts of North America, especially in the Southwest, but it can be found as far north as Eastern Washington State. Cedars has great healing and soothing powers, but if you burn it, make sure all of the smoke has dissipated before you enter the room, it is also poisonous. Sweet grass invites positive and happy spirits to join the healing circle, and they like something sweet to be placed in a corner of the room to snack on during the session. They love singing accompanied by the sound of drums and rattles.

The session will likely include some acupressure (uses the fingertips rather than needles), massage, and/or therapeutic touch. The laying on of the healer’s hands is very calming and is used to soothe the patient as well as define where the pain is radiating from. Pain radiates heat, and the seasoned healer can feel this coming off the patient in much the same way a mother puts her hand on a sick child’s forehead to feel for fever.

Last month President Obama invited leaders from 564 American Indian tribes to discuss important issues in Indian Country, including the delivery of better health care.

Congress is currently debating a health care overhaul and it might just be the catalyst for significant improvements to the Indian health system. According to experts, if the overhaul was to happen there would be direct streams of money to the Indian health care system which would give Native Americans more treatment options over time. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will meet this week to discuss other Indian health issues that could end up in the overhaul bill.

President Obama also proposed a budget increase of 13 percent for the federal Indian Health Service, which provides free care to 1.9 million Indians who are members of federally recognized tribes, most of whom live on tribally owned land. The service, which had a budget this year of $3.3 billion, has also received $500 million in stimulus money for construction, repairs and equipment. Many Native American leaders believe this is a positive step in narrowing the gap in Indian health care, which is substantially underfunded.

The Indian Health Care Improvement Act also stands a good chance of being reauthorized by Congress for the first time since 2001, and it would enhance programs, physician recruitment and hospital construction. Although it approves no funding, advocates hope it will prompt additional money.

Given the current climate in Congress, and the President’s support, some believe it will be easier to get Native American provisions in the health care bills, but for now there is no guarantee, just hope.