Cancer and herbs

I understand that herbs are supposed to be really good at preventing and, in some cases, eliminating cancer.  Lots of claims have been made, and many friends and family have encouraged me to use a variety of spices and herbs, etc.

It is well known that blueberries, and I guess berries in general are powerful anti-oxidants, and some books indicate that garlic and onions etc. are good cancer fighters.  Also, the words "broccoli" and "sprouts" often come up in such conversations.  I have tried them all.  I think I will take the blueberry route to good nutrition.

One of the more common herbal remedies is essiac tea.  This is an ancient Native American concoction of some stuff I had never heard of, but several people have told me I should use it.  When I got a package of the stuff personally delivered to my front door, I decided to try it.  It contains burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm bark, and rhubarb root.  How did anyone ever come up with that combination???  Anyway, according to very detailed instructions, you boil the stuff in water for 10 minutes, stir it (at every step, you have to stir, then cover it, as though something precious will be lost if left to itself), let it sit for 12 hours, then boil it again.  when it cools the second time, you strain it into a dark brown colored bottle.  When you drink it, you dilute this concoction with an equal amount of water.  The first batch went well and the container I found that almost fit the bill was an empty Martinelli's Apple Cider bottle. I say almost, because the bottle is green, not brown.  I hope I won't lose too much by this deviation.  The instructions say that you can drink it cold or hot and you are supposed to take it twice a day.  Soon the first batch was gone.  Nasty stuff.  But it is supposed to be doing my body good, so I stick with it.

By New Year's day, the second batch was about half gone, and I was well on my way to real good health.  That afternoon we had some family over.  Lots of grandkids everywhere and all were quite well behaved.  Everyone brings food of some kind, and it is all available to everyone, so it is quite natural for the kids to try whatever is on the buffet table or in the fridge.  One of them saw the bottle that said Sparkling Apple Cider, and thought she would try some.  The first thing she noticed was that the sparkle was gone.  No fizz, no bubbles.  Must be kind of dead, and the liquid was quite a bit darker than expected, but she tried it anyway.  Uggggh!  The sink got an unexpected shot of something strange.  Another grandchild also participated, but he drank the whole glass.  It was actually a double dose, not having been diluted.   A real good sport, I say.  You can expect that he will never get cancer.

MJG