Fwd: Cancer Therapy : The Gerson Miracle

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alternative_medicine_forum From: Frank Sun, 29 Aug 2004 03:56:28 -0700 (PDT) Cancer Therapy : The Gerson Miraclehttp://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy2.htmlThe Gerson MiracleCancer Therapy "I know of one patient who turned to Gerson Therapyhaving been told she was suffering from terminalcancer and would not survive another course ofchemotherapy. Happily, seven years later, she is aliveand well. So it is vital that, rather than dismissingsuch experiences, we should further investigate thebeneficial nature of these treatments." (H.R.H.Charles, Prince of Wales)"I am familiar with the Gerson method and believe thatit has a lot of merit. I have always been frustratedthat it was not taken seriously and

studiedintensively as it should be. I think it has a verygood track record." (Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.)"I see in Dr. Max Gerson one of the most eminentgeniuses in medical history." (Albert Schweitzer,M.D., Nobel Prize laureate) The Gerson MiracleReview copyright 2004 Andrew W. Saul"The cure for cancer has been discovered. In 1928."These are the opening words of the new one-and-a-halfhour documentary movie, The Gerson Miracle. No onethat views it can possibly misunderstand itsuncompromising assertions that cancer is curable, andthat Dr. Max Gerson repeatedly proved it.When Max Gerson, M.D., testified before the U.S.Senate on July 1, 2, and 3, 1946, he likely had highhopes of acceptance of his work. No such luck. In1958, he published all the how-to-do-it details in ACancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases. He died thenext year, under suspicious

circumstances.(http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonbio.htm)Even today it is necessary for persons seeking Gersontreatment to leave the country to obtain it. As thefilm's narration says, "Laws in virtually all of theUnited States prohibit any other treatment of cancerthan radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, even thoughthey are usually ineffective at best, and completelyineffective at worst. Chemotherapy, for example, doesnot cure cancer at all, and usually merely poisons thepatient instead of the cancer."Strong words, those. If Oscar-winning documentaristMichael Moore initially had difficulty obtainingdistribution for his Fahrenheit 9/11 movie, you can besure there will be some hefty opposition to this one.And yet, the heart of the Gerson therapy is ecologicalcommon sense. I think this is why it makes a goodsubject for film, and why it appealed so toproducer/director Steven Kroschel. Kroschel's

previousdocumentary credits include work for the LearningChannel, National Geographic, PBS, and the BBC, aswell as contributions to a number of Hollywoodfeatures including Straight Up, Vertical Limit, and ISpy. Not surprisingly, Kroschel personally follows theGerson diet.The narration continues:"The soil, and all that grows in it, is not somethingdistant from us, but must be regarded as our externalmetabolism, which produces the nutrients for ourinternal metabolism. Therefore, the soil must be caredfor properly. It must not be depleted or poisonedOtherwise, changes will result in serious degenerativediseases in animals and humans."This sounds much like text from any biology textbookthat I've taught from."Mass-produced, commercially-grown fruits andvegetables are fertilized with only three minerals:nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous," says thenarrator. Yet plants "need over 50 more."

As aconsequence, "the plants are sick, and must be kept onlife support with toxic chemicals until market." Onthe other hand, organic farming methods enable boththe plant, and you, to resist disease. This especiallyincludes cancer.The film states that the two key factors that are "theunderlying cause of cancer are deficiency andtoxicity." A radical, organic raw vegetablejuice-based diet is proposed as the primary remedy.Why juiced? Because "Dr. Gerson discovered early inhis research that fruits and vegetables must be juicedto flood the body with nutrients that have beenlacking within the human organism for so very long,sometimes for decades. . . When juice is drunk, it canenter the blood stream almost as fast as alcohol. . .Dr. Gerson required his patients to drink one 8 ounceglass of juice 13 times a day." That amounts to some20 pounds of produce, yielding "an organic medicationstraight from the table of

Mother Nature."The Gerson therapy calls for an expensive grind andpress juicer, such as a Norwalk. On the other hand,the film states, Norman W. Walker, that particularjuicer's inventor and namesake, died June 6, 1985 atthe age of 117. All of Max Gerson's brothers andsisters died in the Holocaust.Now for the second aspect of the Gerson therapy.Drinking such enormous quantities of fresh juice everyday "dislodges accumulated body poisons, which areabsorbed by the liver, somewhat overwhelming it."Therefore, to help out the hard-working liver, theGerson approach employs an unusual detoxificationtechnique. "Organic body-temperature coffeeadministered rectally stimulates the liver's bileducts to then dump those scavenged toxins into thecolon for evacuation." This, the film states, ensuresthat "the immune system will now have the upper hand"and the patient is more likely to recover.You will not be

disappointed to know that the filmdoes indeed provide step by step directions on exactlyhow to prepare a coffee enema. Boil 1 quart distilledwater, add 3 tablespoons drip ground coffee, reduceheat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and addsufficient water to again have 1 quart. Cool to bodytemperature, and then introduce eight inches into thecolon with an enema kit. Retain the enema for 12 to 15minutes.The movie's sound track music chosen to accompany thecoffee enema recipe preparation sequence is aperformance of Beethoven's Concerto for Violin andOrchestra in D Major by the City of Magenta, ItalySymphony Orchestra. The violin soloist is FrancescaEttorina Dego, Dr. Gerson's great-granddaughter, age14. Her rendition is excellent.There is more to the therapy than juices and coffeeenemas. "Table salt is a poison," says the narration.Our "unrelenting" use of sodium "causes displacementof potassium found

naturally in human cells, leavingthem vulnerable to attack by disease." For thisreason, debated to this day, Dr. Gerson gave patientson his already very-low-sodium, potassium-rich dietstill more supplemental potassium in the form of equalparts of potassium gluconate, potassium acetate, andmono potassium phosphate. Flaxseed oil was thepreferred fatty acid source, and was to be "raw andcold" and not to be used for a cooking oil.Pancreatin, acidophilus, and vitamin B-3 (niacin) werealso provided supplementally.The most common criticisms of the Gerson program arethat the diet is restrictive and that the coffeeenemas are excessive. It is true that the Gersontherapy is an extreme diet, but then cancer is anextreme disease. One extreme may indeed call foranother; it takes a lot of water to put out a burningbuilding. Chemical, radiological and surgical extremesare the oncologist's stock in trade. Why not

extremenutrition?I enjoyed the section of the movie where the camerafollows Dr. Gerson's daughter and successor,Charlotte, as she interviews patients under actualtreatment at the Gerson facility in Mexico. There, itis said, patients in "as little as two weeks are freefrom cancer." 35 years after man first walked on themoon, this remains a revolutionary statement, one thatmay invite either a physician's ridicule or a cancerpatient's serious investigation.Charlotte Gerson, now 82, practices what her fatherpreached. "I cancelled my health insurance when I was34 years old," she says. "The reason was that I'm notinterested in the kind of hospital or medicaltreatment that might be covered by insurance, becauseit's toxic." She says she saved money, plus feels goodin the bargain. She is outspoken and emphatic. Oncamera, she states, "I'm always telling women:'Wouldn't it be wonderful if you never had to

worryabout finding a lump in your breast?' But if you eathealthy, that's what happens. Living in this manner,you don't risk cancer."She is in a position to know, having seen her father'swork at close range for so many years. I askedCharlotte about this, and she told me, "My earliestchildhood memories of helping my father go back to myplaying in our sandbox when I was about five yearsold. My father's medical office was in the same housewhere we lived and patients would come to see himthere. Many of those were from the agricultural areasurrounding the city where we lived, Bielefeld(Westphalia), Germany. The farmers who consulted myfather could hardly believe that one could survive ingood health without meat and animal proteins. So myfather would send for me, a little dirty and full ofsand, to show me off. I was sturdy, tall for my age,healthy and rosy-cheeked and presented a good pictureof the

effectiveness of vegetarian nutrition."She still does. Filmmaker Steven Kroschel says,"Working with Charlotte Gerson touched me deeply, asshe reminded me of my German grandparents and the oldfashioned hospitality that went along with it. I haveto say that I cannot recall meeting anyone quite ashonest, compassionate and giving as she is."Doctor-vexing patients' testimonials form the backboneof Kroschel's documentary. There are plenty of them.One man with prostate cancer, confirmed by biopsy,decided to go Gerson. After 18 months on the therapy,his PSA was an extraordinarily low 0.06.Ascites, the abdominal fluid buildup all too commonlyaccompanying cancer or liver disease, may be reducedby way of the Gerson therapy. One patient interviewedin the film reports a decrease of 8 cm on the firstday of the therapy, with 2 cm/day afterwards.One woman, diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given 6to 9 months to

live, speaks on camera of how she livednot nine months, but nine years and is still inexcellent, cancer-free health. Her therapy was theGerson diet. Three other women she knew, all of whomselected chemotherapy, were, as predicted, dead innine months or less.Possibly the most moving testimonial comes from achild, named Stephanie, who was diagnosed withwidespread cancer in the kidney, lungs, vena cava andheart before she was even six years old. Afterconventional treatment had been tried and had failed,she (and her parents as well) embarked on the Gersonprogram. Asked what she thought of the diet, the girlresponded quite frankly: "The food? At first I thoughtit was kind of weird. But after, like, a week, itstarted tasting better."Stephanie, who had been given six months to live, wasvery much alive over two years later and shownhorseback riding. The narration presented her as notfully cured, but "on the

road to recovery" to thepoint that her doctors were "astounded." Stephanieherself described her quality of life improvement aswell as it has ever been described: "I've been feelinglots better. I've been having more energy when on thediet. I feel very healthy, and stronger, and muchbetter than I did."The most skeptical viewer cannot possibly watch thescenes of this lass horseback riding and not be atleast a little bit persuaded.Then there is Pat, a woman with pancreatic cancerwhich had spread to her liver, gall bladder, andspleen. Throwing up blood, she was diagnosed at age46, and given 3 months to live. That was in 1986.Pat's bleeding and pain stopped in 10 days of Gersontherapy. After two years of Gerson, a CAT scan showedthat the cancer was gone. Pat is now 65.Hollywood star Michael Landon was similarly diagnosedwith pancreatic cancer. He, too, had been given threemonths to live, and he

likewise tried the Gersontherapy. Landon appeared on the "Tonight" show,looking hale and hearty after only a short time on theGerson program. Immediately afterwards, the narrationsays, Landon was warned off of the Gerson diet by hisphysicians. He abandoned it, and his conditionpromptly worsened. He later personally telephoned Patand told her that he "should have stayed with theGerson therapy." Michael Landon died in 1991.As a very young man, I made a documentary film aboutthe pollution and proposed reclamation of the GeneseeRiver in Rochester, NY. Excessive camera motion wasthe byproduct of my limited equipment and poortechnique. Although it may be an intentional stylistictool, I for one would ask that directors of featuredocumentaries everywhere lose the hand-held camerareality-look and get themselves better tripods than Ihad.The Gerson DVD has no menu for chapter selection, andfor those wishing to

re-study any one of the 30chapters in this 90 minute feature, a chapter menuwould be most helpful.This film makes no attempt at conciliation norcompromise, with frequent unabashedly in-your-facestatements, such as: "The only area of whichestablished orthodox medicine in the US is superlativeis in the cost." Another: "The viability of lifehinging essentially on what we pour into our cups, andplace on our plates, is so simple, and yet profoundlyhard to grasp by modern medicine." The film alsoemphasizes the detrimental effects of all manner ofpollution on our internal environment. Mercury-baseddental amalgam condemned; Ritalin is ridiculed, as isthe Standard American Diet ("SAD"). Even milk-drinkingis eschewed by the Gerson approach. "With every meal,we are either digging our own graves with thesilverware, or ensuring a healthy and productivelife."There is something in The Gerson Miracle to

provokepractically anybody. On the other hand, there is suchvalue in Gerson's therapy to justify the film beingseen by everybody.We have to face the facts: Dr. Gerson saved lives andhis methods still do. Here is the very first movie tooffer this essential message to a new andever-widening audience. To say that such a message issomewhat controversial is understatement akin tosaying that the Beatles somewhat influenced popularmusic, or that Citizen Kane was a pretty good flick.Fact is, the Gerson therapy exists. You can say thatit doesn't work, but you can also find living,breathing people who will tell you differently. Thisdocumentary does exactly that, and this is whatdocumentaries should be doing.(The Gerson Miracle. 91 minutes; 2004. VHS: 29.95;DVD: $24.95, from Charlotte Gerson, 355 GreenwoodPlace, Bonita, CA 91902. lg27win . Shipping is$3, CA residents add 7.5% sales tax.)To learn

more about how to do the Gerson Therapy:http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy.htmlhttp://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonspeech.html is thetranscript of a speech by Dr. Gerson himself.http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson_therapy.htmlis a bibliography of published clinical studiesshowing the demonstrated benefits of the Gersontreatmenthttp://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson.html is abibliography of all of Dr. Gerson’s scientificwritings.Review copyright C 2004 by Andrew W. Saul, Number 8Van Buren Street, Holley, New York 14470 USA Telephone (585) 638-5357