cancer and Gerson therapy

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The Gerson Therapy, by Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker, DPM (2001)

NY: Kensington Publishing Corp. ISBN 1-57566-628-6 (Trade paperback,

371 pages, plus appendixes and index.)

It has been said that more people live off cancer than die from it.

The Gerson Therapy is a book that can put a stop to this travesty.

Here is a very practical, highly detailed guide to the intensive

nutritional treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases

that many would consider to have been impossible to obtain. But

thanks to the work of Max Gerson, M.D., and his daughter, author

Charlotte Gerson, this knowledge is readily available for all who

need it.

 

Max Gerson cured cancer. He did so with a strict fat-free, salt-

free, low-protein, essentially vegetarian dietary regimen, based on

great quantities of fresh vegetable juice, supplements, and systemic

detoxification. Ms. Gerson explains:

 

" Dr. Gerson found that the underlying problems of all cancer patients

are toxicity and deficiency. He had to overcome both these

difficulties. He found that one of the important features of his

therapy had to be the hourly administration of fresh vegetable

juices. These supply ample nutrients, as well as fluids to help flush

out the kidneys. When the high levels of nutrients re-enter tissues,

toxins accumulated over many years are forced into the blood stream.

The toxins are then filtered out by the liver. The liver is easily

overburdened by the continuous release of toxins and is unable to

release the load… Dr. Gerson found that he could provide help to the

liver by the caffeine in coffee, absorbed from the colon via the

hemorrhoidal vein, which carries the caffeine to the portal system

and then to the liver. The caffeine stimulates the liver/bile ducts

to open, releasing the poisons into the intestinal tract for

excretion. "

 

The Gerson Therapy book consists of nearly 400 pages of treatment

specifics, instruction, hints, cautions, recipes, case histories, and

references, all held together with an authority that only experience

can bring. Some of the blunt, uncompromising statements Ms. Gerson

makes are certain to get up the medical profession's collective

nose. Too bad for them, for she is right. Charlotte Gerson's entire

life has been immersed in healing people, first learning while

assisting her father, and later teaching his method to the world. Co-

author Dr. Morton Walker is one of my favorite medical writers, and

putting these two talents together in The Gerson Therapy was a master

stroke.

 

I personally have seen what the Gerson program can do for a

terminally ill cancer patient. I have been called upon to help in a

couple of high-profile but last minute cases. One patient was a well-

known sports figure. He was given some months to live and was not

happy about it, as he was still in his 50's. He asked what his best

shot would be for inoperable, untreatable metastasized cancer. I

told him: the Gerson therapy. He did it, not in its entirety, but

with enthusiasm. And, he lived considerably longer that he was

expected to. But what really impressed me was the dramatic

improvement in his energy level. From fatigue and weakness, he went

instantly to a vibrant life, commencing from the very week he started

the program. He maintained a more-than-full schedule for so long

that even people who knew he was sick forgot that he was sick.

 

Years later, people that never knew of my involvement in the matter

would bring up his name, invariably recalling how active he was and

how good he looked until, almost as a surprise, he died.

 

I saw a similar level of success with a prominent New York

businessman, the owner of a chain of stores and afflicted with

untreatable liver cancer. He began to do much, but by no means all,

of the Gerson program, and was subsequently able to extensively

travel the world with his family. He lived years longer than

expected, with a high quality of life confirmed by all who saw him.

 

Looking only at these two patients, wanton critics of Gerson's method

might think that, without complete and unequivocal cure, there is

little to crow about. Such a view is unproductive, for neither of

these patients followed the Gerson program completely. It is a tough

sell, even to a person with a terminal diagnosis.

 

Why is this?

 

Ignorance and arrogance make a bad combination, and " modern " medicine

has been guilty of both for decades. Political physicians did not

heed Dr. Gerson. In fact, they publicly condemned him. The news media

have been their willing accomplices. The misinformation they spew to

this day is fraught with fabricated frights of natural therapies,

while in the same breath they spew forth the wonders of

pharmaceutical drugs. When is the last time you saw a favorable

mention of the Gerson program in the newspaper or on TV? Since

pharmacological doctors have no sure-fire cure for cancer (an

understatement if there ever was one), they might at least back a

winning horse. The Gerson approach has been shown, for over six

decades, to significantly improve both quality of life and length of

life in the sickest, the most hopeless, of cancer patients. Many

people have been completely cured on the Gerson therapy.

 

And the directions are in this book, which costs $17.

 

I am especially pleased with the open-minded spirit of cooperation

which I detect in reading The Gerson Therapy. The authors'

awareness of the realities of individual patient needs is well

demonstrated with the inclusion of chapter sections discussing

unavoidable modifications of the program. Instructions for home self-

care, for patients undergoing chemotherapy, and for the treatment of

very advanced cases, are all provided. Chapter 17, discussing

treatment of illnesses other than cancer, needs to be greatly

expanded. Ms. Gerson informs me that she is currently " preparing a

booklet for each disease (including, among others) asthma, rheumatoid

arthritis and lupus, diabetes, drug addiction, Crohn's disease, and

fibromyalgia. They will start with a general description of the

disease, then have a basic outline of how the Gerson therapy deals

with it, then the specific description of the Therapy, followed by

some dozen of recovered cases... I think each booklet will contain

some 30-40 pages. " I am looking forward to their early publication.

(Update, April 2002: Individual booklets about cancer of the breast,

ovaries, liver/pancreas/colon, lymphoma and melanoma are now

available for purchase from Charlotte Gerson, 355 Greenwood Place,

Bonita, CA 91902. Email Lotte )

 

The present book contains explicit instructions for the

administration of the Therapy's controversial but nonetheless crucial

liver-detoxifying coffee enemas. (Yes, at body temperature.) The use

of castor oil, a thorough listing of which foods to eat (and not

eat), how to juice, psychological aspects of therapy, and generally

favorable mentions of megadose vitamin C supplementation are also

presented. The concise chapter (Chapter 6) on melanoma is

extraordinary, easily the best I have read anywhere.

 

Dosage and rationale for the supplements Dr. Gerson prescribed is the

focus of Chapter 11. Potassium, iodine, digestive enzymes, niacin and

(by prescription) thyroid, liver extract and vitamin B-12 injections

are all covered. Both this chapter, and the " Resources " section of

the Appendix, are free of any attempt to market such products, a

feature I wish to highlight for special praise.

 

I liked the inclusion of references at the end of each chapter, and

the thoroughness of devoting a chapter to appropriate laboratory

tests. And everyone will enjoy reading the success stories in

Chapter 21.

 

In the next edition of The Gerson Therapy, I would like to see

detailed charts that summarize exactly what a " Gerson Person " needs

to do each day. I recall how helpful such charts were in this book's

predecessor, A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases. My experience

in working with very sick patients and their families is that they

are easily overwhelmed with instruction, no matter how vital that

instruction may be. Easy-to-read personal itineraries are virtually

essential to ensure intelligent compliance with a complex nutritional

program. To some extent, this need is met by way of a helpful Summary

in the Appendix. However, such information can be presented in

greater detail and in a more user-friendly manner, by employing

graphics to full advantage.

 

Some years ago I watched a video tape of a Gerson

patients' " reunion. " On stage were people from all walks of life,

and most were advanced in age. One after the other they spoke of the

cancer they were diagnosed with three, ten, or twenty years ago. All

were recovered. Dr. Gerson was the reason. You cannot watch such an

event and fail to be moved.

 

A special benefit of The Gerson Therapy is that it is not

specifically a cancer treatment

 

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