Cancer Therapy : The Gerson Miracle

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http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy2.html

 

The Gerson Miracle

 

Cancer Therapy

 

" I know of one patient who turned to Gerson Therapy

having been told she was suffering from terminal

cancer and would not survive another course of

chemotherapy. Happily, seven years later, she is alive

and well. So it is vital that, rather than dismissing

such experiences, we should further investigate the

beneficial nature of these treatments. " (H.R.H.

Charles, Prince of Wales)

 

" I am familiar with the Gerson method and believe that

it has a lot of merit. I have always been frustrated

that it was not taken seriously and studied

intensively as it should be. I think it has a very

good track record. " (Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.)

 

" I see in Dr. Max Gerson one of the most eminent

geniuses in medical history. " (Albert Schweitzer,

M.D., Nobel Prize laureate)

 

The Gerson Miracle

 

Review 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-half

hour documentary movie, The Gerson Miracle. No one

that views it can possibly misunderstand its

uncompromising assertions that cancer is curable, and

that 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 high

hopes of acceptance of his work. No such luck. In

1958, he published all the how-to-do-it details in A

Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases. He died the

next year, under suspicious circumstances.

(http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonbio.htm)

 

Even today it is necessary for persons seeking Gerson

treatment to leave the country to obtain it. As the

film's narration says, " Laws in virtually all of the

United States prohibit any other treatment of cancer

than radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, even though

they are usually ineffective at best, and completely

ineffective at worst. Chemotherapy, for example, does

not cure cancer at all, and usually merely poisons the

patient instead of the cancer. "

 

Strong words, those. If Oscar-winning documentarist

Michael Moore initially had difficulty obtaining

distribution for his Fahrenheit 9/11 movie, you can be

sure there will be some hefty opposition to this one.

 

And yet, the heart of the Gerson therapy is ecological

common sense. I think this is why it makes a good

subject for film, and why it appealed so to

producer/director Steven Kroschel. Kroschel's previous

documentary credits include work for the Learning

Channel, National Geographic, PBS, and the BBC, as

well as contributions to a number of Hollywood

features including Straight Up, Vertical Limit, and I

Spy. Not surprisingly, Kroschel personally follows the

Gerson diet.

 

 

The narration continues:

 

" The soil, and all that grows in it, is not something

distant from us, but must be regarded as our external

metabolism, which produces the nutrients for our

internal metabolism. Therefore, the soil must be cared

for properly. It must not be depleted or poisoned

Otherwise, changes will result in serious degenerative

diseases in animals and humans. "

 

This sounds much like text from any biology textbook

that I've taught from.

 

" Mass-produced, commercially-grown fruits and

vegetables are fertilized with only three minerals:

nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, " says the

narrator. Yet plants " need over 50 more. " As a

consequence, " the plants are sick, and must be kept on

life support with toxic chemicals until market. " On

the other hand, organic farming methods enable both

the plant, and you, to resist disease. This especially

includes cancer.

 

The film states that the two key factors that are " the

underlying cause of cancer are deficiency and

toxicity. " A radical, organic raw vegetable

juice-based diet is proposed as the primary remedy.

Why juiced? Because " Dr. Gerson discovered early in

his research that fruits and vegetables must be juiced

to flood the body with nutrients that have been

lacking within the human organism for so very long,

sometimes for decades. . . When juice is drunk, it can

enter the blood stream almost as fast as alcohol. . .

Dr. Gerson required his patients to drink one 8 ounce

glass of juice 13 times a day. " That amounts to some

20 pounds of produce, yielding " an organic medication

straight from the table of Mother Nature. "

 

The Gerson therapy calls for an expensive grind and

press juicer, such as a Norwalk. On the other hand,

the film states, Norman W. Walker, that particular

juicer's inventor and namesake, died June 6, 1985 at

the age of 117. All of Max Gerson's brothers and

sisters died in the Holocaust.

 

Now for the second aspect of the Gerson therapy.

Drinking such enormous quantities of fresh juice every

day " dislodges accumulated body poisons, which are

absorbed by the liver, somewhat overwhelming it. "

Therefore, to help out the hard-working liver, the

Gerson approach employs an unusual detoxification

technique. " Organic body-temperature coffee

administered rectally stimulates the liver's bile

ducts to then dump those scavenged toxins into the

colon for evacuation. " This, the film states, ensures

that " 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 film

does indeed provide step by step directions on exactly

how to prepare a coffee enema. Boil 1 quart distilled

water, add 3 tablespoons drip ground coffee, reduce

heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and add

sufficient water to again have 1 quart. Cool to body

temperature, and then introduce eight inches into the

colon with an enema kit. Retain the enema for 12 to 15

minutes.

 

The movie's sound track music chosen to accompany the

coffee enema recipe preparation sequence is a

performance of Beethoven's Concerto for Violin and

Orchestra in D Major by the City of Magenta, Italy

Symphony Orchestra. The violin soloist is Francesca

Ettorina Dego, Dr. Gerson's great-granddaughter, age

14. Her rendition is excellent.

 

There is more to the therapy than juices and coffee

enemas. " Table salt is a poison, " says the narration.

Our " unrelenting " use of sodium " causes displacement

of potassium found naturally in human cells, leaving

them vulnerable to attack by disease. " For this

reason, debated to this day, Dr. Gerson gave patients

on his already very-low-sodium, potassium-rich diet

still more supplemental potassium in the form of equal

parts of potassium gluconate, potassium acetate, and

mono potassium phosphate. Flaxseed oil was the

preferred fatty acid source, and was to be " raw and

cold " and not to be used for a cooking oil.

Pancreatin, acidophilus, and vitamin B-3 (niacin) were

also provided supplementally.

 

The most common criticisms of the Gerson program are

that the diet is restrictive and that the coffee

enemas are excessive. It is true that the Gerson

therapy is an extreme diet, but then cancer is an

extreme disease. One extreme may indeed call for

another; it takes a lot of water to put out a burning

building. Chemical, radiological and surgical extremes

are the oncologist's stock in trade. Why not extreme

nutrition?

 

I enjoyed the section of the movie where the camera

follows Dr. Gerson's daughter and successor,

Charlotte, as she interviews patients under actual

treatment at the Gerson facility in Mexico. There, it

is said, patients in " as little as two weeks are free

from cancer. " 35 years after man first walked on the

moon, this remains a revolutionary statement, one that

may invite either a physician's ridicule or a cancer

patient's serious investigation.

 

Charlotte Gerson, now 82, practices what her father

preached. " I cancelled my health insurance when I was

34 years old, " she says. " The reason was that I'm not

interested in the kind of hospital or medical

treatment that might be covered by insurance, because

it's toxic. " She says she saved money, plus feels good

in the bargain. She is outspoken and emphatic. On

camera, she states, " I'm always telling women:

'Wouldn't it be wonderful if you never had to worry

about finding a lump in your breast?' But if you eat

healthy, that's what happens. Living in this manner,

you don't risk cancer. "

 

She is in a position to know, having seen her father's

work at close range for so many years. I asked

Charlotte about this, and she told me, " My earliest

childhood memories of helping my father go back to my

playing in our sandbox when I was about five years

old. My father's medical office was in the same house

where we lived and patients would come to see him

there. Many of those were from the agricultural area

surrounding the city where we lived, Bielefeld

(Westphalia), Germany. The farmers who consulted my

father could hardly believe that one could survive in

good health without meat and animal proteins. So my

father would send for me, a little dirty and full of

sand, to show me off. I was sturdy, tall for my age,

healthy and rosy-cheeked and presented a good picture

of the effectiveness of vegetarian nutrition. "

 

She still does. Filmmaker Steven Kroschel says,

" Working with Charlotte Gerson touched me deeply, as

she reminded me of my German grandparents and the old

fashioned hospitality that went along with it. I have

to say that I cannot recall meeting anyone quite as

honest, compassionate and giving as she is. "

 

Doctor-vexing patients' testimonials form the backbone

of 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 commonly

accompanying cancer or liver disease, may be reduced

by way of the Gerson therapy. One patient interviewed

in the film reports a decrease of 8 cm on the first

day of the therapy, with 2 cm/day afterwards.

 

One woman, diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given 6

to 9 months to live, speaks on camera of how she lived

not nine months, but nine years and is still in

excellent, cancer-free health. Her therapy was the

Gerson diet. Three other women she knew, all of whom

selected chemotherapy, were, as predicted, dead in

nine months or less.

 

Possibly the most moving testimonial comes from a

child, named Stephanie, who was diagnosed with

widespread cancer in the kidney, lungs, vena cava and

heart before she was even six years old. After

conventional treatment had been tried and had failed,

she (and her parents as well) embarked on the Gerson

program. Asked what she thought of the diet, the girl

responded quite frankly: " The food? At first I thought

it was kind of weird. But after, like, a week, it

started tasting better. "

 

Stephanie, who had been given six months to live, was

very much alive over two years later and shown

horseback riding. The narration presented her as not

fully cured, but " on the road to recovery " to the

point that her doctors were " astounded. " Stephanie

herself described her quality of life improvement as

well as it has ever been described: " I've been feeling

lots better. I've been having more energy when on the

diet. I feel very healthy, and stronger, and much

better than I did. "

 

The most skeptical viewer cannot possibly watch the

scenes of this lass horseback riding and not be at

least a little bit persuaded.

 

Then there is Pat, a woman with pancreatic cancer

which had spread to her liver, gall bladder, and

spleen. Throwing up blood, she was diagnosed at age

46, and given 3 months to live. That was in 1986.

Pat's bleeding and pain stopped in 10 days of Gerson

therapy. After two years of Gerson, a CAT scan showed

that the cancer was gone. Pat is now 65.

 

Hollywood star Michael Landon was similarly diagnosed

with pancreatic cancer. He, too, had been given three

months to live, and he likewise tried the Gerson

therapy. Landon appeared on the " Tonight " show,

looking hale and hearty after only a short time on the

Gerson program. Immediately afterwards, the narration

says, Landon was warned off of the Gerson diet by his

physicians. He abandoned it, and his condition

promptly worsened. He later personally telephoned Pat

and told her that he " should have stayed with the

Gerson therapy. " Michael Landon died in 1991.

 

As a very young man, I made a documentary film about

the pollution and proposed reclamation of the Genesee

River in Rochester, NY. Excessive camera motion was

the byproduct of my limited equipment and poor

technique. Although it may be an intentional stylistic

tool, I for one would ask that directors of feature

documentaries everywhere lose the hand-held camera

reality-look and get themselves better tripods than I

had.

 

The Gerson DVD has no menu for chapter selection, and

for those wishing to re-study any one of the 30

chapters in this 90 minute feature, a chapter menu

would be most helpful.

 

This film makes no attempt at conciliation nor

compromise, with frequent unabashedly in-your-face

statements, such as: " The only area of which

established orthodox medicine in the US is superlative

is in the cost. " Another: " The viability of life

hinging essentially on what we pour into our cups, and

place on our plates, is so simple, and yet profoundly

hard to grasp by modern medicine. " The film also

emphasizes the detrimental effects of all manner of

pollution on our internal environment. Mercury-based

dental amalgam condemned; Ritalin is ridiculed, as is

the Standard American Diet ( " SAD " ). Even milk-drinking

is eschewed by the Gerson approach. " With every meal,

we are either digging our own graves with the

silverware, or ensuring a healthy and productive

life. "

 

There is something in The Gerson Miracle to provoke

practically anybody. On the other hand, there is such

value in Gerson's therapy to justify the film being

seen by everybody.

 

We have to face the facts: Dr. Gerson saved lives and

his methods still do. Here is the very first movie to

offer this essential message to a new and

ever-widening audience. To say that such a message is

somewhat controversial is understatement akin to

saying that the Beatles somewhat influenced popular

music, or that Citizen Kane was a pretty good flick.

Fact is, the Gerson therapy exists. You can say that

it doesn't work, but you can also find living,

breathing people who will tell you differently. This

documentary does exactly that, and this is what

documentaries should be doing.

 

(The Gerson Miracle. 91 minutes; 2004. VHS: 29.95;

DVD: $24.95, from Charlotte Gerson, 355 Greenwood

Place, 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.html

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonspeech.html is the

transcript of a speech by Dr. Gerson himself.

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson_therapy.html

is a bibliography of published clinical studies

showing the demonstrated benefits of the Gerson

treatment

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson.html is a

bibliography of all of Dr. Gerson’s scientific

writings.

 

Review copyright C 2004 by Andrew W. Saul, Number 8

Van Buren Street, Holley, New York 14470 USA

Telephone (585) 638-5357