Cancer: Food Plan: MAX GERSON, M.D.

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Nutritional Therapy for Cancer

 

Cancer: Food Plan

from Physiol. Chem. & Physics 10 (1978)

 

THE CURE OF ADVANCED CANCER BY DIET THERAPY:

A SUMMARY OF 30 YEARS OF CLINICAL EXPERIMENTATION

 

MAX GERSON, M.D.

Gerson Institute, Box 535, Imperial Beach, California

92032

 

(1978 Publisher's Note. This is a lecture given by Dr.

Gerson in Escondido, California, in 1956. Dr. Gerson

died in 1959. More complete information on his therapy

for advanced cancer may be found in his book A Cancer

Therapy: Results ol 50 Cases, by Max Gerson, 3rd

edition, 1977, Totality Books, Del Mar, CA or from his

daughter Mrs. Charlotte Gerson Straus at the Gerson

Institute, Box 535, Imperial Beach, CA 92032.

Socioeconomic and political perspectives are discussed

in the book Has Dr. Max Gerson a True Cancer Cure? by

S. J. Haught, 1976, Major Books, 21335, Roscoe Blvd.,

Canoga Park, CA 91304.)

 

Abstract:

 

Thirty years of clinical experimentation has led to a

successful therapy for advanced cancer. This therapy

is based on the concepts (1) that cancer patients have

low immuno-reactivity and generalized tissue damage,

especially of the liver, and (2) that when the cancer

is destroyed, toxic degradation products appear in the

bloodstream which lead to coma and death from liver

failure. The therapy consists of high potassium, low

sodium diet, with no fats or oils, and minimal animal

proteins. Juices of raw fruits and vegetables and of

raw liver provide active oxidizing enzymes which

facilitate rehabilitation of the liver. Iodine and

niacin supplementation is used. Caffeine enemas cause

dilation of bile ducts, which facilitates excretion of

toxic cancer breakdown products by the liver and

dialysis of toxic products from blood across the

colonic wall. The therapy must be used as an

integrated whole. Parts of the therapy used in

isolation will not be successful. This therapy has

cured many cases of advanced cancer.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I came here on vacation; I didn't come here for a

lecture. I didn't bring anything. So, I wrote down

some things since I was asked to tell you first how I

arrived at the cancer treatment. It is a funny story.

 

When I was a physician for internal diseases in

Bielefeld [Germany) in 1928, one day I was called to

see a lady. I asked her what was wrong with her but on

the telephone she didn't want to tell me. So I went

there, a little outside of town. Then I asked her

" What's wrong? " She told me she was operated on in a

big clinic nearby and they found a cancer of the bile

duct. I saw the operation scar. She was running a high

fever, was jaundiced. I told her, " Sorry, I can do

nothing for you. I don't know how to treat cancer. I

have not seen results, especially in such an advanced

case where there is no longer the possibility of

operation. " So, she said, " No, doctor, I called

because I saw the results in your treatment of

tuberculosis and arthritis in various cases. Now, here

is a pad and you write down a treatment. On that table

over there, there is a book, and in that book, you

will be good enough to read to me aloud the chapter

called The Healing of Cancer.”

 

It was a big book of about 1,200 pages on folk

medicine and in the middle there was that chapter. I

started to read. That book was edited by three

schoolteachers and one physician. None of them

practiced medicine. So they put together that book. I

read that chapter. In it there was something about

Hippocrates who gave these patients a special soup. I

should like to tell you, we use that soup at the

present time! That soup from that book, out of the

practice of Hippocrates - 550 years before Christ! He

was the greatest physician at that time, and I even

think the greatest physician of all time. He had the

idea that the patient has to be detoxified with the

soup and with some enemas and so on.

 

I read and read but finally I told the lady, " Look,

because of my tuberculosis treatment physicians are

opposed to me. Therefore I'd like not to treat you. "

Again she insisted, " I'll give you in writing that you

are not responsible for the outcome of the treatment

and that I insisted that you do so. " So with that

signed statement, I thought, all right, let's try. I

wrote down the treatment. It was almost the same which

I used for tuberculosis patients (1-7) which I had

worked out and used at the University Clinic in Munich

with Prof. Sauerbruch. After the work at the

University Clinic the treatment had been established

and had been found effective. (8, 9). I thought that

maybe it will be effective in cancer too. It is always

written in scientific books that tuberculosis and

cancer are both degenerative diseases where the body

has to be detoxified. But this latter thought was

written only by Hippocrates.

 

I tried - and the patient was cured! Six months later

she was up and around in the best condition. Then she

sent me two other cancer cases. One of her family with

a stomach cancer where it had been found during an

attempted operation that there were metastasized

glands around the stomach-also cured! And I had to

cure then, against my will, a third case. I expected

to have still more opposition from the medical

profession. The third case was also a stomach cancer.

It was also cured. Three cases were tried and all

three cases were cured!

 

I have to tell you that up to this day, I don't know

how this happened, how I stumbled into that, how this

was achieved. At that time I always said that I didn't

know why they were cured. I didn't know enough about

cancer and it was such a difficult problem to go into.

But once it was in my head and in my hands and in my

heart, I could no longer separate myself from that

problem.

 

Some time later I was in Vienna. I had left Germany

due to the political upheaval at the time of Hitler.

There in Vienna I tried six cases and in all six

cases, no results-all failures. That was shocking. The

sanatorium where I treated my patients was not so well

organized for dietary treatments. They treated other

diseases by other methods and didn't pay much

attention to diet. So, I attributed the failures to

that.

 

Then I came to Paris. In Paris, I tried seven cases

and I had three results. One of the cases was an older

man. He had a cancer of the cecum where the colon

starts, 70 years old. Another case was a lady from

Armenia. This was a very interesting case. I had to

work against the whole family. There were many

physicians in the family, and I had plenty of trouble.

But, anyway, I came through in that case. She had

cancer of the breast which regrew. Every time the

family insisted that she was " so much down. " She

weighed only 78 pounds. She was skin and bones and

they wanted me to give her egg yolks. I gave her small

amounts of egg yolks-the cancer regrew. Then they

insisted that I give her meat, raw chopped meat. I

gave her this and the cancer regrew. The third time,

they wanted me to give her some oil. I gave her that

oil and the third time the cancer regrew. But, anyway,

three times I could eliminate the cancer again and

cure. And still I had no idea what cancer was. If

somebody asked me about the theory, just what it was I

was doing, I had to answer, " I don't really know

myself. "

 

Some time later I came to this country. I couldn't get

the cancer problem and the cure of the first three

cases out of my mind. I kept thinking " It must be

possible, it would a crime not to do it. " But is

wasn't so easy. When I came here, I had no clinic. I

didn't even have a license to practice medicine. When

I had taken the exams and could take patients, I had

to treat them at home and that was hard work. The

patients didn't like to obey the diet, to do it at

home. They were accustomed to save kitchen time and

not to work hard to make all the juices necessary for

the treatment as it had been worked out.

 

Now the treatment for tuberculosis was a saltless

diet, mostly fruit and vegetables, vegetables cooked

without added water, steamed in their own juices, with

a heavy pot, no aluminum. The cover had to be heavy

and fit well so that the steam could not escape. Then

they had to have most of the food raw, finely grated.

They had to drink orange juice, grapefruit juice, and

apple and carrot juice. This had to be produced in a

special machine-a grinder and a separate press-because

I found that in centrifugal juicers or liquefiers, I

couldn't obtain the kind of juice which cured

patients.

 

At first, I had thought that liquefiers would be the

most wonderful thing. All the material was there,

nothing was lost. But it didn't work. Then I found out

through a physicist that in the liquefier, in the

center, there is positive electricity and in the fluid

there is negative electricity. This electricity kills

the oxidizing enzymes. And that is also true for the

centrifugal juicer and the other apparatus. The juice

must therefore be made by a grinder and a separate

press - if possible, made of stainless steel.

(Editor's note: a masticating juicer, such as a

Champion, might also work.)

 

The patients must drink a lot of those juices. They

have to have the Hippocrates soup. I can't go into all

the details. The evening would not be long enough for

that. But very important for the detoxification are

enemas. I felt that the detoxification as suggested in

the book of Hippocrates was a most important part.

 

Finally, I had a clinic. The patients saw that also

the more advanced cases and even some terminal cases,

very far advanced cases, could be saved. They brought

me more and more of these terminal cases. I was forced

into that. On the one side, the knife of the AMA was

at my throat and on my back. I had only terminal

cases. If I had not saved them, my clinic would have

been a death house. Some of the cases were brought on

stretchers. They couldn't walk. They could no longer

eat. It was very, very difficult. So, I really had to

work out a treatment that could help these far

advanced cases.(10,11) Again, I was forced into it.

 

On the need of where to put the emphasis: reading all

the literature, I saw that all the scientists treat

the symptoms. These, I thought, are only symptoms.

There must be something basic behind them. It has to

be impossible that there are symptoms in the brain,

others in the lungs, in the bones, it the abdomen and

in the liver. There must be something basic, or else

this is impossible.

 

Already, through my work with tuberculosis, I learned

that in tuberculosis and in all other degenerative

diseases, one must not trcat the symptoms. The

body-the whole body-has to be treated. But that is

easily said. How will you do it? Little by little I

came to the conclusion that the most important part of

our body is the digestive tract. For all our intake to

be properly digested, and for the other organs of the

digestive tract to function right and help in the

digestion to the end product-and at the same time

eliminate all the waste products-all the toxins and

poisons which must be eliminated so that nothing will

accumulate in our system, I thought that this was the

most important thing in the tuberculosis treatment. It

must be the same in all the other degenerative

diseases, too. And still, up to the present, I am

convinced that cancer does not need a " specific "

treatment.

 

Cancer is a so-called degenerative disease, and all

the degenerative diseases have to be treated so that

the whole body at first is detoxified. In my

tuberculosis work again, I saw that the liver plays

the important role. It eliminates the toxins from the

body, prepares them so they can enter into the bile

ducts, and can thus be eliminated with the bile-that

is not an easy job. In addition, the liver helps to

prepare the stomach juice with the help of the

visceral nervous system. The liver helps to prepare

the pancreas, trypsin, pepsin, lipase, the digestive

enzymes-all that is regulated with the help of the

visceral nervous system. The liver has many, many more

very important functions. One of them is the

reactivation of the oxidizing enzymes as we know

through Rudolf Schoenheimer. He did the work along

these lines. It would go too far to go into that at

this time. It is very important to note that oxidizing

enzymes are at a low level of function in cancer

patients.

 

Now let us anticipate the theory. During these years

the idea occurred to me that there are two components

in cancer which are of particular importance. One is

the whole body, the general component. The other is a

local one, the symptom. The treatment has to be

applied to the general component. When we are able to

bring this into balance, the local one disappears.

 

What is the general component and what does the

treatment have to do to bring it into balance? I

should like to devote this evening mostly to that

question. The general component is the digestive tract

and the liver. The digestive tract is very much

poisoned in cancer. How can we handle that?

Detoxification is an easy word, but it is very

difficult to do in cancer patients. These cases, when

they are far advanced, can hardly eat. They have no

stomach juice, the liver doesn't function, the

pancreas doesn't function, nothing is active.

 

Where do we begin?. The most important first step is

the detoxification. So let us go into that. First, we

gave some different enemas. I found out that the best

enema is the coffee enema as it was first used by

Prof. 0. A. Meyer in Goettingen. This idea occurred to

him when together with Prof.Heubner he gave caffeine

solution into the rectum of animals. He observed that

the bile ducts were opened and more bile could flow. I

felt that this was very important and I worked out

coffee enemas. We took three heaping tablespoons of

ground coffee for one quart of water, let it boil for

three minutes, then simmer 10 to 20 minutes, and then

gave it at body temperature.

 

The patients reported that this was doing them good.

The pain disappeared even though in order to carry

through the detoxification, we had to take away all

sedation. I realized that it is impossible to detoxify

the body on the one hand and put in drugs and poisons

on the other, such as sedation medication - demerol,

codeine, morphine, scopolamine, etc. So, we had to put

the medication aside which again was a very difficult

problem. One patient told me that he had one grain of

codeine every two hours and he got morphine injections

.. . . how can you take these away? I told him that the

best sedation is a coffee enema. After a very short

time he had to agree with that. Some of the patients

who had been in severe pain didn't take coffee enemas

every four hours as I prescribed - they took one every

two hours. But no more sedation.

 

After just a few days there was very little pain,

almost none. I can give you an example. A lady came to

me not so long ago. She had cancer of the cervix and

then two large tumor masses around the uterus. The

cervix was a large crater, necrotic, producing blood

and pus, and the poor lady couldn't sit any more. The

condition was inoperable. She had been given X-rays

and vomited any food she took in. She couldn't lie

down anymore. She could not sit. She walked around day

and night. When she came to my clinic the manager told

me, " Doctor, you can't keep her here. This moaning and

walking day and night is keeping the other patients

from sleeping. " After four days she was able to sleep

with no sedative whatsoever - which had not helped her

much anyway. The sedation had worked for perhaps half

an hour or so. After 8 to 10 days, she asked me for

just one thing: let her omit that night enema at 3 or

4 o'clock in the morning. These patients who absorb

the big tumor masses are awakened with an alarm clock

every night because they are otherwise poisoned by the

absorption of these masses. If I give them only one or

two or three enemas, they die of poisoning.

 

I did not have the right as a physician to cause the

body to absorb all the cancer masses and then not to

detoxify enough. With two or three enemas they were

not detoxified enough. They went into a coma hepaticum

(liver coma). Autopsies showed that the liver was

poisoned. I learned from these disasters that you

can't give these patients too much detoxification. So

I told this lady that for one night she could sleep

for seven hours-but only for one night. I wouldn't

risk more! When I didn't give these patients the night

enemas, they were drowsy and almost semi-conscious in

the morning. The nurses confirmed this and told me

that it takes a couple of enemas till they are free of

this toxic state again. I cannot stress the

detoxification enough. Even so with all these enemas,

this was not enough! I had to give them also castor

oil by mouth and by enema every other day, at least

for the first two weeks or so. After these two weeks

you wouldn't recognize these patients any more! They

had arrived on a stretcher and now they walked around.

They had appetite. They gained weight and the tumors

went down.

 

You will ask, " How can such a cancerous tumor go

down? " That was a difficult question for me to

understand. I had learned in my treatment of

tuberculosis patients that I had to add potassium,

iodine, and liver injections to help the liver and the

whole body to restore the potassium. Now as far as I

can see this is the situation. At first we give the

patient the most salt-free diet possible.(12) So, as

much salt (sodium) is removed from the body as can be.

During the first days, 3 grams, 5 grams, up to 8 grams

a day of sodium are eliminated while the patients

receive only about one half gram of sodium content in

the diet and no sodium is added.

 

The patients are given thyroid and lugol solution

(lugol's solution is iodine plus potassium iodide) I

learned first through the so-called Gudenath tadpole

experiment that iodine is necessary to increase and

help the oxidation ability. Then we gave the patients

large amount of potassium.(12) It took about 300

experiments until I found the right potassium

combination. It is a 10% solution of potassium

gluconate, potassium phosphate (monobasic), and

potassium acetate. From that solution the patient is

given four teaspoonsful 10 times a day in juices. That

large amount of potassium is introduced into the

body.(12) At the same time 5 times one grain of

thyroid and 6 times three drops of lugol solution, ½

strength. That's 18 drops of lugol which is a large

dose. Nobody was observed to develop heart

palpitations from that, even if some patients told me

that they could previously not take thyroid because

they would develop heart palpitation. And all

allergies disappeared! Some patients claimed that they

could previously not take one teaspoonful of lemon

juice or orange juice - they were allergic. But when

they are well detoxified and have plenty of potassium,

they are not allergic. Allergies and other

hypersensitivities are eliminated.

 

When introduced into the system, thyroid and lugol

solution go immediately into the cancer mass. These

ripe cells take it up fast and they perhaps grow a

little faster but they soak in more with great greed -

as much as they can - together with a little bit of

sodium, probably. But then there isn't much sodium

left. So then these cells pick up potassium and the

oxidizing enzymes and die by themselves. You have to

realize that cancer cells live essentially on

fermentation but potassium and oxidizing enzymes

introduce oxidation. And that is the point at which we

can kill cancer cells because we take away the

conditions which they need to continue to live.

 

But now we have to deal with a mass of dead cells in

the body, in the blood stream -and they have to be

eliminated wherever they may be. And that is not so

easy! The ripe cells, the mature cells are very

abnormal. These are much more easily killed than the

other cells which are unripe, not yet mature, and not

so well developed. And there are other cancer cells in

lymph vessels. These are clogged at both ends by

cancer cells. No blood and no lymph can reach them.

There are cancer cells in the glands. They are hidden

there, protected from regular circulation. So it isn't

easy to reach these. At first it is only the big mass

which killed. But this dead mass now has to be

absorbed wherever it is - perhaps in the uterus,

perhaps in the kidney, or in the lung, or in the brain

- this has to be absorbed. This absorption is only

possible through the blood stream. I call this

" parenteral digestion. " Enteral digestion is in the

intestinal tract. Parenteral digestion takes place

outside of the digestive tract, through the blood

stream. It becomes important then to continually carry

on detoxification day and night in order to bring the

parenteral digestion to the highest point, even to a

" hyperfunction. " How can this be done?

 

I found that in order to bring the parenteral

digestion to the highest function, it is necessary to

start with the soil. Our soil must be normal, no

artificial fertilizers should be used, no poisons, no

sprays which go into the soil and poison it. Whatever

grows on a poisoned soil carries poison too. And that

is our food, our fruit and vegetables. I am convinced

that the soil is our external metab6lism. It is not

really far removed from our bodies. We depend on it.

But our modern food, the " normal " food people eat is

bottled, poisoned, canned, color added, powdered,

frozen, dipped in acids, sprayed-no longer normal. We

no longer have living, normal food, our food and drink

is a mass of dead, poisoned material, and one cannot

cure very sick people by adding poisons to their

systems. We cannot detoxify our bodies when we add

poisons through our food which is one of the reasons

why cancer is so much on the increase. Saving time in

the kitchen is fine but the consequences are terrible.

Thirty or fifty years ago (this speech was delivered

in 1956) cancer was a disease of old age. Only elderly

people whose liver was no longer working well - was

worn out-became sick. They contracted cancer when they

were 60 to 70 years old and cancer was a rare disease.

Everybody knows that. And now four, even going on one

out of three dies of cancer. Now in the second

generation it is even worse. The poor children get

leukemias more and more. There is no country which has

so much leukemia as this country (USA), no country in

the world. That is our fault. Ice cream is made with

invert sugar. Coca-Cola contains phosphoric acid. Is

it surprising that children get degenerative disease?

These things constitute our external metabolism.

 

Now let us consider our digestive tract. As part of

the digestive tract, the most important thing is that

we restore the function of the liver - the tissue and

the function of the liver. That is very hard work. We

give the patients (including also the tuberculosis

patients) liver injections, and since most of these

patients need an increase in the red blood cells, we

add some vitamin B12. They receive 3 cc of crude liver

extract together with 100 mcg of B12. In addition when

I found that our fruit and vegetables no longer have

the normal content of potassium and not enough of the

oxidizing enzymes, I looked for the best source of

potassium in the best composition and the best supply

of oxidizing enyymes. I found that to be calves liver.

But we cannot give the patient calves liver because it

contains too much fat and cholesterol. As you know,

fat and oils cannot be given Therefore we give these

patients freshly pressed calves liver juice, which is

made in a special way with equal parts of carrots.

Liver alone cannot be pressed. We take ½ pound fresh

calves liver (not frozen) and ½ pound of carrots to

make one glass of 200 cc (approx. 8 oz.) of fresh

juice. The patients, the far advanced cases, get two

glasses a day, even three glasses, and they like it!

 

All this is done in the effort to restore the enteral

digestion. When that functions, we add stomach juice

(Acidol Pepsin) and we add pancreatin not coated. The

cancer patients cannot digest the coated pancreatin.

The pancreatin is given five times a day, three

tablets each time. So they always have plenty of

trypsin, pepsin, lipase and diastase in their systems.

The blood can carry this around and digest the tumor

masses wherever they may be.

 

Now, since I am running out of time, I should like to

tell you what we do to prove that this treatment

really does work on cancer.(13,14) Number one, the

results. I think I can claim that I have, even in

these far advanced cases, 50% results. The real

problem arises when we cannot restore the liver. Then

there is no hope. The liver-the restoration of the

liver and its functions-are so important that some of

the patients whose livers cannot be restored die some

six months to 2½ years later from cirrhosis. Autopsies

show no cancer cells in the body. They did not die

from cancer. They died from a shrunken liver. Since I

give more liver juice and I give more for promoting

the parenteral digestion, these cases of a shrunken

liver are rare.

 

I think I could do a lot to improve the results. I do

not want to go into the problems that patients face

when they go home and the family physician tells them

that they need not " eat that cow fodder. " Or the

family thinks they cannot carry through this treatment

because it is too much work as it takes one to one and

a half years to restore the liver. The liver cells are

renewed in four to five weeks, five to six weeks in

older patients. To restore such a liver, you would

need 12 to 15 new generations of liver cells. That is

1½ years. But the most important part of the

treatment, I have learned, is to give the patients a

new functioning liver.

 

Now, for the proof of this theory. I had the idea to

make an animal experiment in which we connected two

rats - one cancerous rat and one healthy one. We cut

them open along the side and connected a blood vessel,

then sewed them together: The blood from the healthy

rat circulated in the sick one day and night and

cleared up the sick body. Thus we showed that with a

healthy normal metabolism you can cure cancer. You can

cure the cancerous rat with the healthy body of the

normal rat. But we are in the early stages of this

type of experiment. There was one patient whose

husband wanted to be connected to his wife because of

her very poor condition. But she said no, she didn't

want to have him immobilized so long, next to her,

with extensive nursing day and night. When she was

first brought in to me, she had a very bad liver with

probably hundreds of metastases, also in the rest of

the body. I had told them that I didn't believe I

could do anything for her, so the husband had offered

his healthy body. But, even as it is, she is still

living and improving. At any rate, with this type of

experiment we have had no experience on human beings,

only on rats.

 

Our next step to prove the theory was by taking tiny

tissue samples from the liver by liver punctures. When

time goes on and the patient recovers, the liver shows

microscopically and chemically that recovery has taken

place. This is done by micro-chemistry. There is an

increase of the potassium content and iron, and now we

can even trace the content of cobalt.

 

For ten years, I examined the potassium content in the

serum of human beings and I made about 200 curves. But

these are not characteristic. On the other hand, if we

take a little tissue - a little mucous membrane or

muscle tissue with the improvement of the patient, the

tissue also shows a return to the normal potassium

content. (12) This is of tremendous importance.

 

Two months ago when I planned to come here for my

vacation, the parents of this little boy wrote me and

asked me for treatment for leukemia. Here is the

little boy. He was treated with blood transfusions,

had been 50 and 60,000 white blood count and his red

blood count was down to 1,400,000. He lost eight

pounds in one week, couldn't eat or drink. I started

the treatment about six weeks ago. Since that time,

the boy is up and around, he can ride his bicycle, he

is active and gained a total of five pounds. The blood

count is normal. Lymphocytes are 6,500; hemoglobin is

73; 4,500,000 red blood cells - from 1,400,000! And

here is the little boy. (The mother adds: “I want to

tell you doctor, he really likes the liver juice, he

doesn't want to eat chocolate!”) You see, the liver

juice, the children really like it and ask for more.

In the clinic where the parents had taken the child,

they were told that nothing could be done for him but

I feel that now we can save

this child. (Applause)

 

I have here another patient: Mr. Eyerly. Could you

come here? Mr. Eyerly came here to see me. He lives in

Salem, Oregon. The man had cancer of the prostate and

it had grown into the urine bladder. He went to the

University Clinic at Portland, Oregon, to a famous

urologist. He diagnosed the metastasis into the

urinary bladder and said that they could do nothing.

Besides, the cancer had grown into the pelvic bones.

This was two years ago. The physicians, including the

family doctor, all told him that he could live only 4

to 6 weeks, especially since all bones of the pelvis

were full of cancer. He looked terribly ill when he

came to me. His wife brought him with a nurse. He had

made his last will and did not expect to live. Now we

cured that. It was especially difficult. I should like

to thank his wife. She prepared the treatment with the

greatest devotion. She was wonderful and we could rely

on her. In a family where there is real devotion in

the application of this treatment, we can even save

these far advanced cases. Of course, we cannot save

all of them but we can save more than we sometimes

even consider possible. (Question from the audience:

“How long did it take?”) In the urinary bladder, it

didn't take but a few weeks and there was no longer

any blood and pus, nor in the stools either. But in

the pelvis there were hundreds of spots, and that

takes a long time because the body transforms this

cancer first into so-called osteoplastic areas, not an

osteolytic process which is bone reducing. With my

treatment more bone is produced. The body produces

more bone, and then the hypertrophic bone is

transformed into normal bone tissue. Then there is no

more pain. Now the patient can get around and is even

the manager of a company.

 

By chance I had these two patients here and could show

them to you.

 

Post-Lecture Questions and Answers

Q. Can fibroid tumors be dissolved in the same manner?

 

A. Fibroid tumors are mostly benign. Benign tumors

take 10 to 20 times as much time to absorb as

malignant tumors. This goes for adhesions and scars.

Fibroid and benign tumors are dissolved only very

slowly because they are not abnormal. It is difficult

for the parenteral system to bring its digestive

powers to bear on these benign tumors. But when they

turn malignant, then they are quickly dissolved.

 

Q. (from a doctor) Dr. Gerson, when I visited your

hospital in 1946 your housekeeper was drinking fresh

carrot juice. She had had an inoperable cancer of the

pancreas. Please tell us about her. She was doing very

well for such a bad condition.

 

A. She is living and in good condition now, 10 years

later.

 

Q. Is cancer a state of reaction of unrestrained

excessive factors of certain hormones working on

various degenerated organs or tissues?

 

A. No, I don't think so. There is much more and to

answer that question, I have to go deeper into the

problem. We have to separate the state of

pre-cancerous condition from the state where the

cancer appears. In the pre-cancerous condition, all is

prepared. The liver is sufficiently damaged and the

other organs of the intestinal tract are damaged

enough and then later the symptoms appear. Until then

we have the pre-cancerous condition and this condition

cannot be cured with hormones and enzymes, etc. We can

to a certain degree stimulate the liver with hormones.

We can stimulate the liver with cortisone. We can

stimulate the liver with adrenalin etc., but then we

take out the last reserves. We empty the liver instead

of refilling it. What we have to do in cancer -a

degenerative, deficiency disease- is to refill the

organs which are empty and poisoned. Therefore it is

almost a crime to give cortisone and the other

stimulants which will take away the last reserves and

improve the condition for a short while only.

 

Q. Why are all berries prohibited?

 

A. Some of the patients are hypersensitive,

especially in the beginning, against berries which are

a little difficult to digest. Therefore I cut them

out.

 

Q. Are tomatoes OK?

 

A. Tomatoes are OK.

 

Q. Soy products and soy beans are forbidden. But is

lecithin forbidden, which is made from soy beans?

 

A. Since soy beans contain fats, I had to forbid them.

Cancer patients are not able for a long time to digest

fats to the end products. When some intermediate

substances are left in the body, they work as

carcinogenic substances. Therefore we had to cut out

fats, oil, and goods containing them for a long time.

 

Q. What metabolic tests do you do before and after to

further prove recovery systematically as well as

clinically?

 

A. I examine in all these case the urine, the

complete blood count, basal metabolism or

protein-bound iodine, and potassium in serum and

tissue. To see how the liver functions, I found it

best to examine the end product of the protein

metabolism, urea nitrogen and uric acid. When these

are normal and stay normal, then I assume that the

patient is all right. But potassium in serum does not

give a characteristic picture and makes it difficult

to judge. The patient can be cured yet the serum

potassium still shows low because the tissues take it

away. In some of the cancer patients when they arrive

as terminal cases, potassium is above normal! One of

the physicians asked me once, " Are you crazy? With the

potassium above normal, you give such big doses of

potassium? " And I said, “Yes, sir, I am not crazy. The

patient is losing the potassium. (12) That is how it

is increased in the serum. "

 

Q.Is fat-free lecithin OK?

 

A. Yes. But not in the beginning. After six weeks,

fat-free lecithin is OK.

 

Q. How harmful is coffee as a drink?

 

A. Coffee as a drink can be used by the patients only

when they take the castor oil because coffee increases

the motility of the stomach so the castor oil moves

more quickly out of the stomach. But otherwise, coffee

as a drink disturbs the function of the capillaries

and therefore it has to be cut out.

 

Q. Would not detoxification be advisable in the

majority of illnesses? Is this not comparable to what

is called " a cleansing program? "

 

A. We have to detoxify the body in all degenerative

diseases, in acute diseases too. But not to the extent

as is required in cancer. Even most of the arthritis

cases are not so toxic. I found that almost all of the

arthritis cases have a weak liver or damaged liver.

This is also true of coronary disease.

 

Q. Are (synthetic) vitamin and mineral supplements

OK?

 

A. No, they are wrong because calcium and many other

minerals cannot be added so easily. They bring the

system out of harmony. With calcium you can produce

cancer. I was forced in three cases of hemophilia to

give calcium to bring the blood to coagulate. I did it

but the cancer regrew and I lost all three cases. No

calcium, no magnesium, no other minerals. I tried it.

There must be harmony in our body under the law of

totality. One should not change the mineral

metabolism, especially not in cancer. Only the two

most important minerals potassium and sodium must be

balanced. This is the need of the cancer patient.

 

Q. In John Gunther's book, Death Be Not Proud,

mention is made of your treatment as used on John

Gunther's son. Spectacular results were obtained at

first but then there was a relapse and the patient

died. Could you have cured this case without the

regular MD's interference?

 

A. I will tell you why this poor boy died. He had a

terrible brain tumor growing out of the skull, larger

than my fist. I cured that. It's written in the book.

But after that, the boy had an eczema and this eczema

was of a special type which can usually be cured by

giving the anterior lobe pituitary extract, a hormone.

The family doctor, Dr. Traeger, said, " Why don't you

give it to him? " But I told him that this is a

terrible risk and I don't like to take such a risk

with the life of that boy. When we give the pituitary,

like many other hormones we may kill. But finally I

gave in and it was my fault. And for a long time after

that I couldn't sleep nights. I gave him the hormone

and the tumor regrew. I can add to that, that more

than 12 years ago now, there appeared an article by a

professor in Chicago that cancer patients benefit from

administration of sex hormones. I gave it first to

three patients, then to five. They reacted well for

the first two to three months. Then I gave it to 25

more. They all reacted well for three to four months

but after five months they went downhill. I lost 25 of

my best cancer cases. Only six I could save again.

That was the disaster from the hormone treatment. The

Gunther boy was another disaster. That was not

necessary. I want to reemphasize that we must not give

the cancer patient " a little something " for temporary

relief. I learned that the hard way.

 

Q. Your treatment worked in advanced cases of cancer

of the liver?

 

A. If more than half to three-quarters of the liver

is gone, you can't restore its function enough to save

the patient. You may save them for half a year to a

year, but then the liver may shrink and the patients

die of a shrunken liver, cirrhosis of the liver. The

liver is such an important organ that when it has to

eliminate its own cancer, this has to be done by the

healthy liver tissue. But the process of elimination

can damage the healthy liver tissue if we don't

detoxify constantly day and night, especially in these

cases.

 

Now about three or four months ago a case came to me

from Philadelphia. She told me when her son and.

brother brought her in that she had suffered from

cancer of the rectum. At first the doctors didn't want

to operate, then they couldn't. It was too late. Then

she spent a half year at the Hoxey Clinic, and then

she came home with a liver full of cancer, and hard as

a board. I told her son and brother that this was too

much, it wouldn't go. Take her home and make her

comfortable. But they insisted I must try. And I did.

And she is doing well! She can eat and drink, and the

anterior part of her liver is a scar, hard as though

it were calcified. Probably there is enough liver

left. The son asked when they took her home after

eight weeks, " You see, why didn't you want to take

her? " At least for four weeks, every two hours and

sometimes even every hour, she took coffee enema and

castor oil enemas twice a day! She had so much gas and

eliminated such large amounts of evil-smelling masses.

When she left, we had to paint the room. It couldn't

be washed off the paint.

 

(Comment by M.C.: “I may say that I have looked

through a lot of these places in a general way. I have

been through Dr. Gerson's sanatorium on three

different occasions and spent each time eight or ten

days. I saw cases come in there by ambulance, on

stretchers - just like Dr. Gerson said -hopeless

metastatic cancers of the liver, the intestines, with

obstructions, getting morphine every three to four

hours. To my amazement within ten days these same

patients would be walking around, free from pain. I

was so amazed I couldn't understand it. It was so

incredible that I made my son who was a senior in

medical school come back with me to see these things.

But it was not only cancer. I saw cases there of other

degenerative diseases of all types.”)

 

Q. Is folic acid treatment contra-indicated during

treatment of cancer?

 

A. Yes, (synthetic) folic acid did damage.

 

Q. Can arthritis be cured by the same treatment which

you use for cancer?

 

A. Yes. The treatment is not specific. It is not a

specific treatment for cancer.

 

Q. How do you account for the fact that many skin

cancers and some other cancers can be surgically

removed and they never regrow or recur, even though no

metabolic changes have been made?

 

A. Some patients have only temporary damage of the

liver and the liver is then able to restore itself.

But that is not in a majority of the cases. Sometimes

if you remove, say a breast cancer, the removal of

these toxins and poisons which the cancer itself

generates is sufficient in some cases to relieve the

temporary damage from the liver. Then the liver can

recover. But these are the exceptions. And it is not

basic. Also some of these patients get recurrences

later. Many of my patients, after an initial

operation, had stayed well for three or sometimes even

five years. Then the cancer recurred. They were

inoperable and orthodox medicine was helpless.

 

Q. Would it not be advantageous for the cancer

patients to remain permanently on a

vegetarian diet for the rest of their lives?

 

A. That depends on how far the liver can be restored.

If it can be restored entirely, after say 1½ years, we

tell the patients only to avoid fats and salt.

Otherwise they are free. Many of them lead normal

lives. But I'd like to say that about 75% like to stay

more or less on the diet, and some even convince the

other members of their families to stay on it with

them. For instance, we have a photograph here in

Escondido of Mr. Walter Wagg. He had a 100% incurable

disease, progressive muscular dystrophy. He had been

in the best clinics and could get no help. I cured

him. Then his wife wanted to have another baby and

they were able to have one. Later he came to where I

was spending my vacation and showed me his wife and

the baby. He told me that the whole family sticks to

the diet and said he would stay with it as long as he

lived since he is in such fine condition.

 

Q. What can be done for impaired lymph circulation

following surgery in one arm for what was diagnosed as

cancer?

 

A. It is very difficult to absorb these scars so that

the lymph circulation can be restored, a very

difficult task. It takes years.

 

Q. What is your conception of a prolonged fast or

periodical three-day fast?

 

A. You can't let the cancer patient fast. In the

cancer patient the body is so depleted, if you let

them fast they go downhill terribly.

 

Q. What would you consider more important, diet or

balanced emotions?

 

A. The balanced emotional condition is very important

but without the diet and the

detoxification you cannot heal.

 

Q. Would Parkinson's disease respond to a treatment

similar as that for cancer?

 

A. What is destroyed in the central nervous system -

and Parkinson's disease is a disease of the basal

centers - is destroyed forever. But you are able to

help the arteries in the brain with the treatment, and

you can stop the progression, and you can restore what

is not yet entirely destroyed.

 

Q. Does anemia contribute to cancer?

 

A. Sometimes it is a pre-condition to cancer,

especially a certain type of anemia, not the so-called

secondary anemia.

 

Q. Can too much vegetable juice cause alkalinity?

 

A. No.

 

Q. Dr. Otto Warburg advises increased intake of

oxygen.

 

A. Oxygen would not go into the system so easily. You

must have oxidizing enzymes, you must have more

potassium, you must have the conditions under which

oxygen can function.

 

Q. What vitamins are OK to take with your treatment?

 

A. With the vitamins we have a similar situation as we

saw with the hormones. I damaged patients with vitamin

A, vitamin E, vitamin B and B6. Patients get really

damaged. Vitamin A and D is picked up by the cancer

cells immediately. Niacin we can use, that is B-3.

(Editor’s Note: the Gerson Diet is extremely high in

natural vitamins. Cancer patients are probably very

sensitive to overdosage with synthetic vitamin

preparations.)

 

Q. What do you think of deep manipulation?

 

A. Cancer patients should not be massaged. Rubbing of

the skin to open the capillaries and to help the body

to stimulate the circulation is very valuable. We give

the patient a rub two or three times a day before

meals with a solution of ½ glass water with two

tablespoons rubbing alcohol and two tablespoons of

wine vinegar. To rub the whole body is very refreshing

and helps the circulation.

 

Q. Can a person with a colostomy take the same type

of coffee enema as a regular patient?

 

A. Yes.

 

Q. What are the principles of the coffee enema?

 

A. It opens the bile ducts. This is the principle.

 

Q. How can we prevent cancer?

 

A. Cancer must be prevented by preventing damage to

the liver. The basic measure of prevention is not to

eat the damaged, dead, poisoned food which we bring

into our bodies. Every day, day by day, we poison our

bodies. The older people still have a better liver and

resistance from the food they had when they were

young. The younger people get worse and the babies,

now the second generation on canned baby foods, are

still worse. They get leukemias. First of all, eat as

much as you can of raw food, keep the potassium level

up,

and take some iodine.

 

 

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. F. Sauerbruch, A. Herrmannsdorfer and M. Gerson,

“Ueber Versuche, schwere Formen der Tuberkulose durch

dietetische Behandlungen zu becinflussen, " Muench.

Med. Wochenschr., 2, 1(1926).

 

2. M. Gerson, ibid, 77, 967 (1930).

 

3. M. Gerson, " Phosphorlebertran und die

Gerson-Herrrnannsdorfersche Diat zur Heilung der

Tuberkulose, " Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr., 12, 1(1930).

 

4. F. Sauerbruch, A. Herrmannsdorfer and M. Gerson,

Muench. Med. Wochenschr, 23 (1930).

 

5. M. Gerson, " Wiederherstellung der verschiedenen

Gefuchiqualitaeten bei der Lupushei. lung, " Verli.

Disch. Ge:. Inn. Med., 43, 77 (1931).

 

6. M. Gerson, Diattherapie der Lungentuberkulose,

Deuticke, Vienne, 1934.

 

7. M. Gerson, " Einiges ucher die kochsalzarme Diat, "

Hyppokokrates Z. Einheitsbestr. Gegenwarismed., 12,

627 (1931).

 

8. F. Sauerbruch, Das War Mein Leben, Kindler und

Schiermeyer Verlag, Bad Woerischofen, 1951, pp

363-371. This contains an account of how the author

learned of Gerson's work by an accidental conversation

on the train with one of Gerson's cured TB patients,

which led to a large scale successful trial of the

Gerson TB therapy at the Sauerbruch clinic.

 

9. E. Urbach and E. B. Le Winn, Skin Diseases,

Nutrition, and Metabolism. Grune and Stratton, New

York, 1946, pp 4, 65-67, 530-537. This contains a

comprehensive review (in English) of the successful

use of the Gerson therapy to cure tuberculosis of the

skin.

 

10. M. Gerson, " Dietary considerations in malignant

neoplastic disease. A preliminary report, " Rev.

GastroenteroL, 12, 419 (1945).

 

11. " Effects of a combined dietary regime on patients

with malignant tumors, " Exp. Med. Surg., 7, 299

(1949).

 

12. F. W. Cope, " A medical application of the Ling

association-induction hypothesis: The high potassium,

low sodium diet of the Gerson cancer therapy, "

Physiol. Chem. Phys., 10, 465 (1978).

 

13. M. Gerson, " Diattherapie boesartiger Erkrankungen

(Krebs), " in Handbuch der Diatetik. Scala, Ed.,

Deuticke, Vienna, 1954, pp 123-169.

 

14. M. Gerson, A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty

Cases, Third Ed., Totality Books, Box 1035, Del Mar,

California, 1977. This is comprehensive description of

the Gerson method of cancer treatment written both for

the physician and for the layman.