The Gerson Miracle

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

 

The Gerson Miracle

 

" 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