| The Cure of Advanced Cancer by Diet Therapy |
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A SUMMARY OF 30 YEARS OF CLINICAL EXPERIMENTATION
By 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.
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.
The Gerson Institute
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: The information on this page is
not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease,
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alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance
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Persons needing medical care should consult a doctor or physician before making
any health decision.
Kevin James Rogers
Director
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