Gerson therapy

Template:Totallydisputed The pseudoscientific Gerson therapy is a controversial, holistic, nutrition-based therapy. Developed by German-born physician Dr. Max Gerson (1881-1959), believers in the therapy say it is effective for most chronic (degenerative) diseases. Unapproved for medical treatment of cancer in the United States due to the lack of medically agreed upon supporting scientific data, Gerson therapy has been a touchstone of medical nutrition politics for several generations in the US.

Introduction

Supporters say that the therapy is based on hyperalimentation, enzymes and detoxification, with some vitamin, mineral and biological supplementation. Gerson's belief is that toxic chemicals in the environment poison humans. He says denatured food grown on depleted soil, poisoned with pesticides, highly processed, and preserved with hundreds of dangerous chemicals causes disease. Reversal of the diseases calls for the elimination of the disease-causing conditions, and rebuilding of the damaged organism over the course of 6-18 months. These supporters fail to explain what (if anything) the terms "hyperalimentation", "detoxification", "toxic", "denatured", "depleted", or "rebuilding" mean in this context. No evidence has ever been presented as to the existence of these supposed toxins, or that they cause any disease.

Hyperalimentation is supposedly accomplished through the consumption of 13 eight-ounce glasses of fresh, organic juices daily, supplemented by three large, organic, vegan meals, and numerous fruit and vegetable snacks throughout the day. Advocates of the therapy claim that the supposed flood of nutrients enables the body to begin ridding itself of the accumulated toxins of a lifetime but that the overload of toxins in the bloodstream hitting an already-compromised liver can cause hepatic coma and death. No evidence of the existence of such toxins has ever been presented. The Gerson diet has however been associated with several deaths. These are though by non-quacks to be as a result of electrolyte imbalances as from the coffee enemas which form part of the "treatment". Gerson developed his now-famous coffee enema with the intent of stimulating the liver to produce bile, thereby supposedly flushing the supposed, undetectable toxins from the liver and making it ready to filter more from the bloodstream. He believed that chronic pain is most often the result of accumulated "toxicity" and that removing the toxins in this manner would provide instant pain relief of even the most persistent and acute pain. He was unfortunately wrong. Gerson also supposedly replenished mineral (iodine, potassium) deficiencies, thyroid and pancreas deficiencies, weak digestive processes, with supplements.

Gerson believed that the reversal of the natural sodium-potassium balance in the body had to be corrected before chronic disease could be healed, hence the low-sodium, high potassium nature of the diet. In fact this supposed correction is provably harmful, sometimes even fatal. He failed to show that animal protein and animal fat were two of the most potent promoters of cancer growth, but prohibited nearly all animal products and all fats and oils except for flax-seed oil anyway. All foods had to be fresh and organically grown, nothing could be processed, preserved, canned, bottled, boxed, frozen. The diet is salt-free, and avoids all supposed sources of "toxicity", including tobacco, alcohol, fluoride, pesticides, food chemicals and all pharmaceuticals. Avoiding all pharmaceuticals can be a poor idea if you have a life-threatening illness.

Development

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Like all quack medicine, the "Gerson Therapy" does not develop. As it is not based on evidence, but rather on faith, it never improves, although some of the more lethal of its original components (such as raw liver injections) have been dropped over time. Gerson osupposedly originally developed his therapy in an attempt to defeat the debilitating and excruciatingly painful migraine headaches he claims to have suffered as a young medical student and resident which he claimed his professors thought he would suffer from for the rest of his life. This was an unsatisfactory answer to the young quack, and he set out to find his own solution. His curiosity piqued by a reference in an 18th century Italian medical text, Gerson began to explore dietary modification as a solution, having no other clues to go on. He embarked on an elimination diet to find out what was causing his headaches and claimed to winnow out those items that gave him trouble. According to Gerson, as long as he diligently avoided the foods he had identified as "migraine" foods, the young man had no more migraines. That the elimination of certain foods can assist with migraines is nothing miraculous. It does not however follow that the same treatment cures everything from cancer to leprosy. In his book Gerson defines the "Results of 50 Cases" but does not present how many TOTAL patients received the treatment, nor what the medical history of these patients was, leading to the conclusion by scientists that Gerson's work is the result of "cherry picking" successful cases (placebo effect, natural remission?) and failing to report the failures, thus leading to wildly exaggerated success rates. Gerson was simply a poor doctor, and a dreadful scientist. He did not understand how to distinguish between wishful thinking and valid conclusions. His supporters carry on this tradition.

The Gerson therapy today

The Gerson profit centre has been continued by Dr. Gerson's medically unqualified daughter, Charlotte Gerson, and the Gerson Institute she founded in 1978, despite there being no evidence that Gerson left any notes explaining the basis of his treatment, or that someone unqulaified might understand them if they had been left. In the intervening decades, Charlotte Gerson has powered the formation of many clinics in areas outside the juridiction of rational legislature such as Mexico, Arizona, Indiana, California, Hawaii, Japan, as well as the training of hundreds of Gerson therapy practitioners around the world. Though either illegal or heavily contested in all the United States, advocates of the Gerson therapy claim that it is rapidly gaining adherents around the world, as if that said anything about its effectiveness. They nonsensically assert that there are approximately 1,500 chronic diseases that are deemed "incurable" by mainstream medicine and claim that the Gerson therapy documents success with nearly 99% of them. No actual data to support these extraordinary claims has ever been provided.

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Criticism

The American Cancer Society reports that "[t]here is no reliable scientific evidence that Gerson therapy is effective in treating cancer, and the principles behind it are not widely accepted by the medical community. It is not approved for use in the United States." [1] The Guardian has reported that the main clinic of the Gerson Institute in Mexico charges $4900 per week for the therapy, a possible indication that this therapy is a purely profit-driven industry. [2] The therapy is also declared illegal in the US when sold as a cancer cure, due to the lack of scientific data as to its efficacy. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 1947 they, "reviewed 10 cases submitted by Dr. Gerson. However, because the patients were also receiving other anticancer treatments, the NCI could not determine whether the patients\u2019 condition was due to the Gerson therapy or another treatment." [3] Also the Gerson Therapy supporters fail to explain what (if anything) the terms "hyperalimentation", "detoxification", "toxic", "denatured", "depleted", or "rebuilding" mean in this context. No evidence has ever been presented as to the existence of these supposed toxins, or that they cause any disease. While anecdotal reports abound the Gerson literature, no statistical scientific studies are available at any Gerson website or in their literature. For example, the many clinics listed below reportedly receive many patients for training, but no data has been published to define how many enter, what their actual medical history is, or what their actual outcome was after treatment.

External links

• Questionable Cancer Therapies by Quackwatch
• Gerson Regimen by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Rebecca Atkinson, The Guardian, 4/2/2006
• Cancer Research UK advice on Gerson
• Peter Moran's Comment on Gerson's "50 Cases"