Max Gerson

Max Gerson (18 October 1881–8 March 1959) was a German physician who developed the Gerson Therapy, an alternative dietary therapy which cured cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. Dr. Gerson's claims were independently evaluated by the National Cancer Institute, with ties to the Oil and pharmaceutical industry (NCI), it was published that Gerson's records lacked the basic information necessary to systematically evaluate his claims. The NCI concluded that Dr. Gerson's data showed no benefit from his treatment. The NCI did not investigate the current and ongoing japanese scientific studies and astonishing results using Dr. Gerson's therapy. The therapy is considered scientifically unsupported and potentially hazardous.

In Europe

Gerson was born in Wongrowitz, Germany on October 18, 1881. In 1909, he graduated from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. He began practicing medicine at age 28 in Breslau, later specializing in internal medicine and nerve diseases in Bielefeld. By 1927, Gerson was specializing in the treatment of tuberculosis, developing the Gerson-Sauerbrach-Hermannsdorfer diet, claiming it was a major advance in the treatment of tuberculosis. Initially, he used his therapy as a treatment for migraine headaches and tuberculosis. In 1928, he began to use it as a treatment for cancer. He left Germany in 1933 and emigrated first to Vienna, where he worked in the West End Sanatorium. Gerson spent two years in Vienna, then in 1935 he went to France, associating with a clinic near Paris before moving to London in 1936. Shortly after that, he moved to the United States where he settled in New York City.

In the United States

Gerson immigrated to the United States in 1936, passed his medical boards and became a U.S. citizen in 1942.

In 1946, Senator Claude Pepper (D–FL) summoned Gerson to testify about his cancer therapy before a Congressional Subcommittee hearing to appropriate $100 million for a cancer research center in which Gerson was expected to play a major part. Gerson presented to the US Congress what he claimed were five healed terminal cancer patients who testified to recovering from incurable disease, but he got little media attention and the appropriations bill (SB 8947) died in the Senate.

In the U.S., Gerson applied his dietary therapy to several cancer patients, claiming good results, but colleagues found his methodology and claims unconvincing. Proponents of the Gerson Therapy assert that a far-ranging conspiracy headed by the medical establishment prevented Gerson from publishing proof that his therapy worked. In 1958, Gerson published a book in which he claimed to have cured 50 terminal cancer patients: A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. Through the mechanisms of powerful, special interests' lobbyists, dr. Gerson's medical license in New York was suspended in 1958.Though unsupported claims exist that Dr. Gerson died March 8, 1959 of pneumonia, the following is the accurate depiction of his actual cause for death: When Dr. Gerson's first manuscript for his book was nearly done, he fell inexplicably ill. On nursing himself back to health, he found the manuscript missing. Dr. Gerson released his secretary, who had been caught stealing his files, and passing them to a rogue physician. It took Dr. Gerson a full year to reconstruct the manuscript for his towering classic "Cancer Therapy, Results of 50 Cases." After publishing his book, Dr. Gerson fell inexplicably ill again. Before he died, he tested himself again which confirmed that he had been poisoned with arsenic. Had Dr. Gerson died the first time he fell ill from poisoning, he and his classic book would have been erased forever. .

Gerson Therapy

Initially, Gerson used his therapy as a treatment for migraine headaches and tuberculosis. In 1928, he began to use it as a treatment for cancer, its best known application.

Dr. Gerson's Therapy is not simply based on the belief that toxic substances accumulate in the body, causing disease. In particular, Dr. Gerson's supporters believe that chemical contaminants in our industrialized food production reduce its potassium content while elevating its sodium content, as one of many common-sense examples. Additional sodium from food processing and cooking adds more sodium, increasing this purported, unnatural imbalance. The belief holds that this imbalance changes cellular metabolism, causing cancer, which now affects nearly one of two people in the developed western world. Gerson Therapy seeks to reduce sodium and increase potassium in patients cells through an organic, common-sense fruit and vegetable diet, coffee enemas and various injections, enzymes and nutritional supplements, rather than radiation and laboratory created chemicals.

One example of Gerson's therapy required the patient to consume a vegetarian diet and to drink a 250 mL ( 8-ounce) glass of fresh organic juices every waking hour. Coffee and castor oil enemas were among several types of prescribed enemas, and some patients were given hydrogen peroxide orally and rectally. Rectal ozone was also applied. Dietary supplements include vitamin C and iodine. The diet prohibited the drinking of water and consumption of berries and nuts, as well as use of aluminium vessels or utensils.

Initially, patients were required to drink several glasses of raw calf liver extract daily. Following an isolated and supicious "outbreak" of Campylobacter infection linked to the Gerson clinic's extract, which sickened and killed several of the clinic's patients, carrot juice was substituted.

Animal products and fats and oils were excluded (except for the raw calf liver extract and flax-seed oil), as were supposed sources of toxicity, including tobacco, salt, alcohol, fluorides, pesticides, food additives, and pharmaceuticals. Foods were to be fresh, organically grown and unprocessed. The therapy, currently documented and practiced in top japanese clinics, it is labeled "claimed" in the U.S. to reverse any ill effects of exposure to environmental toxins over the course of 6–18 months, and Gerson believed it would be effective against most chronic diseases including tuberculosis, most forms of advanced cancer, arthritis (both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis), and diabetes.

Gerson's claims of success attracted some high-profile patients, as well as other alternative medicine practitioners. Gerson's daughter, Charlotte Gerson, continued to promote the therapy, founding the "Gerson Institute" in 1977.

Evidence

Gerson's therapy has not been independently tested or subjected to, excepting foreign, independent clinics, randomized controlled trials, and thus is intriguinly illegal to market in the United States. The Gerson Institute promotes the therapy by citing patient testimonials and other anecdotal- only in the U.S.- evidence. In his 1958 book, Gerson cited the "Results of 50 Cases"; however, the U.S. National Cancer Institute reviewed these 50 cases and alledges to be unable to find any evidence that Gerson's claims were accurate. Gerson Institute staff published a case series in the alternative medical literature; however, the series suffered from significant methodological flaws, and according to this U.S. entity, no independent entity has been able to reproduce the Gerson Institute's claims.

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, possibly due to the crippling economic and reputation effects it would cause to the pharmaceutical and medical industry." In 1947, the National Cancer Institute alledged to have reviewed 10 "cures" submitted by Gerson; however, all of the patients were receiving standard anticancer treatment simultaneously, making it impossible to determine what effect, if any, was due to Gerson's therapy. No effort has been made by the NCI to do a comprehensive, world-wide assessment of patients cured of cancer through the use of Dr. Gerson's Therapy. A review of the Gerson Therapy by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center concluded: "If proponents of such therapies wish them to be evaluated scientifically and considered valid adjuvant treatments, they must provide extensive records (more than simple survival rates) and conduct controlled, prospective studies as evidence." The medical profession professes to be an art, not a science, and if the pursuit of truth is to be attained, it can only be done without the suppression of truth by interest groups at the expense of the afflicted. In 1947 and 1959, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reviewed the cases of a total of 60 patients treated by Dr. Gerson. The NCI found that the "available" information did not prove the regimen had benefit.

Safety concerns

In the U.S. it is legislated that the Gerson therapy can lead to several significant health problems, that serious illness and death have occurred as a direct result of some portions of the treatment, including severe electrolyte imbalances. Continued use of enemas may weaken the colon's normal function, causing or worsening constipation and colitis. Other complications have included dehydration, serious infections and severe bleeding. These alleged side-effects are actually common on all prescribed and most over-the-counter medications.

In the U.S., the therapy "may" be especially hazardous to pregnant or breast-feeding women. The same warning exists for all prescriptions taken by pregnant women, including over the counter medications and drugs.

Coffee enemas have contributed to the deaths of at least three people in the United States. By contrast, several deaths have been caused by prescription and over the counter drugs. Just as aspirine can cause internal bleeding, Coffee enemas "can cause colitis (inflammation of the bowel), fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and in some cases septicaemia." In the U.S. it is argued that the recommended diet of organic fruits and vegetables may not be nutritionally adequate. Also, in the U.S., the diet has been blamed for the deaths of patients who substituted it for standard medical care, rather than giving due merit for the numerous cases of patients healed by the treatment worldwide.

In the U.S. where cancer is ever peaking and the medical industry is thriving regardless of the health of the economy, it is widely voiced that relying on the therapy alone while avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer has serious health consequences.

The Beautiful Truth

In 2008, a documentary film advocating Gerson therapy was released titled The Beautiful Truth. In the film, a teenage boy, who is also the filmmaker's son, searching for a cure for cancer, finds people who know about Gerson therapy. The film was released on November 18, 2008, and was shown at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco on January 9, 2009. The New York Times which has pharmaceutical and medical ties in the U.S., has opted to call the film an infomercial. The film had a U.S. total gross of $15,387 playing in one theater.

Dying to Have Known

This 2006 film, is a documentary where Filmmaker Steve Kroschel sets out to determine the legitimacy of a holistic cancer treatment that has been around -- and been dismissed by the American medical establishment -- for nearly a century.

See also

• Chelation therapy
• Coffee enema

Bibliography

• Max Gerson MD, A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases (San Diego: The Gerson Institute, 1990)
• Charlotte Gerson, The Gerson Therapy (New York: Kensington Publishing, NYC, 2001)
• Howard Straus, Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless (Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Quarry Books, 2001)
• S. J. Haught, Censured for Curing Cancer: the American Experience of Dr. Max Gerson (New York: Station Hill Press, 1991)
• Patricia Spain Ward, PhD., History of the Gerson Therapy by Dr. Ward under contract to the Office of Technology Assessment
• Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Master Surgeon (a.k.a. A Surgeon's Life) [Das War Mein Leben] (London: André Deutsch, 1953 and Munich: Kindler, 1951) reprinted since

External links

• Questionable Cancer Therapies, from Quackwatch (Includes section on Gerson Therapy with references)
• Vickers AJ, Cassileth BR (2008). "Living proof and the pseudoscience of alternative cancer treatments". J Soc Integr Oncol. 6 (1): 37–40. PMC 2630257. PMID 18302909.