Evolution of the Gerson therapy: modifications and additions meet today's challenges.

Newcomers to the Gerson way of healing sometimes express the view that a therapy developed some sixty years ago and left unchanged ever since must surely be obsolete--after all, medicine has made huge progress since Dr Gerson's death in 1959. This criticism is wrong on several counts. For one thing, human physiology and the nature of chronic disease have not changed, and therefore the Gerson approach to healing has not become obsolete. For another, over the years the Therapy itself has been enriched with carefully chosen additions, in the spirit of Dr. Gerson, who was never satisfied with the results he obtained: no matter how excellent or dramatic they were, he felt that they could always be improved.

Since his death the work of healing has become increasingly difficult. Air, soil and water are globally polluted, food has lost a great deal of its nutritional value, besides being genetically modified, heavily processed and adulterated with chemical additives. Worse still, the use of drugs, both prescribed and over-the-counter, has vastly increased; so have certain self-destructive habits that have become part of the modern lifestyle. As a result people are more severely toxic and their bodies more damaged.

We noted early on at the Mexican hospitals that the results obtained with Dr. Gerson's strict therapy were not as good and dramatic as the ones he had described. Moreover, some of the original medications had been changed, while others were no longer obtainable or usable. For example, Dr. Gerson used crude liver extract (Lilly) to help boost his patients' liver function. Today's liver extract is much more refined and presumably not as effective. Dr. Gerson also used freshly prepared raw calves' liver juice, to help overcome the damage caused by pesticides to the patient's liver. This can no longer be done, for it was found that even the young livers from all available sources were infected with campylobacter, a bacterium that can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, nausea and vomiting.

For these reasons, and to try to make up for the resulting deficiencies, certain items have been added to the Gerson protocol. One of them is Co-enzyme Q-10, which replaces some of the contents of the raw liver juice. Another one is defatted colostrum, an important immune booster nutrient. Since pancreatic enzymes play a vital role in helping to break down and digest tumor tissue, the addition of stronger and more frequently used pancreatin has also proved effective. Gerson doctors are also using artificial fever treatment (hyperthermia) to generate improved immune function and to speed up healing reactions. This treatment is useful since tumor tissue cannot survive in elevated temperatures that normal body tissue can easily tolerate; fever can also help to reduce pain. For a while they also worked with hyperbaric oxygen treatments, but these were found to be harmful to melanoma patients and were discontinued.

Various uses of ozone (via rectal insufflation or in it's liquid form, hydrogen peroxide, used as a skin rub) have also proven helpful and effective, by killing germs and viruses, destroying cancerous tissue, oxygenating the blood supply and thereby all the organ systems, and converting free radicals into excretable compounds. An innovation in the field of diet concerns certain patients who are lactose-intolerant, i.e. unable to tolerate the defatted and pre-digested milk proteins like yogurt that are normally added to the therapy after six to ten weeks. In such cases protein-rich vegetarian materials such as spirulina are used.

Since patients' immune competence is generally low, great care is taken to protect them from catching colds or, worse still, flu. One recent addition to the program is grapefruit seed extract, which has antiviral and anti-bacterial properties. Taken orally and used as a gargle, it can ward off a cold if taken at the very first suspicion of trouble. Another excellent preparation is the homeopathic Flu Solution by Dolisos America, Inc. (www.dolisosamerica.com)

These are just some of the items added in recent times to the basic Gerson program in order to increase its effectiveness. Needless to say, before being applied they must be proven to be "NON-TOXIC". Also, prior to being given to patients, I try them out on myself. Since I am very sensitive to any toxic substance, I can usually tell immediately if any of them is of questionable safety. Only when I am satisfied that they are safe are they cautiously administered to a few patients, whose response is then carefully evaluated. Only by combining promising innovations and additions with extreme caution can we ensure that the Gerson Therapy does its work well under today's increasingly difficult circumstances.

Guns and Doctors

Source: Various

* The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

* Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

* Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. (Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health Human Services)

* The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.

* The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

* The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188.

Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!

Out of concern for our readers, we have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.