The Gerson Therapy is an all natural protocol, which aims to restore the correct balance of minerals to your body, boosting the immune system and restoring good metabolism in your cells; it combines an organic plant-based diet, with juices and supplements. It is used as an alternative or complementary cancer therapy.
The Gerson Therapy, controversy and science
In the period between 2005 and 2015, the mere mention of the Gerson therapy brought largely uniformed scorn from oncologists and skeptics alike (Writes Oxford University Biochemist, Chris Woollams). "There are no clinical trials", "How can coffee enemas cure cancer", and even, "There's no evidence vitamin C can cure cancer"., were three of the public criticisms of top oncologists.
We now have research studies on fasting, others on 'Juice Diets'; we have Professor Valter Longo, a longevity expert, producing research on the benefits of Intermittent fasting. We have 95 studies on the colourful Mediterranean Diet - the Rainbow Diet - and we have research on how vegetables and fruits encourage specific commensal gut bacteria to grow in numbers producing compounds we need and that are anti-inflammatory. We know there are over 500 polyphenols in the fruit and vegetables of the Rainbow diet and polyphenols have been shown to be both protective and corrective. I could go on!
We also have research that adherence to a strong Diet and Exercise protocol increases cancer survival cutting death by 42% over a 7 year trial period. We have interviewed Beata Bishop on how she beat her Melanoma using the Gerson Therapy, and I presented to a room full of Doctors alongside Michael Gearin-Tosh on how he beat his Myeloma, in the days before all the drugs and Bone Marrow Transplants, by using the Gerson Therapy. He died more than 10 years later of an unrelated cause.
We also have research from Stamford Medical School showing that cancer survival times are not determined by whether or not you have an inherited mutation in your DNA. And research from Chritine Mayr of Sloane Kettering showing that there are no new mutations in your DNA - the problem is that the copying process - into mRNA and thereafter proteins - has gone wrong, due to issues in the microenvironment of your cells. This would be music to Dr Max's ears! Cancer is a metabolic disease - just like Dementia or cardiovascular disease.
Critics argue that, although Dr Max Gerson produced a book more than 85 years ago featuring 50 cancer case studies, we have no clinical trial data on the therapy. But, let's be hones, that's because the Gerson Institute can't afford one; and as Charlotte Gerson told me when I spent a day with her in San Diego, most cancer patients come to Gerson at a late stage.
At CANCERactive, we have a simple view. We are trying to inform patients so they can make better choices and increase their personal odds of survival. You deserve to know objectively about the Gerson Therapy.
The Gerson Therapy is not simply a cancer therapy. It is a therapy designed to restore your cells to all their healthy glory, whatever the problem or illness. Does it deliver? You'll have to make your own mind up after reading the information below.
One thing worth adding right up front. Gerson used supplemental iodine in the original protocol. So did the herbalist Hoxsey (the quack who beat cancer).
Recently, there's been research that over 80% of cancer patients are low in iodine. What does it do? It helps restore correct metabolism to cells. It helps oxygenate them, and it can kill various infections and control cancer stem cells and cause apoptosis. We suggest you have your iodine levels checked. See: Iodine and Cancer
The Gerson Therapy - Background and science
The Gerson Therapy was developed by Dr Max Gerson (1881-1959) and first used in the 1920s as a treatment for an incurable form of TB, where he achieved phenomenal results. It must be understood from the outset that the Gerson Therapy is an extreme diet therapy used primarily by people who already have a chronic illness. It is however occasionally used in a preventative context.
The Gerson Therapy is an extreme diet therapy used primarily by people who already have a chronic illness
Gerson believed people became ill because too much Sodium and not enough Potassium was inside the cell and the mitochondria. Your power station are geared up to use potassium. They can use sodium instead, but this doesn't end well.
He told people to cut sodium and consume lots of potassium foods. He used organic juices and whole vegetable and fruit meals. The only difference from the Rainbow Diet was you could have more fresh fruit and this is a largely vegan diet. He was lucky because a pump on the cell membrane controls the cellular potassium-sodium exchange and it runs on magnesium. And the foods high in potassium tend also to be high in magnesium.. 40% of British women have a magnesium deficiency. Oestradiol can also block the pump.
What happens with every turn of the Krebs cycle (the power generator) if you have too much sodium around, is that you produce sodium salts as by-products and these are more acidic than potassium salts. The mitochondria start to become more acidic, less efficient, pull in less oxygen - downward spiral.
Gerson talked about cellular control switching off, leaving the cell to divide in an out-of-control manner. We now know that the p53 gene switches off and leaves the ras gene to run the show, and this makes cells divide like crazy. We now now that ras plays a role in stem cell division.
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Gerson's fundamental belief was that you should be trying to restore good health (as is mine). We now know that p53 is switched off (not mutated). p53 is called the tumour suppressor gene - Google listings tell the world that it is 'mutated' in 50% of cancers. But the latest (and better research studies are increasing that figure. 90% in Sarcoma; 96% in Ovarian. p53 is said to be very very important in cancer, yet it is not even included in the Guardiant 360 test that looks at 40 genes for mutations.
Gerson got it right, he just didn't know the names. Can you turn p53 back on again?
Gerson - returning your cells to health
The basic intention of the Therapy is to stimulate the body's own immune defences to do what they normally do in a healthy body, whilst also readjusting the balance of the molecules and atoms within the cells, returning them to levels normally found in healthy cells.
Once both parts of this Therapy are fully established, the theory is that a diseased body will be restored to full health. There is no doubt that this therapy has had some notable successes, especially given that patients have often tried and failed with all available orthodox treatments first. However, having talked to UK and US survivors and Charlotte Gerson herself, it is important to point out that the successes are all anecdotal. There is no Clinical Trial and no quantitative data, to date. However,I do accept that many people with cancer are extremely happy to read a similar case history about someone who started out with a problem similar to their own. Let's look at the theory in more detail.
The liver and the Gerson Therapy
In the case of cancer, diseased cells have been known to liquefy, which in itself creates a further problem. The process of breaking down tumours can be so effective that large amounts of toxins are released by the diseased cells into the blood stream. However, the largest detoxification organ, namely the liver, is often seriously impaired when cancer is in the body and so it needs to be cleansed and stimulated to deal with the extreme levels of toxins.
One method of achieve this is to stimulate the liver with up to five coffee enemas per day for a limited period, whilst using castor oil every other day. This causes the bile ducts to dilate and the liver to expel its waste via increased levels of bile juices into the intestine.
Isn't the Gerson Therapy all hard work?
The therapy is arduous. A sixteen hour day spent juicing and making and using the coffee enemas is not unusual; and a period of two years to fully cleanse the body is not uncommon. Again, the theory that it takes a long time for the body to go through the multistep cancer process, and so it takes an equally long time to restore full working healthy order.
Patients frequently experience "healing reactions" when large amounts of toxins are released into the blood system. We now know that part of this is that they may not have a strong microbiome. Commensal bacteria help take toxins out of the body.
Dr Max Gerson
Dr Max Gerson was described by Dr Albert Schweitzer as "one of the most eminent geniuses in medical history". He originally published "A Cancer Therapy - Results of Fifty Cases" over eighty years ago. HAfter his death, his work was championed by his daughter Charlotte, who stressed to me that the therapy is applicable to a host of diseases, not merely cancer, and that even healthy people should consider a period on the protocol from time to time merely as a precautionary detox.
The Therapy aims to provide optimum nutrition consisting of a deliberate over abundance of minerals, enzymes and vitamins, whilst avoiding the toxic pesticides and herbicides of normal food by using only organic versions.
The basic Principles of the Gerson Therapy
Here I list the basic of the aims and foods of the Gerson Therapy. Having spent alost 20 years on the Rainbow Diet - the colourful Mediterranean Diet - I find some of the requirements and forbidden foods totally without scientific basis. Charlotte and I talked about legumes (pulses), lentils and phytic acid, for example. The Mediterranean coast would be littered with unhealthy people if pulses were bad for you. The use of Iodine seemed to have dropped out of the mix too. Here we go -
* The use of only organic food to avoid pesticide and herbicide toxins.
* No animal fat or protein in the first eight weeks. Both milk and soya are banned to avoid the body receiving fats and protein, both of which have been found to "feed" cancer cells.
* No pulses (lentils, beans and again soya) to be consumed as they can prevent mineral uptake because of their phytic acid content.
* All water used for cooking or rinsing must be provided from distilled or reverse osmosis sources.
* Water must not be drunk as it dilutes the power of the juices. A little peppermint tea is allowed.
* Neither plastic nor tin foil may be used as it may contaminate food.
* The diet is limited to freshly made juices of vegetables, fruits and leaves, consumed within 20 minutes of preparation to avoid losses in enzyme effectiveness. Large quantities of raw fruit and vegetables are also consumed, along with some lightly steamed vegetables, stewed fruit, potatoes and oatmeal.
* The aim is to exclude sodium, whilst maintaining potassium intake. Fresh juices provide more easily absorbed and digested nutrients, whilst not taxing the bodily systems. The use of hourly juices over the length of the day also avoids calorie and thus insulin surges, and actually limits the total number of calories consumed per day.
* Organic, in season fresh vegetables and fruit are the ideal.
Absolutely Essential to the Gerson Diet Therapy are:
* Apples - raw
* Carrots - raw and lightly cooked
* Potatoes - baked, mashed or in potato salad
* Sweet potatoes - but only once per week
* Fresh fruit - apart from apples, eat grapes, cherries, mangoes, peaches, oranges, apricots, grapefruit, banana, tangerines, pears, plums, melons, papayas (pears and plums may be stewed)
* Dried fruit - apricots, dates, figs, peaches, raisins, prunes
Absolutely Forbidden Are:
* All things bottled, canned, frozen, preserved, refined, salted, smoked and sulphured
* Bicarbonate of soda in food, toothpaste and mouthwashes
* Alcohol
* Salt
* Avocado - too much fatty acids
* Basic, oregano (aromatic oils can cause difficult reactions)
* Berries (except red, black and whole currants)
* Biscuits, cake, chocolate, cocoa
* Coffee (any sort), tea
* Cucumbers
* Fats and oils (except flaxseed)
* Mushrooms
* Nuts (too much fatty acids/fats
* Peas (sulpured), lentils, beans, seeds (phytic acid/enzyme inhibitors)
* Pickles
* Pineapples
* Refined flour
* Soft drinks, fizzy and fruit juices (preserved)
* Soya (fat content and phytic acid
* Spices
* Sugar (including sweets)
* Tap water
Forbidden for first eight weeks: all dairy, eggs, meat and fish.
The type of juicer apparently, is also crucial. Centrifugal juicers simply do not get the full volumes of minerals, vitamins and enzymes out. Gerson recommended a heavy press juicer that involves two stages and a double press.
Is the Gerson Therapy keeping up with the research?
The purpose of this article was to describe to readers what the Gerson Therapy entails. You can see other information on our website like an interview with Charlotte Gerson, and a review of their new book, Healing the Gerson Way, which we have reviewed.
Since 1995ish, the Science of Epigenetics has told us that the vast majority of cancers are not driven by mutation (sequence change in the DNA) but by the build of of homocysteine (caused not just by poor diet, too much alcohol and smoking, bit also by lowered oxygen, stress hormones such as cortisol, levothyroxine, drugs like metformin, environmental toxins and even pathogens in the gut). What does homocysteine do? It puts histones around the message production system blocking the copying process. You can reduce homocysteine.
Go To: The Science of Epigenetics and cancer reversal
Be clear. The Gerson Therapy has its critics.
Critics like Professor Plaskett in the UK has argued the therapy did not evolve with modern research discoveries - his therapy has a greater focus on carrots, apples and onions, and soya is allowed for hormonally driven cancers after week 8. Maybe the revisions to the Gerson therapy in 2008/9 have corrected some of those failings.
Other objective experts argue that some of the corrections, which were enforced as supplies dried up, have weakened the therapy.
The issue facing someone who want to beat cancer is that a Googlesearch brings either total praise from the converts who tried and were happy, or total animosity from the skeptics who hate all such alternative cancer therapy. Neither does someone with cancer, any good at all.
So what do I think about the Gerson Therapy?
1. Having met Charlotte Gerson, I can add that she was a very impressive lady but the set-up in San Diego is a shop front, and I felt a little too marketing-led.
Go To: An Interview with Charlotte Gerson
2. I met Gearin-Tosh and know Beata Bishop and both beat their cancers exclusively using the Gerson Therapy (multiple myeloma and melanoma respectively). I have read numerous other case histories.
3. My problem is that making the juices and coffee enemas is too much hard work. It encourages patients to become professional cancer patients as I call them; and I want cancer to be only 5% of your life. You should fix you plan, do it, and the other 95% you should be out enjoying yourself, not worrying about the next coffee enema.
4 I am convinced that a healthy Diet, per se, is an important part of an anti-cancer programme. The American Cancer Institute in their 2012 report, talk of an explosion in research into complementary therapies and overwhelming evidence that diet, exercise and weight control can increase survival times and even prevent a cancer returning.
I'm biased - I prefer the vegetables, high soluble fibre, good fats and nourishment (for you and your microbiome) of the Rainbow Diet
Go To:The Rainbow Diet.
Go To: Rainbow Recipes
5. The Biochemist in me knows that kicking out excess sodium whilst replenishing levels of potassium and magnesium is good for your cells and your health.
The Gerson Therapy - bottom line
In conclusion, I totally understand the logic and science of the Gerson Therapy. I understand that it tries to get to the root of the problem, and reverse it. I hear Charlotte's assertion that if a patient has had chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment already, using the therapy to cure cancer all becomes much tougher - Prof Valter Longo says the same about fasting. I do worry that they have changed some of the ingredients and it is hard work.
You can find out more here - The Gerson Institute