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Can the all-natural Gerson Therapy replace chemotherapy and heal cancer? By Neha Jamani.

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Cancerholistichealing

and

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nutritional supplements, and other measures to remove ‘toxins’ from the body and strengthen the body’s defenses against disease. Gerson’s youngest daughter Charlotte, now age 92, energetically continues her father’s work.

The Gerson Therapy activates the body’s extraordinary ability to heal itself through a strictly organic vegetarian diet, raw juices, coffee enemas, and natural supplements. The powerful natural treatment boosts the body’s immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies and many other degenerative diseases. With a whole body approach to healing, the Gerson programme aims to restore the internal terrain and fully utilise the body’s amazing self-healing ability.

HOW GERSON THERAPY WORKSWith generous, high-quality nutrition, increased oxygen availability, detoxification, and improved metabolism, the cells – and the body – can regenerate, become healthy and prevent future illness.

The Gerson Therapy is a finely-tuned precision instrument, where

every component plays an important role and affects all other parts. It must be practiced in its entirety without omitting a single detail or the overall therapy cannot work to its potential.

FOODFood processing adds more sodium to the foods we eat, which changes the metabolism of the cells in the body, eventually causing cancer. According to practitioners of the Gerson Therapy, people who have cancer have too much sodium and not enough potassium in their cells. The Gerson diet starts out as a strict low-salt vegan diet excluding animal products and oils (except for flax seed oil).  After four weeks, the diet evolves to include a small amount of protein. Nuts and seeds are initially excluded as they are too high in oils, but they are reintroduced later on. Vegetable proteins such as lentils or rice are also gradually introduced back into the diet.

JUICESFreshly-made organic juices are one of the most important healing components in the Gerson programme. Juicing allows the body

cont. overleaf

The very word ‘cancer’ strikes fear and panic into the heart.

In allopathic medicine, its diagnosis offers only one option for treatment and survival: a punishing regime of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. In the world of alternative healing though, there are other approaches to treating cancer and chronic degenerative diseases, one of which is The Gerson Therapy. It’s not easy though. As well as following a hyper strict vegan, plant-based, no salt and virtually fat-free diet, people on the therapy also have to make thirteen fresh juices a day and give themselves four coffee enemas a day – and they have to do this religiously for 18 months to three years, depending on the type of cancer and its severity. Not so much as a grain of white sugar or white flour can pass your lips. For some, chemotherapy seems easier.

WHAT IS GERSON THERAPY? Created by German physician Dr. Max Gerson in the 1930s, The Gerson Therapy is a detoxification and nutrition programme that strengthens the immune system.

Born in Germany in 1881, Dr. Gerson initially developed the therapy as a treatment for his own debilitating migraines and eventually as a treatment for chronic degenerative diseases such as skin tuberculosis, diabetes and -- most famously -- cancer. Dr. Gerson believed that toxicity and nutritional deficiency were the two factors in the onset of cancer. The Gerson programme seeks to address the underlying systemic causes of cancer and activate the body’s ability to heal itself. This is what sets the Gerson Therapy apart from conventional cancer treatments. A metabolic therapy, it is based on the theory that disease is caused by the body’s accumulation of toxic substances. Metabolic therapy uses a combination of special diets, enzymes,

Gerson Therapy activates the body’s ability to heal itself through a strictly organic vegetarian diet, raw juices, coffee enemas, and natural supplements.

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to easily digest and absorb nutrients and enzymes, so the programme consists of a large volume of fresh juices. Apple and carrot juice, green juice and citrus juice are consumed throughout the day by patients on the Gerson programme. Depending on the protocol, sometimes juices are consumed hourly up to 13 times per day. Green juices, in particular, contain high amounts of chlorophyll, which releases oxygen and promotes higher oxygen availability for the body. The Gerson protocol requires a special two-step juicer or masticating juicer with a separate hydraulic press. The two-step process is best suited for the Gerson protocol because it helps extract more minerals and essential nutrients.

MEDICATIONAll medication used in connection with the Gerson therapy are classified as biological materials of organic origin that are supplied in therapeutic amounts. These medications are nutritional supplements consisting of natural substances present in and needed for the normal functioning of various body systems. Some of the supplements used in the programme – such as potassium and lugol -- are added to the juices. Others, including CoQ10, liver extract, pancreatic enzymes, B-12, thyroid hormone, niacin, and flax seed oil – are taken orally with juices and food.

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DETOXIFICATIONThe combined effect of the food, juices and medication causes the immune system to attack and kill the tumor tissue. Detoxification is key to flushing out the accumulated toxins and preventing the risk of overburdening the liver. Coffee enemas are the primary method of detoxification of the tissues and blood on the Gerson Therapy. The amount of juice is matched to the number of coffee enemas (usually three to five daily), which are self-administered throughout the day.  The coffee recommended for use in the enemas is a special lightly-roasted variety.

WHY ISN’T GERSON MAINSTREAM? Some people may have heard of The Gerson Therapy, but many have not. This remains the case for most alternative cancer treatments. Mainstream cancer research centres feel that the available scientific evidence does not support claims that Gerson Therapy is effective in treating cancer. Furthermore, the principles behind it are not widely accepted by the scientific and medical communities yet.

The Gerson Institute, which certifies centres to administer the therapy, is a non-profit organisation whose research unit maintains an extensive collection of reports documenting the research and science behind the Gerson Therapy. The Institute also conducts and collects

research on the role of diet on cancer and claims to have documented many success stories of people whose conventional doctors gave no hope for recovery, yet were able to overcome their disease against all odds using the Gerson programme.

DIY GERSON THERAPY Unless you check in to one of the licensed clinics in Tijuana, Mexico or near Budapest, Hungary, The Gerson Therapy is largely a do-it-yourself process, which means that you are solely in charge of administering your programme. Usually, there is no one to supervise you and make sure that you observe the rules faithfully. The Gerson Institute does not own or operate any medical facilities. Instead, it refers patients to the clinics that it licenses as properly administering the therapy.

Like most alternative therapies, the Gerson Therapy is very expensive. If you are thinking of having Gerson therapy at home there are also costs involved. In addition to the initial cost of a special juicer and possibly a water filter, you have ongoing costs of the organic fruit and vegetables, coffee and supplements because this is no short-term fix. The therapy takes time. In his earlier research, Dr. Gerson specified being on the programme about 18 months. But with today’s more toxic environment, practitioners are finding that patients need to be on the therapy for at least two years, and in many cases, three. Non-

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malignant diseases such as arthritis and lupus fall on the shorter end of that scale, while advanced cases of cancer fall closer to the three-year range.

PERSONAL CHOICE According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, there were an estimated 14.1 million cancer

cases around the world in 2012, of which 7.4 million cases were in men and 6.7 million in women. This number is expected to increase to 24 million by 2035. Of all diseases, cancer is undoubtedly the one that strikes the greatest fear into most hearts and minds. Its high prevalence in societies worldwide and its effects are devastating.

For more detailed information on this all-natural approach to treatment of chronic degenerative disease, please visit www.thesacredkitchen.org/gerson and www.gerson.org.

NEHA JAMANIA therapeutic and holistic chef, Neha is founder of Dubai-based The Sacred Kitchen. A graduate of Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts in California, Neha aims to raise awareness about the importance of food choices and reconnect people with their bodies and the food they eat. www.thesacredkitchen.org

Enema Meal Juice

6:00 AM Coffee enema

7:00 AM

8:00 AM Breakfast Orange

9:00 AM Green

9:30 AM Carrot/ apple

10:00 AM Coffee enema Carrot/ apple

11:00 AM Carrot

12:00 PM Green

1:00 PM Lunch Carrot/ apple

2:00 PM Coffee enema Green

3:00 PM Carrot

4:00 PM Carrot

5:00 PM Carrot/ apple

6:00 PM Coffee enema Green

7:00 PM Dinner Carrot/ apple

8:00 PM

9:00 PM

10:00 PM Coffee enema

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A GERSON PATIENTWhat a typical day of therapy looks like for a patient on the cancer protocol...

The side effects of the treatments are harsh and the mortality rate is high.

It is ultimately up to those who are faced with cancer to decide which treatment they want to undergo. The system is not a miracle cure for everyone, and even the Gerson Institute states that Gerson way of healing is neither a universal panacea nor a miracle cure. The Institute itself states that the therapy may fail for a variety of reasons, or example, if the patient comes to the therapy too late, or commences the therapy after a full range of conventional treatments has failed to produce a remission, or if the patient doesn’t observe the rules of the programme or if the patient has had an essential organ removed.

Such cases aside, according to the Gerson Institute’s own research, the programme’s success rate with advanced cancer, and many other serious degenerative diseases, far outstrips that of conventional treatments.

The programme is demanding, intensive, prolonged and a far cry from the pill-popping ‘instant’ ways of conventional treatments. But most conventional physicians offer only one route for cancer treatment -- drugs, radiation and surgery -- while ignoring or discounting alternative options such as the Gerson Therapy.