Category: Personal Stories

Contributed: 1993

“My Story by Lawrence K.:

During my annual physical in the fall of 1993 the doctor “felt” something in my abdomen that he thought might be an aneurysm. The ultrasound technician could not get a good picture because something in my stomach kept getting in the way.

By the summer of 1994 I had lost about 20 pounds and my wife noticed that I had lost a lot of energy. I went to see Dr. Braun, the family doctor, on the last day of August. After several tests he thought GI ‘scoping’ would be helpful. Dr. S performed an upper and lower GI scoping and provided me with some pictures of red spots in my stomach. He prescribed medication to reduce my stomach acid. In a few days I started having stomach pains and went back to Dr. Braun. A CT scan was performed on November 2. This is the radiologist’s report: “An abnormal, irregular 5 cm mass is seen arising from near the junction of the head and body of the pancreas. This mass is contiguous with the superior mesenteric artery and superior vein. There is abnormal edema or engorgement of the mesenteric venous structures and infiltration of the fat at the root of the mesentery.” Dr. Braun immediately called and had me come to his office. He pulled out the foot of the examination table, sat down, and while looking down at the radiologist’s report, he said, “You have pancreatic cancer. It cannot be removed by surgery, chemotherapy does not work, and radiation does not help. All I can do is help you find an oncologist.

For a few minutes the thought flashed through my mind that I would never see my grandchildren. It was 16 days before I could get an appointment with Dr. Wolfe, a surgical oncologist, who worked at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. This turned out to be a very important 16 days.

As soon as we got home, my wife, Ruth gave me two books by David and Anne Frahm, “Healthy Habits” and “A Cancer Battle Plan”, to read. Eight days later I called Jim Forehand, a former Gerson patient and within a few minutes he came to my office with a copy of Dr. Gerson’s book, A Cancer Therapy. He said, “You need to read this book and go to the Gerson Clinic.” I was beginning to believe there was a way to cure cancer before I saw the oncologist.

Dr. W scheduled a second CT scan for November 21, this one at St. Luke’s. A needle biopsy was performed and they kept me on the CT machine for a second needle biopsy. Neither biopsy was specific. On November 28, Dr. W said that he needed to do a surgical biopsy to determine the exact diagnosis before he could provide a treatment. He said it was possible that uncontrolled bleeding could occur and that he would need to open the abdomen to stop the bleeding. If that happened he would try to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and that he might need to remove part of the pancreas, stomach and intestine.

I returned home late that Monday night in a state of shock and confusion. While my wife was gone to get the medicine I needed to prepare for the surgery the next morning, I called the Gerson Institute and talked to Norman. He told me about the Gerson Therapy and during our discussion he told me not to give up my organs. I learned that there were openings at the Mexican Gerson Clinic. When Ruth returned with the medicine, I told her that we were going to Mexico. Early the next morning I called the hospital and canceled the surgery. Dr. Wolfe called at the time of the scheduled surgery and told me that I had to have the surgical biopsy to determine the proper treatment, because “broccoli never cured cancer.”

Before I left I talked to Jim E. (another former Gerson patient) and was told to go to the clinic and do what the Gerson doctor told me. Ruth found a lady to take over her Christian book business; we made travel arrangements and arrived in Mexico on Friday, December 2, 1994.

Ruth and I spent 18 days at the Gerson clinic learning how to do the Therapy after we returned home.I took extended sick leave then retired to devote full time to the therapy. Ruth organized a support group to help us. The produce manager at a Whole Foods store 35 miles across Houston agreed to accept a FAX, fill our order and have it ready for our son or Ruth’s brother and his wife to pick it up on Saturday morning and deliver to us.

By the end of January I had lost about 50 pounds, down to 123. After that time, I very slowly gained energy and weight (about 1/2 pound a month for the first year). After a year I started gaining weight more rapidly for several months.

I urge all Gerson patients to look for some positive signs during the early days of the therapy. As I progressed into the first several months, I realized that the migraine headaches that had plagued me all my life had not occurred since December 2nd. I also noted that a pre-cancerous spot on my cheek was healing. Not having a weekly migraine was enough to keep me thankful and fully committed to the Gerson Therapy.

After 20 months on the Gerson Therapy, I had a CT scan made. I noted on the questionnaire that I had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and needed a follow-up CT scan and that I had not had surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The nurse was sent out two times to question me about the treatment and time since my diagnosis.

We could see the radiologist looking through my records then peering through the window at me in disbelief. The CT scan found no evidence of the tumor on the pancreas, the swollen lymph nodes were normal and the fatty infiltration of the liver was gone. All organs looked normal.

I continued to consult with Dr. B and she continued to modify the therapy. She kept telling me to listen to my body and I would understand what it needed. I had another CT scan after 5 1/2 years. No evidence of the tumor was found. After 6 years I injured my back. The doctor thought the pain was from the cancer returning, but an MRI was normal and a later body scan found a fracture of the T11 vertebrae.

Then 8-years, 1-month and 20-days after I arrived at the Gerson hospital to start the Gerson Therapy my first grandchild, Caroline, was born. I thank God for leading me to this healing therapy.
I am thankful every day that I learned from friends about the Gerson Therapy. After a few months Ruth was able to continue handling her book business. We deliver Christian books to several hospital gift shops including St.

Luke’s Hospital and the Anderson Cancer Center and do book fairs at private schools. I have also built a small organic garden, where I enjoy raising a few organic vegetables. I continue to consult with Dr, B. occasionally.

Now, at 64 years of age, I have learned that I feel better when I do several juices per day and follow the modified Gerson therapy.”

Late last year, a friend who is also very much interested in the Gerson Therapy, did a study of a number of Dr. Gerson’s former patients. Since it is just now 40 years since Dr. Gerson passed away, it is hard to find any of his former patients if for no other reason than that they would have died of old age. As the researcher found, many of those patients, in fact, did die of old age, having recovered from cancer or other chronic diseases under Dr. Gerson’s care.

One interesting gentleman answered our request for further information and, if possible, a description of his disease, since he came to Dr. Gerson suffering from muscular dystrophy. Dr. Gerson, admittedly, had better results with this disease than we can obtain at this time.

This is his letter:

“I am 79 years old and feel fine. I am a retired farmer in the country with a heart bypass 23 years ago.

In 1952, (at age 32) I went to New York to [see] Dr. Max Gerson. The diet and medication did much good. For many years I could almost run, get up and walk, anyway.

After the passing of Dr. Gerson, I went back to a normal diet. “The last few years, I gave up walking. I have a kitchen chair with rollers in which I get around.

A married son lives next door. They help me into my pick-up and I can drive for hours if need be. Once a day, he stops by and stands me up. I can walk around the room then if I hang on to something.

I had a younger sister who had muscular dystrophy. She married and had three children. She gave up walking at the age of 50 and died at the age of 59 with heart failure. We have 10 married children and many grandchildren. As of today, no children or grandchildren have muscular dystrophy. “I feel the day will come when doctors will find the cause and a cure for M.D.

Thank you, Lyle B. ”

Unfortunately, I do not have details on his illness, how serious it was at the time he went to New York to visit Dr. Gerson. But it is quite remarkable that he is still managing at the age of 79 while his sister didn’t make it past the age of 59.

Contributed: October 1995

The following story of a patient’s recovery is told virtually verbatim by his wife, Janet.

“In October 1995, being examined for a kidney stone, my husband Gray, aged 38, was diagnosed with early stage Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. No treatment was indicated, but we were informed that the prognosis was not good and chemotherapy would suppress the lymphocyte count only for a while.

Although I was a nursing tutor, I was not familiar with oncology, nor was I aware of alternative or complementary therapies. The course of our lives was changed by the arrival of the book, A Time to Heal, by Beata Bishop, sent by a friend. I became convinced, after further information from the British Gerson Support Group, that the Gerson Therapy might offer Gray more hope and certainly would not do him any harm!

As finances were tight, Gray continued to work as a pastor, but he could follow the Therapy, as we live next door to the church and he works from home. We were pleased with the initial response and two flare-ups in the first 3-4 months. But although we followed the Therapy meticulously, he continued to deteriorate over the first 18 months. He produced no further flare-ups, but continued to have mild fevers and night sweats, indicative of lymphoma. I would now advise cancer patients to take the first 3-6 months off work, because the body needs all the energy it receives through the juices and food to heal itself.

We had some good holiday breaks, during which he seemed to improve with rest. It became obvious, though, during the last few months of 1997, that his condition was deteriorating, as monitored by blood counts and increasing size of the spleen. His NHS [National Health Service] consultant was keen to start chemotherapy; we were reluctant to accept but unsure what to do.

At this point we were able to visit the Gerson Hospital in Mexico, where Gray showed rapid improvement within two weeks. Unfortunately on our return home he developed septicemia from a leg abscess, and a flare-up of the lymphoma, and needed two periods of hospitalization. He was treated with I.V. antibiotics and lost about 20 lbs.

The flare-up of the lymphoma necessitated crisis intervention with tablet form chemotherapy. Also, the spleen had grown to weigh 7 lbs. and had to be removed. Contrary to expectations he did not need intensive care, was home on the eighth day, and returned to work three months later. Throughout I managed to keep him on the Gerson Therapy and took many juices, all his food and enemas into the hospital every day!

In all, we continued on the full Gerson Therapy for four years, until Gray’s condition had completely stabilized and the blood picture and lymph glands were reduced to normal. This process was assisted by a further low dose, 12-month course of tablet chemotherapy (Chlorambucil). Gray experienced no harmful side effects, only a slow beneficial one, as he followed the Gerson Therapy simultaneously. For the past year (the fifth) he has reduced the juices to between six and eight per day with two coffee breaks, but we continue to eat the Gerson way as a family 90% of the time, as it is good for all of us.

According to the last scans, there is no sign of disease in his body and the blood picture has been completely normal for 18 months. Gray continues to work full time and has regained all his weight and has wonderful color and energy. An added bonus has been that the kidney stone is no longer visible on the X-ray—we presume it has dissolved and disappeared.”

Diagnosis made at the Royal Surrey County & St Luke’s Hospitals, Guildford, Surrey, England, on December 12th 1995: Stage IV Low Grade Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Contributed: May 1996

“One day in May, 1996, while undressing, I noticed that a mole on my left little toe had changed. I was 50, and it had always been there but at that time it was distinctly different. It was larger, darker and reddish.

I immediately made an appointment with Dr. k. William W, to check on the mole. He took a shaved biopsy and it was reported to be ‘superficial spreading melanoma’. I had a re-excision, done by Dr. Stephen S of NH in June of 1996. This time, the biopsy report was “superficial spreading melanoma, Clark’s level IV, Breslow’s depth of invasion 1.25 mm.

I was referred to Dr. Herbert M, an oncologist at the same medical center. He felt that there was a low risk of recurrence and suggested that I should have a regular check-up by my physician. I was given no treatment protocol.

I was healthy, a non-smoker, non-drinker and physically active and felt that my immune system was good and able to heal my body. I also mistrusted medical drugs. A naturopathic doctor, Dr. David O. prescribed numerous supplements supposedly geared for melanoma. Still, in May of 1997, a small spot appeared at the edge of the scar left by the excision. A new biopsy confirmed a recurrence of melanoma at the edge of the original excision scar.

I embarked on an in depth investigation of options and tried a one-week juice and enema fast; a three-week grape diet but had to give it up because of severe loss of weight and weakness. I had two colonics and friends sent me many items in the mail to investigate. I dealt with emotional problems and decided to resolve and forgive.
Someone sent me an article about the Gerson Therapy but I tucked it away with other materials I was collecting.

I went to the New Life Health Center in Jamaica Plain, Mass. and ate macrobiotic food, had chelation therapy, had acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping. I had my metal crown removed from my teeth and mercury fillings removed.

On July 22, 1997, nine weeks after the first recurrence, I had the toe amputated at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center by Dr.Forst B. In May of 2000, almost three years after the amputation, Dr. Steven S. confirmed a second recurrence. A lymph node dissection was recommended – which I accepted because I wanted data.

The lymph nodes showed some positive ones and I realized that the melanoma was spreading through my body. I was offered Interferon-alfa but several people who had this treatment had a low success rate and severe side-effects. That turned my attention back to the Gerson Therapy. I started the treatment on August 11, 2000 in the Mexican Gerson clinic. On my return home, I had plenty of help from my husband and my four daughters. My husband even joined me on the modified therapy for six months.

After doing the full intensive therapy for two years, I had an AMAS test. The results showed that everything was normal. I continue to eat all organic vegetarian food; and drink 24 ounces (three 8 ounce glasses) of juice every day; take some potassium and stay off salt and fat. I am confident in the scientific basis of the Gerson metabolic therapy and realize that I am responsible for my own healing.”

Contributed: August 2006

“In 2000 life was going well for me. I was 29 and making a good living as a contract computer programmer. I was living with my girlfriend and we did a lot of traveling to various European cities. We owned a house having spent five years bringing it from a wreck to a very high standard.

Then in December 2000, I came down with a terrible flu like virus which flattened me for three months. Suddenly, I was very limited in what I could do. My mother came to visit me and she also got the virus. Six months later I was diagnosed with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What followed were four years of declining health and utter misery. I had to pace myself both mentally and physically and live a severely curtailed life. I also learned the perils of overdoing it and the price to be paid.

Initially I could work part time but it was difficult. Then in September 2003 I tried to return to full time work with disastrous consequences. My declining health plummeted further and I found my functionality had decreased to a terrifying level. In addition to crushing fatigue, I had terrible neurological problems. I found it impossible to use a computer or watch TV and even reading and speaking caused a terrible reaction in me. My head felt like it was full of cement. I was constantly cold. My skin was yellow and the whites of my eyes were a dirty color. It was extremely distressing. Over the previous years I had tried all sorts of things to recover my health.

I visited every consultant and doctor in conventional medicine but with no success. It seemed the only treatment available to me was to “rest” when I read an article in the Observer newspaper by a guy who had cured himself of cancer and Hepatitis C using Gerson Therapy I was impressed.

My mother too was suffering ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome though she was marginally better than me. She contacted the Gerson Support Group in England and spoke to Stephen Gamble, who is a Gerson Practitioner.

Stephen agreed to take us both through the Gerson Therapy. I knew the Therapy was challenging, but it offered hope in a hopeless situation. We began the Therapy in April 2004. We started slowly on four juices and one coffee enema per day plus all the other requirements. From the onset, I got huge relief from the enemas. I slept like a baby for weeks. Gradually Stephen increased the schedule to ten juices and four enemas per day. I was in extremely poor health and bed bound when I began the Therapy and for quite a while into it.

After four months on the Therapy something extraordinary occurred. One night, I was lying in bed when I felt a tremendous build up of energy at the base of my spine. Soon waves of energy began to move up my spine towards my head. The power of the energy was astounding; it felt like a jet engine revving up. As each wave of energy reached my head it moved into the center of my brain. What seemed like a fireball of energy began to move around my brain. Then I felt like an industrial strength vacuum cleaner was pressing right up against my brain inside my head. It was sucking something out. I’m sure now this was the beginning of my head beginning to detoxify in earnest. Two years on the vacuum cleaner is still there. The energy inside my head has not stopped, it fluctuates—increasing especially when I take an enema.

Prior to starting the Therapy, a doctor had tested me for mercury. The reading was very high. I had fourteen silver-mercury amalgam fillings in my teeth. Consequently, Stephen insisted that I have these fillings removed and replaced by a qualified dentist when I was strong enough. I began dental treatment with a mercury-free dentist in Dublin in November 2004. Each visit he would replace 1-2 mercury fillings with a composite filling.

They were all done by March 2005. I have been routinely tested for mercury while on the Gerson and the results have shown the mercury levels continue to fall. In addition to the Gerson supplements , I have also taken Chlorella to chelate the heavy metals in my body. Used in conjunction with the enemas, this works well. The chelating needs to be done carefully however as it is not a good idea to mobilize too many heavy metals at a time in your body. Also chelation should only take place when all the fillings have been removed I would have to say that for my illness, I found the detoxification extremely difficult. It is very hard on the body and I had very little energy for anything other than lying in bed and letting it happen, so I lay there for eighteen months. Occasionally when I overdid the detox, I would suffer and often I couldn’t sleep as the energy in my head was going too fast. However difficult it felt, I knew my body was responding to the Therapy. It was doing its best to rid itself of the poisons and rebuild.

I had a struggle trying to tolerate caster oil. It took me a year to build up to managing one tablespoon of castoroil orally and two tablespoons rectally. As I staggered through the Therapy my functionality gradually improved.

I found I could speak for longer periods. I could read for longer periods. I was regaining a little more physical and mental energy. I wasn’t as cold anymore. My skin returned to its normal pink color and the whites of my eyes became exceptionally white. Best of all the lump in my head was very slowly dissolving, like an ice-cube melting.
My head was feeling more and more normal.

On Christmas day 2005 I woke feeling very unwell. As the day wore on I realized I was entering a healing reaction. It was to be a very severe healing reaction which lasted nine weeks. My body began to release toxins at an even greater rate. I felt extremely ill in my stomach and found it hard to eat. The strain on my body was tremendous; I lost a lot of weight. As a consequence of the weight loss my mother had me hospitalized after the ninth week. The doctors stabilized me and got the weight back on. I am indebted to them for the great care I received.
After the healing reaction I noticed that I was no longer cold and my body temperature returned to normal. My head improved and I found I was regaining some more of the function I had lost. I could now listen to the radio and I was feeling better all round.

It amazes me how the toxins just keep coming out of me. I was obviously very toxic. From where I was it is nothing short of a miracle that I am here to be able to what I can do today.
Now in August 2006 I can drive the 70km round trip twice weekly to see my young toddler son. He is demanding in his play and I’m able to cope. I’m so grateful to be able to be his Dad imperfect though it is. I can now get out and about, which is terrific.

Stephen Gamble has been fantastic to work with. He went over and beyond the call of duty and supported me through some very difficult times. Gerson is not an easy experience for someone with such severe ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is however, easier than being left with this horrible illness. At least you are getting better every day instead of worse. We adhered 100% to the Gerson protocol and ate copious amounts of fruit and vegetables.

Thanks to Gerson, I am getting my life back and I am very grateful for this chance.

— Paul S. August 2006”

Told by Don & Mieke M. During the late summer of 2000

“I first noticed a sharp pain every few days in my abdomen on the right side. On our boat in British Columbia we went to a doctor in Canada who did X-rays and an ultrasound. They could not see anything and decided it was probably my gallbladder. A few months later after intermittent pains an X-ray and scan in Port Townsend, again only possibly indicated Gallstones. No other procedures were suggested and we went on our long-planned family trip to Europe, March through June 2001. In October 2002 the pains returned more often and stronger. By then we were back in California and the ultrasound at Carmel hospital showed two gallstones. Through friends I had a great surgeon and he decided to remove the stones laparoscopically. When he got in he said my gallbladder looked perfect and he saw a very red area on the outside of my colon, so he closed me up. I had a colonoscopy a few days later and they found a baseball sized tumor in my colon at the secum valve. Within twenty-four hours he operated, removed the tumor, eleven inches of colon, and for “good measures,” my gallbladder and my appendix. (The last two were removed so I wouldn’t have any troubles in the future out on the boat in the wilds of British Columbia.”

During the three weeks I was recovering in the hospital, the Doctor said I had to do at least two years of chemo because of one of the lymph nodes near the tumor was cancerous. Mieke, my wife, and I started investigating chemo and didn’t like what we found. The oncologist talked for forty five minutes about how wonderfully improved the new oral dosage was and that we could still travel. Then I looked around in his waiting room and every person there looked terrible, like death warmed over. When we asked him about alternatives he said there were none.
Mieke: At home we read and talked… all the possible side effects of chemo looked to just aggravate and worsen any and all of Don’s symptoms bothering him now. Most books dealt with helping to alleviate the side effects only, nothing to help rebuild a failing body. When my father died of duodenal cancer in 1984 I had learned enough that cancer wasn’t just the tumor, but that the whole immune system was involved. Some books introduced the idea of nutrition as the link to cure and prevention. This made more sense to us. (Though we did consider Sir Francis Chichester’s approach: sell all, change your life style totally. He moved from England to a beach house in France and survived cancer. We started looking at building a new boat in New Zealand …)
Don: Our daughter Torre asked if we would consider the Gerson Therapy and brought us books from Dr. Gerson and Charlotte. I phoned every person that had done the Gerson Therapy that I could find from the Gerson office list. All were solidly positive.

Mieke: We decided on Gerson because it made sense to work on rebuilding Don’s immune system with fresh organic live enzymes to nourish it and detoxify his liver to prevent any more tumors. We understood from talking with Charlotte that once starting, it was important to continue and not interrupt the therapy. We thoroughly disliked flying and our youngest daughter was still in school in British Columbia, therefore we did not go to the clinic in Mexico but drove north in January 2003 to Canada with our new Norwalk juicer, loaded with carrots and apples. Our Island hideaway has a weekly farmers market and weekly wholesale organic produce delivery from Vancouver, so we had plenty of fresh supplies to “blow out” over our ceiling and walls. The kitchen was revamped to only house Gerson-approved food items with a list on the fridge of foods and herbs allowed. The coffee and oatmeal canisters even got measuring cups in them permanently. All that we needed every day stayed out in easy reach – nothing else. Our well water had a minute amount of natural fluoride, so we bought a distiller to keep in the basement as well as an extra fridge next to the storage room. We had been easing toward the full regimen … but going full out, 13 juices for Don and six for me with all the preparations, was almost overwhelming the first week or two. Yes, I cried a few times on the phone to Torre, and Don groaned, “Not another one – it hasn’t been an hour YET!”

Don: I found it hard in the beginning to drink 8-10oz. of juice every hour and have three full meals too. Mieke: After about two weeks, the supplements enhanced our digestion and helped our metabolism “speed up”. Then it became easy to have 10-12oz. juices.

Don: I found the coffee enema was very hard (maybe it was because I didn’t want to do them) but I think it was mostly because I had lost 11 inches off my colon. I have never been able to hold a whole quart. At first I was able to do ½, and then the second ½ so that doing five enemas a day took up a lot of time (plus cleaning up the bathroom). The coffee breaks have never been easy, so I kept experimenting. I tried every different thing I could think of, including two, one right after the other. Then I tried letting just a small amount of coffee in, about % inch in the bucket, waiting about 2-4 min. Then I would get up, and let it out, and start again, managing about 80%, only if stopping for about ½ min, and then adding about 1/8th inche from the bucket at a time. I keep this up, waiting a bit, then adding a bit, until I found that I could take it all, usually, over time. I start timing after 80% is in, and hold, it for 14-15 min.
By the end of first year, I had reduced to 3-4 enemas a day, and-after two years I’ve reduced it to one each day unless I don’t feel well. For me, I have found that the coffees are best first thing in the morning. A friend of ours was diagnosed with melanoma about the same time I had my operation, and said he couldn’t make himself do coffee enemas. He died almost a year ago. Charlotte always told me not to worry about coffee enemas being addictive, or habit forming, but after doing a few thousand of them, I think they are, because you feel so good after doing one!
Mieke: Don never had chemo as he also never did castor oil. In fact, just mentioning the word brought back such vivid memories of childhood that he was practically on the toilet, just thinking about it. His Aunt used to use caster oil and soap bars to reprimand the boys about misbehaving and bad language. The coffee breaks were true “breaks” for me – a welcomed moment for the caregiver to STOP cleaning, cutting, prepping, ordering, bringing juices, doing laundry, keeping everything organized and on time. Don uses the time with eyes closed to visualize relaxing and healing. Initially I only re-read the handbook, 50 Cases, The Gerson Therapy, and other approved books to make sure I was doing things right. Don: After two or three months I began to see and feel some benefits, like no more bad headaches. I have had a few broken bones: shoulder, legs and ankles, which, for years, always had given me great pain, keeping me from sleeping soundly. On this Therapy I began sleeping better than I ever had.

Mieke: He even stopped snoring … a sound I didn’t miss after 25 years!

Don: All the residual pain disappeared. A scar on my right leg, that had been there since I was 15 years old disappeared! Little brown bumps (11 of them) around my neck disappeared. My finger nails improved in strength and the fungus reduced. My skin was smooth and soft, and an irritating, itchy, red, flakey condition I’d had on my hands (going up to my arms at times) for 45 years, also disappeared. I started feeling very good, with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Mieke: After the first year, I’d hear Don on the phone, “I haven’t felt this good in 20 years”… Over the second year that went to “this good in 25”, then “30”, and finally, “I haven’t felt this good in 35 years!” Don: In1983 I had detached retina in one eye, and partially in the other. I’d used artificial tears all the time since, and after about six months of Gerson Therapy, I didn’t need tears any more. I also used to have “flashes” regularly in my eyes which are almost all gone. The eye specialist explained in ‘83, that flashes were indication of pain in your eyes.

After the colon operation, my hair was snow white, and with Gerson Therapy, it started to get dark again! I experienced all those benefits and never any “healing reactions” or flare ups that I could recognize as described. I worried sometimes that maybe we weren’t doing everything right. One day in conversation with Charlotte Gerson, she did mention that not everyone experiences reactions.

Mieke: I remember Don having maybe three different days in the first year of chills on his back (like a light fever) and there were about six days of moody, emotional dips from him. As for me, I had progressed from six juices at first to 13 at three months on. My only “flare up” was one week of herpes (cold sores) marching across my lips (after eight months on the Therapy).
Another interesting event related to our teeth: Don had the cleanest teeth he’s had in his life and I had the worst plaque ever (even with 2-3 times brushing daily)! Neither of us had any prior root canals to worry about and I had my amalgams removed before starting the Therapy. Luckily our local island dentist-on-a-boat was happy to use Aloe Vera toothpaste to do cleaning, rather than the standard chemicals.

Don: On December, 2004, (at 22-23 months into the Therapy) we drove to a clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the doctor specializes in examining live blood cells on the black field microscope. It was fascinating to watch the white blood cells “clean up” a red blood cell and move on to the next one that needed repair. She said I was the first person whose blood she looked at that she couldn’t tell I’d had cancer, and that my blood was good!

Mieke: At this clinic, we found a group of people who could actually talk about and use the word cancer- very refreshing. I remember back 35 years ago, when my grandmother died, they couldn’t even say the “C” word, let alone, “cancer”. (I learned it was colon cancer 15 years later, when my father died). When Don was first diagnosed, responses varied … chemo was mentioned but not cancer.

Some friends admitted last year they figured never to see him again – some could only ask, how was Don with “the …” or “the big C”. Some could talk about Gerson while others just labeled what we were doing as “quackery”. The most frequent thing asked throughout the two years was, “well how are you now?” in a tone that implied he was lying if he responded with “better than ever!”.

Don: I’ve also done the AMAS test by ONCO labs in Boston, Massachusetts, May and October of 2005. – A naturopath recommended this as a monitoring test for cancer, two times a year for the next three years and then one time per year after that. It is a very simple blood test which “measures serum levels of AMA, an antibody found to be elevated in most patients with a wide range of active non-terminal malignancies”. It is effective for screening and monitoring early (non-terminal, stage one and two) cancers. It is not appropriate for late stage (clinically terminal) cancer because 1) the antibodies a body produces, start sticking to the tumor and 2) your immune system is already shutting down – your body stops producing antibodies when it is overwhelmed and deficient.

Mieke: We have some very special, fun and fond memories of the therapy time … The whole family pulled together and participated when they were with us: for Don’s 75th surprise birthday party (10 months into the program). 21 family members and friends gathered for four days on Cortes Island and all ate “kosher Gerson”. The first summer we carried the juicer to the boat and hauled the groceries to the dock, – juiced and took coffee breaks afloat in the quiet bays of British Columbia a week at a time …

The second summer was more industrious. Eight family members filled the house all summer in order to build a cabin on our son’s land, across the bay from us. Don milled the lumber, I juiced and walked it to the sawmill while they built. Together we consumed 10,000 lbs. (5 tons!) of organic produce in 5 months! Thank you Torre and Charlotte, for helping us get over the initial hump when it was one juice, one hour, one day at a time. We could not have done it without you!

Don: Doing the Gerson Therapy is a LOT of work, but for me, feeling that it was okay to call Charlotte and having Mieke, made it just great. She kept me on schedule all the time no matter where I was.

Mieke: Today we are on a maintenance diet, doing 2-3 juices a day. Living in fresh salmon and berry growing country, we do enjoy having these as part of the fare.

Don: I feel today, that I’m here, happy and feeling better than I have in 35 years, is because of Dr. Max Gerson, Mieke, Torre, and Charlotte. To be without headaches, joint pain, and eye pain alone, is just great!

Contributed: 2005

“In December 2005 I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. Early in 2006 I had a large mass removed from my back and a other smaller tumor from my lung. After a series of cat scans, pet scans, brain scans and bone scans I was tolsd a few months later that it had spread to an area behind my stomach wll and 2 on my spine. IThe tumors on my spine soon hit the spinal cord and the pain was unbearable. They loaded me with steroids and pain killers and when they had the pain under control they tried to radiate them to reduce the size. Radiation did nothing and I was now hooked on steroids and pain killers.

Since the oncologists gave me NO HOPE I started to investigate alternatives and found Gerson. I came to Mexico in June of 2007 and stayed for three weeks. I have been on the program for 18 months (modified because I have two artificial hips) and I am sure if I weren’t on your program I’d certainly be dead by now.

I still have some to go to have a normal life, since I lose stamina during the day and have a variety of aches and pains, but nothing like I had before. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for you and the Gerson family.

As a side benefit I am on NO prescriptions. I had blood pressure problems (now 120 over 72 for a year). I had atrial fibralation ( no more irregular heart beats) People think I’m crazy since I’m 75 yrs old/young in January, but I’m determined to show all the Doctors who threw me under the bus.
Thanks again to you and the team in Mexico

Sincerely, Bill D.”

“At the age of 16, I felt as if I were 90. I went from being a gymnast, musician, and honor student, to a lethargic medical mess. After a week-long hospital stay for an abscessed tonsil, I did not feel well again for seven years. I began to ache and drag, always waiting to regain the coporal vigor I once enjoyed. After frequent complaints to my mother of how my body felt sore, achy, tired, and weak, she took me to see our family doctor. He referred me to a pediatric rheumatologist at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital in Loma Linda, California. I remember being quite optimistic and confident that the doctors there would be able to help me relieve my pain. I showed them where it hurt and explained what it felt like. I was tested for various diseases and a diagnosis was given. What causes this fibromyalgia, and how do I get rid of it? These are the obvious next questions after one is diagnosed with any illness. My trusted physician explained that this was a “new” condition, that it was unusual but not unheard of in a person of my age, and that there was intense research being done, but there is no cure. He said I could grow out of it, that it was not a degenerative disease, some get better, some get worse. I was crushed by the thought of trudging through life in pain, pretending as if all was well. It became necessary to pretend I felt better than I did. I couldn’t bear to watch my mother cry anymore because she felt so helpless. She felt my pain as did the rest of my family.

When was this nightmare going to end? I don’t remember the first drug I was prescribed, or the fifth, I do remember the last. My appointments consisted of a few questions about how I was feeling, and if the prescribed medication was doing the trick. The answer was always no and the treatment was adjusted accordingly. Different drug or different doses, I was allowed to choose. I chose to stop taking liver toxic, mind numbing drugs.

This decision was made after I got into the car in my pink fuzzy slippers, was driving around, not knowing where or why I was going. I was taking Elivel, an antidepressant. Antidepressants in certain doses are often given to patients suffering from fibromyalgia. After I informed Dr. Roberts that I would no longer be testing out any more chemical concoctions, he told me I was depressed. I began to cry in the doctor’s office and he asked my mother to leave the room. He asked if there was something I wanted to say in confidence to him, I did. I told him I was not depressed I was just in constant pain. I was always tired and sluggish. I was having to literally roll out of bed and drag myself to school, achy and miserable. What can I do?! If you cannot help me, then who can?! I left that day frustrated and longing for answers. That doctor never once asked about what I was eating or what my bowel movements were like. I knew it would be my responsibility to take my health into my own hands, stomach, and every other part I owned. I decided to experiment on myself and pay close attention to what I ate and how I felt afterwards. I vowed to finish medical school, my life long dream, and find a cure for the ever present fibromyalgia. I eliminated fast food and soda initially. I did feel better, but still not well.
After trudging through college and work, in agony for seven years, I was able to heal thanks to Dr. Max Gerson.

My older sister called one day to ask if I needed a job. The timing was perfect, I did need a job, and Gerson. All I knew at first about my sister’s job was that she made juice for some guy. A whole new world of living fresh, organic, nutritious foods came to my attention. The kitchen was regarded as the nurse’s station, and the food as medicine. My boss Tim encouraged me to drink juice, eat the living food, and even sent me on my maiden voyage (with coffee?? Charlotte) to the “healing room” also known as the bathroom. The almost immediate change in my physical health was astounding. I was for the first time having no pain. After seven years of feeling awful, this was a foreign concept. My skin which had become riddled with acne, began to clear. Even the old scars started to fade. My mental clarity, energy, and mood returned.

There was and is a cure for fibromyalgia and every other chronic degenerative disease. As an individual who has always been fascinated with the human body’s infinitely intricate inner workings, I am forever grateful to Dr. Max Gerson for his genius and courage. I am forever grateful to Charlotte and all others who perpetuate his message. The basic components of all things are essentially the same. Electrically charged atoms bump into one another, combining, repelling, and making up not only our bodies, but every other substance in the entire universe. The body is constructed from the simplest of elements, and arranged into endlessly complex systems that must be nurtured and not just fed. Each individual must claim responsibility for his or her own construction or demise. I am just one living example of the potent effectiveness of respecting the intimate relationship between our internal and external metabolism. Organic juice, food, and coffee enemas saved my life. I am so happy to be alive.”

“Three and one-half years ago, I was dying. I had been struggling for 18 years following poisoning by pesticides. Progressively my body wore down. Now, turned-aggressive lymphoma was killing me. And I couldn’t add more toxic material, called chemotherapy, to my already toxic body.

A dear friend placed a bag of Gerson literature on my sickbed, and I began to read and read. My mom picked up my friend’s Norwalk juicer, a bag of organic carrots, etc., and we began “The Healing Adventure” at home. My body cried out with the very first juice, “I LOVE this food! I feel HORRIBLE!” (I did not have the means to come to the Gerson Hospital, but it would have been a far better way to begin.)

The first juices activated long-gone immune responses. In the first three days, the tumor on the side of my thigh turned to mush and disap¬peared. And the stationary, poisoned lymph began to move. Because the lymphoma was systemic and the toxic load in my body had destroyed so much, I have had a continual series of difficult reactions as different parts and organs of the body took their turn at “turning on” to cleanse and rebuild. Buckets and buckets of the old putrid matter passed from the intestines. Lumps were coughed up from the lungs. Old black material was expelled from the uterus. Rock hard lymph glands softened and shrank. My body had undergone structural changes, had turned on morbid organs, and, at one point, had to regrow a fingertip I had accidentally cut off.

After 3½ years on the Therapy, I still have a way to go due to the high toxic load still being eliminated. The Therapy is demanding; at times I felt I was running a marathon. But we can’t cave in. Whether we can see through the dark cloud or not, there is so much to live for. I know that the desire to live was stimulated by my loving family and God above. My girls are now 10 and 12. They and my hard working husband and mother were a tremendous source of strength and encouragement. Where would I be without them?

I am continually awed that Dr. Max Gerson could discover an immune-stimulating, total-body therapy and have the courage and ability to explain it. I am deeply thankful for Charlotte Gerson’s patient perseverance and clear words.

I give God the glory. And how I look forward to seeing my children grow and to some day seeing my grandchildren!”

Becky continues her recovery and is close to being completely well at this time. Last news Feb. 2002 .

“Just a note to bring you up to speed on the progress in my bout with prostate cancer. I was diagnosed with point in my life I classed myself as a model of health! I was by myself, selling real estate franchises, when I phoned my wife in Toronto she also was upset. I headed back to Toronto for an appointment with my doctor. He told us I would have to get chemotherapy or radiation. We said “no” to both as the odds of being impotent or incontinent were too high and at any rate I was close to 70 years old and did not see the sense in such drastic action. He then suggested removing my prostate and we reluctantly agreed and proceeded to set a date for three months down the road.

The headline in an article in a health magazine that my wife had left in the bathroom said “Cancer”, and recommended going vegan. After reading the article, we made a corporate decision to do it ourselves.

We tried everything from lots of wheat grass to ozone and enemas, lots of fruit, vegetables and we completely removed meat from my intake.

When we went back to our doctor about four years later, he told us that according to all indications, the tumor was gone. I was elated, but honestly I always wondered when it would come back.
With the doctor’s statement in mind, of course I went back to my old eating habits. It was only a matter of time before the tumor did come back. For quite a while I was in denial, and even when I admitted it to myself, I still tried to hide it. I was doing real estate seminars for Exit Realty and had a heavy schedule. Finally I got to a point where I was exhausted all the time.
I had just finished a seminar for an Exit office in Southern California and I was sharing my fears with the broker and his wife. I also mentioned that for years my blood pressure had been increasing rapidly. They both got excited and proceeded to tell me about the Gerson therapy, and how I should really check it out. Scott told me about his cousin who had contracted ovarian cancer and was investigating the City of Hope in Southern California. Their doctors said they could help her. She asked them for names of past patients. They gave her 20 names; she checked them out and found that 18 had died. Then she checked out the Gerson treatment and asked for the names of 20 of their patients. When she checked those, 18 were still alive! Considering the odds, she chose the Gerson clinic in Mexico. After all these years, she is still with us.

This convinced me that I should go down, so I booked into the Baja California [Gerson] Nutrition Center on July 11, 2006. Now, it’s August 2007 and my progress is nothing short of miraculous.
The night before I checked into the clinic I ate my last meal of meat and fish chowder, of which I am very fond. It was exceptionally salty and the next morning at the Mexican hospital when the orderly took my vitals, he looked shocked and said something to the Doctor in Spanish which I did not understand. The Doctor asked me if I had high blood pressure, because the reading was 231 over 136 which made me a little nervous. As far as I knew, it had never been that high before.

Today, over a year later, my cholesterol is 128 without drugs, and my blood pressure is normal, also without drugs. My monthly checkups are coming back excellent and the CAT scan only shows calcium and some scar tissue. [I am working with great energy, feeling very well, and planning many future activities.]

“Dear Charlotte and the Gerson Staff,

I have just recently completed one year on the full Gerson Therapy and would love to share my story in a way of saying thanks and in the spirit of hope for others who are considering the Therapy.

I suffered with an acute case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for over two years before even learning of the Gerson Therapy in a book about Allergies by Alan Hunter. Like most CFS sufferers I had tried every therapeutic path I had come across with little improvement (including a prescribed term of psychiatric care). From the very beginning, something inside told me to take the Gerson Therapy seriously despite the fact that I had never imagined a routine so foreign to my day-to-day life or my notions of health. In the next year and a half I inched toward the Gerson full program, adopting it gradually, one item at a time.

This I did, not purposefully but because it was the only way I could approach such a drastically foreign program. I never consciously thought I would do the full program until the end of that year and a half. Basically, I was at the end of my rope; worn down completely by the tortuous nature of CFS and willing to go to any length to overcome it. Encouraged by how I felt after slowly adopting advice from the Gerson program and further confident in the soundness of the explanations behind each of the tenets of the Therapy, I quit my job and my life’s routines as I had known them and started the full version of the Therapy.

I decided not to start the program with the recommended stay at the clinic in Mexico for financial reasons but now realize that as a mistake that I made. Considering the cost of the whole year on the Therapy the cost of the stay in Mexico is justified and would have made the Therapy a lot easier to make it through. I thought that the information and directions within the Gerson texts (I bought and read them all, numerous times) would be enough. They were and they weren’t. The one thing they did not prepare me for was the severity of the ‘flare-ups’ or ‘healing crises,’ most especially the first one. Of all the radically new (to me) concepts concerning healing that the Therapy taught me, the most difficult one for me to fully grasp was that I had to get worse to get better (not once but many times). Going into the first flare-up (which didn’t occur until after two full months) without fully understanding this made the experience very scary at times.

I had some other unusual challenges also. From the beginning to the end (except for two weeks during the first flare-up) I did the entire program by myself including all the shopping, juicing and cooking. As a CFS sufferer this meant that for a long time I would be on the verge of collapse right before each hourly juice, which gave me just enough energy to make it through the next hour’s chores. The two days a week I went to the local farmers’ market to buy the supplies were particularly difficult. It was four months before I really had any energy to spare. The other major complication was that twice during the year on the Therapy my fiancée and I had to move for financial reasons. Adding packing and boxing up my belongings to my routine was another major test which, amazingly, I was just well enough at the time to make it through. Given all that, it is more amazing to me that by nine months into it I felt great. And in another three months I felt confident I could feel great with a reduction in the routine (cutting back on juicing, etc.). Exactly one year and two months after starting the full Gerson Therapy I put my new found health to the test by traveling to Africa for a month with my fiancée. I was warned by a travel doctor that not only should someone with a history of CFS not leave the country much less go to Africa but I was practically committing suicide not accepting any but the mandatory yellow fever vaccinations nor accepting any of his antibiotic malaria prophylaxis (I took the natural based quinine instead). I returned in great shape after a month of eating the best of the African food I could find (Tanzanian mangos are something special) and have even stronger confidence in my new physical and mental health. Thank you Dr. Gerson!

I followed the full Gerson Therapy program with one difference that I thought you might find interesting. Because I am lactose intolerant I had difficulties adding non-fat yogurt to the diet and gave up on that. My healing practitioner advisor recommended yogurt from goat’s milk. I was not comfortable with this alternative because of its fat content. I felt strongly that my body was particularly responding well to the low fat nature of the diet (especially the strict avoidance of animal based fats). I looked to spirulina pills and powder but the cost and the difficulty ingesting them made me decide against that. Instead I made sure that I ate at least one pound of boiled potatoes for both lunch and dinner. I did that against warnings that that was not enough protein. But I can happily report that I successfully completed over one year on the Gerson Therapy with[out] any additional protein.

Another interesting experience I would like to share concerns my dog. She is about ten years old and like most dogs had been suffering with arthritis. It took her a long time after sleeping to be able to stand and she couldn’t climb stairs. After about five months on the Gerson program myself and having read in Howard Straus’s wonderful biography of Dr. Gerson that pets have been put on the program, I decided to put my dog on the Therapy with me. I figured it would never be easier to do so since all I did was cook extra soup and potatoes for lunch and dinner and extra oatmeal for breakfast. Whenever she approached me while I was juicing (which she did occasionally) I gave her the pressings to eat. I also began mixing in other vegetables like onions and tomatoes and carrots which she loved. She always ate the full portions I gave her enthusiastically and by the time I completed my one year she had improved dramatically. I can truthfully say that now she bounds up from a nap and goes up and down our one flight of stairs without problem or hesitation! Interestingly enough, one day I experimented at the farmers market and bought my weekly supply of potatoes from a conventional farmer. When I cooked them I found them almost inedible so I decided to feed them to my dog since she is a dog after all, no matter how much I love her. Well, she refused to eat them, too! Luckily it was Thanksgiving, so I cooked them with butter and salt as mashed potatoes, served them to my extended family and I was a hero at the meal.

As far as my experience on the Gerson Therapy went I couldn’t be happier. It surpassed my highest expectations in regard to the renewal of health and spirit I experienced.”

Sincerely,
Jeffrey C
Los Angeles, CA

Contributed: May 2003

On May 22, 2003 at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with EOPPC : Extra-Ovarian Primary Peritoneal Carcinoma, stage IV. The following is a brief summary of my medical history, my cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery.I may be facing a similar situation, to raise awareness of the options available, and to spread the word about the success of Gerson. The Gerson Therapy more than healed me from cancer; it’s an extension and culmination of a life of being chronically ill, seeking wellness, and finally discovering a way to heal.

I was born with jaundice. By the time I was four or five I have chronic bladder infections, and had already had to be catheterized for a kidney check. At the age of about ten, I began to having headaches. Doctors prescribed different antibiotics and pain killers on and off for about 25 years. In the process I found that I am allergic to erythromycin, penicillin, all sulfa drugs, Band-Aid adhesive and some latex. By the time I was 21 my headaches turned into migraines. The headaches eventually became so severe that I had to either be on heavy pain medications to function or I was in bed with a towel over my eyes. My father, who also suffered from migraines, took me to the migraine clinic at Abbot Northwestern in Minnesota. I was diagnosed with chemical sensitivity disorder and put on the drug Doxepin. Doxepin is a tricyclic antidepressant and used to raise serotonin levels.

The doctor said that he had good results with this drug and migraine patients. I took Doxepin on and off for about 10 years. It did not help much; I would still get headaches that lasted up to three weeks from just one whiff of bus exhaust. Mostly I just suffered through the pain.

When I was in college I realized that I could not live this way and I began to explore diet and lifestyle alternatives. First off I started doing yoga which lead me to learn about and practice a vegetarian diet, veganism, macrobiotics and raw, live food living. I became conscious of the benefits of stretching, relaxation and balance and started feeling better. My studies improved and my headaches lessened. I began to realize which foods and environments I had to avoid. These lifestyle changes, along with a full course of body work called Structural Integration, a deep-tissue realignment similar to chiropractic, opened my awareness to the possibility of well being. As the pain lessened I begin to feel other imbalances that had been masked by the headaches. Its one of these ironies where as you begin to get better, you realize how bad off you are. I had only scratched the surface.

My continued interest in what I will call “the real” traditional healing arts lead me to Mysore a city in Southern India. I learned southern India is considered the home of the mother medicine and went to practice and study yoga and Ayurvedics with a determination that if I was ever to become fully healthy this was the time and the place. In India I woke at 5 and from 6 to 9 am I was in a rigorous aerobic yoga series. Then I would mostly rest for the rest of the day eating coconut, mango, sugar cane and toast. I lost weight and had some insomnia. It wasn’t until I stopped doing my daily practice and got on the plane back to the states that I began to feel very sick in my guts. I believe the illness was there all the time and the yoga and healing therapies had kept it at bay.

Six weeks later I arrived in Honolulu with the worst gut pain I had ever had. I continued to lose weight and my abdomen began to swell. The next six weeks were filled with doctors’ appointments and remedies that proved useless. Over and over I was told that nothing was wrong with me. One doctor on Maui put me on a sedative.
Another doctor in Alaska put me on Flagyl, a potent antibiotic for parasites. The tests showed no parasites, but the doctor said, “Oh well, sometimes that happens and you have them anyway.” Our local doctor, Dr. Yates, palpated my stomach and said I had to go to the emergency room immediately. At the emergency room they gave me a shot of Demerol and it was like somebody turned on the lights. All of a sudden I realized how much pain I had come to tolerate. Panic set in. They took an X-ray, told me there was nothing wrong and sent me home. Whoa!

After dead-ends with seven doctors my parents had set up an appointment with a germ specialist at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is known for being the best conservative medical institute in the west, if not the world. Within days I was on a plane to Minnesota and admitted through the emergency room because I was in so much pain I could not wait for my appointment. They took me in right away because I could not walk, or talk without crying, and I was emaciated. After a battery of tests, one of which was an ultrasound, they found ascites in my abdomen, did a paracentesis and diagnosed the ascites with cancerous cells. There was no sign of cancer on my CT scans and my CA-125 was elevated to 300. At about two o’clock in the afternoon on May 22, 2003, five doctors, all on my case with an older doctor as the chief, came into my hospital room and explained to me with arms folded across their chest and heads shaking that I had end-stage cancer and that death was imminent. They explained to me that I had stage IV EOPPC , but if there were such thing as stage V that I was there because ascites is not treatable and incurable, it is a complete breakdown of the body organism, and not only that, but my ascites was cancerous. They said I could try this chemotherapy that would not cure me; they only said it might give me an extra six months to a year, if I was lucky. Whoa, again.

I was assigned Dr. Roa for an oncologist. When he came in the room he looked very sad. I remember reassuring him that I was not going to die and him looking at me like I was pathetic and crazy. I called everybody I knew, and as soon as I was out of the hospital I began researching every possible angle. I would do everything and
anything. I was not going to let this cancer kill me. NO WAY! I knew there was an answer and I was going to find it. My oncologist arranged for me to do six months of carboplatinum and Taxol. It was like being sold a car. I got a second opinion and when I told this doctor that I had been doing some research on Pub Med and many other web and library resources, he said, “Don’t do that. That will only confuse you. Just trust me.” My hair stood on end when he said that, and I decided to trust my hair instead of him. Keep in mind that in the course of two years, I visited numerous specialists from the top medical centers in the world, including Mayo, M. D. Anderson and Sloan-Kettering, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. “It’s all in your head,” they told me. Dr. Borone, an oncologist at the UC San Diego Medical Center, gave me one $6,000, 20-minute infusion of carboplatinum, after which I got worse, and had ascites.

After notifying all my friends and relations I received two e-mails that mentioned the Gerson [Therapy]. I started looking into the Gerson Therapy among many other non-toxic treatments. I could see that Gerson was the most rigorous and disciplined therapy, but I honestly thought it was nuts. I remember thinking a person would really have to be fanatic to do something crazy like that. A primary goal of my research was to find a woman who had survived the same diagnosis. I searched every cancer resource and found only two surviving women who had a similar diagnosis: both were Gerson patients. At the same time I was told by Dr. Roa that the chemotherapy was not effective. He pulled up a list of what looked like about 20 different chemotherapies and said, “Even if one
chemotherapy doesn’t work, we know that the others most likely will not, we could just start at the top and try them all.” I felt like he was telling me, “Well, you’re going to die anyway, so lets just try anything.” That was when the Gerson Therapy started to look way less crazy. At this point I got yet another opinion, this time from a woman oncologist who in her own words had seen this disease “hundreds and hundreds of times before.” She told me no one survives it, and wrote me a scrip for hospice [care]. I remember looking at her shoes and thinking what does she know? With those shoes? They were too green and too tight and matched her suit too well. I just knew someone else picked them out for her and told her to buy them.

I applied to Gerson and was accepted. Throughout the process I kept thinking it was like applying to Yale. The people involved had no time for pussyfooting around. You have to want it. That was a good thing to me. Upon my arrival I was welcomed by doctors, nurses, staff and other patients, all with encouragement. That afternoon was pivotal. I was assigned Dr. Bravo, who came to my room and sat [with me] to talk. She proceeded to tell me that this therapy was up to me. She asked me if I could face the seriousness of my illness, and did I have what it takes to cure myself? I was so affirmed. I knew deep inside that it was up to me, and it was in my power to heal myself. I only needed the right tools. She told me I had a night to think about it and if I wanted to leave in the morning it was up to me. Game on!!! I honestly felt like I had discovered the clinic I was dreaming of. I spent the next four weeks at the clinic, and my CA-125 went to normal. Right away my abdomen started to shrink and I felt much better. [During her time at the Mexican Gerson Therapy clinic, Betsy appeared in Steve Kroschel’s first documentary, The Gerson Miracle.—Ed.]

I made all the arrangements from the clinic to return to Alaska and proceed with two to three years of the Gerson [Therapy] in a 16 foot square cabin. On the Internet at Gerson.org I found a man in Alaska who was already ordering organic produce for two people who were doing the Gerson [Therapy]! Every week I got a delivery of all
the goods. I hired two caregivers and many friends and townies came by to see what I was up to. The following summer I had my first full-on garden of romaine, carrots potatoes and more. In the summer what I could not get from my garden I got from the farm down the street. I discovered the life blood of the romaine. I would go from grocery to grocery ripping the leaves of the greens trying to find the creamy white substance that is there when you rip lettuce from the garden. I found none. The grocery store was becoming a thing of the past.

For a year and ten months I followed the Gerson routine from 7 am to 9 pm, all day, every day. After consulting with Dr. Bravo and seeing consistent, optimal blood work, I decided to have surgery. I found a female gynecological surgeon who would do a low impact surgery and just clean up what looked unhealthy. I opted against a radical surgery, because the surgeons at Mayo said, “You don’t need that part anyway …”! After the surgery my ascites went away and never came back. I continued the Gerson [Therapy] for several months. My surgery healed and my strength increased. Since I started the treatment, my migraines have all gone away and my bladder infections have subsided. To this day, I rarely get even a cold.

Throughout these past few years I continued annual checkups at the Mayo clinic and I also went back to the Gerson clinic twice during my two year treatment. On February 23, 2006, after blood work and a CT scan at Mayo, Dr. Roa said I had no sign of cancer. He was astonished. He asked me several times if I had chemo elsewhere, as if I forgot or something. Right! He left the room and came back and said I am the only survivor they know of with this diagnosis. Once again he folded his arms across his chest, only this time with astonishment. He said, “Not only is there no sign of cancer, but all the scar tissue from the surgery has absorbed. This is unheard-of. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” I told him, “You know what I am doing,” because he knew the whole time, but from his chair, he just couldn’t understand it. To this day Dr. Roa and I remain friends. I was going to quit seeing him several times, but my father said “No, you have to teach him.” I told him that day, that great day, “Well doc, if you ever get sick, just give me a call.” He looked at me funny, but you know what? I think he will.

Betsy has agreed to answer questions for anyone with similar problems. Her email is betsyheilman@gci.net.

“Dear Mr. Straus:

Thank you for the wonderful inscription in your book, and for your business card. How nice that was of you!And indeed, I am enjoying good health at the young age of 60 bodily years. My husband, Frank B. has a lot to do with that! You see, Frank found Dr. Gerson’s therapy in the 70’s when his former wife developed a brain tumor. Being quite intelligent, Frank recognized what a brilliant therapy the Gerson therapy was, learned it from Dr. Gerson’s book as well as from the Jacqui Davison book, “Cancer Winner”, and applied it to both his wife and to himself. He became healthier, and his former wife, after a year, no longer had a brain tumor and was the very image of health. Unfortunately, she was so healthy that she shared herself with many other men, so Frank divorced her.

A native of the Pasadena, Los Angeles area, Frank came through town to visit his parents after the divorce in 1986. To his surprise and horror, his beloved father was undergoing exploratory surgery. The doctors found that he had a tumor growing on his liver and pronounced that Jack Blumer should “put his affairs in order” as he
everyone! At that time, Jack was in his mid-70’s.

The docs said that the cancer had grown deeply inside the liver ducts and so chemo and radiation would be of no use. So, Frank moved back home with his parents, and applied the Gerson Therapy to his dad.

After a few weeks, Jack was up and able to walk. A couple of weeks more and he felt like bicycling again and started it up. Weeks gave way to months gave way to years. Jack lived another 15 some years to the ripe age of 91-1/2, and he died, cancer-free, in January 2001.

I have not read your book yet, but just read your Dedication – and it brings tears to my eyes. So, you are Charlotte’s son and the great Dr. Max Gerson’s grandson! I am so pleased to meet you. As a champion of the Gerson therapy, Frank and I have both told many cancer sufferers of the therapy. And many of these people chose, instead, to mix-and-match various therapies (trying to form their own cancer therapy, it seems), instead of following the well laid-out plan that Dr. Gerson offers. Or sometimes the ill chose to follow (blindly, it seems) the path of chemo and radiation. All of these have died. Sad, but very true, and very needless. I just really wanted to be in touch with you and to introduce my husband to you. I am honored to know you, even via email.

All the very best,

Bettie R.”

Contributed: September 2006

“For those who don’t know me… I’m a 45 year old stage IV Breast Cancer patient, with metastases to liver and bones. In January 2004, when diagnosed stage IV, my liver was so covered in tumors that my liver was shutting down. My skin was completely yellow, even my eyes were yellow.

I didn’t know any better, so I began Chemo treatments at once. My onc[ologist] said that with treatment, we could hope for a year. I went in search of other options, and stumbled upon Max Gerson’s method. I figured I had nothing to lose. Liver mets from Breast Cancer has a very poor survival rate with traditional medical treatment. Fewer than 1% survive past two years. I celebrated my two-year anniversary of being diagnosed with Breast Cancer with metastases by skiing in Telluride, CO, one of the steepest mountains in the U.S.

Things are better than ever! My liver is fully functioning! Nothing in my bones! Nothing to treat! I was walking on air!!!

I’m not just here either… I snow ski 30 days a year, water ski every summer, rock climb, golf, motorcycle ride and travel frequently. I am followed by my traditional oncologist, who orders all my tests for follow-up. He can’t explain my marvelous progress. They say in his office that ‘I cured myself’ and that I am a ‘miracle patient’. Even my traditional oncologist is asking questions about my lifestyle and supplements.

So for me … the only proof that counts is how well I am doing and I know that lifestyle changes have had an enormous impact on my health.”

Contributed: October 2006

“On October 12, 2006 I, Kevil M, was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. My left testicle was surrounded by a tumor like a baseball mitt surrounding a glove. My Urologist at the time removed the tumor, however, the team of doctors didn’t want to stop there; after abducting my testicle, they then wanted to do a little searching around, where they would split me open from chest to navel and remove the problem lymph nodes at the site of metastasis and then follow it up with chemotherapy and possible radiation, almost like toppings to a banana split. Metastasis, after all, was the reason that they gave me a six month prognosis. Six months, not long even in dog years, has come and gone as the seasons, and yet I am still here, breathing, living, and enjoying life like never before. All this, thanks to Dr. Max Gerson, Charlotte Gerson, Howard Straus, and the multitudes that have continued his legacy of “healing the hopeless,” as Howard Straus’s biography on Dr. Gerson’s life testifies.

Perhaps those doctors were right, and a therapy such as the Gerson Therapy is hogwash, but if that is the case then I will join the ranks of the “naïve” patients that have chosen to take control of their health by means of juicing, supplementation, and coffee enemas. After all, proof is in the organic vegan pudding, and having outlived the doctors six month prognosis, I can say that they have no right to play god and tell patients how long they have to live. These doctors are fooling the world as they set out to eliminate us with trickery and deceit, whereby a five year survival is deemed a “cure,” and even at that they receive extremely poor results. Given this fictitious five year survival cure, of course it makes sense that if the patient detects the cancer early that patient will be “cured.” I’m sorry, but this blatant lye and disregard for the body, the only living temple on earth, will no longer pass. We must stand up for ourselves, whether we have cancer or not, because no one in the allopathic medicine mega-industry appears to be looking out for us. I for one do not want to be a statistic, and I know many that feel the same way.

Thanks also to my parents (Lightfoot M. and Dr. Kate K.), my caretaker of seven months, Sarah D, horse-whisperer Rene, the Buddhist monks, the honorable staff of the Gerson Institute, the Mexican Gerson Therapy clinic, and the select family and friends that believed not only in me but in the Gerson therapy, because Gerson saves! I am a certified Gerson Caregiver, and hope to guide others along the path of wellness. I would like to invite emails, and as I think no one should be excluded from receiving help with the Gerson Therapy, am willing to work for travel, juices/food and coffee enemas. Primarily, I hope to assist others out of the bottomless pit known as cancer, and show them that we created the abyss, and therefore we can get ourselves out of it. You can email me.”