Review: A Cancer Therapy – Results of Fifty Cases and The Cure of Advanced Cancer by Diet Therapy, by Max Gerson, M.D.

This handy (434 page) book reports on one of the landmark discoveries of modern medicine. When Dr. Gerson had presented testimony on his success before the subcommittee headed by Senator Claude Pepper, he prepared this book to report to the general public on the possibility of healing cancer without conventional medical treatment (surgery, radiation, and chemo). Even today, half a century later, the US medical community has not accepted this work as valid – Senator Pepper was unable to get funding for further research, so Gerson Therapy is still not recognized in the US. A cancer patient wanting the best possible outcome has three choices: self care, or travel to Mexico or Germany where Gerson clinics are available.

Dr. Gerson developed his therapy the hard way – he lived it. Attending medical school with severe migraine headaches, he was advised that he would just have to live with them; they are incurable. He proceeded to cure his own migraines, then went on to find cures for tuberculosis and eventually cancer. The technique he developed was to provide sufficient nutrition to the cells and to remove toxins from the body. That simple approach enabled him to accept patients who had been released as incurable by other physicians. Having nothing to lose, they were willing to accept the severe discipline that Dr. Gerson imposed as the means to effect the cure. Not every patient recovered, but remember that his pool of patients was limited to only the hopeless.

Included in the book are Dr. Gerson's Theory to guide physicians to apply the treatment properly, a few similar cancer theories, some preliminary thought by Paracelsus, and a survey of other authors' attempts to use diet to treat cancer.

One topic which became central to Gerson Therapy is understanding of the liver and its function in wellness and disease. Building on the results of others' research, Dr. Gerson identified the relation of liver function to mineral balance in the body, especially the loss of potassium and potassium-group minerals. Not unrelated is the role of salt in the diet, especially sodium.

Along the way, Dr. Gerson recognizes the impact of insecticides and soil depletion on declining wellness. Modern nutritionists have developed many supplements to offset the declining nutritional value of soil as it is depleted by continuous cultivation. Some physicians have finally recognized that supplementation is vital to wellness.

The diet used in Gerson Therapy is limited primarily to fresh juices of fruits, leaves, and vegetables, large quantities of raw fruit and vegetables, vegetables stewed in their own juice, oatmeal, special soups, and salt-free rye bread. As treatment progresses, some selected animal protein may be included (salt-free and fat-free cottage cheese and yogurt, and buttermilk). The diet is sodium-free and high in potassium to speed up restoration of the mineral balance of the body that is essential for wellness. Along with provision of adequate nutrition, it also is vital to remove toxins rapidly. The main tool for that purpose is enemas, especially coffee enemas. Such treatment has been found very effective for eliminating pain that would be suffered from the toxins that accumulate as proper nutrition forces them out of the cells, as well as stimulating the liver to release the accumulated toxins.

The latter half of the book is primarily devoted to details of fifty of the case histories of patients that Dr. Gerson treated. Considering the advanced state of disease in each of them, the results achieved by Dr. Gerson are astounding, especially at a time when medical practice had few effective treatments to apply. Here are some sample cases:
1) Pituitary tumor, patient unconscious – returned to work in eight months.
11) Testicular cancer metastasized to both lungs and periaortic glands, prognosis hopeless; released to die – within 18 months on Gerson Therapy, feeling fine and working.
15) 8 month-old boy with active neurogenic fibrosarcoma; physician wanted to amputate left arm and shoulder – recovered and grew up normally.
16) Breast cancer with brain metastases – totally recovered with Gerson Therapy.