The Gerson Therapy
The History of The Gerson Therapy
Developed at the turn of the 19th Century, Dr Max Gerson was a 25-year-old medical doctor living in Germany.
He suffered extremely debilitating migraines which saw him incapacitated many days a week.
As a physician he knew what he had been taught – they would not subside until he was in his 50s.
He began experimenting with his diet and after cutting out all foods except for milk (because babies drink milk so it must be ok) he realised that milk made the migraines worse.
His next trial was with apples and to his delight he found complete relief from his migraines no matter whether they were juiced, stewed, raw, grated – it didn’t matter.
He continued to add foods one at a time, adding and taking away until he ended up with a mix of foods that he called his “Migraine Diet”.
He gave this diet to several of his patients who also suffered from migraines and they magically healed themselves.
One of these patients also had Tuberculosis of which the diet completely healed.
Dr Gerson didn’t believe this as it was not a healable condition and requested the proof of seeing the original tests before he was willing to look at the possibility of this diet being the cause of the healing.
He then gave the diet to a hospital of 450 Tuberculosis patients, of which 446 were cured.
Dr Gerson began to understand that what he had devised was actually allowing the body to heal itself of whatever was wrong. It was not selective.
The Gerson Therapy is now known as a Cancer Treatment, although it continues to heal many people with non-malignant diseases along the way.
The Gerson Institute has a hospital in Mexico where patients can stay and learn The Gerson Therapy before continuing the protocol at home.
Dr Gerson died in 1959 aged 77 and the mission was taken over by his daughter Charlotte who died in 2019 aged 96. The Gerson Institute and its mission to teach The Gerson Therapy is continued by Charlotte's son.
The Theory of Why The Gerson Therapy Works
After much research, it was discovered that in cases where chronic disease has taken hold the Potassium-Sodium balance was out of whack
The Potassium which normally lives inside your cell and the sodium which lives outside your cells were reversed and therefore out of balance.
It was also discovered that any patient who had cancer also housed a liver in their body that was so toxic it just could not filter anymore and therefore the toxins just recirculated in the body.
Patients of both chronic disease and all the way to cancer were extremely malnourished.
The Gerson Therapy protocol therefore is based around an almost vegan diet but most importantly contains no salt, no animal fats, and very little oils as trials at the Gerson Hospital have proven these things to increase the growth of tumours and cancer.
The Gerson Therapy Protocol
This is the protocol used for Cancer Patients. It is altered by the doctors depending on what your needs are at the clinic.
This protocol is followed for 2 years in most cases. This is the length of time it takes for the liver to completely regenerate itself.
Once healing has taken place then some forbidden foods are added back to the patient’s diet and the protocol can be modified for a less intensive regime.
It is recommended that these patients then undertake the original protocol twice a year for 2 weeks. If during this time they experience healing reactions then a further 2 weeks is required until there are no more healing reactions.
Cancer Patient Protocol (altered/determined by the Gerson Doctor)
Standard Daily Items
13 x 250ml juices per day of freshly juiced Orange or Carrot or Carrot & Apple or Green depending on the patient’s needs
5 x Coffee Enemas per day (for liver Detox and healing)
A range of supplements
All foods and body products are organic
Breakfast Daily
Oats cooked in water
Stewed fruit
2 tsp of honey
1 x orange juice
Lunch and Dinner Daily
Hippocrates Soup (for kidney Detox and healing - download recipe HERE)
Salad with flax oil dressing
Baked potato with non-fat organic yoghurt
Vegetables and Fruit at any time of the day when hungry
Forbidden Foods on The Gerson Therapy
All Processed foods
Alcohol
Avocados
Berries (except currants)
Bicarbonate of soda in foods, toothpaste and gargle
Bottled and canned commercial beverages (soft drinks)
Cake, candy, chocolate and all sweets
Cheese
Cocoa
Coffee for drinking
Cosmetics, hair dyes and permanents
Cream
Cucumber
Dried fruit (unless unsulfured)
Drinking water
Epsom salts (even for baths)
Fats and oils (sole exception organic flaxseed oil)
Flour
Fluoride in water and toothpaste
Herbs (except permitted ones)
Ice cream and sherbet
Legumes
Milk
Mushrooms
Nuts
Orange and lemon rind (contains aromatic oils)
Pickles
Pineapples (high in aromatics)
Salt and all salt substitutes
Soy and all soy products
Spices (high in aromatics)
Sugar
Tea
The Supplements on The Gerson Therapy
Gerson patients have a very strict regime of supplements, that like everything else has a specific reason for being there and should not be changed or altered unless under supervision.
The following links are for information purposes only, The Gerson Therapy supplements are very specific to them.
Potassium – to increase the potassium in the cells, it is added to the juices
Niacin – to soak up atherosclerosis, cholesterol and increase circulation to all of the organs
Lugol’s Iodine – to support the thyroid gland
Desiccated Thyroid Hormone – to support the thyroid gland
Pancreatin – to help digestion and tumour breakdown
Liver extract – improves Vitamin A for the breakdown of tumour tissue
Vitamin B12 – for homocysteine support (niacin increases homocysteine levels)
Acidol Pepsin – increase hydrochloric acid
Ox Bile Powder – taken when the patient is having castor oil to emulsify it
Juices on The Gerson Therapy
Cancer patients are given up to 13 fresh 250ml glasses of juice every day.
They are given every hour and their job is to continuously flood the body with nutrients and to push toxins out of the cells.
It is important that the specific ingredients are the only ones used.
In the green juice there is a choice of lettuces for example that some people may feel they could add spinach or kale to, but everything in The Gerson Therapy is there for a reason, and the contents of the juices are no different.
Most of the juices are high potassium, low sodium, plus they are gentle on the stomach.
Coffee Enemas on The Gerson Therapy
As awful as they sound, coffee enemas (known as Coffee Breaks to the initiated) are crucial in the healing of the liver and the removal of the toxins pushed out by the juices.
Gerson patients have 1 enema to every 3 juices, so the extremely sick cancer patients start with a minimum of 5 enemas per day.
Sometimes for the patients that arrive at the hospital on a gurney, drugged up with morphine and in their last days have been given almost nonstop enemas in the first 24 hours which has completely turned them around.
It is important to understand that if your body is in a diseased state, then drinking juice without an enema will cause toxins to be released into the bloodstream at a high rate with nowhere to go and a liver too ill to process them.
Within The Gerson Therapy, the coffee enema acts as a type of dialysis for your liver. Every 3-4 minutes all of your blood flows through your liver for filtering and cleaning. The coffee allows the bile ducts to open and by holding the enema for 15 mins or so the blood gets cleaned 3-4 times and then brings the toxic waste out with it when you release the liquid.
I believe in Coffee Enemas so much that it was the first book I wrote! You can download a PDF version here:
Final Thoughts…
The Gerson Therapy protocol is very specific and I advise against anyone having a go at it on their own. You can employ the services of Gerson Institute Trained Coaches so just head to the website and check it out if this appeals to you. This post was for informational and interest purposes to help you Think Outside the Box of the possibilities that are out there waiting for you to discover.
For more information on The Gerson Therapy
Websites:
Books:
A Cancer Therapy – Results of Fifty Cases by Max Gerson, M.D. Healing the Hopeless By Max Gerson MD
Healing the Gerson Way – by Charlotte Gerson
Gerson Therapy Handbook – by Max Gerson, M.D.
Gerson Therapy Recipes – by Christeene Lindsay-Hildenbrand
3000 Coffee Breaks – by James Wedgewood
A Time To Heal – by Beata Bishop
DVD’s:
The Beautiful Truth
The Gerson Miracle Dying to Have Known
Food Matters Hungry For Change
The Gerson Therapy 3 Set
This post may contain affiliate links, which if you make a purchase, Kylie Wolfig may make a small commission at no cost to you which helps keep this Library free!
