Max Gerson

Max Gerson Oct. 18, 1881-Mar. 8, 1959 was the developer of The Gerson Therapy, an alternative therapy for cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. The Therapy is based on hyperalimentation, or flooding the body with bioavailable micronutrients from salt-free, fat-free, organic, vegetarian food, including 13 fresh-pressed fruit and vegetable juices daily. A critical element of the Therapy is support for the liver in its task of removing toxins from the blood stream through the use of several coffee enemas daily. The coffee enemas stimulate bile production in the liver, flushing accumulated toxins into the upper intestinal tract for elimination. In addition, some vitamin, mineral and enzyme supplementation is applied, in general only substances that would be normally found in a healthy body. The diet, supplementation and detoxification are intended to rectify conditions that Gerson considered caused chronic diseases as diverse as migraine, all forms of tuberculosis, fibromyalgia, most forms of advanced cancer, arthritis, both osteo- and rheumatoid, and diabetes. These causal conditions he identified as deficiency and toxicity; deficiency brought about by the paucity of nutrients in our heavily processed, artificially fertilized foods, and toxicity from the thousands of chemicals and pollutants in our food, air, water and soil. Gerson considered most pharmaceutical products to be liver-toxic in the long run, and avoided them, as well as "recreational" and over-the-counter drugs, including tobacco and alcohol. As a German Jew, Gerson was forced to flee with his family from his native Germany in 1933, first to Vienna, later to Ville d'Avray (near Paris) and London, before he settled in the United States in 1936. In Europe, he had published dozens of articles in the medical literature, but he was almost completely shut out of publishing in his adopted homeland. Though the AMA maintains that Gerson never published, hundreds of other articles published by dozens of medical scientists confirmed the efficacy of the Gerson Therapy for many forms of tuberculosis. Today, many of the organizations that still vilify Gerson have begun to discover the power of nutrition to stimulate and restore immune system function. Gerson's ground-breaking book, A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases, first published in 1958, has sold over 250,000 copies in 5 languages around the world. Though he died in 1959, many of his "terminal" cancer patients were still alive in 2005, over 45 years later. On July 1-3, 1946, Gerson was called to testify before the Pepper-Neely Congressional Committee hearings on appropriating $100 million to fund a cancer research center. Here Gerson became the first, and only, person ever to present five healed "terminal" cancer patients to the the US Congress. No media attention ensued, despite his demonstration of a possible cure for cancer. Gerson died on March 8, 1959, at his home in New York City. Dr. Gerson was called by his lifelong friend and patient, Nobel Laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer, "A medical genius who walked among us." Schweitzer (diabetes), his wife Helene (lung TB), and his daughter Rhena were all healed patients of Dr. Gerson's. References: A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases, Max Gerson, MD, The Gerson Institute, San Diego, CA, 1990. The Gerson Therapy, Charlotte Gerson, Kensington Publishing, NYC, 2001. Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless, Howard Straus, Quarry Books, Kingston, ONT, 2001. Censured for Curing Cancer: the American Experience of Dr. Max Gerson, S. J. Haught, Station Hill Press, NY, 1991. History of the Gerson Therapy, Patricia Spain Ward, Ph.D., under contract to the Office of Technology Assessment.