The Gerson Therapy

The Gerson Therapy is a natural nutritional therapy that activates the body’s extraordinary ability to heal itself through an organic, vegetarian diet, raw juices, coffee enemas, and natural supplements.

With its whole-body approach to healing, the Gerson Therapy naturally reactivates your body’s magnificent ability to heal itself—with no damaging side effects.

Strengthening the Immune System
This powerful, natural treatment boosts the body’s own immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies, and many other degenerative diseases. Dr. Max Gerson developed the Gerson Therapy in the 1930s, initially as a treatment for his own debilitating migraines, and eventually as a treatment for degenerative diseases such as skin tuberculosis, diabetes and, most famously, cancer.

Treating Cancer with Nutrition
The Gerson Therapy for cancer patients is a nutritional program, using 100% fresh, organic foods, which may help patients keep up strength and energy, improve or maintain quality of life, and restore the body’s incredible ability to heal itself.

Nutrition is a process in which food is taken in and used by the body for growth, to keep the body healthy, and to replace tissue. Good nutrition is important for good health. Eating the right kinds of foods before, during, and after cancer treatment can help the patient feel better and stay stronger. A healthy diet includes eating and drinking enough of the foods and liquids that have the important nutrients (vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fat, and water) the body needs.

When the body does not get or cannot absorb the nutrients needed for health, it causes a condition called malnutrition or malnourishment. Healthy eating habits are important during cancer treatment.

Nutrition therapy is used to help cancer patients get the nutrients they need to keep up their body weight and strength, keep body tissue healthy, and fight infection.
Eating habits that are good for cancer patients can be very different from the usual healthy eating guidelines.

Healthy eating habits and good nutrition can help patients deal with the effects of cancer and its treatment. Some cancer treatments work better when the patient is well nourished and gets enough calories and protein in the diet. Patients who are well nourished may have a better prognosis (chance of recovery) and quality of life.

Cancer Affects Nutrition
Cancer can change the way the body uses food. Some tumors make chemicals that change the way the body uses certain nutrients. The body’s use of protein, carbohydrates, and fat may be affected, especially by tumors of the stomach or intestines. A patient may seem to be eating enough, but the body may not be able to absorb all the nutrients from the food.

Cancer and cancer treatments may affect nutrition. For many patients, the effects of cancer and cancer treatments make it hard to eat well. Cancer treatments that affect nutrition include:

• Surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Stem cell transplant

When the head, neck, esophagus, stomach, or intestines are affected by the cancer treatment, it is very hard to take in enough nutrients to stay healthy.

The side effects of cancer and cancer treatment that can affect eating include:

• Anorexia (loss of appetite)
• Mouth sores
• Dry mouth
• Trouble swallowing
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Pain
• Depression
• Anxiety

Cancer and Malnutrition
Cancer and cancer treatments may affect taste, smell, appetite, and the ability to eat enough food or absorb the nutrients from food. This can cause malnutrition (a condition caused by a lack of key nutrients). Malnutrition can cause the patient to be weak, tired, and unable to fight infections or get through cancer treatment. Malnutrition may be made worse if the cancer grows or spreads. Eating too little protein and calories is a very common problem for cancer patients. Having enough protein and calories is important for healing, fighting infection, and having enough energy.

Anorexia and cachexia are common causes of malnutrition in cancer patients. Anorexia (the loss of appetite or desire to eat) is a common symptom in people with cancer. Anorexia may occur early in the disease or later, if the cancer grows or spreads. Some patients already have anorexia when they are diagnosed with cancer. Almost all patients who have advanced cancer will have anorexia. Anorexia is the most common cause of malnutrition in cancer patients.

Cachexia is a condition marked by a loss of appetite, weight loss, muscle loss, and general weakness. It is common in patients with tumors of the lung, pancreas, and upper gastrointestinal tract. It is important to watch for and treat cachexia early in cancer treatment because it is hard to correct.

Cancer patients may have anorexia and cachexia at the same time. Nutrition therapy can help cancer symptoms and side effects that affect eating and cause weight loss.

Nutrition therapy may be helpful for the following:

• To help increase appetite
• To help digest food
• To help the muscles of the stomach and intestines contract (to keep food moving along)
• To prevent or treat nausea and vomiting
• To prevent or treat diarrhea
• To prevent or treat constipation

Restoring the Body’s Ability to Heal Itself
The Gerson Therapy‘s all-encompassing nature sets it apart from most other nutritional therapy methods for cancer patients. Also, The Gerson Therapy effectively treats a wide range of different ailments because it restores the body’s incredible ability to heal itself. Rather than treating only the symptoms of a particular disease, the Gerson Therapy treats the causes of most degenerative diseases: toxicity and nutritional deficiency, which are especially problematic in patients with cancer.

During the Gerson Therapy, an abundance of nutrients from copious amounts of fresh, organic juices are consumed every day, providing your body with a super-dose of enzymes, minerals and nutrients. These substances then break down diseased tissue in the body, while coffee enemas aid in eliminating toxins from the liver.

Throughout our lives our bodies are being filled with a variety of carcinogens and toxic pollutants. These toxins reach us through the air we breathe, the food we eat, the medicines we take and the water we drink. The Gerson Therapy’s intensive detoxification regimen eliminates these toxins from the body, so that true healing can begin.

How the Gerson Therapy Works
The Gerson Therapy regenerates the body to health, supporting each important metabolic requirement by flooding the body with nutrients from about 15- 20 pounds of organically grown fruits and vegetables daily. Most is used to make fresh raw juice, up to one glass every hour, up to 13 times per day. Raw and cooked solid foods are generously consumed. Oxygenation is usually more than doubled, as oxygen deficiency in the blood contributes to many degenerative diseases.

Degenerative diseases render the body increasingly unable to excrete waste materials adequately, commonly resulting in liver and kidney failure. The Gerson Therapy uses intensive detoxification to eliminate wastes, regenerate the liver, reactivate the immune system and restore the body’s essential defenses – enzyme, mineral and hormone systems.

With 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 Diet should only be started under the supervision of a licensed physician who is trained in The Gerson Therapy.

The Gerson diet is entirely organic and vegetarian. The diet is naturally high in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, micro-nutrients, and extremely low in sodium, fats, and proteins. The following is a typical daily diet for a Gerson patient on the full therapy regimen:

Thirteen glasses of fresh, raw carrot/apple and green-leaf juices prepared hourly from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. Drinking fresh-pressed juice from raw foods is the easiest and most effective way to get high-quality nutrition. By juicing, patients can take in the nutrients and enzymes from nearly 15 pounds of produce every day, in a manner that is easy to digest and absorb.

The juices are prepared hourly from fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables, using a two-step juicer or a masticating juicer used with a separate hydraulic press.

Three full vegetarian meals, freshly prepared from organically grown fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A typical meal will include salad, cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, Hippocrates soup and juice.

Fresh fruit and fresh fruit should be available at all hours for snacking, in addition to the regular diet.

Detoxification
Detoxification on the Gerson Therapy involved coffee enemas, which are prescribed by your Gerson Doctor and adjusted to your individual condition.

Is the Gerson Therapy Right For You?
No treatment works for everyone, every time. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not giving you the facts. We know that when you have been diagnosed with a life-threatening ailment, choosing the best strategy for fighting your illness can be a bewildering task. Everyone claims to have either the best treatment, the fastest cure, or the only therapy that works. In most cases your trusted family physician only has knowledge of conventional treatments, and is either unaware of, or even hostile toward alternative options.

Most therapies–conventional or alternative–treat only the individual symptoms while ignoring what is ultimately causing the disease. The reason the Gerson Therapy is effective with so many different ailments is because it restores the body’s incredible ability to heal itself. Rather than treating only the symptoms of a particular disease, the Gerson Therapy treats the cause of the disease itself. Although we feel the Gerson Therapy is the most comprehensive treatment for disease, we don’t claim it will cure everything or everyone.

Caution: Do not start the Gerson Therapy if any of the following conditions apply without the supervision of a Gerson doctor:

• Chemotherapy
• Diabetes
• Brain metastases
• Severe kidney damage and/or if the patient has ever been on dialysis
• Foreign bodies such as pacemakers, breast implants, steel plates or screws

Patients must be able to eat, drink and eliminate normally. The Gerson Therapy cannot be administered to organ-transplant recipients.

No matter how many opinions you receive on how to treat your disease, you are going to make the final decision on what to do, and you must be comfortable with your decision. Choose a treatment that makes the most sense to you.

Dr. Helene Pulnik is Certified in The Gerson Therapy Training for Licensed Healthcare Professionals and is accepting new patients for The Gerson Therapy.

Dr. Helene Pulnik, ND
ProNatural Physicians, 355 New Britain Road, Kensington, Ct, 06037.