The Gerson diet

I have been told that the Gerson diet can cure cancer. What is it and is it true?

Dr Max Gerson from Germany developed Gerson therapy, also known as the Gerson diet, in the 1930’s. He claimed it helped to cure his own migraine headaches. He later went on to use his therapy to treat other diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer.

The Gerson diet uses a special diet and nutritional supplements to try and rid the body of toxins. It is a type of metabolic therapy that Dr Gerson claimed could cure cancer. The aim of the diet is to fight disease by trying to strengthen the body’s immune system. Dr Gerson died in 1959. His daughter Charlotte Gerson Strauss went on to establish the Gerson Institute in 1977.

Gerson practitioners usually recommend their diet as an alternative to regular cancer treatment. There is no medical research to support any claims that this therapy can treat or cure cancer. In fact it can be very harmful and dangerous to the body. We don't recommend alternative therapies in place of conventional treatment because there is often little (if any) scientific or medical evidence to back up the claims made for these 'treatments'. If you have cancer, using unproven methods instead of conventional medical treatment can have very serious consequences for your health. You should talk to your own specialist about any alternative or complementary therapies that you want to try.
The Gerson diet is a very strict low salt, organic fruit and vegetable diet. Each person must drink 20 pounds (about 9 kilos) of crushed fruit and vegetables each day. Gerson therapists believe that people with cancer have too much salt in their bodies compared to the amount of potassium they have. They think that eating large quantities of fruit and vegetables will correct this imbalance and cleanse the liver. The idea is that the liver would then start to clear the body of cancer cells. It would be nice if the liver could filter out cancer cells from the body. If it did, this would certainly be an avenue of conventional cancer research. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

So, as well as the diet you take potassium and other supplements to help correct other imbalances in the body. Next you have to fit in 3 or 4 coffee enemas a day. The enemas are supposed to detoxify and cleanse the bowel. Practitioners believe that if the bowel is clean and the body free from toxins, it will then be able to recognise and kill cancer cells.

Coffee enemas have been known to cause some serious side effects. They include

Infections
Constipation
Inflammation of the bowel
Salt and other mineral imbalances in the body and
Death caused by these problems
The other important thing to mention is that Gerson therapy costs a lot of money. The Gerson Institute refers people to clinics that they license. There is a major one in Mexico. There are no medical facilities available at these clinics. They also offer a home therapy deal. Each person can pay over £2,500 a week! Treatment can last for a few months or years. If you do it for a year, that means you have to find £130, 000.

Sometimes Gerson practitioners recommend other unproven treatments such as laetrile, hydrogen peroxide, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and shark cartilage along with the diet. This would add significantly to the cost as these 'therapies' are also very expensive.

Whenever we put up information on alternative treatments that have not been properly tested, we receive a few angry emails. They say we are trying to prevent people with cancer from getting effective treatment. That is really not what we wish to do. What concerns us is that these potential cures, like this one, are often sold for a great deal of money. And people with cancer can be vulnerable. It is understandable that patients or relatives will try anything if they think it might work. And that people really do want to believe that they work. But some alternative 'therapies' are just money making businesses targeting people who are sick and very vulnerable. Our message is

Be careful
Make sure you look into the information that is available
Talk to your own cancer doctor before you buy