Does anyone heard about Gerson therapy?

Hi Everyone, 

Barbe1958 * I am determined and extremely optimistic.I have tons of support from loving family and friends but no one close to me has a dx of any type except for one elderly aunt on my husbands side who lives overseas and she passed years ago. I can try to explain how I feel to them, but no one understands the complexity and range of emotions that comes with this except my "DX SIsters".

Thank you again fror taking the time to reach out......

 always welcome!

As always,

Grace

"Most folks would rather be around a person who sees hope in the future than one who sees nothing but trouble ahead."

Zig Ziglar

VERY powerful words Grace! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Grace,

I watched some videos too.  I'm very impressed with what he knew back in the 30's, 40's and 50's that research has proven to be factual.  I tried very hard to keep added salt out of my diet for the last 2 days.  Unbelievable amount of salt is in anything packaged.  I failed.  I went out to get a piece of cake last night from a place that doesn't tell what all is in it.  I didn't want to know.

Barbe,  you'll have to tell me how you live a salt-free existence.  I couldn't do it.

Thanks Barbe,

My 3 day journey into a salt-free tryout has ended.  Hardest thing I ever tried to do.  I never got close to eating 4.7 grams of potassium either.  Too much food to try to get in.  I can see how easily we can fall into not getting enough potassium and getting out of balance.  Gerson thinks potassium is huge to their healing process. 

It's explained in the book, but it would be too long to paraphrase here.  It makes loads of sense though. 

Hi Everyone,  I know about Gerson diet and juicing but my oncologist forbids juicing or taking any antioxidants while on chemo because the anti-oxidants work against the oxidative component of chemo.   Has anyone ignored their onc and juiced anyway with success.  I'm worried because my tumor is not responding to chemo so far!  I will for sure be juicing when I'm done with chemo but I'm afraid to screw up the treatments.  Advice anyone??? 

Barbe,

30 days!  What am I being sentenced to?  You know you could do me a huge favor.  You're half way there, you are as best as you can be at being saltless.  I'm not even close.  All you have to do is eat foods high in potassium and tell me if you start to lose fluids in your belly.  Pretty please...

For you, you can forego the egg shells, fish eyes and meat.  I just so happen to have the list at my finger tips, thanks to one of the ladies at the natural girls board:

http://www.health.gov/DIETARYGUIDELINES/dga2005/document/html/AppendixB.htm

I cheated by taking a potassium pill, it makes it easier to get to our daily allowance.  I never could get to 4.7 grams either even with the pill.  I tried it again today.  I full cantaloupe, and prunes, this is not easy.

My sister did the Gerson Therapy 20 years ago. It is very intenisve. She went weeky for the organic produce and pretty much stayed glued to the juicer. Her husband quit his job to help her. She did live longer than they expected, but her cancer continued to grow. She had to have surgery for a deteriorated disk / cancer/ but reflecting back I think it was the radiation that did the disk in. After that surgery she never was able to recover from the pain. The coffee enemas however helped relieve her pain immensely. If the idea of an enema is repulsive, I can tell you first hand the benefits will convince you otherwise. I have regular colonics and you will feel reults from the very first one.

I have stage iv bc with mets to many bones. There is no way I could do the Gerson diet like my sister did. I did opt out of chemo and radiation and have worked alternatively for the last 2 years. I recently went on arimidex, but am reconsidering that choice. I totally changed my diet and am 85% raw. If you are serious about juicing, Jack Lalane is NOT the way to go. I have a Green star. It is not the $2500 juicer Gerson recommends but it is a great juicer. Fairly easy to clean and is versatile. If you juice you def want to use organic.

Hi ladies,

 I just ran across this and thought I would share with you what we have experienced. My husband was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in Oct. 99. We researched alternative treatments and ended up going to Mexico to a Gerson Clinic (CHIPSA). We stayed there for 7 weeks- doing the 13 juices/day and 8 coffee enemas/day (i think that was the number). Saw many people come to the Clinic -being treated in this way - most were people whom Dr.s had given up on in the US - and this was their last bit of hope.

There were many positive and negative parts to this treatment.... i can share if anyone wants to hear. We  stayed at the clinic in Mexico for 7 weeks, came home and worked the program for 3 months. I had to get help since it was so overwhelming trying to keep up with the juices and enemas, supplements, etc... but we did it. My husbands cancer was different than most people we saw in Mexico. His cancer was treatable w/chemo - we just didn't want to go that route because we had just lost two aunts to cancer/chemo and didn't believe it would work for him. To make a long story short, his cancer spread from 1A to 4B on the Gerson Plan.  I believe the sugars in the juice fed the cancer... The coffee enemas were very good for him - he was faithful in doing them and his body was detoxed. He still does occasional coffee enemas for detox. Skin, eye color, hair all looked so much healthier from detoxing. After 5 months he was finally see by a Dr. in the US who thought we were crazy - did tests on him and showed us that what we were doing wasn't working. He was a dying man, the chemo is what saved him. The gave him the Stanford 5 protocal for Hodgkin's Lymphoma - it was difficult but worked wonderfully! The doctors were amazed how well he responded - we were later told that he responded exceptionally well because he had gotten rid of the toxins.  

This is getting too long. There is so much more I can share.  Feel free to ask or PM if needed.

My mom is battling breast cancer which is what brought me to this site. 

Blessings,

Gail 

This is an interesting discussion. However, I was told not to have flaxseed because it mimics estrogen in the body, thereby fueling estrogen + breast cancer. Has anyone else heard this?

Hi Everyone,

I've been doing Gerson for ABOUT 70%-90% of my daily and weekly intake.  after only 2 months of being on the plan my PET shows no cANCER ACTIVITY.   i'm also getting biphosphonate, taxol & avastin (I feel a lot better juicing while on chemo- it keeps me feeling NOT dehydrated and spunky)

mary

Mary, how long does it take for you to make a daily amount? Do you take it to work too? Does it store well?

Purely anecdotal information about Gerson Therapy. It may be meaningless or it may be of interest.  

A friend's sister (Marty) was diagnosed with b/c about 4 years ago. She went the usual route, had 2 chemo sessions and had such serious side effects that she decided to investigate alternative options. When I say she had 'serious side effects,' I can only state that those are the words told to me by her brother - no details. I have no idea of her pain threshold, her prima donna factor, genuine horrendous side effects, etc.  

She decided on Gerson Therapy and made the trip to Mexico or San Diego or wherever (again, the story from her brother). I believe that the US clinic can't prescribe anything but can only give information about how to get south of the border for further information.  

The juicing process was prescribed every hour for 13 hours each day. The ingredients had to be freshly washed, cut, peeled, whatever, and juiced (in an expensive juicer bought through the Gerson people) right before each drink and could not be made up in a batch in advance. The prep process took the better part of half an hour and as she was working, it was impossible for her to do this on her own. Her Mom, age 78, did it for her, driving the juice to her office every hour. Obviously Mom couldn't do this for no longer than a few weeks. Marty had to quit her job in order to keep up with the process. She was on Cobra for about 9 or 10 months but couldn't keep up with the payments. My friend financed the remaining payments (I think Cobra is good for 18 months) and after that she lost her insurance, which didn't pay for Gerson anyway. With no income and all organic fresh food juicing she soon went through her savings. My friend, a married gay guy, contributed $21,000 to his sister during her final year so that she could keep her home and continue her Gerson Therapy. They're a large family and other family members contributed as well - my friend was the major contributor as he has a great job and no children. I have no idea what she paid to the organization.  

The cancer metastasized with a vengeance and after speeding up the juicing she realized it wasn't working so she went to a conventional oncologist who advised palliative care. She passed away a short time later later.  

I had lunch with the family around Easter this year and had a chance to have a good teary conversation with Marty's Mom. She said that she (the Mom) had been married twice, each husband died with cancer, each treated conventionally. One husband was in the distant past, the second more recently. She said that when Marty came up with the Gerson idea that she wasn't totally against it because maybe it offered a hope that neither of her husbands had.  

Do some homework and google/Wiki Gerson Therapy.   

As if you can't tell, I'm more pro-conventional than I am with the alternative therapies. I'm all for complementary therapies, however. Decide for yourself.  

One more anecdotal story. My closest cousin died about 10 years ago of untreated prostate cancer. He had been a heroin addict for decades and finally got clean with NA. In his third year of being clean and sober he developed prostate cancer. As with most converts, he wasn't going to use any 'medicine' or anything that might interefere with his sobriety (heroin use didn't exactly make him brilliant) so he used Chinese herbal medicine, pyramid power and diviining. Remember divining? That thing with the forked stick where you could detect underground water? Well, turns out it cures cancer somehow too. Who knew?  

When the pain became excruciating he went to an MD who put him into hospice care. He died 3 days later.

Thanks Mary, but I agree about the freezing thing; I think it takes away from the fresh point doesn't it?