Gerson Therapy: 90 Year-Old Powerful Natural Cancer Treatment You've Probably Never Heard Of

August 14, 2011. Dr. Mercola's Comments:

If you're a regular reader, you're probably well aware of the link between the foods you eat and your risk of cancer. But for those of you who may be just joining us, suffice to say that virtually everything you put into (or onto) your body can either help or hinder your natural healing mechanisms, and thereby influence your risk of cancer.

This is not an "alternative" view at all. Rather, even the conservative American Cancer Society states that one-third of cancer deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying excess weight.

Once you understand this, it is not a stretch to embrace the teachings of the Gerson Therapy, which has helped thousands of people recover from so-called incurable diseases, including cancer.

What is The Gerson Therapy?

The Gerson Therapy, developed by Dr. Max Gerson in the 1920s, is focused on the concept that you have the power to heal yourself, and it uses non-toxic methods, including organic foods, juicing, detoxification and supplements, to activate this healing potential.

As stated by the non-profit Gerson Institute:

"The Gerson Therapy is a powerful, natural treatment that boosts your body's own immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies, and many other degenerative diseases. One aspect of the Gerson Therapy that sets it apart from most other treatment methods is its all-encompassing nature.

An abundance of nutrients from thirteen fresh, organic juices are consumed every day, providing your body with a superdose of enzymes, minerals and nutrients. These substances then break down diseased tissue in the body, while enemas aid in eliminating the lifelong buildup of toxins from the liver. 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."

The Gerson Research Organization maintains a collection of reports documenting the research behind the Gerson Therapy as well as the role of diet on cancer, and you can hear anecdotes from patients who have improved using the therapy in the video above, as well as read case studies here.

Many of the success stories include people whose conventional doctors gave no hope for recovery, who were able to overcome their disease against all odds using not toxic cancer drugs but natural fruits and vegetables.  The system is not a miracle cure for everyone, and even the Gerson Institute states that "No treatment works for everyone, every time" … but most conventional physicians offer only ONE route for cancer treatment -- drugs, radiation and surgery -- while ignoring or discounting alternative options such as this.

The Problem with Conventional Cancer Treatment

Unfortunately, the leading cancer treatments in the United States arenotoriously toxic and come with devastating, including lethal, side effects. Conventional medicine is so desperate to give the illusion of fighting the good fight that many of these drugs are used despite the fact that they're not really doing much to prolong or improve the quality of life of those diagnosed with cancer.

The best-selling (and extremely expensive) cancer drug Avastin, for example, was recently phased out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer after studies concluded its benefits were outweighed by its dangerous side effects. Treating a disease that is in large part caused by toxins with toxins seems ignorant at best.

Cancer is, by and large, mostly a man-made disease, the tragic result of humans veering too far off course and avoiding health-sustaining diets and activities, while embracing a highly unnatural sedentary, stress-filled lifestyle with exposure to excess chemicals around every corner.

Among the primary culprits fueling our cancer epidemic are:

• Pesticide- and other chemical exposures
• Processed and artificial foods(plus the chemicals in the packaging) 
• Wireless technologies, dirty electricity, and medical diagnostic radiation exposure
• Pharmaceutical drugs
• Obesity, stress, and poor sleeping habits 
• Lack of sunshine exposureand use of sunscreens

I strongly believe that cancer rates are escalating because modern medicine is in no way, shape or form addressing these underlying causes of most cancers. Instead, most of the research is directed toward expensive drugs that target late stages of the disease and greatly pad the drug companies' wallets -- but simply do not prevent or "cure" cancer.

If ever there was an area in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure it is cancer. I strongly believe that if you are able to work your way up to the advanced health plan, you will virtually eliminate the risk of most cancers.

This is what sets the Gerson Therapy apart from conventional cancer treatments as well. Even though there are some aspects of this program that conflict with my own views, such as the consumption of fruits and fruit juices, there is no doubt that it is far less toxic than most conventional treatments. And, unlike chemotherapy and cancer drugs, it is seeking to address the underlying systemic causes of cancer and activate your body's ability to heal itself.

Why Haven't You Heard of the Gerson Therapy?

Some of you may have heard of the Gerson Therapy, but the vast majority have not. In fact, most alternative cancer treatments are belittled, discredited or completely ignored by the mainstream press and public health agencies.

Why?

Most public health organizations are bought and paid for by the very same companies whose products contribute to cancer … or are heavily financed by the cancer drug industry. This includes even generally well respected organizations like theAmerican Cancer Society.

In the report titled American Cancer Society —More Interested In Accumulating Wealth Than Saving Lives, Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, plainly lays to bare the many conflicts of interest that hamper the effectiveness of this organization.

For example, the ACS has close financial ties to both makers of mammography equipment and cancer drugs. But that's just for starters. Other conflicts of interest include ties to, and financial support from, the pesticide-, petrochemical-, biotech-, cosmetics-, and junk food industries—again the very industries whose products are the primary contributors to cancer!

Once you realize that these conflicts of interest are there, it becomes quite easy to understand why the ACS never addresses the environmental components of cancer, and why information about avoidable toxic exposures are so conspicuously absent from their National Breast Cancer Awareness campaigns.

"This is no accident," Dr. Epstein writes. "Zeneca Pharmaceuticals--a spin-off of Imperial Chemical Industries is one of the world's largest manufacturers of chlorinated and other industrial chemicals, including those incriminated as causes of breast cancer.

Zeneca has also been the sole multimillion-dollar funder of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month since its inception in 1984, besides the sole manufacturer of Tamoxifen, the world's top-selling anticancer and breast cancer "prevention" drug, with $400 million in annual sales. Furthermore, Zeneca recently assumed direct management of 11 cancer centers in U.S. hospitals. Zeneca owns a 50 percent stake in these centers known collectively as Salick Health Care."

It's no small irony that the cancer drug Tamoxifen has been found to cause cancer and increase risk of death, while several top-notch preventive strategies and many safe and effective cancer treatments are ignored.

The ACS, along with the National Cancer Institute, virtually exclusively focus on cancer research and the diagnosis and chemical treatment of cancer. Preventive strategies, such as avoiding chemical exposures, and potential cures, such as the Gerson Therapy, Dr. Nick Gonzalez's nutritional approach or medical marijuana, receive virtually no consideration at all.

My Top 12 Tips for Cancer Prevention

Cancer is devastating far too many families and taking many way before their time. It's time to fight back and take control of your health by following the cancer-preventive lifestyle changes below.

1. Avoid Fructose and Sugar
   
   It's quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or are currently undergoing cancer treatment, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar -- especially fructose -- and this is largely due to its relation to insulin resistance.
   
   According to Lewis Cantley, director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, as much as 80 percent of all cancers are "driven by either mutations or environmental factors that work to enhance or mimic the effect of insulin on the incipient tumor cells," Gary Taubes reports.
   
   Some cancer centers, such as the Cancer Centers of America, have fully embraced this knowledge and place their patients on strict low-sugar, low-grain diets. But conventional medicine in general has been woefully lax when it comes to highlighting the health dangers of this additive.
   
   As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per dayincluding fruits. But for most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose if you drink beverages other than water and eat processed food.
2. Optimize Vitamin D
   
   There's overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. Researchers within this field have estimated that about 30 percent of cancer deaths -- which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States -- could be prevented each year simply by optimizing the vitamin D levels in the general population.
   
   On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial.
   
   If the notion that sun exposure actually prevents cancer is still new to you, I highly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture to clear up any confusion. It's important to understand that the risk of skin cancer from the sun comesonly from excessive exposure.
3. Exercise 
   
   If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn't immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer. One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells.
   
   For example, physically active adults experience about half the incidence of colon cancer as their sedentary counterparts, and women who exercise regularly may reduce their breast cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent compared to those who are inactive.
   
   It's important to include a large variety of techniques in your exercise routine, such as strength training, aerobics, core-building activities, and stretching. Most important of all, however, is to make sure you include high-intensity, burst-type exercise, such as Peak 8. 
   
   These exercises activate your super-fast twitch muscle fibers, which can increase your body's natural production of human growth hormone. For detailed instructions, please see this previous article.
4. Get appropriate amounts of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats.
5. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.
6. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.
7. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. Cruciferous vegetables in particular have been identified as having potent anti-cancer properties. Remember that carb nutritional types may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than protein nutritional types.
8. Maintain an ideal body weight.
9. Get appropriate amounts of high-quality sleep.
10. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
11. Reduce your use of cell phones and other wireless technologies, and implement as many safety strategies as possibleif/when you cannot avoid their use.
12. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them. Better yet eat as many of your foods raw as you can.

Looking for Alternative Cancer Treatment?

Only you can determine what type of treatment to seek if you are struggling with cancer; if alternative treatments make sense to you, please be sure to listen to my interview with Dr. Nick Gonzalez, a physician focused on alternative cancer treatment using a three-pronged nutritional approach similar to the Gerson Therapy.

You can also view the highly popular video of Dr. Burzynski and article that we ran three weeks ago, which now has half a million views.

Source:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/14/beautiful-truth-about-outlawed-cancer-treatment.aspx