Max Gerson, M.D. was a physician who claimed to have developed a protocol that could cure cancer. He is dead now, but his legacy lives on in alternative cancer treatment centers around the world – with the most famous one being located in Mexico.
Mainstream healthcare providers frequently react with extreme skepticism and/or claims of quackery when asked their opinion of Dr Gerson’s theories and protocols.
I reacted the same way when I heard of this physician’s claims and beliefs. Some of his proposals sounded completely nutty to me.
But there is nothing like knowing that a loved one has an advanced cancer that most people die from to make you reexamine your assumptions and what you accept as fact.
You see, I know that the treatments we currently subject patients to almost always have poor outcomes if the patients’ cancers are not discovered early and cut out.
So… as part of my study of options that might be useful to extend my family member’s life… I forced myself to put aside dogma and my biases and pre-conceptions so that I wouldn’t miss something that might work.
Thus, it was inevitible that I would end up reading Dr Gerson’s book – ‘A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer’. In fact, I read it several times.
It was a difficult read. The first time I read it I had to re-read the chapters several times because it was extremely difficult to get my mind wrapped around the ideas presented by this physician. Every time I progressed to a new idea my subconscious mind told me it was nuts and I was wasting my time. It was a tortuous process.
Pharmacists are extremely conventional in their perspectives, and – as a group – we tend to have been strongly indoctrinated to the status quo. But, slowly it dawned on me that I had to interpret Dr Gerson’s writings and theories based on the state of scientific knowledge when he was practicing – to look for what I call ‘convergence’ of the data and ideas and the assumptions behind them with new knowledge that originates from other sources.
Then, the pieces started to fall into place. I won’t detail Dr Gerson’s theories in this post. If you need the information there are many books out there that will explain in much more detail than I can. But I will say this – I can point out case after case of convergence between his claims and protocols and information that is documented in journal articles that have been published in the recent past.
I do not know whether the people who are running his clinics are curing cancers or not. I have seen documentaries where patients claim they are. I do not know if Dr Gerson actually cured cancers or not, although there are many claims that he did. I do not know if Dr Gerson was a good man or not, but I have heard recordings of interviews that seem to show a physician who believed with all his heart that he was helping people.
I haven’t drug my loved one to the Gerson clinic in Mexico – things happened too fast and my learning curve limited my ability to assimilate enough data soon enough to even consider whether or not that trip should have been made. But…. as my learning has progressed I find myself implementing things into her day-to-day activities that could easily qualify as spin offs of therapies proposed by Dr Gerson.
And every day I find evidence that Dr Gerson may have been correct in many of his actions.
So, I find that I must say that I do NOT believe that Max Gerson, M.D. was a quack.
You can find more information about clinics that practice the Gerson Therapy if you’re interested in learnng more about his protocols at http://www.gerson.org/ .
Again – I’m a pharmacist, not a doctor. I’m providing information I think you might want to talk to your doctor about. Good luck.
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I agree with your statement:
I do not know whether the people who are running his clinics are curing cancers or not.
If you have no evidence this treatment works, not quite sure why you are publicizing it. Are you remunerated for listing the link to the gerson web site?
Larry,
no, I am not ‘remunerated’ by the gerson people in any way. In fact, I have no relationship with any of the people I talk about here except my wife.. Who has passed away.
I talk about the person therapy because a lot of people ask about it.. It has significant anecdotal support claiming benefit, and Dr gerson was one of the physicians listed as one of the significant alternative treatment physicians by the u.s. Government.
additionally, my research leads me and my students to propose a mechanism for his successes that we continue to study.
so, I guess I’m saying there is enough evidence to indicate there is efficacy for me to talk about his therapy a but…
hope you don’t mind me doing that…. On the blog that I support 100% out of my own pocket…
Hi Larry,
Have you ever taken the time to speak with someone at this institute, or to patients that have undergone the Gerson Therapy ? If not, give them a call, or attend a workshop, or stream one live if you can’t make it to California. Either way take the time to find out for yourself now that you have been introduced to this concept.
I have read several of their books and been to the workshop that is held in San Diego biannually by the Gerson Institute. I have spoken to people that have started the therapy, to people who were in the middle of the Gerson Therapy and to people who have completed the the therapy and I have spoken to them all first hand. Of the people who were in the middle of the Therapy cancer was already gone, only they needed to continue in order to get the body to the place it would need to be to sustain itself. Regarding the people who had cancer and completed the therapy you will find out that they had a great support team and that they followed the therapy as instructed and, obviously since I was speaking with them, were successful in either treating them selves with out ever going to the clinic in Mexico or went to the clinic for a few weeks and then returned home to complete the therapy there.
You will find out after reading several of the Gerson books or publications including “Results of 50 cases” that the Gerson Therapy does not in-fact target any cancer or disease specifically, it targets the body and what the body needs to thrive get back to a homeostatic state, where the body itself and your immune system can function as they were designed to. According to Dr. Gerson the body (with the assistance of the regimen designed by Dr. Max Gerson which consists of a specific food based diet, supplements, toxin elimination assistance and a few other key factors you can read in Charlot Gerson’s book “Healing the Gerson Way” ) …will start to attack and eliminate the foreign substances and toxins in the body and allow the body to rebuild and sustain itself in a state of homeostasis . The part that is so hard is this process is time consuming and it is a decent challenge to find food that is not tainted with the same chemicals and toxins that may be causing our modern issues and illnesses. A person on this thereapy will want non-gmo organic food, clean water for bathing/showering (filtered of toxic substances like chlorine and fluoride to name a couple), a non toxic environment and plenty of positive people and thoughts surrounding them. It sounds as though you may be upset that information is being perpetuated on this site with out an in-depth look as to if this therapy really works or not.
Yet nobody can know it all innately, we have to seek out that information piece by piece which is a process that takes time. Just by looking around this site it seems to me that “thatcrazypharmacist” is succeeding in giving as much info has he has on any subject surrounding this industry that his visitors seem to be interested in. I for one appreciate him taking the time to share the info he has, even if some of his findings are still on-going or if he still has questions to be answered of his own. He openly admits when he is not in the know completely and that too is helpful, as it gives you a place to continue from.
I too have no affiliation with this clinic other than being someone who seeks out information and answers to questions like your concurring statement, which many times leads me to experience that information in person/first hand rather than just reading the opinions of others. Once you take the time to read the information regarding Dr. Max Gerson and his findings, then seek out people who have used his methods to nurse themselves back to a homeostatic state, or try it yourself, you may find yourself making subtle changes to your life that, like any well studied investment, leads to a wealth greater than what you started with and in this case that wealth may be in the form of life habits that keep you healthy and that can be passed on to generation after generation and vetted by you and your family’s own experience. In order to get to that state, you may just need to reach out and touch it for yourself.
— BTW Thank you “That Crazy Pharmacist” for your info and push to enlighten or spark interest in others and in me.
During my teen life, my uncle who arrived from Saudi would ayawls give me Nivea in blue tin. Kaya tuwang-tuwa naman si ako . At an early stage, I’m introduced and a user of Nivea.
This is way more helpful than anntyihg else I’ve looked at.
My grandmother was one of Max Gerson’s patients. They both came from same part of Europe same background, both lived in NYC and she lived in his regime as a younger woman until her death (we are not sure how old she was as she didn’t tell her age and she was at least 10 years older than her husband, my grandfather). So it is assumed she was in her late 80’s when she died. She had CLL and Gerson therapy is what kept her alive. My mother who is now 86 grew up on the regime too and to this day eats in a similar fashion if not exact as to what she grew up on.
Moron!