Robert Scheer Tell us about your father who developed the Gerson Therapy.

Charlotte Gerson My father was Dr. Max Gerson, an MD. After he arrived in the US from Europe, fleeing the Nazis, he became licensed as a medical doctor in New York State.

R.S. Wasn’t one of his patients the wife of Dr. Albert Schweitzer?

C.G. Yes, but not only the wife. She had serious terminal lung tuberculosis for which he treated her. Their daughter had an undiagnosable, unnamed skin disease where she had thousands of little ulcers all over her body, and she was also cured by the Gerson Therapy. Albert himself had diabetes and was cured. So, three different diseases.

R.S. How does the Gerson therapy work?

C.G. When patients first come, virtually all - between 85 and 95 percent of them who come to the hospital in Mexico, are in terminal condition. They generally first go to their own regular doctor when they have a physical problem. Then when they're diagnosed and they've had surgery and drugs and radiation and they've reached a point where they're terminal and the cancer has spread and nothing can be done and they are sent home to get their affairs in order -- then they come to Mexico. We get almost exclusively terminal patients, diagnosed, biopsied, proven cases.

Obviously these people are severely debilitated and not able to eat huge meals, so how are we going to overcome the deficiency? We flood the body with nutrients. You can't give these people vast meals. They have no appetite. So the first thing is uices. They drink a glass of juice every hour. The juices force toxins from the tissues out into the blooodstream into the liver. That has to be eliminated. The liver and bile ducts have to be open. That's one of Dr. Gerson's greatest contributions I believe - to find a way to help the body to get rid of these long-term accumulations from the wrong food over years and years. That's the coffee enemas. The first thing that happens, between the juices and coffee enemas, the pain goes away. Almost all patients within the first one to three days are able to get off morphine or other painkillers.

R.S. How often are the coffee enemas given?

C.G. With beginning patients those juices force toxins out so rapidly that if we don't give enough enemas to open the bile ducts and release the poisons the patients get new liver problems and even liver comas. So, these are given five times a day, every four hours.

R.S. What kind of juices do they drink?

C.G. There's one glass of orange juice, then five glasses approximately half and half apples and carrots. They're very tasty, by the way. Then three glasses of pure carrot juice in combination with liver extract capsules. That, according to Dr. Virginia Livingston, produces a certain type of precursor to Vitamin A, which she calls abcissic acid, which raises the immune system considerably. These juices are varied and spread out throughout the course of the day. The patients also get four glasses of juice made from salad-type greens with a little apple for digestability and a little cabbage and chard.

R.S. What sort of success rate does the hospital in Mexico have?

C.G. It's impossible to give statistics generally, but we do have some on melanoma. After melanoma goes past stage one or two it's virtually a death sentence, but about 150 Gerson melanoma patients were traced over the years. They were compared to what orthodox people had to offer. With stage one and two melanomas we had 100 percent recoveries for at least five years. I think it's 67% with orthodox medicine.

Stage three we have something like 64% five year survival versus something like 38% with orthodox medicine. Stage four, with spreading and so on, we had up to 38% compared to 6% in orthodox medicine.

The Gerson therapy is not just a cancer treatment. Whether it's colitis, lupus, heart disease, strokes, seizures, multiple sclerosis - in the book there are 52 cases of other diseases that have all been successfully treated.

R.S. It makes sense that if people are toxic and under-nourished they’ll have all sorts of problems.

C.G. Absolutely. Here I am, eighty years old. I have no osteoporosis. I take no hormone replacement. I have my own teeth. I have normal healthy skin. I have no age spots on my skin. I work. My back is straight. I'm functioning, working, active. In May and June this year I lectured all over Europe. I have a very tough program.

R.S. Do you have trouble finding healthy food in restaurants when you travel?

C.G. I don't go to restaurants. When I travel I stay with friends who eat properly.

R.S. What about airplanes?

C.G. I take my food along.

R.S. Are many schools teaching children about healthful nutrition?

C.G. No, on the contrary. It's just milk. And, of course, schools they have all those automated machines with junk food.

When T. Colin Campbell first started as a young nutritionist, he was sent to the Philippines to help the poor starving people. The main thing they were stressing was increasing protein, because at the tiime they were taught that protein is nutrition. So they raised the protein content of these children's foods from five to twenty percent. Lo and behold the kids developed liver cancers. Two physicians in India did similar experiments with rats. They raised their content of milk proteins from five to twenty percent. All thirty-five rats, 100 percent, developed liver cancer. Later on, Campbell studied China and found that in certain provinces where no milk is used, there is no cancer. He called milk the number one carcinogen in the world.

R.S. What about soy products as a substitute?
C.G. Soy contains certain fractions that block the absorption of nutrients so the nutrition goes right through you. Soy is highly toxic and dangerous. Not only that but about 80 percent of soy is genetically modified and irradiated.

R.S. So, organic carrot juice is your beverage of choice?
C.G. Absolutely, or apple or green juices. Throw in some lettuce leaves with your carrot juice. Fresh living nutrients.

R.S. Aren’t there natural sugars in carrots?
C.G. Yes, but there's no harm. You can give them to diabetics. We've done it and cleared the diabetes.

Joseph Roberts How many weeks is the average visit with you and what is the cost?

C.G. In general the terminally ill patients are encouraged to take three weeks. The cost is $4900 a week, which includes all medical treatment and services, all foods and juices, all supplements and medications involved. It includes all the nursing, private rooms which are beautiful, and really gorgeous tiled bathrooms.

It also includes a companion to learn with the patient, their room and board all included, so they can carry on at home. It includes the videotapes, the books, my weekly lectures. It's all set up so the patients learn and understand and can carry on at home.

J.R. How much does it cost to stay in an American hospital for that length of time?

C.G. Much more, and they don't get the juices and they have to pay for every aspirin, every nurse's visit, every doctor and so on. And by the way, a number of private American insurance companies cover us.

For more information about the Gerson Institute or books, videos and newsletters about the Gerson Therapy visit www.gerson.org or call (619) 685-5353.




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