Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the tireless and dedicated

assistance of both Beata Bishop for her able editing of the
materials, and Howard Straus for the mechanical work involved
in turning words into published material. Without their help,
the production of these booklets would have been
far more difficult and time-consuming.
But the real heroes, and the people without whom these booklets
would be impossible are the patients and companions who
did the day-to-day kitchen work associated with healing these
diseases. We are deeply indebted to them for permission to use
their inspiring stories.

These booklets were prepared under the auspices of the Cancer

Research Wellness Network, with generous grants from Mrs.
Faye Joseph, Sting and Mrs. Trudie Styler.
2002, 2004 Charlotte Gerson, all rights reserved.
The material contained in the publication is protected by the copyright laws of the United State of America
and cannot be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including, but not limited to,
hard copy, optical or electronic forms, without the express, written permission of the author.

Permission to use the Gerson and Gerson Therapy marks has been granted
by the Gerson Institute.
Contact the Gerson Institute to find out more about merchandise, services and
educational programs concerning the Gerson Therapy. The Gerson Institute
may be reached at:
toll-free: (888) 4 GERSON (443 7766)
(619) 685 5353
www.gerson.org

Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Preface
This booklet, one of a series, lays no claim to being a scientific document. What it aims to do is
to present, through a number of factual case histories, a novel approach to cancer and other
chronic degenerative diseases that is totally different from the present-day philosophy and
practice of orthodox medicine.
This approach, the Gerson Therapy, has been practiced successfully for over sixty years, often
achieving healing in so-called incurable cases where all else had failed. Yet until very recently it
existed in relative obscurity. It is only now, when the limitations of modern high-technology
medicine have become painfully obvious, that the potential of a truly holistic, scientifically
sound medical modality is attracting growing interest.
What the Gerson Therapy lacks at present is the kind of large-scale research material, yielding a
significant amount of statistics, without which its claims will not be accepted by the medical
and/or academic Establishment. The reasons for this lack are simple. After Dr Gersons death in
1959 the therapy was not practiced anywhere, right until 1977 when it was reactivated by
Charlotte Gerson and several physicians in a newly established clinic in Mexico. In those early
days the only aim was to help as many desperate patients as possible. Although naturally precise
records were kept, embarking on a systematic research program was not feasible.
Years later, with the therapy running smoothly and attracting growing interest, another obstacle
to research has become evident. Patients arrive from all parts of the world to a Gerson facility
in Mexico and after a few weeks return home, where they are supposed to remain on the therapy
for a minimum of two years. In order to compile the results of the treatment in a statistically
meaningful form, it would be necessary to follow up individual patients scattered all over the
globe, monitor their progress, assess their success or failure, and obtain full medical
documentation of each case.
The non-profit Gerson Institute has never had the funds or the manpower to carry out this
expensive operation. Clearly, this puts it at a disadvantage from the orthodox medical point of
view, which puts a high value on statistics and on randomized double blind clinical trials. The
latter are suitable for testing a single new drug or treatment modality, but not a complex, manyfaceted system of healing whose every component interacts with all the others. Until this basic
difference is recognized by the critics of the therapy, it will be impossible to engage in a
meaningful dialogue.
Hence the present series of booklets contains no statistics. What it offers instead is a number of
authentic case histories, chosen from a large amount of clinical material. They tell the full,
factual human stories of individuals confronted with life-threatening disease and overcoming it
on an unorthodox therapy. Their stories may be dismissed by the strictly scientifically- minded
as anecdotal evidence, but unless the lessons of such individual experiences are properly
evaluated, there can be no hope of true progress in modern medicines fight against todays killer
diseases. Yet progress is badly needed, since some other sets of statistics, those of cancer
mortality and of the rising tide of new cases, show no sign of improvement. It is time for
conventional medicine to search for new paths of healing, and that is what the Gerson therapy
has to offer.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Introduction
In his last book, A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases, Dr. Gerson described the therapy
he developed during the course of his long clinical career to heal cancer, even in its most
advanced stages. He states in the very first chapter, however, that the therapy he developed
is not only a cancer treatment. It is capable of restoring all the body systems, specifically
including the immune system, to their normal function. During the years of his medical
residency, in his mid-20s, Dr. Gerson suffered from intense and extremely frequent
migraine headaches. He discovered that neither his professors nor specialists were able to
help him overcome the problem that debilitated him frequently for several days each week.
He also refused to follow their advice, to learn to live with it, felt that he absolutely could
not do that, and decided to find a cure for himself.
His efforts took much time and led him down many false paths until he found an article in
an obscure Italian medical journal reporting that a woman migraine sufferer had obtained
relief by changing her diet. This was an entirely new idea in those years, prior to World War
I. But Dr. Gerson was desperate and willing to try. Using his own body as a test tube, he
tried various changes to his diet until he discovered that a vegetarian, salt-free diet kept him
free of migraines.
Following this discovery, and newly established in his practice in the town of Bielefeld
(Westphalia, Germany), he counseled other migraine sufferers to try the same approach. His
life and the direction of his career took a dramatic change when a patient suffering from
migraine headaches reported that his skin tuberculosis had also healed. Dr. Gerson was
skeptical, since skin tuberculosis (lupus vulgaris) was considered an incurable disease. But
the man produced laboratory proof that, indeed, his lesions had contained tuberculosis
germs.
Subsequently, Dr. Gerson treated a number of additional skin tuberculosis patients
successfully with his migraine diet. This treatment was subsequently tested by the famous
lung tuberculosis specialist, Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, in Munich, Germany. Prof.
Sauerbruch was able to reproduce the therapys success with tuberculosis in a clinical trial:
of 450 incurable patients taking part in the study, 446 recovered.
This led Dr. Gerson to work with other tuberculosis patients: some suffering from lung
tuberculosis, kidney tuberculosis, bone tuberculosis, and other locations wherever the
infection might occur. And they recovered. It also became eminently clear to him that he
was restoring and strengthening the immune system with his dietary treatment since
tuberculosis is caused by a germ, it is an infectious disease.
In spite of increasing opposition by the medical establishment, he started to treat other
diseases with the same nutritional treatment. It became more and more evident that he was
restoring the bodys ability to heal itself, and no longer treating, or drugging a disease and
its symptoms. It has been almost a century since his first successes with incurable disease,
his treatment has shown all over the world that not only advanced cancers can be reversed,
but almost all other chronic diseases.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

In general the public is not aware that chronic diseases are considered incurable. Orthodox
medicine treats and suppresses symptoms; but the disease does not disappear. Usually
patients suffering from any of the hundreds of chronic diseases are able to function for a
fairly long time with those drug treatments. If a drug no longer provides relief, the doctor
switches to others, often stronger ones. Or he urges surgery to remove a diseased organ.
Still, the disease generally continues to spread.
Why does the bodys immune system fail? Why does it not heal, what are chronic diseases?
Essentially, the failures are due to the deterioration of the bodys defenses, the vitamin and
mineral deficiencies, and the huge load of toxins that accumulate in the body due to damage
to the soil, pesticides and fungicides, use of hormones in raising animals, as well as use of
alcohol, cigarettes, street drugs, and processed foods.
These contain up to 10,000 chemicals, certified to be SAFE by the FDA (Food and Drug
Administration) until such a time when they prove to cause serious toxicity. No chemicals
used in food processing and preserving, and in pesticide treatment are safe. As the body is
loaded down with these chemicals, and is nourished with depleted foods from artificially
fertilized soils, it loses its defenses, deteriorates and sickens.
Obviously, these problems must be reversed in order to restore the system. However
orthodox medicine does not accept that idea; doctors treatments suppress symptoms. To
some extent the patients are to blame: they prefer to take a pill or a shot, even a quick
surgery, and then continue on their damaging lifestyle until it is no longer bearable. It is
very difficult for people to understand that all these degenerative diseases can be prevented.
Healthy organic fruit and vegetables, freshly prepared, work toward that goal. But these
dont fit into the modern lifestyle of fast foods, restaurant meals, canned, pickled, preserved,
boxed and frozen foods, social drinking and smoking. More seriously, people feel that they
have eaten those things, smoked and used alcohol for years and feel fine! They do not
understand that, little by little, the body breaks down and they are not willing to change
this situation until, as Dr. Gerson put it, the knife is at their throat.
The patients reports in the last part of this booklet illustrate how far gone many patients are
before they look for more effective treatments than pills or shots.
And another question arises: why the different diseases? There are several answers to that
question. One reason could be heredity: an especially weak organ or system. Another reason
is often accidents with resulting scar tissue and areas of weakness. Then, and most
frequently, we are dealing with germ and especially viral infections. Since about the middle
of World War II, around 1943, antibiotics have been used. Doctors have severely overused
them, already on children with infections and fevers. Mothers expect their pediatricians to
help their child over the fever and get rid of the infection. This is understandable; however
the antibiotics often just knock the bugs down, not out. Not only that, but all antibiotics are,
at least to some extent, toxic. So the childs immune system is further damaged and
weakened by antibiotics, causing infections to recur more and more frequently.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Another problem as a result is that the germs have developed a resistance to the antibiotics
and doctors have to use more and stronger ones. Even so, as we know, a new generation of
germs has developed: the superbugs. Tuberculosis, for example, is coming back in force
since the superbugs no longer respond to antibiotics!
Still another calamity has developed since World War II: the pesticides and fungicides have
also been used since about 1943, starting with DDT. Within about 18 months, it was
reported that DDT could be found in meat, in butter, in milk, and even in mothers milk. As
we know, embryos and infants are much more sensitive to these highly poisonous
substances and are more seriously damaged than older people whose livers have already
developed. Worse, the pesticides have caused pests to become resistant, and in order to
control them, more toxic and stronger ones have had to be developed. In other words, we are
now raising the second and third generation of children damaged already in utero and as tiny
infants, by more and more powerful pesticides. This partly explains the terrible statistic that
cancer, a disease that used to be associated with aging and degeneration, is now the No. 1
killer of children under 17!
Returning to the damaging lifestyle discussed above, we weaken the immune system not
only with agricultural poisons, damaged foods and addictive substances, but with
occupational toxins, e.g.: the carpenter who uses paints, solvents, glues containing
formaldehyde; or the artist whose materials are very toxic, or the garage mechanic who
handles toxic solvents aside from fuels. The list goes on and on.
Toxins are contained in a large number of household cleaning substances. And we use
underarm deodorants containing aluminum that enters the blood stream, bleaches or dyes on
hair that quickly enter the blood stream through the highly vascularized (containing many
blood vessels) scalp. Other aluminum sources are often blamed for the onset of Alzheimers
disease. In order to heal, all these things have to be eliminated from the patients
surroundings, foods and intake.
Returning once again to the immune system: it is part of various body organ systems and
needs to be nourished with the best, fresh organic foods and juices, and kept free of toxins.
Since all animal proteins (milk, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese) are heat damaged, they are
poorly absorbed and not truly nourishing. The human body is designed for vegetarian foods
and is unable, especially as it ages, to handle the large amounts of proteins that are part of
the modern Standard American Diet (SAD). And if the body deteriorates with age, it
slowly becomes incapable of digesting the damaged foods. If the body has already failed
and immune problems have taken hold, the Gerson Therapy with its high levels of nutrients
and its intensive detoxification has proved to be the answer: the patients heal.
Why Autoimmune Diseases?
It is assumed that with Autoimmune Disease the persons immune system has been so
altered that it doesnt recognize the self from diseased tissue, germs and/or viruses.
Actually, it is assumed that the altered immune system attacks the bodys normal healthy

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

tissue. That is not true; the immune system only attacks diseased or damaged tissue.
Looking up autoimmunity in the Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, one can read that
autoimmunity is formed when viruses or trauma changes cells so that they appear foreign.
That makes more sense. Since the Gerson Therapy restores and raises the immune system, if
the immune system were already overactive, the Therapy would worsen the condition! But it
does not. So, we have to assume that the body becomes capable of restoring the damaged
cells so that they no longer appear foreign and are no longer the subject of attack by the
bodys own immune system. And the disease disappears.
The dictionary also gives a long list of diseases considered to be autoimmune. This is an
interesting statement, implying that the idea is not really a proven fact. The list contains the
following diseases; hemolytic anemia, myasthenia gravis, chronic thyroiditis (see the case of
Gay Mau, below) Graves disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (see Avrill Bishop and
Barbara Cleaver, below) rheumatoid arthritis (Penny Martin, Deanna Powell and Susan
Adams); multiple sclerosis (John Stout). The true cause of all types of arthritis is the excess
of animal proteins we eat. These form as the end product of their digestion uric acid. If the
body is no longer able to excrete these masses of generated uric acid, they irritate the
delicate membranes and cartilage lining the joints and inflammation, pain, and lumps
appear. Multiple sclerosis is a breakdown of the myelin sheaths that provide insulation for
the nerves.
The nerves have to carry electrical messages from all parts of the body to the brain and
back. They are protected by the insulation of these sheaths. However in cases of multiple
sclerosis, the sheaths have ulcerations, interruptions of the insulation. We understand that
this causes shorts to develop and messages are no longer carried at all or are distorted. The
ulcerations may well be caused by germs and/or viruses even though the medical books
claim that the cause of MS is poorly understood. Nevertheless, once they assume that it is
an autoimmune disease, they feel they can best treat it by killing the immune system,
which they do by treating MS patients with chemotherapy drugs.
These drugs have never helped MS patients, have only caused further damage. The orthodox
physicians have done the same with rheumatoid arthritis, namely used chemotherapy to
destroy the immune system they assumed was causing the disease. With that approach, too,
the results were disastrous.
You will note that we have also included a few other straight immune deficiency diseases such as
chronic fatigue. This booklet also contains cases suffering from infections that were not overcome
for long periods of time, with extensive use of antibiotics. Chronic fatigue used to be called
Epstein- Barr and was recognized to be an invasion of the Epstein- Barr virus that the body was
unable to overcome. However, in the meantime, it has been found that other viruses may also be
involved. That caused the name to be changed to chronic fatigue. It is not curable by orthodox
medicine. Overcoming these diseases proves that the Gerson Therapy is not limited to one type of
immune disturbance. When you truly heal, everything heals.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

The Nutritional Healing Therapy of

Max Gerson, M.D.
In order to help the body, with the liver as its major healing organ, to restore and heal, a
number of life-style factors have to be radically changed. The first thing is the elimination of
all animal proteins. This is a shocker for most people who are trained and imbued with the
idea that proteins (in their minds, animal proteins) have to be part of their diet to promote
normal health and tissue repair. More and more evidence is accumulating that the human
body is not designed for and doesnt thrive on animal proteins. Our teeth, stomach acid
level, long intestinal tract and more are all features of vegetarian animals. Furthermore,
additional research now proves that the higher the animal protein consumption, the higher
the chronic disease and cancer incidence. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a professor in the division
of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, and senior advisor to the American Institute
for Cancer Research, said that there is
. . . a strong correlation between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast,
prostate, pancreas and colon. (as quoted in Lang, S., Diet and Disease, Food
Monitor, May/June 1983; p. 24.)
Dr. Campbell recently (June 01) quoted additional research showing a clear relationship
between cancer incidence and protein consumption in all cancers. He also showed graphs
pointing to the fact that those patients who stopped all animal protein consumption had
arrested their cancers or even occasionally caused them to be reduced.
Then comes the inevitable question, But where will I get my proteins? There are now
many studies, such as one from The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, noted by
Nathan Pritikin, John Robbins, and various US Government agencies, that clearly state that
A diet adequate to cover hunger, satisfied with natural foods, is more than adequate in
proteins. I often simply ask the questioner to consider, Where does the cow get her
proteins? and the answer is, of course, from grass.
The Gerson Therapy is more than adequate in vegetable proteins, so much so that it is
capable of restoring and rebuilding organ systems, bones, and tissues ravaged by cancer.
The next problem of an average diet is the sodium (salt) intake. Dr. Gerson was aware from
the start of his experimenting with diet changes that salt caused some of the worst damage to
the metabolism. He found it hard to prove, except by what he considered the most important
thing of all, the results at the sickbed. When patients came to his clinic, generally given up
by their doctors and in terminal condition, he was able to reverse the disease. He found that
one lady who didnt respond to his therapy at all, was only using salt to brush her teeth.
(Presently, baking soda [sodium!] is recommended by doctors and dentists!) On
discontinuing this practice, she showed good healing. It was only after Dr. Gersons death in
1959 that researchers were able to study the damage caused by salt. Two scientists, Malcolm
Dixon and Edwin C. Webb published their study in a book called Enzymes, 2nd Edition, pp.
422-423, published by the Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1964. In this table they show
that as the body manufactures enzymes for all its needs, it uses potassium as its activating
ion, while in almost all cases, sodium (salt) is an enzyme inhibitor. Poisons are also
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

defined as enzyme inhibitors. But Dr. Gerson did not have the facilities to do research of
this type and went by the results he obtained.
Added sodium in every form had to be totally banned from the patients diet. This presents a
problem with appetite at the start of the treatment. However, in about a week or two, the
patients taste buds become accustomed to the natural flavor of foods, spiced with fresh
garlic, onion, celery and tomatoes instead of salt. Appetite returns.
The third damaging food item that must be completely eliminated is fat. There is only one
exception: straight, organic flax seed oil (without any additions). ALL other fats and oils
promote and stimulate tumor growth. They have been tried. Also, never heat or cook with
flax seed oil. Use this oil raw in salad dressing or on baked potatoes once they are cool
enough to eat.
The book The Gerson Therapy lists many additional forbidden items, such as white flour,
sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, canned, frozen and pickled foods; cosmetics and underarm
deodorants, household chemicals, sprays, pesticides and many more toxic and otherwise
damaging materials. Also, all food and materials used for juices must be organically grown,
free of poisons.
Water must be cleared of fluorides (only possible with distilling) and other additives. If no
fluoride is present, reverse osmosis will adequately clear the water. All water used for the
patient, including that used in coffee enemas, must be clear of additives.
Returning to the original premise of all chronic disease and, of course, cancer patients. The
problem is two-fold: Toxicity and Deficiency. Both must be addressed. Above all, we are
dealing to some extent with preventing further toxins from entering the body. We not only
have to be concerned with that situation; but we also have to detoxify the body of years of
accumulated poisons. That is accomplished with the coffee enemas.
A correct diet that doesnt burden the body with difficult-to-digest and toxic materials
(animal proteins and fats; drugs, alcohol, etc.) combined with the hourly freshly pressed
juices, causes the cells and tissues to release these toxins into the blood stream. The
blood stream is filtered through the liver; it passes through the liver approximately once
every three minutes.
But there would be a huge overload on the liver if we didnt help it to eliminate this toxic
burden. That is done via the coffee enemas. Coffee enemas have been shown to open bile
ducts and allow the liver to clear itself not only of old accumulations but also of diseased
tissue that the bodys immune system attacks and destroys. It is an on-going process for
many months. The patient may be surprised that it takes five such coffee enemas daily (once
every four hours starting at 6 AM) to keep the liver clear. This procedure also overcomes
pain in almost all cases, usually within the first two to three days of the Treatment.
Enemas are prepared as follows: Use a quart of clean (distilled or filtered, see above)
water; add three rounded tablespoonfuls of organic ground coffee (NOT de-caffeinated),
boil briskly for three minutes, then let simmer about 18 minutes. Let cool, strain, replace
water that has evaporated to make up a full quart at body temperature; place into enema
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

bucket or bag. Lie comfortably on a padded place or cot (or use your bed properly protected
by a rubber or plastic sheet and towel) on your right side with your knees drawn up. Bucket
or bag should not be much more than about 18 inches above your body so the flow is gentle.
If possible, hold the coffee for no more than 12 minutes. If cramping or serious urgency is
present, let it out when necessary. In time, 12 minutes will be quite easy.
Nutrition: In order to restore the depleted body systems, we have to use a form of hyperalimentation; however, DONT use canned or processed products. USE only fresh, organic
foods and juices. Thirteen 8-ounce glasses of freshly prepared juices are needed, one every
hour starting at 7 or 8 AM. The correct kind of juicer (NOT a centrifugal type) is needed to
get proper mineral extraction. One glass of orange juice, also freshly pressed, is given at
breakfast; the other juices are five glasses of a mix of carrots and apples; three glasses of
carrot juice only, four glasses of juice made from salad greens with one apple added per
glass. This is NOT a juice fast. Three regular vegetarian, salt- and fat-free meals are given.
All foods and juices are freshly prepared from organic fruit and vegetables. Juices are better
digested with some solid meals, consisting of salad, soup, potatoes and vegetables, and fruit
(raw or stewed) for dessert.
Dr. Gerson became aware that patients were severely deficient in potassium, one of the most
essential minerals. Potassium is amply present in all fruit, a little less so in vegetables.
However, since the deficiency is so great, a potassium supplement of Dr. Gersons own
composition is used. Also as part of the patients medication, certain digestive enzymes are
given, including pancreatic enzymes and a combination of stomach acid and pepsin, called
Acidoll. Liver medication, Vitamin B3 and other items are also needed and given. All
foods, enema preparation, healing reactions, medication, and changes in the treatment
required for patients pretreated with chemotherapy drugs is described in great detail in the
newly updated book, The Gerson Therapy Curing Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
(available from Charlotte Gerson, 355 Greenwood Place, Bonita, CA 91902. Cost: $17.00
plus $3.50 shipping. California residents, add 7.5% sales tax.)
Most important of all: The Recovered Patients. These are accounts by the patients of their
experiences before the treatment and their recoveries from autoimmune diseases. It is
important to note that some (especially the first case described) suffered from multiple
problems that were all cleared. The Gerson Therapy is not specific for cancer, nor for any
one particular chronic disease. When the treatment activates the bodys Healing
Mechanism (as Dr. Gerson called it) it is impossible to selectively clear just one disease.
Everything heals.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Recovered Patients
Penny Martin Rheumatoid Arthritis
Note from Charlotte Gerson: When Penny Martin reintroduced herself to me, I had to admit
that I did not remember her. It turned out that she had been at the Mexican Gerson Therapy
hospital some 16 years earlier. She came right out and told me that she was very grateful
because we had saved her life. Before coming to Mexico, she had been in a deplorable state
from rheumatoid arthritis; mostly bedfast, she was in such severe pain that during the
previous three months she had prayed daily for death. She said that after she started the
Gerson Therapy, the pain abated and her swellings were absorbed. In time she became
perfectly normal and functioning, and since her stay in Mexico had enjoyed good health.
She remains well having recovered from an unacceptable quality of life that had robbed
her of her will to live.
This, then, is Pennys story, in her own words:
I have always been blessed with a bountiful amount of energy. Didnt seem to know what
the word TIRED meant. At age 50, due to a recent divorce, I was managing a 16-unit
apartment and was active in a business. Besides that, I had several members of my family
staying at my house.
I went to bed one night feeling like Sweet Sixteen and awoke feeling 116. My hands
felt as though a 16-ton truck had driven over them and crushed every bone. I felt as though
all the skin had been peeled from my body and left every nerve exposed.
I was stricken with inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis. I learned that Jane Withers had
suffered from R/A [rheumatoid arthritis], so I started to see her doctor, a Dr. Boland in Los
Angeles. He wanted to start me on gold and prednisone. My dearest friend (my guardian
angel), who also suffered from R/A, said, Dont do it, Penny. She had gone the drug
gambit and knew all the pitfalls. She kept telling me, Penny, NUTRITION is our only
hope.
I tried many things, chased rainbow after rainbow, and followed many suggestions but
didnt get helped. Then I heard about the Gerson Therapy, bought and read the book, and
could tell this was an accelerated nutritional approach. I entered the Mexican Gerson
hospital in 1978 and was there for three weeks, learning all about the program that I
followed to the letter for 18 months. IT RESTORED MY LIFE!!! So much so that I didnt
take so much as an aspirin for 18 years.
I finally chased the right rainbow, for it was there that I finally found the POT OF GOLD.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

L.Y.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

L.Y., a young woman of 34 years, had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for 14 years,
beginning when she was 20. Since her father is a physician, a cardiologist, one would expect
that she had always received the best standard medical care for her condition.
For four years, L.Y. had been treated with gold injections that had supposedly shown some
promise in a few cases. She had also had several shots of chemotherapy (methatrexate).
(The allopathic physicians reasoning behind this is that rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder, of an overactive immune system that destroys the patients own tissues.
Treatment therefore is given to kill the immune system that is supposedly doing this
damage!)
L.Y.s condition, however, constantly worsened. When she found out about the Gerson
Therapy, she wanted to try this approach. When she arrived in Mexico at the Gerson
Therapy hospital, she had painful, red, and swollen joints virtually everywhere in her body:
her fingers, knuckles, wrists and elbows, shoulders and cervical spine, hips and knees, and
big toes. The balls of her feet were particularly painful. She suffered from pain in spite of
taking a lot of pain-relief medications. She also complained of severe stiffness in virtually
all her joints upon awakening every morning.
L.Y. got extraordinarily prompt results on the Gerson Therapy in Mexico after she came in
July 2000. In three weeks at the Gerson hospital, she was free of pain and off the
painkillers and any other drugs. All the redness (inflammation) and most of the swellings
were gone from her joints, which were soft and pliable. The balls of her feet were still
somewhat sensitive, but aside from that, she was in almost perfect condition.
However, L.Y. made a mistake. It had been stressed to her that she would have to continue
the Gerson Therapy for at least a year, if not more, since she had been treated for so long
with drugs, toxic gold injections, and the chemo drug methatrexate. Upon returning home,
she felt so well that she wanted to do something. For some two years, she had wished to
clean up her garage, but with her intense pain and stiffness she had been unable to do such
work. Now, on returning home, she felt she really could! So she embarked on a two- or
three-day job in her garage, and neglected to make her hourly juices and take the coffee
enemas.
L.Y.s pain and stiffness swiftly returned, since she was not cured yet; only her symptoms
had been cleared with the optimal support of the Gerson Therapy. So she wisely came back
to the Gerson hospital for another week and alleviated the problems again. When she left
this time, she was urged to continue the treatment resolutely to fully and permanently heal
her body.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Susan Adams

Rheumatoid Arthritis

In April 1979, three weeks after Susan went through childbirth, It hit all at once. Her
joints were swollen and stiff. When she took aspirin, she lost her hearing and her stomach
was upset. Then for one year she took Motrin. Still, her hands locked shut, her arms
became immovable, her knees swelled to three times their normal size, and her ankles were
huge. Unable to do anything much, she lay in bed, crying.
Then she heard of the Gerson Therapy. She started by taking coffee enemas. Because they
helped by decreasing her pain and swelling, they gave her some hope of recovery. In June
1980 she then came to the Mexican Gerson hospital. Within two weeks, she was able to get
up and walk after having been bedfast for many months.
Gradually, she improved. After one year she felt really better. And 12 years later, she
reported to us that she was normal; she was even able to play piano duets with her son and
was riding horseback activities that would have been unthinkable after her sons birth in
1979.
Still more recently, in May 2001, we received a communication from her father, which we
quote: Almost 20 years ago, the Gerson Therapy brought our daughter, Susan Adams, out
of helpless bedridden [rheumatoid] arthritis back to a reasonably normal life.

Deanna Powell Rheumatoid Arthritis

In 1970, Deanna was a high school athlete. Her trainer suggested that she drink a lot of milk
to strengthen her muscles and give her a good supply of calcium. Within a year, when she
was not yet 20 years old, she started to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.
Deannas joints became progressively more inflamed and swollen, then developed lumps
and calcifications. In spite of treatments with gold and prednisone, by 1976 she was bedfast.
In constant pain, she had stiffness and bony deformities in all her joints fingers, knuckles,
wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles. Additionally suffering from heart palpitations and labored
breathing, she had great difficulties in walking. She was pale, anemic, and hypoglycemic.
Though she took 15 to 20 aspirins daily because they took the sharp edge off her pain, she
was still in constant pain, and had insomnia. I feel like a prisoner in my own body, she
stated.
Deanna started the Gerson Therapy at the Mexican hospital in May 1979. Within six weeks,
she was virtually free of pain, most of her lumps were dissolving, and her frozen wrists had
started to move. Eventually, all her problems were resolved, except for a few joints that
were not quite clear. By 1981, she was water skiing. Fourteen years later, in 1995, she had
excellent energy, was active, had gotten married and had started a family.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

It may be assumed that the high calcium content in the milk she was urged to take was
causing the problem. But that is not so. Milk, overloading the body with excess animal
proteins, produces high levels of uric acid, which, in turn, irritates and inflames the delicate
membranes lining all joints. The body then tries to encapsulate the inflammations, and
produces calcifications, stiffness and lumps.

Avrill Bishop Advanced Lupus

Avrill got married at age 20, in October 1971 in her native Australia. In early 1972, she
developed symptoms involving sore and swollen joints, especially in her knees and hands.
During her second pregnancy, in 1973/4, all her symptoms mysteriously disappeared.
However, they returned after the baby was born.
During all this time the doctors had been unable to make a definite diagnosis. Only in late
1976 did a specialist in Melbourne diagnose systemic lupus erythematosus. The diagnosis
was confirmed by tests done on specimens sent to the United States.
By 1978, Avrill had long periods during which she was completely incapacitated. In 1979,
she was hospitalized for a week. That is when she started taking steroids, in the form of
cortisone injections. Her husband reported that her knees would swell up like footballs; the
doctors would drain fluid from them and then inject cortisone. Even though Avrill had
developed a high pain tolerance, the pain was often so intense that she spent nights sobbing
and hitting her arms on the side of the bed.
All through the 1980s, she continued the heavy doses of steroids and needed almost constant
care for all her physical needs. In 1989, her husband retired to the country to in order to be
free to take care of her. By 1992, Avrill required morphine. Theres nothing else we can
do, the doctors told the Bishops. But that year a friend gave them A Cancer Therapy. After
reading Dr. Max Gersons book, Avrills husband thought that this program for detoxifying
the body and rebuilding it might indeed help her. However, Avrill objected to the need to
take coffee enemas, so they dropped the idea.
By early 1993, Avrill was so ill and in such severe pain that she received two morphine
injections daily, plus 75mg of prednisone and sleeping pills. One day near the end of March,
Avrill said that she had had enough, and that she wanted to try the Gerson Therapy.
One thing her husband noticed during the first days on the Therapy was the bad odor
Avrills body gave off the odor of a dead animal. Within days, her husband reported, she
was able to urinate properly for the first time in many months. The healing reactions were
often violent, but enemas gave her considerable relief. Avrill admitted that occasionally she
strayed from the diet. These errant episodes were invariably followed by a trip to the
hospital for a morphine injection!

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

By 1994, Avrills health had improved dramatically. For the first time in 20 years, she had
longer and longer periods without pain. By 1998, she had weaned herself off prednisone,
and by early 1999 she was drug-free and remains so. Since that time, Avrill has been able
to run their country property unassisted. She has painted and repaired the inside of their
house, mows seven acres of lawn, landscapes gardens, moves rocks and more. Such
physical accomplishments are particularly remarkable since only a few years earlier she had
been unable to lift a plate from the table, take a shower, or put on make-up.
In 1999, Avrill had two operations to straighten her fingers, which had been bending
backwards. The damage apparently was done by the years of being medicated by drugs used
to control pain and swelling. Her operation incisions healed quickly and without a scar or
any infection. In previous years, a cut or a scratch would get infected and take weeks and
even months to heal. (Please note that the medical profession generally considers lupus an
autoimmune disease, with the immune system working overtime!)

Barbara Cleaver Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Barbara, who was born in 1950, had used street drugs all of them as was common
among many young adults during the 70s and 80s. When she was about 21 or 22, she
tapered off the drugs, and then stopped cold.
At age 32, after the birth of her third child, Barbara developed skin sores in her hairline and
on her face, as well as a rash all over her body. Her hands were itching and burning, and she
even had sores in her nose. Her hair came out in patches; her joints had arthritic swellings
and were burning; her hands also developed tiny blisters containing fluid. She had ulcers
and experienced dizziness, rapid heartbeat, and general pain. She said later that she had seen
at least four physicians but got no help from them. When Barbara was tested for food
allergies, she proved allergic to 200 foods. She suffered from depression and read about the
macrobiotic diet. Unfortunately, this diet contains a good deal of salt and mostly cooked
foods. When she tried it, she felt much worse.
Then she borrowed Max Gersons book, A Cancer Therapy. (When reporting on her
situation years later, she still felt guilty about never returning the book to its original owner.)
The Gerson Therapy made sense to her, and she started a modified form in 1984. Almost
two years later, she decided to come to Mexico to undergo the treatment totally and exactly.
Six years later, in September 1992, she reported to us that she was totally recovered and was
now a normal vegetarian.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Megan Grey Crohns Disease

In 1996, Megan was a very sick 15-year-old girl. She spent much of that year going back
and forth between her home and the General Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
Having been taken to the hospital several times with near bowel obstruction, she was
diagnosed with Crohns disease. She began being treated with various medications. She
remained ill and frequently had to return to the hospital. She missed two out of five school
days every week, and couldnt attend afternoon and evening functions with her teenage
friends.
Unable to adequately absorb nutrients from the foods she ate, she finally weighed only 78
pounds. Physicians discussed with her parents the prospect of surgery and long-term
hospitalization with a feeding tube Finally, they heard from a recovered patient in the same
town about the Gerson Therapy.
The situation changed completely when she began the Gerson Therapy on her own at
home, her mother, Donna Grey, reported. Megan told us that it was at a time when she
finally seemed to be totally obstructed that she started the coffee enemas and the Therapy. It
helped her quickly enough, so that she didnt need to go to the hospital nor did she require
surgery. Her mother continued by saying, After three months on the Gerson diet, the pain
was gone and her energy was returning. A year later, she had gained 26 pounds, no longer
missed school, and lost the black circles under her eyes. Megan could now lead a normal
life and was able to go out with her friends.
The Greys family doctor was totally impressed with Megans health and weight gain. And
all this without any prescription drugs! he remarked.
It has now been three years that Megan is symptom-free, thanks to the Gerson diet, which
she continues to follow in a modified version, her mother told us in 2000. Megan is
looking forward to a bright future, she said. By now Megan was attending a university.
Taking the pre-med program, she planned to become a naturopathic physician, as have
others before and since, inspired by the results of the Gerson Therapy.

Chris Matiesen Ulcerative Colitis

In 1974, after a proctoscopy and colonoscopy, Chris who was then in his early 30s
was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He was treated with Sulfadine as well as prednisone.
The latter caused considerable weight gain, acne, and the typical moon face as well as
facial redness.
The drugs, though, were not effective. But when Chris asked about the possible value of
making changes in his diet, his doctors stated that diet makes no difference in ameliorating
this serious and chronic intestinal disease. They urged him to have his entire colon removed,
since the bleeding was continuing. Chris refused surgery.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

In June 1979, still on prednisone and bleeding, Chris started the Gerson Therapy at the
Mexican hospital. In five months, he was back at work, off all drugs, had no more
symptoms, and had good energy.
Aside from his problems with the ulcerative colitis, Chris and his wife had unsuccessfully
attempted for some years to have a baby. Interestingly, once Chris recovered his health, he
became a father.
More than 20 years later, he is still alive and well and free of drugs.
Last news: August 2001.

John Stout Multiple Sclerosis

John was born in 1960. He was 35 in January 1995 when he noticed the first serious
symptoms of disease. One day while stepping out of his pickup truck, he was unable to
direct his leg properly to take his weight, which caused him to fall. He had many more falls
after this first episode. Also, one of his eyes was becoming virtually unusable.
Johns health history is a typical one of ongoing damage caused by toxins and accidents.
All his life he had lived on a ranch, and for that reason was exposed to agricultural
chemicals from infancy on. Also starting in his childhood he had eaten the wrong foods:
meats, fried and preserved foods; and heavily salted pickled items.
When six years old, he had been in a serious accident, and though he escaped with few
apparent injuries, he possibly retained some scar tissue. Most notably, as a teenager he had
an accident with a pickup truck that left him with an uneven gait. A number of accidents
followed, right into his adult years. The probable ultimate blow to his health came from a
fall that resulted in a severe and painful injury to his shoulder. To be able to manage the
pain he was given a powerful painkiller, Naprosine. The drug had a strong effect, and he
suspected that it could have caused the onset of serious symptoms.
John had always been extremely active riding horses, carrying fence posts and baby
calves, climbing in and out of grain trucks and tractors. He was also an avid hunter.
In March he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis by the local neurologist, Dr. Hisanori
Hasegawa, at the Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, Montana. When Johns wife, Debbie,
contacted other doctors in the area to get advice, she was frankly told that there was no cure
for MS. Struggling now with progression in this serious neuromuscular disease, John had
very low energy; he could hardly get through the day. His eyesight in the affected eye was
extremely poor, and his leg did not move normally. Furthermore, he had a constant urge to
urinate. There were no periods of partial remission followed by exacerbations, as in many
MS patients; he was just going from bad to worse.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

In December 1995 the Stouts found the Gerson Therapy and they started on the treatment on
their own at home. By February 1996, about a year after the MS diagnosis, John was on the
full Therapy. Almost from the start, his energy increased. Furthermore, as Debbie remarked,
I began to notice that his walk was different. He had lost the swagger Id noticed even
before we were married. He was now walking quick and straight. Thus the uneven gait
John had had since adolescence, probably due to scar tissue resulting from the truck
accident, cleared up with the Gerson Therapy.
Each week John and Debbie traveled 300 miles in order to stock up on all the needed
organic vegetarian foods required in the diet. This was difficult during the winter months,
but they persisted. John continued his physically exhausting ranch work while keeping up
with the demanding Gerson Therapy schedule. He never complained, and he ate everything
I placed before him, Debbie said. Foods he was not supposed to eat he never touched.
By the fall of 1996, John was feeling well, and he and Debbie were very much encouraged.
His eye was better but not clear, but he could use his other eye for hunting. All the other
symptoms that had disabled him were gone. In the fall of 1998, having been on the Gerson
Therapy for over two and a half years, John was in good health. By 2002, John was
managing to work many 16-hour days. Heat no longer affected him adversely. Debbie
reported that he still has weakened eyesight in the one affected eye the only remaining
hint that he had ever suffered from MS.
Moreover, Johns family has benefited from the Therapy diet. Our son grew into a healthy,
active pre-teen without suffering from the childhood ailments my friends toddlers and kids
were battling, Debbie commented.

Anna K. A collection of immune problems

In the spring of 1994, when Charlotte Gerson was giving a presentation at a health
convention in Chicago, Anna K. asked to testify. She said that she lived in Detroit and had
traveled to Chicago just to attend the convention.
The story she told sounded almost incredible. In 1991, she had been so ill, weak, and nonfunctional that when she heard about the Gerson Therapy and learned that Charlotte Gerson
would be giving a lecture and seminar in Miami, she traveled all the way from Detroit to
learn what she could do to restore her health. Extremely impressed, she embarked on the
Gerson Therapy in September, hopeful of overcoming at least some of a long list of
problems: endometriosis, allergies, sinus infections, chronic bronchitis, recurrent kidney
infections, chronic fatigue, ocular migraines, arthritis, heart valve problems, stomach ulcers,
and candida.
Now at the convention three years later, Anna K. reported that she was doing extremely
well, felt strong and healthy, and no longer suffered from any of the above conditions. She
had good concentration and good energy, and really looked well and fit.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Incredible as her story seemed, she was living proof of the maxim that when the body truly
heals, it cannot heal selectively; all problems tend to disappear. Anna K.s health conditions,
when looked at closely, were more or less related to a malfunctioning immune system. (Part
of her immune-suppression problem could well have been caused by the fluoridated water in
Detroit.)
There was more to be told, too. Anna said that when she started on the Gerson Therapy, her
son was 18 years old, and that he too was suffering from a collection of chronic health
problems: ear infections (starting from birth), allergies, constipation (he moved his bowels
only once a week), migraines, intermittent fevers, and strep infections.
Anna then said that her son had followed the Gerson Therapy as well. (This regimen is
difficult for a teenager to do because of peer pressure.) She was happy to report to the health
convention attendees that he was now totally well. Moreover, he had become an instructor
in self-defense, and was urging his students to change their diets so as to achieve better
energy, concentration, and muscle control.

Brad Mavis Chronic Fatigue

A struggle with illness covered much of Brads life until the age of 24. Allergic to milk fat
right from birth, he received soy milk until he was six months old; then he was given cows
milk. When he was two, his tonsils were so swollen with infection that they almost closed
his throat necessitating a tonsillectomy. At five he had a hernia operation. This was followed
during the next five years by most of the usual childhood diseases: chicken pox, measles,
and scarlatina (scarlet fever).
From ages 10 to 17 Brad was in good health despite what I was eating. Since he grew
up on a Minnesota farm, a good deal of fresh food was available, but most of it was
subsequently cooked, or else preserved by freezing or canning and then stored. He later
noted that raw foods helped him to feel better.
When Brad was 17 years old, a tiny chicken bone got stuck in his larynx and had to be
surgically removed. After that surgery his throat was always sore. In October 1976, in his
second month of college, he felt tired and had no energy. Diagnosed with mononucleosis, he
rested for a few weeks and then went back to school. In January 1977, he had a relapse, with
a sore throat that wouldnt heal. Antibiotics didnt help, and his health went downhill. By
summer of 1977, during the summer heat he felt freezing cold, and was losing weight. At
59 his normal weight was about 145, but he was down to 125.
Brad happened to see a copy of Cancer Winner Jacquie Davisons story of her recovery
from terminal melanoma by undertaking the Gerson Therapy. But the book scared him.
Nevertheless, some months later he purchased a copy and began reading it. He soon started
doing coffee enemas, and he bought a Champion juicer. He had become night-blind, but
after some juicing and coffee enemas, this prob1em disappeared.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Still, every three weeks Brad would get a really bad sore throat, and for this he was given
more antibiotics. In the winter of 1978, with nothing fresh to juice, his health deteriorated
further. By then his weight was down to 90 pounds. Finally his health food store ordered a
copy of Gersons A Cancer Therapy for him, and Brad started to go in that direction. In the
spring, he sold his Mustang sports car and used the money to buy a water distiller in order to
clear the available water of fluoride and toxic residues, and more books; he also made a
deposit on a Norwalk juicer.
Brads sore throat and other symptoms almost completely disappeared (about 90%), and he
started to gain weight. For two years he did the Gerson Therapy. However, it took eight to
ten years to get his colon back to regular functioning.
Brad continues in good health but still is careful about his diet. He is active and working.
Now 44 (in 2004), he is an insurance inspector. At present, his weight is up to a normal 155,
and he feels that he is even a little overweight.

George Smalley Chronic Fatigue

George had an incredible array of problems. They included candidiasis, arthritis, high blood
pressure, migraine headaches, pancreatic infections, high blood cholesterol, edema, and
feeling old. His major health problem, though, was a case of severe chronic fatigue
syndrome. CFS was diagnosed in July 1992, when he was 53 years old. This disease
sometimes called the Yuppie Syndrome caused George the worst problems.
An engineer, George had worked in his field for over 20 years. When the chronic fatigue
(usually caused by the Epstein-Barr or similar virus) invaded his nervous system, he lost a
portion of his brain functions. Naturally, this mental decline meant that he could no longer
do his job, so he had to quit. Given a California state disabled-driver placard, he said that
there was even a question as to whether he should drive at all.
George learned about the Gerson Therapy in December 1992, a half-year after the CFS
diagnosis. He started the Gerson Therapy seriously several months later, in March 1993.
Below is Georges own story of his experience, written several years later:
Before I did the Therapy I sometimes couldnt find my car if I parked a little too far away.
I have a Masters degree in engineering; I graduated with honors, yet I couldnt balance my
check book anymore. If anybody has Chronic Fatigue, they know about the black
cheesecloth that falls over you and the cotton that goes in your ears. Coffee enemas did
away with those symptoms.
I soon found out what coffee enemas can do for you and I had been afraid to take them!
After I started the Gerson Therapy, I started to feel better almost within a week, and I have
been improving ever since. The whole thing has been the most marvelous adventure of my
life.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Many people who are not feeling well are wishing that they could feel as good as their
peers again and have the energy they have. That wont happen. Your peers and friends are
going to be very upset with you because you throw away years. You will have far more
energy; you have a brighter outlook on life, you become younger than they unless they
are doing the Gerson Therapy like you are.
My age is 55, and I passed through 25 some years ago, but its nice to be back there again
and I am not kidding! My coordination is back, eyesight, hearing everything. I can do
things today that I could not do at 30. And I am still getting better.

Gay Mau Walker Hashimotos; ITP, pre-lupus, autoimmune Thyroiditis

Gay, trained as a nurse, held a responsible position as a nursing supervisor at Chicagos
Rush Presbyterian St. Lukes Medical Center. In 1976, at the age of 25, she was diagnosed
with ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura). A disease of insufficient platelets in the
blood, it causes bleeding. Her platelet count was below 100,000 (it should have been around
230,000 or more). She was suffering from vaginal hemorrhaging, and also bleeding into her
tissues, evidenced in purple spots on her skin.
For better diagnosing, Gay was given an exploratory laparotomy (opening of the abdomen
to have a look/see) at the same hospital where she worked. It was discovered that she had
an auxiliary spleen, an extra growth, and this was removed. Following that surgery, her
platelet count increased. She was also given steroid (prednisone) treatment for some six
months. However, her recovery was slow, and she continued to suffer from severe
weakness.
Later in 1976, Gay moved to California. Becoming a patient at the City of Hope, in Los
Angeles, she was diagnosed with Hashimotos disease. (This condition is considered an
autoimmune thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid gland.) The ITP resolved, but her
sedimentation rate rose (the rate at which clumps of red blood cells settle in a test tube) and
rheumatoid arthritis (related to lupus) developed.
In early 1977, Gay happened upon Dr. Gersons book, A Cancer Therapy, and read it with
strong interest. This nutritional and detoxifying approach to helping the body heal itself
made good sense to her. She went to Mexico to have a look at the Gerson hospital there, and
decided to undertake the Gerson Therapy at home on her own. She continued on it for about
two years at her home in Fullerton, California.
In 1980, feeling well and with normal energy, Gay went back to nursing. By then she was
clear of both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis both collagen diseases, as well as of her
thyroiditis. She got married in 1982. When she had first been diagnosed with a pre-lupus
condition, she was warned against ever becoming pregnant. Nevertheless, Gay subsequently
had two children, who are now teenagers. She continued in excellent health until just
recently, when age-onset diabetes was diagnosed. She controls the problem with diet and
exercise, and has reduced her elevated blood sugar to near normal levels.
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Elwood Goodier Osteomyelitis, endocarditis

Elwood Goodier was suffering from osteomyelitis as well as endocarditis. When he arrived
at the Gerson hospital in Mexico in February 1995, this 77-year-old man was on heavy
doses of morphine as well as drug patches in an effort to control his pain. These
medications, however, were minimally effective, and Elwoods original doctor had done
nothing to address the underlying health problems.
While Elwood was in Mexico receiving the Gerson Therapy, his pain began to abate, and
eventually completely disappeared. A year later he wrote that he was now active again and
enjoying life.
When Elwood was at the Gerson hospital, his mother-in- law was also being treated there.
She had some fatty tumors (presumably benign), and Elwood reported later that these had
disappeared after two weeks on the Therapy.

Dr. James Clark Immune deficiency; Arrhythmias, Insomnia

In 1963, in his late teens, Jim suffered a minor ankle injury. An infection set in, and the sore
wouldnt heal. He had a total of 13 operations, consisting of debriding (cleansing) the lesion
and grafting new skin over it. However, the grafts didnt take, since the surrounding
tissues were infected. He spent a whole year in the hospital.
Finally, his doctors despaired of healing his wound and feared that osteomyelitis would
develop. They could only see one procedure to overcome the problem: remove Jims leg
below the knee. Jim agreed to it. The amputation, however, did not cure him. He continued
to suffer infections and was constantly treated with antibiotics. Each drug treatment caused
new problems. Now Jim suffered stomach distress, arrhythmias (heart irregularities),
confusion, headaches, and loss of concentration to the point that he despaired of living.
He also had severe insomnia.
Jims constant problems landed him on the hospitals psychiatric floor the theory being
that if the doctors cant find or diagnose the disease, it must be mental. Naturally, the
psychiatric drugs given to him only made his overall condition worse.
Finally, in February 1978, Jim arrived at the Gerson Therapy hospital in Mexico. His first
question was Do you have enough antibiotics for me? Naturally, antibiotics were
available if patients truly needed them. However, his problems very quickly cleared without
further drug treatments. Already on the second night, he slept normally for the first time
in months, maybe years.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

All of Jims health problems disappeared not long after he returned home and carried on
with the Gerson Therapy. He became normally active, and took up work again. He had a
Ph.D. in Physical Education and worked with young people in the Washington State school
system. He was even able to do sports in spite of the prosthesis in his lower leg. He
remains well.

Clifford Sherrell Psoriasis

Clifford was born in 1929. His problem began in 1970 with dry skin and itching, and he
suffered from it for years. He did not go to a doctor until 1978 or 1979. The doctor gave him
prescriptions for painkillers. But Clifford didnt really have pain; his problems were mostly
itching on his upper legs, and swelling. The other doctors he consulted later didnt help at all
either. Eventually he saw a dietician, who suggested vegetarian, salt-free foods. On this diet
the itching and swelling disappeared for over 10 years while Clifford remained on the
vegetarian diet (not organic). However, the problems returned in 1990, after he retired and
moved to Alabama.
Clifford had not changed anything he was eating or doing, so at first he couldnt think of
any reason why his condition should have worsened at that time. Later, he suspected
electromagnetic radiation from an overhead power line, only about 20 feet from his
bedroom window.
After Clifford moved, the swelling and itching would disappear during the fall and winter
months, then return. In November 1992, the problem recurred, then disappeared again. In
early 1996, it became so severe that Clifford saw a doctor. Whatever it is, it is caused by
your nerves, the doctor told him revealing his inability to diagnose the problem.
When Clifford came to the Gerson hospital in Mexico in July 1996 after allopathic
physicians could not help him, he had many large, open sores on his hands and feet. His
ankles and feet were badly swollen, and loose pieces of skin hung from his hands. It was
never that bad before, he said. A biopsy was done: his disease proved to be psoriasis.
On the Gerson Therapy, 98% of Cliffords open sores closed in less than 10 days, and new
skin covered his hands and the soles of his feet. His ankles became normal, with all swelling
gone.
In 1998, Clifford said of the pain, swelling, lesions, and itching, Now there is nothing left.

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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

ADDITIONAL READING:
A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases - Max Gerson, M.D.
This is Dr. Gersons landmark book, the work of a true medical genius. In it, Gerson details
the therapy, its history and development through 1958. Case histories, X-rays, photographs.
$19.95

The Gerson Therapy: Healing Cancer and Other Degenerative Diseases - Charlotte
Gerson and Dr. Morton Walker.
The first new Gerson Therapy book in over 40 years. Gerson and Walker give illustrative
case histories from Charlotte Gersons 30 years of clinical experience, recipes, scientific
evidence, guides to medication, treatments for most cancers and specific treatment
information for many other chronic diseases from diabetes to MS. A must-have. $17.00

Dr. Max Gerson, Healing the Hopeless - Howard Straus.

The first definitive biography of Dr. Max Gerson from his early years in Germany, through
his stunning medical discoveries, flight from Nazism and battles with the American medical
establishment. Thoroughly documented, over 20 photographs.
$19.95

A Time to Heal - Beata Bishop.

Beata Bishop, a novelist and writer for the BBC, received a diagnosis of malignant late
stage melanoma normally a death sentence. When she met Charlotte Gersons daughter
in London, she settled on the Gerson Therapy. This is the moving story of her complete
recovery, over 20 years ago. Bishop is alive and well today.
$12.95

The Gerson Miracle (DVD or VHS) - Stephen Kroschel.

This award-winning documentary about the Gerson Therapy is a powerful statement of the
Therapys effectiveness. Cured patients, why we are ill, how we can recover.
91 minutes, color. A must have!
DVD: $24.95, VHS: $29.95

All books and videos can be ordered from: Charlotte Gerson 355 Greenwood Place, Bonita,
CA 91902 (619) 656 2504 or charlotte@charlottegerson.com
Other related books, audio and video tapes available from The Gerson Institute, 1572
Second Ave., San Diego, CA 92101 Tel.: (888) 4-GERSON www.gerson.org
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Healing Autoimmune Diseases The Gerson Way

Max Gerson, MD (1881 - 1959)

Max Gerson, the originator of the holistic nutritional therapy now
known as The Gerson Therapy, was born in Wongrowitz, Posen,
Germany (now Poland) in 1881.
Throughout his German university and medical education, he
suffered terribly from migraine headaches, which neither he nor
any of his professors could alleviate.
Assigning himself the project of curing his own debilitating
headaches, Gerson eventually discovered that by varying his diet,
he could prevent the problem.
When he discovered that his migraine diet would also cure cases of tuberculosis, his
otherwise fine medical career became highly controversial.
Gerson persevered, however, always searching for the underlying cause of disease. When a
patient with cancer came to him for treatment, he was able to cure her with his therapy,
contrary to his own expectations.
Gersons blossoming career was interrupted in 1933 when he and his family had to flee Nazi
Germany. They fled to the United States, and settled in New York City, where, intrigued by
his early successes, Gerson took up the problem of cancer, achieving a reputation among
patients, if not among his jealous colleagues, of being able to cure many of the most
advanced degenerative cases.
Shortly before his death in 1959, Gerson wrote his towering book, A Cancer Therapy:
Results of 50 Cases, detailing his 30 years of clinical experience and research with the
disease.
In the more than 60 years that have elapsed since Gerson dedicated his life to solving the
problem of cancer, tens of thousands of grateful patients have successfully used his therapy
to either cure or prevent degenerative diseases of all types. His book, translated into five
languages, has sold nearly half a million copies worldwide, and has been the basis on which
a dozen clinics in the United States and Mexico have been founded. The most advanced
cancer research is only now catching up with principles Gerson so clearly articulated over
half a century ago.
This booklet contains an introduction to, and synopsis of Dr. Gersons treatment, plus real
patient histories, some in the patients own inspiring words, about their experiences and
successes with the Gerson Therapy.

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