The Gerson Therapy is a ketogenic diet. Ketogenic diet is a low carbohydrate, high in protein fat diet. It helps prevent epilepsy attacks mainly in children, helps lose weight, and now it’s been told to cure cancer. There are many different types of Ketogenic diets. It is a diet where you completely cut out carbohydrates such as starches from pasta, bread, and potato products. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain function.
However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood is a state known as ketosis. This also helps you to lose weight. And recently, they discovered the diet helps cure cancer. The documentary I watched was called “Dying to have known” by, Steve Kroschel. Steve went on a 52-day journey to find evidence to the effectiveness of the Gerson Therapy – a long-suppressed natural cancer cure.
The film speaks of an all-natural diet to help cure cancers of different kinds. Steve travels all over the world to prove or disprove a cure called The Gersons therapy. He hears positive replies from cancer patients and negative response from Doctors. As, I watch the movie one question that came to mind,” Is it this simple to cure cancer? ” In Dying To Have Known, Dr. Max Gerson believed that you could cure disease and cancer with a special diet. It is inexpensive and it’s a way of life. He had founded this therapy in 1925. To this day it gets scrutinized.
Some doctors who spoke in this documentary stated Gerson therapy is a quack. They say there is no proof of why it would work. One doctor who spoke Dr. Wallace Sampson, he stated it gives people false hope and that the therapy is a big rip off. He goes on to state that they know how cancer is formed and what it does to the body. His reasoning for the therapy to not work is that there is no scientific proof that it works. Drugs show how they can fight off cancer cells. And the therapy does not. He goes on to say that, people who have been cured are people who would have survived either way or they weren’t really sick to begin with.
The author travels to the Gerson clinic in Mexico to meet some of the patients there. He meets people with melanoma, cervical, breast, and throat cancer. He even sees records of over 100 other patients dating back to the early 1930’s of success stories. Beata Bishop is an author and a Malignant Melanoma survivor of 25 years says, “What does unproven mean? You can’t prove this therapy as you can a new drug. ” I would have to agree, how you can prove something that works the body naturally. Whereas drugs will try to reduce cancer cells and attack healthy cells at the same time, not naturally.
She goes on to state that her reason some doctors don’t believe is cause it is to simple, inexpensive, and not what they were taught in medical school. It is also known that pharmaceutical companies would no longer make money off their drugs. I could see why some doctors would question this type of therapy. When you’re told you only have months to live, why try changing your diet and think that it would fix everything. When drugs have been tested for over ten years before even being offered for human use is available. The Gerson diet consists of natural vegetables and coffee enemas.
It was believed the enema would attack harmful bacteria and would replace it with, healthy enzymes to be absorbed to help fight the cancer cells. It doesn’t sound like this is a logical cure for cancer. As I kept watching I started hearing of testimonies of cured cancer patients. When the author travels to Japan he meets with Doctors there as well. He goes on rounds with one and is shown before and after x-rays of some tumors and cancer lesion of some of the patients. I was quite impressed with this. I would believe this would be the scientific proof but, it was said in the documentary to not be enough.
The doctors who don’t believe had said they were not sure of what was done to achieve these results. They had believed some other type of treatment was done as well. There is always that possibility this could have happened. The Gerson people had offered doctors to go to their clinic and view their work. To date no doctors have taken up the offer. The all healthy diet is a way of life not a medicine or cure for major illnesses, or is it? Now with the Gerson therapy out there, another medical outbreak is the ketogenic diet. This diet is based as the same theory as the Gerson therapy.
The original documentary I was watching was banned due to copyright issues. But, I cited some small clips for this topic. I have researched a lot on this topic. And it is still new but, yet has very old strains of it around. The research is not as lengthy as if you researched a new drug, for the simple fact that it has been here all along in front of our faces. I believe Dr. Gerson had a belief that if you treated your body with fresh fruits, vegetables, and coffee it would heal itself. Now, the new research has proved why. Doctors would call Dr. Gerson a quack and a doctor who gave false hope to his patients.
Cause, there was no visible proof. Now, the proof is the body changes it’s metabolism to help fight off the cancer. No one says this way of life is easy. You have a very strict diet and a lot of temptations out there (fancy sweets, candies, lunch meats, etc…). But, it has been proven that glucose feeds cancer cells. When your metabolism changes to using ketones the cancer cannot survive. This would be up for discussion among many doctors. They believe you should eat this way but, also suggest the chemo. So, how do you know which one worked? There is another documentary I watched was about angiogenesis.
Dr. William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti – angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game. He starts off speaking of drugs they use to cure cancers once you have angiogenesis. Then, he moves into how certain foods help to prevent the cancer cells from ever forming. He mentions certain ones would affect certain cancers. I would find this helpful for when you have some hereditary cancer.
You could focus on preventing the cancer from ever forming. The more I look into the natural way of curing cancer; I find more and more information on different forms of how to fight cancer. I know there are a lot of skeptics out there. Out of all the research I had done I liked the Ketogenic diet information to be the most convincing. It explains that sugar turns into glucose and this is what feeds cancer cells. So to repeat a little of what was said at the beginning of my paper, your body functions on glucose. If you remove the sugars your body will change your metabolism to start using Ketones.
Ketones already exist in the body and your major organ systems will work off the ketones but, the cancer cell cannot adapt to ketones and die. (Ketogenic diet) A doctor that dying of a brain tumor who had been diagnosed with 3 months to live. Approximately 8 months with chemo, he started to research other alternatives. He came across this diet that had a high success rate and decided he had nothing to lose. What was the worst that could happen; I was told already that I was going to die. (Ketogenic Diet) So, the doctor changed his diet. Took all the sugars and starches out of his diet, he ate nothing but lean meats and vegetables.
When he went back for a cat scan in three months, the tumor was completely gone. It has been now three years later and he is still tumor free. I believe this type of diet to work. How could there be so many theories out there and they all fall back to the same main ingredient, eating right and beating the odds that we are dealt. What would these people have to lose, they were already diagnosed with death. Everyone has heard of the horror stories that they watched a love one struggle with chemo and all the new drugs that they try. The chemo and drugs kill off healthy blood cells a long with the bad blood cells.
Whereas the Ketogenic diet allows the healthy cells to strive and kills the cancer cells (the absolute opposite). When you try the Ketogenic diet at first you feel lethargic and sluggish. This is because the body is detoxifying itself from glucose and transitioning to ketones. Our body first functioned off of ketones when we were infants. I watched my father die of cancer after doing all the drugs and chemo. If I had known all this five years ago, I would have suggested trying any one of these diets (Ketogenic or The Gerson Diet). He was already told his life was being cut short. But, to watch what chemo can do to a loved one.
It’s something I will carry for the rest of my life. If I’m ever faced with the dilemma of cancer, I will try one of the natural ways before chemo. I believe there are enough facts to support your chances of survival.
Works Cited Dying to have known 2009 http://topdocumentaryfilms. com/dying-to-have-known/ Restricted Ketogenic Diet as Treatment for Malignant Tumors http://zipd. eu/exv/yt/? as=1&i=nBqNCvWDuXA Can We Eat To Starve Cancer http://zipd. eu/exv/yt/? i=j6q_YOlEyjw&as=1 Nutrition and Metabolism 2011 http://www. medscape. com/viewarticle/749855 Starving Cancer: Ketogenic Diet http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=OxhNMzIzs3M.