As mentioned before, the human organism evolved over millions of years as part of Nature, 
alongside plants and animals. It was only exposed to natural substances: environment, food, 
shelter contained nothing artificial or alien. Not that our remotest ancestors enjoyed a Golden 
Age. Their lives were undoubtedly hard and short, but their slow evolution was totally natural, 
well adapted to the world they lived in. Changes set in with civilization, but they only became drastic and rapid after the arrival of 
the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. A second wave of even more drastic innovations 
followed in the developed world after World War II in the mid-20th century, changing people’s 
daily lives, working routine, living conditions, and, above all, their diet, the most important factor 
affecting us all. The huge development of commercial agriculture and the apparently limitless 
expansion of the food industry changed our “daily bread” almost beyond recognition. However—
and this is the main point—the infinitely complex human organism hasn’t had time to adapt 
and adjust to these fundamental changes and therefore its defenses can’t cope with the multiple 
challenges facing them. They fight to keep functioning normally, but undermined by polluted air, 
water and wrong food they break down sooner or later. Unfortunately for each new generation the 
breakdown now comes sooner. In this chapter we shall examine the causes of the breakdown in more detail. Chemical Agriculture
 Artificial fertilizers have been in increasing use for well over 150 years, damaging and 
impoverishing the soil and the micro-organisms on which the health of the soil and of all plant life 
depends. Plants, in turn, are the food of animals and humans, and their reduced nutritional value 
has far-reaching effects. Dr. Gerson was one of the few visionary scientists who realized early on 
that there was a definite link between dietary deficiencies and diseases—and between diseases Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 2Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comand a sick, depleted soil. He wrote: “There is an external and an internal metabolism upon which 
all life depends; both are closely and inextricably connected with each other; furthermore, the 
reserves of both are not inexhaustible.”1   
 Once the reserves of the soil were exhausted, the plants also began to sicken. Having become 
deficient, they lost much of their defenses against pests, rust, fungi and a multitude of other 
invaders. Hence fungicides, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals were developed to overcome 
the attackers. Of course it was assumed that these agrochemicals were harmless if applied ‘as 
directed.’ Unfortunately this was not the case. The heavy pesticides, specifically DDT, were first distributed halfway through World War II, 
around 1943. As Dr. Gerson reports in his book, this and other toxic materials were found in meat, 
butter, milk, and even mother’s milk within 18 months! Subsequently it became clear that the toxic agrochemicals were also penetrating into the soil 
and the water table. What this meant can be seen today in several areas of California, heavily 
treated with huge amounts of pesticides every year, where the water and the soil are so toxic that 
an epidemic of primary liver cancer has hit children who played outdoors. But the situation has gone from bad to worse. After DDT had been used for some time, the 
insect pests became resistant to it, so that heavier, even more toxic materials, such as Dieldrin, 
had to be produced. At the same time it transpired that the human body was not able to develop 
a resistance to those poisons. Their effect on adults is bad enough; tragically embryos, tiny babies 
and small children with their delicate constitutions suffer more serious damage to their developing 
bodies. That is one of the reasons why the cancer mortality of children has risen greatly, so that 
cancer is now the No.1 Killer of children under 17 (some ten years ago it was accidents). It is 
a sobering thought that cancer, formerly a degenerative disease of the elderly, is now afflicting 
children. Needless to say, the cancer incidence among the general public is increasing at a much 
faster rate. To illustrate the extent and speed of the increase, it is worth recalling that in 1937, when the 
Gerson family had just settled in the U.S., posters at street corners proclaimed that one person in 
14 died of cancer. In 1971, President Nixon declared “War on Cancer,” and assured the public that 
if enough money were spent on research, a cancer cure would be found. In that year some 220,000 
people died of cancer. 25 years later, in 1996, USA Today  published the result of the research. That year, after 39 billion dollars were spent, 560,000 people died of cancer. The research had 
been done on chemicals, more and more toxic chemotherapy drugs, not nutrition. As a matter 
of interest, today one in three people are expected to develop cancer and, according to British 
estimates, that proportion is moving towards one in two. Over the years the harmful effects of agrochemicals in food have become better understood. A Swedish study2 produced evidence to show that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is linked Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 3Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comto pesticides. (An earlier study in 1981 specified phenoxy herbicides as the culprit). Another 
herbicide implicated in the increased incidence of NHL is glyphosate, marketed by Monsanto 
under the trade name of Roundup. Rather alarmingly this poison is now incorporated in the 
genetically altered seed produced by Monsanto, allegedly “to save the spreading of pesticides.” An 
earlier study by the same Swedish group has implicated Roundup in causing hairy cell leukemia, 
while animal studies have shown that Roundup can cause gene mutation and chromosomal 
aberrations. The pesticide DDE, a breakdown by-product of DDT, is known to interfere with male sexual 
development by de-activating the male sex hormone testosterone. Throughout Europe male 
fertility, measured by sperm count, is in decline. (The highest sperm count was found among 
Danish organic farmers who have no contact with toxic agrochemicals.) Equally alarming is the 
spread of breast cancer among women of all age groups. In the UK alone, every week some 300 
women die of the disease, and at least 750 are newly diagnosed with it. Although other factors 
also contribute to this trend, the effects of agrochemicals cannot be discounted. As if dealing with the existing problems caused by agrochemicals were not enough, human 
health is facing the further threat posed by Genetically Modified (GM) food. This is an area where 
the conflict between powerful commercial interests and public health has come out into the open, 
despite GM-producer Monsanto’s best efforts to suppress data casting serious doubts on the safety 
of GM foods for human consumption3. This is in keeping with the normal routine of agrochemical 
manufacturers who invariably set out to prove the safety of one or another of their products. But 
anyone on an average modern diet is bound to consume the residues of several toxic substances 
contained in fruits and vegetables, yet no-one has ever researched the cumulative effect of this 
kind of toxic cocktail. The picture is gloomy. Yet all is not lost. From small beginnings the organic production of 
fruits and vegetables has grown exponentially in recent years, allowing the enlightened consumer 
to live on poison-free produce. Organic food, grown on traditionally fertilized soil, has the further 
advantage of containing all the minerals, trace elements, enzymes and vitamins needed for good 
health. This is why, in order to achieve healing, Gerson patients must use nothing but organic 
produce. Enough has been said to show the vicious circle in which people on an average modern diet 
are caught. Living on toxin-rich but nutrient-poor food, especially “fast food,” in due course 
people begin to suffer from headaches, arthritis, insomnia, depression, frequent colds, infections, 
digestive problems, and more. So they use more over-the-counter drugs, while doctors prescribe 
more painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-depressants and other symptom-relieving drugs, which don’t 
deal with the underlying problems. As all drugs are liver-toxic in the long run, the body’s defenses are weakened and eventually 
break down. The link between the sick soil and the sick human being is painfully obvious. Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 4Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comDrugs
One of the first duties of the physician is to educate 
the masses not to take medicine. -Sir William Osler, 1849-1919
Medical Historian, called 
“the most influential physician of his age”
Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown 
out of the window, except that the birds might eat them. - Dr. M.H.Fischer, M.D. “A Pill for Every Ill” sums up the extreme reliance on drugs that has become an integral 
part of today’s lifestyle. One only has to turn on the TV or the radio to hear an endless recitation 
of the latest drugs being promoted to overcome every kind of human ill. Also invariably there 
is a rapidly recited and de-emphasized list of the many harmful side effects of each one. This 
denial of risks is not always successful: witness the scandal that broke in late 2005 around the 
drug giant Merck & Co., in connection with their arthritis drug VIOXX. At first Merck publicly 
admitted that worldwide some 16,000 people had died in the two or three preceding years of the 
drug’s side effects, and withdrew VIOXX from the market. Remarkably enough, Merck & Co. 
had for some years published the life-threatening side effects and warnings concerning this drug 
in the Physicians’ Desk Reference book (PDR). As the enquiries widened, Merck eventually had 
to admit that some 55,000 people had died of the side effects of a drug they had taken to ease 
the pain of arthritis. But the truly scandalous fact is that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) 
allowed the killer drug back on the market, claiming that its benefi ts exceeded its risks. Another overused drug increasingly in the public eye is Ritalin , routinely prescribed to 
children suffering from so-called Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The PDR, 
which lists and describes all drugs on the market for use by physicians, specifies that it should not 
be used by children under the age of six years, and lists the following side effects: suppression of 
growth, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, weight loss, insomnia and visual disturbances. (It does 
not mention the many documented cases of suicide and unprovoked killings by youngsters on 
Ritalin.) Despite the warning, children as young as 2 and 4 years old are known to have been put 
on the drug, which is also highly addictive, causing severe withdrawal symptoms. Psychiatrist Dr. 
Peter R. Breggin, Director of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, 
published a book, Talking Back to Ritalin ,4  in which he lists the many scientific studies that 
have been ignored by the advocates of Ritalin. He writes:” Ritalin does not correct biochemical 
imbalances—it causes them. There is some evidence that it can cause permanent damage to the 
child’s brain and its function.” Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 5Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.com It is not hard to imagine what it does to its entire developing organism and still immature 
natural defenses. At the time of writing over 2 million American children are on Ritalin. What 
will their state of health be like in, say, fifteen years’ time? (see ‘Hyperactivity’  in Chapter 6). Looking at the overuse of drugs in general, the real trouble is that they only suppress symptoms 
and allow people to carry on with their daily routines, at least for a while. However, they never 
heal nor clear the underlying cause of the pain or malfunction. And so the problem continues and 
gets worse, but being masked by the drug it becomes harder to diagnose. Since the body is an 
indivisible whole, the drug’s toxicity affects not just the liver—the heart, the lungs, the kidneys 
and the digestive system also suffer, and the body’s defenses weaken accordingly. Because virtually all medical drugs are toxic, Gerson patients are advised to keep clear of 
them. However, antibiotics are an exception. While their overuse in general medical practice 
has weakened people’s immune system and strengthened  bacteria by making them resistant, 
occasionally they need to be used by Gerson patients. We must remember that a cancer patient 
has a seriously weakened immune system, otherwise he or she wouldn’ t have cancer! Since the immune system cannot be restored to normal in a few weeks or even months (it 
may take 9-12 months), in case of an acute infection antibiotics are required. For dental work the 
dentist’s recommendation should be followed. Antibiotics are also used to help fight colds and 
cases of flu. Of course antibiotics don’t kill viruses; however, they help to control infections, the 
opportunistic  infectious agents that set in due to the body’s weakened condition. The least toxic 
antibiotics are used when dealing with colds, namely Penicillin, unless the patient is allergic to 
it. Otherwise the appropriate antibiotic has to be used for a particular infection. In all cases the 
effectiveness of the antibiotic can be vastly strengthened, without increasing the dosage, by taking 
it together with one aspirin, one 500 mg tablet of Vitamin C and 50 mg of niacin. Once we understand the severe all-over damage caused by the overuse of drugs, it becomes 
clear why the so-called ‘recreational’ drugs are such a menace. Used by young—and not so 
young—people as casually as if they were candy, these drugs can eventually lead to addiction that 
destroys lives. On top of all the other harmful components of the modern lifestyle, these drugs, 
taken for fun, can be the last straw that breaks the body’s defenses. Food Additives
 One way of healthy eating goes under the name of the Stone Age Diet, which says: “Eat only 
foods from which nothing has been removed, to which nothing has been added, and which would 
go bad if you didn’t eat it immediately.” You would have a hard time if you tried to find such 
foods in any supermarket on earth. What those temples of the food industry sell—unless they 
have a range of organic produce—is the exact opposite of the above rule. The ubiquitous use of food additives, whose number is at present around 10,000, serves the Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 6Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comsole purpose of making industrially produced foods look better, taste good despite containing 
inferior raw materials, have a longer shelf life, and thus be more profitable. Food chemistry is so 
highly developed that it can mimic almost any natural flavor or scent. What it cannot do is to fool 
the human organism into responding to these fakes as if they were the genuine article, and only 
delivers chemicals of varying toxicity instead of essential nutrients. The most widely used additives include sodium nitrite, saccharin, caffeine, olestra (a 
fat substitute), artificial colorings and flavorings, antioxidants, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, 
thickening agents, aspartame, transfats and monosodium glutamate—plus unhealthy amounts of 
sugar, salt and fat. They can cause a multitude of allergic reactions, such as fatigue, behavioral 
problems, mood swings, and after long-term use may even lead to heart disease and cancer . Aspartame
Aspartame, old as NutraSweet, Spoonful, Neotame and Canderel deserves special scrutiny, 
because it is present in over 5000 food items including fizzy drinks, jam, breakfast cereals, 
vitamins, diet and diabetic food, and much else. It contains no calories and is therefore attractive 
to weight-conscious people with a sweet tooth. After its discovery in the U.S., having first been 
sold as an ant poison, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) refused to license it for eight 
years, considering it unsafe for human consumption. However, after years of lobbying by the 
manufacturers, in the early Eighties, despite the misgivings of scientists, aspartame was officially 
sanctioned as a food additive. Aspartame contains some 6 chemical substances, including methanol (wood alcohol), a 
cumulative poison, which converts into formaldehyde, a known carcinogen; DKP, which in 
animal experiments has produced brain tumors, and phenylalanine, which can produce severe 
neurological problems. As for its claim to help people control their weight, the epidemic of 
overweight and obesity al over the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere contradicts that claim. More alarmingly, reactions among large-scale consumers of aspartame in, for instance, 
diet coke, can mimic conditions such as multiple sclerosis, depression, diabetes, lymphoma, 
arthritis, Alzheimer’s, panic attacks, epilepsy/seizures, Parkinson’s and hypothyroidism. Diabetes 
specialist Dr. H. J. Roberts, M.D., of The Palm Beach Institute for Medical Research, has coined 
the phrase “Aspartame disease” to cover the many pathological conditions among his patients. Nearly two-thirds of his patients improved as soon as they excluded aspartame from their diet. MSG (Monosodium glutamate)
This flavor enhancer, which is tasteless by itself, was developed by a Japanese food chemist 
in 1907. In its original form it was a salt derivative of a natural amino acid called glutamate, 
a common substance found in every plant and animal species. Eventually, turned into MSG, Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 7Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comit found its way into almost every kind of convenience food, from soups, canned gravy, salad 
dressings and frozen ready meals to potato chips, and into the meals served in the world-wide 
chains of fast food restaurants. (On food labels it often hides behind the name of Hydrolyzed 
Vegetable Protein). The reason for this lavish use of MSG was discovered by John Erb, a research assistant at the 
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., Canada, when he found out that laboratory mice and rats, 
used for studies on obese animals, had to be injected with MSG soon after birth, to make them fat. Under natural circumstances no rodents become obese. They only do so when the injected MSG 
triples the amount of insulin their pancreas produces. Once fat, they are known as “MSG-Treated 
Rats.”
 Away from the research laboratory, MSG is added to human food for its addictive effect. As long ago as 1978 it was scientifically proven to be an addictive substance. Since the food 
manufacturers lobby openly states that the purpose of MSG is to make people eat more, this 
additive clearly plays a major role in the current obesity epidemic. That is bad enough, but 
huge numbers of people suffer from the serious ide effects of MSG, which include headaches, 
palpitation, vomiting, nausea, numbness, chest pain, drowsiness, facial pressure and weakness. Some of these are also referred to as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. John Erb summed up his findings in “The Slow Poisoning of America,”  his book on the 
harmful activities of the food additive industry. Although the dangers of MSG have been widely 
known for decades, the FDA has set no limits on how much of it may be added to food. Transfats
Transfats: Described variously as the world’s unhealthiest food and/or as heart attack in a 
box, these ubiquitous food components are produced by hydrogenating vegetable oil, so as to turn 
a liquid into a solid substance. Transfats or HVOs (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils) are known to 
increase the levels of LDL or “bad cholesterol,” while reducing those of HDL, the “good” variety. They leave fatty deposits in the arteries, cause digestive disorders, and reduce the absorption rate 
of essential vitamins and minerals. Transfats. are created by heating vegetable oil to a very high temperature, turning it solid, 
so it can be used in margarine, pastry, pies, ice cream, confectionery and countless convenience 
foods. (Uninformed shoppers often fall for advertisements, which claim that margarine, made 
from sunflower oil, is healthier for the heart than, say, butter; they don’t stop to wonder just 
how the golden liquid oil had become snow white and solid….) Hydrogenated fat is cheap, has 
no flavor and secures any product a long shelf life, hence its popularity in the food industry. However, recently evidence has piled up to show that far from protecting the heart, Transfats 
actually damage it, are essentially toxic, cause obesity and have even been linked to some forms Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 8Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comof cancer. A long-term study carried out at the Harvard School of Public Health on 18,555 healthy 
women trying to get pregnant found that for every 2% increase in the amount of calories a woman 
got from Transfats, her risk of infertility increased by 73%. The British Transfat expert Dr. Alex 
Richardson commented, “Transfats shouldn’t be in our diet. They are toxic and have no known 
health benefits and many known health risks.” The World Health Organization has recently urged 
consumers to exclude Transfats from their food intake, and in Britain all the leading supermarket 
chains have pledged to ban hydrogenated oils from their own-brand foods and drinks as fast as 
possible
 The Harvard School of Public Health has estimated that at least 30,000 people and more, 
probably 100,000 die every year in the US from cardiovascular disease, caused by eating HVOs 
found in most convenience foods. The American nutritionist Mary Enig has stated that Transfats 
disrupt the cellular function of the body, weakening its power to expel wastes and toxins. This 
opens the door to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, poor immunity and obesity. The good news is, that since January 2006, under US Government regulations food 
manufacturers must state the amount of Transfats contained in their products. Some of them have 
already started to remove Transfats from their output. And the British Soil Association, flagship 
of the organic movement in the UK, has recently declared that all additives, including Transfats, 
MSG and aspartame are absolutely banned from all organic products. The only way to exclude these and countless other harmful additives from one’s diet is to 
avoid all manufactured foods, and take the more labor-intensive but health-restoring path of 
eating only fresh organic natural foods, and limit restaurant meals to rare occasions. But additive-filled junk food doesn’t just harm the body: it is also a powerful trigger for anti-
social behavior. Researchers both in California and in England have run experiments in prisons 
housing young male criminals, giving them supplements containing vitamins, minerals and 
essential fatty acids over several months, and monitoring their behavior. In both countries minor 
offences dropped by 33%, and serious ones, including violence, by 37-38% 6. Take those findings 
out of the prison setting and it becomes obvious that much anti-social behavior in society can be 
ascribed directly to harmful toxic food additives—yet another powerful argument for avoiding 
junk foods of all kinds. Fluoride
Among the factors undermining the body’s defenses this substance deserves special attention, 
because while exorbitant dental health claims are made for it by commercial interests, in fact it is 
a dangerous poison, an industrial waste containing small amounts of lead, mercury, beryllium and 
arsenic. The official reason why the US Government promotes the compulsory addition of fluoride 
to drinking water is to improve children’s dental health, which, as common sense recognizes, is 
not undermined by shortage of fluoride, but by an unhealthy diet, insufficient dental hygiene and Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 3 9Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comtoo many sweets. According to some experts, fluoride only protects the teeth of children up to 
the age of 5. Since that age group makes out only a small percentage of the population, it seems 
indefensible to force this highly controversial chemical onto everybody, irrespective of their age 
and dental condition. Moreover, there is evidence to show that fluoridation does not lastingly improve children’s 
dental health. On the other hand it causes fluorosis to one in every eight children, resulting in 
mottled, discoloured teeth. In the US, according to figures released in 2003, despite fluoridation 
more than half of children aged 6-8 and two-thirds of all 15-year-olds suffer from dental decay. And there is worse to come. It is claimed that the prolonged intake of fluoride can be linked to 
increased risk of cancers, hip fractures, osteoporosis, kidney trouble and even birth defects. The 
late Dr Dean Burk, who had worked for more than 30 years as chief chemist at the US National 
Cancer Institute (NCI), declared, “Fluoride causes more human cancer deaths, and causes it 
faster, than any other chemical.”  Following a 17-year study, the NCI found that as fluoridation 
increased, so did oral cancer, and also osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in young men. The rate of increase in those two cancers has been established as 33-50, viz. 70%. Despite the NCI study’s conclusions, the pro-fluoride camp is doing its utmost to hide 
and deny the harmful effects of the chemical. One such attempt led to an uproar among scientists 
in 2006, when it transpired that Professor Chester Douglass of the Harvard Dental School had 
kept secret the findings of his graduate student Elise Bassin for four years. In her 2001 thesis 
Bassin discussed the association between fluoride and cancer, particularly osteosarcoma —bone 
cancer—in young males. When her findings were finally published in May 2006 and the truth 
came out to general consternation among researchers, Harvard exonerated Professor Douglass 
from any wrongdoing and conflict of interest, although he is widely known to be a paid consultant 
for the toothpaste industry, which is a major user of fluoride. Up to 500 letters of protest have been 
sent to Harvard’s President Bok, among them a blistering one from Professor Samuel Epstein, 
Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, demanding “a full and watertight explanation of 
this extraordinary action.” At the time of writing the issue has not been resolved. This story is just one of many examples showing how assiduously vested interests fight 
to protect their profitable products, even at the risk of endangering public health. To guess the 
truth about the claimed harmlessness of fluoride, we only have to read the warning on any tube 
of commercial toothpaste: “Keep out of the reach of children less than 6 years of age. If more 
than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control 
Center. Children 2-6 years: use only a pea-sized amount and supervise child’s brushing and 
rinsing to minimize swallowing.”
        Many brands of toothpaste, infant formulas and commercially prepared beverages use 
fluoridated water. Great care must be taken to avoid them all.Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 0Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comNicotine and Alcohol
 The health ravages caused by smoking have been widely known for a long time, yet the habit 
persists. Smokers use cigarettes either as a stimulant or as an aid to relaxation. In either case 
the desired effect wears off quickly and has to be renewed, hence the self-destructive routine of 
chain-smoking  
 The main active ingredient of tobacco is nicotine, authoritatively described as “one of the 
most toxic and addictive of all poisons that acts as swiftly as cyanide.”7
Yet nicotine is not the only toxic product of smoking. The tars produced by the burning 
process line the lungs and eventually cause emphysema and cancer. Smokers tend to assume 
that they are only damaging their lungs. However, the poisons contained in cigarettes pervade 
the entire organism, damaging all organs. Bladder cancer, for instance,  occurs more frequently 
among smokers than abstainers. There is also the detrimental effect of the well-documented 
“second-hand smoke” on the smoker’s family and workmates. What may appear to many even 
today as an acceptable social habit is in fact a serious attack on our natural defenses. The same applies to alcohol, which ideally should only be consumed occasionally, and in 
small amounts. If consumed in excess, alcohol can lead to chronic alcoholism. It is poisonous to 
the brain and even more so to the liver, can cause gastritis, pancreatitis, seizures and delirium. In 
extreme cases it leads to cirrhosis of the liver and death. Since the liver is a key organ, it is easy 
to see how its destruction by uncontrolled drinking undermines the entire or ganism. Cosmetics
Compared to heavily toxic substances, such as nicotine and alcohol, cosmetics may seem 
somewhat out of place on our black list. After all, they have been used to enhance beauty and 
glamour for thousands of years; archeologists have found many remains of precious ointments, 
lotions and other cosmetics in ancient royal sites and temples. However, today’s cosmetics are vastly different from the natural substances used in ancient 
Babylon and Egypt. They contain an astounding number of ingredients, many of which, e.g. the wide range of parabens, are toxic. So are sodium laureth sulphate, used in industry to clean 
garage floors and degrease engines, dioxins, suspected of being carcinogenic, and formaldehyde, 
a highly irritant toxic substance, to name just a few. Since all toxins help to break down the body’s 
defenses, it stands to reason that all sources of toxicity must be eliminated from our daily lives, 
and that includes toxin-rich cosmetics. The fact is that up to 60% of all substances sprayed or rubbed into the skin are promptly 
absorbed and travel straight into the blood stream. Orthodox medicine makes use of this with the Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 1Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comapplication of various patches, which deliver substances, mostly painkillers, into the blood stream. By the same token powders, creams, ointments, sprays and perfumes also enter the organism at 
speed. Some estimates suggest that women absorb around 2 kg of chemicals through toiletries 
and cosmetics every year. Worse still, whatever is absorbed through the kin bypasses the body’s 
normal metabolic system and doesn’t get broken down or neutralized. This includes carcinogenic 
substances, too. (We always say to our women patients, “If you wouldn’t eat or drink it, don’t put it 
on your skin or lips!” However, we make one tiny concession: eyebrow pencils are permitted.) One of the riskiest “grooming” substances is the underarm deodorant. Almost all brands 
contain aluminum, which is seriously harmful, especially when we remember that there are many 
lymph glands in the underarm area, which pass on absorbed toxins to the lymphatic system. Even 
those creams and sticks that are genuinely free from toxic materials and claim to be organic have 
to be avoided, because they interfere with the body’s attempt to eliminate poisons by the simple 
act of perspiration! Patients on the intensive therapy often experience night sweats, representing 
the body’s effort to detoxify when at rest. Brainwashed into thinking that perspiration is not 
“nice,” they may reach for the deodorant cream, spray or stick; healthy people perspiring on a 
hot day or during physical exertion may want to do the same. But in either case this would be a 
serious mistake. When the body attempts to detoxify through the sweat glands, the process must 
not be stopped or hampered. Blocking the underarm passages with a deodorant will force the toxins back into the 
lymphatic system around the chest and shoulders and increase the risk of breast cancer—also in 
men. Since male grooming aids have become widely used, the incidence of male breast cancer 
has been increasing. We may assume that much of this development is due to men’s routine use 
of underarm deodorants. So how to deal with the problem of perspiration? The first rule is to avoid toxic, i.e., non-
organic foods and drinks, so that the body doesn’t need to work hard to get rid of the residues. Soap and water are the best cleansers. Healthy perspiration is odorless and requires no chemical 
weapon to eliminate it. Talcum powder should also be banned. Besides blocking the pores, it has been shown to 
cause lung cancer in babies when it is inhaled, and ovarian cancer in women who apply it to the 
genital area. Another highly toxic item used by both men and women is the wide range of hair dyes. The 
scalp is thoroughly “vasculated,” i.e., rich in blood vessels close to the surface, so that whatever 
is put on it gets quickly absorbed into the blood stream. Most hair dyes are highly toxic. Even the 
more recent types, containing mainly non-toxic vegetable materials, introduce an alien substance 
into the organism. This is why Gerson patients are not allowed to use hair dyes of any kind, and 
may only use the mildest shampoos. They are also advised to avoid perfumes, which contain 
synthetic aromatics, but may use diluted pure glycerin (without rosewater) to moisturize dry skin. Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 2Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comMen patients in turn have to do without after-shave lotions and aerosol shaving creams. There are some gentle, non-toxic cosmetics and grooming aids on the market, made from 
natural raw materials that can be used by recovered patients and those not on the therapy. You 
may have to search for them diligently, and read the tiny print on the containers before buying, 
but when it comes to safeguarding your health, no trouble can be too much. Immunization—Vaccination
 Vaccines can be lifesavers. They can also be lethal. Their story goes back to the work of 
British physician Edward Jenner, M.D. (1749-1823). He observed that milkmaids, who contracted 
cowpox, only suffered a mild form of the disease and were subsequently immune to smallpox. From this he concluded that a mild form of the disease produced immunity to a more deadly form. The assumption was correct, but in later attempts to obtain the same results it was not taken into 
consideration that the milkmaids were young and presumably healthy; thus their immune systems 
were able to respond. Since then, many generations of children have been vaccinated against smallpox, and by the 
1980’s the medical authorities declared that smallpox had been wiped out. However, for years American children have been receiving the DPT (Diphtheria-Pertussis-
Tetanus) vaccination at an ever-younger age. The late Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, (1926-1988), 
one-time head of the Pediatric Society of the US and of the Chicago Pediatric Hospital, never 
stopped warning against the immunization of babies, reporting on the many children who were 
permanently injured, including cases of extensive brain damage. Eventually he was able to 
demonstrate that some 85% of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) occurred within 48 hours 
after a DPT injection; the rest of the deaths came within 2 weeks after immunization. In due course 
the US Government had to guarantee the safety of the DPT injections, since the pharmaceutical 
companies producing them were faced with so many lawsuits for damage and death caused by the 
shots. The DPT shots are still being used in the US. Their use is actually unscientific, since a small 
baby does not yet have its own immune system and is therefore unable to respond. A baby is 
born with about 6 months’ worth of its mother’s immunity, yet pediatricians continue to start 
immunization against DPT with babies at 2-3 months of age. Clearly, this interferes with the 
natural development of the child’s immune system at a later stage. In Britain controversy has been raging over the safety of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) 
vaccine, routinely given to babies, and claimed by some doctors to have the potential of causing 
autism and bowel disease—claims vigorously rejected by medical authorities. In the US, the 
presence of Thimerosal (ethyl mercury) in vaccines administered to babies and small children has Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 3Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comcaused much heated debate, linking the toxic mercury to many cases of autism, speech delays and 
ticks in youngsters, and contributing to mental and immune disorders in a significant proportion 
of the population. By now all routinely administered pediatric vaccines are being manufactured 
either in Thimerosal-free or Thimerosal-reduced forms. All in all, many questions concerning routine immunization remain unanswered. All too often what seems a valuable medical innovation turns out later to have considerable 
drawbacks. Generally speaking, powerful chemical interventions, whether by food additives, 
drugs or environmental toxins, weaken the body’s natural defenses and thus open the way 
to serious disease. Hence the need to restore them the Gerson way, as we shall set out in the 
following chapters. Electro-Magnetic Fields
Every living thing is surrounded by its own electromagnetic field, an invisible but measurable 
layer of radiating energy. For millions of years these fields existed undisturbed, until the late 19th 
century, when the first incandescent filament light bulb was invented in Britain, and somewhat 
later in America. With that invention electricity became a vital part of everyday life and its use 
has grown exponentially, until today all populations on Earth are exposed to varying degrees 
of electromagnetic fields. Lamps, TV sets, radios, refrigerators, regular and microwave ovens, 
computers, and latterly cellular phones all emit invisible electromagnetic frequencies. If we add 
natural geopathic radiation to our household implements, it is no exaggeration to say that we exist 
in an electronic soup, or to see that this is bound to have a harmful impact on human health and 
well-being. As the use of cellular phones increases worldwide, more and more radio masts are erected 
to service them. So far, official bodies have tended to claim that these masts presented no health 
risks to people living near them, but concerned individuals tell a different story, reporting on 
clusters of diseases, mainly cancer, erupting in the vicinity of a recently erected mast. Sleep 
disturbances, headaches, skin rashes, heart palpitations and vertigo have also set in within the 
same period. Some scientists agree with the concerns of the lay public, For example Dr. Robert 
O.Becker, twice nominated for the Nobel Price, called the proliferation of electro-magnetic 
fields “the greatest polluting element in the earth’s environment.” And both the World Health 
Organization and the European Parliament have held discussions on the environmental impact of 
electro-magnetic fields. Applying the precautionary principle—“If in doubt, don’t ”—everything possible must 
be done to limit the risks of the all-pervasive electronic smog. Cellular phone use must be 
cut to a minimum, switched off immediately after use, and not carried on the body even 
when switched off. If possible, hands-free devices should be used, to keep phones away from Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 4Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comhead and body. Phones apart, it is wise not to keep any electronic devices near beds, where the sleepers 
would be exposed to radiation throughout the night. All electronic equipment should be 
switched off when not in use, not left on stand-by. A common houseplant, chlorophytum 
(popular name spider plant) is said to absorb harmful radiation, and should be kept in the 
home in large numbers. Stress—the Enemy Within
 Last but not least, beside the harmful influences that attack the body’s defenses from the 
outside, there is another self-made internal one, namely stress, that must be considered. Stress 
is very much taken for granted as part of today’s rushed and restless lifestyle, yet it wasn’t even 
identified, let alone explored until the first half of the twentieth century. It was then that the 
eminent Hungarian-born endocrinologist Hans Selye, M.D., D.Sc., FRS (1907-1982), first began 
to wonder why so many people were suffering from  what he called a state of sub-health, being 
neither ill nor well and lacking in vitality. He eventually identified the cause as stress, which he 
defined in the following words: “Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, 
whether it is caused by, or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions. How you take it determines 
whether you can adapt successfully to change.” 
 In other words, stress in itself isn’t bad. On the contrary. To quote Selye again, “It is generally 
believed that biological organisms require a certain amount of stress in order to maintain their 
well-being. However,.”. excess stress that the system cannot handle, produces pathological 
changes.” 8 The problem is that modern human beings respond to real or imaginary danger with 
the same instantaneous biological changes as our most remote ancestors did when confronted 
with an attacking mammoth or the flint axe of an enemy: the “fight or flight” response clicks in, 
giving the organism a burst of energy to fight the attacker—or flee with above-average speed. The 
alarm reaction causes the pituitary-adenocortical system to respond by producing the hormones 
essential to either fighting or fleeing. The heart rate increases, the blood sugar level  rises, the 
pupils dilate to see better and the digestion slows down to divert energy to the limbs. Adrenaline 
and cortisol rush into the system. All these changes disappear when the situation is resolved, 
either by fighting the enemy or fleeing to safety. These days the threats are mainly non-violent, and the challenges tend to cause frustration, 
simmering rage or repressed tension, which find no outlet—after all, we can’t wrestle with a 
hyper-critical boss, or escape from a maddening traffic jam—so that the organism stays in an 
unnaturally aroused state. Just like our cave-dwelling ancestors, modern people also go through 
the three phases of alarm, resistance, and finally exhaustion. And in due course the stress-induced 
hormonal changes can lead to a wide range of diseases, including hypertension, coronary 
thrombosis, brain hemorrhage, gastric or duodenal ulcers, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, kidney Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 5Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comdisease and allergic reactions. Above all, the immune system is weakened—and by now we know 
how dangerous that is. Hardly anyone gets through life without experiencing periods of great stress. Business 
failure, financial problems, serious debt, divorce, sickness in the family, loss of a job—the list is 
long. People often respond by putting in extra hours of work, living on junk food and unhealthy 
snacks, taking sleeping drugs to fight insomnia and “wake-up drugs” to cope with the new day, 
drinking more coffee, more alcohol, smoking more, all of which speeds up the descent into ill 
health. But it is their reaction to stress, not the stress in itself  that causes the trouble. Stress and 
its consequences may act as the proverbial last straw that breaks the camel’s back, especially if we 
are dealing with one of Selye’s “sub-healthy” individuals, whose liver is already in a sorry state, 
with the rest of the organism toxic and malnourished. All this means that stress must be included among the factors that undermine the body’s 
defenses, and we need to deal with it sensibly. Relaxation techniques, yoga, breathing exercises, 
counseling help to re-program one’s spontaneous, deeply damaging reactions to life’s inevitable 
turmoils. ( see Chapter 25, Overcoming Stress and Tension ) Combined with optimum nutrition this 
may result in the ideal set out by Dr Selye, when he recommended, “stress without distress.”
References:
1. Gerson, M. “ A Cancer Therapy—Results of 50 Cases  
 6th edition, Bonita, CA. The Gerson Institute, Bonita, California, 1999. 2. Hardell, L. & Eriksson, M. CANCER  V ol.85, No.6. 1999
3. Lean, G. The Independent on Sunday , London, May 22 2005
4. .Breggin, P. Talking Back to Ritalin , Common Courage Press, 1998
5. Erb, J. & T.M., The Slow Poisoning of America , Paladins Press, 2003
6. Gesch, B. Press Conference, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, June 25, 2002; 
Schoenthaler, S. Anti-Ageing Medical Publications , V ol.III. Health Quest Publications, 
CA 1999
7. Taber’ s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary , 17th edition, F.A.Davis Company, Philadelphia, 
1989
8. Selye, H. The Stress of Life , 1956Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 6Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comCHAPTER 6
Diseases  of  Modern  Civilization
It is an astonishing fact of the 21st century that instead of enjoying good health and fitness, so 
many people in the developed world suffer from a multitude of complaints and diseases, which 
a few generations ago were much less widespread. Worse still, these conditions are no longer 
limited to the middle-aged and elderly, but attack ever-younger generations. Because of their 
comparative novelty, they are often called “diseases of modern civilization.” This sounds like a 
kind of justification, as if they were the price we have to pay for our unprecedented degree of 
technological development, comfort and consumer choice; in other words, that they are a direct 
consequence of today’s de-natured, over-civilized lifestyle. This is probably true. At any rate, 
orthodox medicine deems these diseases incurable. All it can offer is symptomatic treatment, 
which only works up to a point and for a limited time, and has serious side ef fects. So what exactly is it in modern civilization that can be blamed for the deterioration of public 
health? The accepted culprits are widespread pollution of air, water and soil, the consequences of 
climate change, vastly increased levels of noise, violence and general insecurity, social tensions, 
stress, and the breakdown of law and order in many areas of life. All of this is true and valid. But 
oddly enough the one overwhelming factor that affects everybody alive is not included in the list 
of harmful influences, namely the huge dietary changes that have taken place in the developed 
world over the past century or so. (see Chapters 3 and 4.) This is amazing, if we consider that the quality of the food and drink we consume every day 
of our lives is bound to have a powerful effect on our state of health; it becomes less surprising 
if we remember that the science of nutrition is conspicuously absent from the training of doctors. The resulting ignorance deprives them from a powerful yet gentle method of healing that is able 
to turn officially incurable conditions into curable ones. One can only hope that some time in the 
future that method will enter mainstream medicine. Meanwhile, however, with its nutritional program the Gerson Therapy has been successfully 
curing most “diseases of modern civilization” over several decades. In this chapter we list some 
of them and explain how and why the irreducible basis of the therapy, namely the rebuilding of 
the immune system and restoring all body defenses, is able to reverse and heal them.Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 7Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comPart I 
Defeating the Killers
Cancer
Of all the diseases under review, this is undoubtedly the one that strikes the greatest fear into 
most hearts and minds. Its incidence is rising, its effects are devastating, the same as the side 
effects of the available orthodox treatments, and its mortality rate is high; above all, it remains 
apparently incurable. Taking all this together, it is not hard to understand that most people’s 
reaction to the very mention of cancer is one of dread. So let us take a closer look at this scourge, which the medical dictionary describes as ‘an 
uncontrolled growth of cells derived from normal tissues,’ 1 adding that the disease comprises 
more than 200 different types. This raises some questions: why is the growth uncontrolled, what 
are the normal controls, and why do they fail? Furthermore, why is cancer a killer? There can 
be uncontrolled growth in so-called benign tumors, too. Those are non-invasive, i.e., they don’t 
spread, can be removed fairly easily and generally do not recur. How do they turn into malignant 
killers? While benign tumors are not cancers, they are growths that do not belong in the body, and 
represent an early breakdown of the body’s defenses. They do not necessarily recur, but tend to 
turn malignant in time, as the body’s defenses continue to weaken. Tumors are called malignant 
when they invade adjacent tissues and also release tumor cells into the blood stream. These cells 
circulate and are able to set up new colonies, known as metastases, which grow into other tissues. In due course they invade and destroy essential organs, leading to death. The body has a system of defenses that maintain homeostasis, the state of dynamic equilibrium 
of the internal environment. (see Chapter 4 ). It is the disturbance of this equilibrium that starts 
the process of cell deterioration, and the disturbance itself can be caused by various chemicals, 
specifically carcinogens, viruses, radiation, ultra-violet light and tobacco. Interestingly enough, it 
can also be caused by cytotoxic chemicals used to treat cancer 2, and, of course, by a faulty diet. Cancer cannot occur in a normally functioning body, because its defenses recognize and 
destroy any malignant cell that may develop, or do not allow it to come into being at all. The 
immune system plays the leading role in the group of defenses. It recognizes a malignant cell as a 
foreign invader and attacks and destroys it, as it would any other intruding germ or virus. However, 
the immune system, along with the other defenses, i.e., the enzyme and hormone systems, the 
proper mineral balances, etc., consists of organs and glands that need proper nutrients, and can 
function only if they are not blocked by toxins. When those conditions don’t apply, the defenses 
are unable to fulfill their task, and there is nothing to stop the malignant cell from surviving and Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 8Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.commultiplying. The reason cancer is credited with having more than 200 different types is that the cells of 
each variety look different under the microscope, depending on the kind of tissue where they 
originate. Still, in all cases cancer essentially represents the uncontrolled proliferation of cells. This definition even includes leukemias and myelomas that do not belong to the group of solid 
tumors, since they affect the bone marrow—where, however, their malignant cells proliferate 
without control just the same. Instead of causing solid tumors, some cancers break down the tissues they invade and cause 
severe open lesions. Their margins usually consist of swellings filled with malignant tissue that 
invades and breaks down any healthy tissue it touches. This type also proliferates. Cancer is further broken down into two major and several minor categories, depending on 
the tissue where they originate. Cancers derived from epithelial tissues, which line all organs and 
blood vessels and the body’s mucous membranes, are called carcinomas. They represent the 
largest number of malignancies. Those that originate in connective tissue, bones, blood vessels 
and the lymphatic system, are called sarcomas. Their treatment with the Gerson Therapy is 
equally effective for both, and requires little adjustment. The most aggressive cancers, e.g. melanomas, aggressive lymphomas, and small cell 
lung cancers respond most rapidly to the Gerson treatment. It could be that they are the most 
thoroughly altered from normal cells, and therefore the newly recovering immune system is able 
to recognize them easily. Likewise, excellent results are obtained with ovarian cancers, even 
after some treatments with chemotherapy. That does not imply that other malignancies do not 
respond. However, as Dr. Gerson pointed out, some of the glandular cancers, including breast and 
prostate cancers, are located within glands whose entrance and exit are plugged with tumor cells. This can make it awkward for the newly oxygenated blood, enriched with enzymes and immune 
substances, to reach the malignant cells and kill them. In time that problem gets resolved and 
those tumors are destroyed, too. However, this may explain why breast and prostate tumors take 
a little longer to reduce. Patients must understand that even when their tumor is gone, they are not healed yet. Where 
Dr. Gerson most clearly diverged from orthodox oncology was in his realization that in cancer 
the tumor is NOT the disease, only the symptom of the underlying breakdown of the body’s 
systems; that, in other words, cancer is not a thing, i.e., the tumor, but a process, involving the 
entire organism. Therefore, most importantly, the disappearance of the tumor only means that the responses 
have been restored to the point of removing the threat to the patient’s life. But that does not equal 
healing. True total healing can only occur when all the patient’s organs have been restored, literally 
rebuilt, with the best organic foods and continued detoxification. Healing is only complete when Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 4 9Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comthe damaged toxic liver is cleansed and rebuilt to as near normal as possible. The difficulty is that 
there exist no tests to show how well the liver is restored and functioning. The liver enzyme tests 
are helpful but incomplete. A patient can have ‘normal’ test results, even if malignancies are still 
present. The blood chemistry, blood count and the urinalysis only show that the basic organs are 
again functioning, to the extent that the body has become able to heal. The recovering patient may feel disturbed or disappointed when all this is explained to her 
or him, yet the need to achieve complete  healing must override all other considerations. Without 
fully understanding the reason for this, there is a risk that when all tests come back ‘normal,’ the 
tumors are no longer evident, and the local doctor, unfamiliar with the Gerson principles tells 
them that ‘to all practical purposes’ they are healed, they break off the therapy, relapse—and die. Unfortunately this has happened more than once, wasting much effort, hope and precious lives
Case Histories : Because of the Gerson Therapy’s long, successful record of healing cancer, 
enough case studies to fill this volume could be presented. Indeed, separate booklets recording the 
healing of a wide variety of cancers are available ( www.thegersonway.com ) Here we only describe 
two cases to illustrate how the body has to be damaged more and more before a malignancy can 
appear. In both cases the patients were too young (aged 32 and 42) to suffer from an age-related 
cancer. D.L. had pneumonia at age 3. A year later her appendix was removed. During her teens she 
suffered some minor problems, and in her early twenties developed a series of bladder infections, 
which were treated with antibiotics. These overcame the infections, but candida set in. Drugs 
eliminated that problem, but the bladder infections recurred, to be cleared with antibiotics, setting 
up a cycle lasting for several years. D.L. became depressed and was treated with anti-depressants. After the continual drug treatments she developed an unusually aggressive lymphoma, which, she 
was told, would not respond to conventional treatments; instead, she was offered a bone marrow 
transplants. She refused this and embarked on the intensive Gerson Therapy, which she followed 
faithfully for some three years. At the end of that period she was free from all her problems—
lymphoma, bladder infection, candida, depression—and has remained well for nearly 20 years. D.W. suffered from depression and panic attacks already as a young girl and was kept on 
anti-depressants throughout her twenties and thirties. Despite constant drug treatments her panic 
attacks worsened, until she was unable to be alone in a room, go out in the street or meet people. In her late thirties she developed diabetes. In 1995, aged 42, suffering from severe pain, she 
presented at the San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, CA. The diagnosis was carcinoma 
of the left ovary, with metastases to the uterus and right ovary. D.W. underwent a hysterectomy, 
with repairs to the wall of the rectum. At the same time multiple nodules were found on the bowel 
and abdominal wall, but many small nodules, as well as seedlings on the vaginal wall, were left 
in place. In addition an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan disclosed a cyst on the patient’s 
left kidney. Her doctors urged D.W. to start chemotherapy at once, and she made an appointment Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 5 0Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comaccordingly. However, the day before, after extensive research she found information on the 
Gerson Therapy, cancelled the chemo and went instead to the Gerson hospital in Mexico. D.W. 
remained on the Gerson protocol for two years and was healed of all her problems. She no longer 
needed hormones to manage her surgery-induced menopause, or drugs to control her diabetes; her 
panic attacks had ceased and the kidney cyst had disappeared. Subsequently D.W. was able to get 
a job, drive, and function normally. She states that at the time of receiving her diagnosis, three of 
her friends were also diagnosed with ovarian cancer. D.W. has now survived in excellent health 
for 12 years; sadly, none of her friends receiving orthodox drug treatment survived for more than 
six months. Heart and Circulatory Disease
Like with other chronic degenerative diseases, the incidence of heart and circulatory disease 
has vastly increased in the past 50-75 years. Dr. Paul Dudley White, the most famous American 
heart specialist of the 1920s and after, stated that he had witnessed his first-ever heart attack in 
1921. The reason why he had not encountered one earlier is that canned, bottled and heavily 
salted foods had only been on the market for a relatively short time; likewise the chlorination of 
municipal water supplies had also begun fairly recently, and so these two factors had not yet been 
able to cause metabolic disease. Since then, however, they have more than made up for lost time. And, as it has often been claimed, the first symptom of heart disease in 40% of patients is a fatal 
heart attack. Sixty years after Dr. Dudley White’s first encounter with heart disease, in 1981, at a meeting 
celebrating the 100th anniversary of Dr. Gerson’s birth, one of the speakers was the famous heart 
specialist Dr. Demetrio Sodi Pallares, of Mexico City. Describing the treatment he had developed 
for his heart disease patients, he declared that cardiac disease was not a local disease (i.e., of the 
heart), but a metabolic disease , caused by the loss of potassium from the body and the penetration 
of sodium into its cells. This insight was almost identical with Dr. Gerson’s fundamental theory 
and practice. The big difference was that Dr. Sodi used his treatment exclusively for heart and 
circulatory disease patients, while Gerson had discovered that it was an effective therapy for most 
chronic diseases. Dr. Sodi published over a dozen books and hundreds of scientific papers describing his 
successful method of treatment. One of the techniques he developed together with the French physician Dr. Henri Laborit was 
the use of an intravenous glucose-potassium-insulin (GKI) drip. The simple process that the two 
physicians invented was to use glucose and insulin to provide the energy needed to transport the 
potassium across the cell membranes into the tissues. Meanwhile the physicians using the Gerson Therapy also found the GKI solution very 
useful to re-introduce potassium into the depleted tissues. However, since the Gerson treatment Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author .Page 5 1Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comis already high in glucose, supplied by the large volume of juices, and high in potassium, also 
provided by the juices and the added potassium salts, only a small amount of insulin needed to be 
used. As a result, one of the additions to the Gerson treatment is a tiny dose (3-5 mg) of insulin, 
administered subcutaneously (under the skin). What has become of Dr. Sodi’s revolutionary treatment for heart disease? One answer comes 
from an Associated Press report, published on November 25th 1998, in the Bucks County Courier  
under the headline, “Heart Attack Treatment Considered.” The article runs as follows:
“A long-abandoned heart attack treatment that is so simple and cheap that even Third World 
hospitals can use it, is showing new promise and could save the lives of up to 75,000 U.S. patients 
a year,” researchers say. “A study conducted at 29 hospitals in Latin America found that patients given the intravenous 
mixture of sugar, insulin and potassium within 24 hours of experiencing a heart attack had half the 
death rate of those who didn’t get the treatment.
_OceanofPDF.com_Healing_the_Gerson_Way_-_Charlotte_Gerson.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        As mentioned before, the human organism evolved over millions of years as part of Nature, 
alongside plants and animals. It was only exposed to natural substances: environment, food, 
shelter contained nothing artificial or alien. Not that our remotest ancestors enjoyed a Golden 
Age. Their lives were undoubtedly hard and short, but their slow evolution was totally natural, 
well adapted to the world they lived in. Changes set in with civilization, but they only became drastic and rapid after the arrival of 
the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. A second wave of even more drastic innovations 
followed in the developed world after World War II in the mid-20th century, changing people’s 
daily lives, working routine, living conditions, and, above all, their diet, the most important factor 
affecting us all. The huge development of commercial agriculture and the apparently limitless 
expansion of the food industry changed our “daily bread” almost beyond recognition. However—
and this is the main point—the infinitely complex human organism hasn’t had time to adapt 
and adjust to these fundamental changes and therefore its defenses can’t cope with the multiple 
challenges facing them. They fight to keep functioning normally, but undermined by polluted air, 
water and wrong food they break down sooner or later. Unfortunately for each new generation the 
breakdown now comes sooner. In this chapter we shall examine the causes of the breakdown in more detail. Chemical Agriculture
 Artificial fertilizers have been in increasing use for well over 150 years, damaging and 
impoverishing the soil and the micro-organisms on which the health of the soil and of all plant life 
depends. Plants, in turn, are the food of animals and humans, and their reduced nutritional value 
has far-reaching effects. Dr. Gerson was one of the few visionary scientists who realized early on 
that there was a definite link between dietary deficiencies and diseases—and between diseases Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author. Page 3 2Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www. thegersonway. comand a sick, depleted soil. He wrote: “There is an external and an internal metabolism upon which 
all life depends; both are closely and inextricably connected with each other; furthermore, the 
reserves of both are not inexhaustible. ”1   
 Once the reserves of the soil were exhausted, the plants also began to sicken. Having become 
deficient, they lost much of their defenses against pests, rust, fungi and a multitude of other 
invaders. Hence fungicides, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals were developed to overcome 
the attackers. Of course it was assumed that these agrochemicals were harmless if applied ‘as 
directed. ’ Unfortunately this was not the case. The heavy pesticides, specifically DDT, were first distributed halfway through World War II, 
around 1943. As Dr. Gerson reports in his book, this and other toxic materials were found in meat, 
butter, milk, and even mother’s milk within 18 months. Subsequently it became clear that the toxic agrochemicals were also penetrating into the soil 
and the water table. What this meant can be seen today in several areas of California, heavily 
treated with huge amounts of pesticides every year, where the water and the soil are so toxic that 
an epidemic of primary liver cancer has hit children who played outdoors. But the situation has gone from bad to worse. After DDT had been used for some time, the 
insect pests became resistant to it, so that heavier, even more toxic materials, such as Dieldrin, 
had to be produced. At the same time it transpired that the human body was not able to develop 
a resistance to those poisons. Their effect on adults is bad enough; tragically embryos, tiny babies 
and small children with their delicate constitutions suffer more serious damage to their developing 
bodies. That is one of the reasons why the cancer mortality of children has risen greatly, so that 
cancer is now the No. 1 Killer of children under 17 (some ten years ago it was accidents). It is 
a sobering thought that cancer, formerly a degenerative disease of the elderly, is now afflicting 
children. Needless to say, the cancer incidence among the general public is increasing at a much 
faster rate. To illustrate the extent and speed of the increase, it is worth recalling that in 1937, when the 
Gerson family had just settled in the U. S. , posters at street corners proclaimed that one person in 
14 died of cancer. In 1971, President Nixon declared “War on Cancer,” and assured the public that 
if enough money were spent on research, a cancer cure would be found. In that year some 220,000 
people died of cancer. 25 years later, in 1996, USA Today  published the result of the research. That year, after 39 billion dollars were spent, 560,000 people died of cancer. The research had 
been done on chemicals, more and more toxic chemotherapy drugs, not nutrition. As a matter 
of interest, today one in three people are expected to develop cancer and, according to British 
estimates, that proportion is moving towards one in two. Over the years the harmful effects of agrochemicals in food have become better understood. A Swedish study2 produced evidence to show that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is linked Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.
The main point is that the human body has not had time to adapt to the rapid and drastic changes caused by civilization and industrialization, and as a result, its defenses are weakened, leading to various diseases.
What is the main point of the author?
The author advises that Gerson patients should not use antibiotics, except in cases where they are absolutely necessary, as they can weaken the body's defenses.
What is the author's opinion on the use of antibiotics?
The text does not explicitly state the author's stance on the use of vaccines, but it does mention the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine.
What is the author's stance on the use of vaccines?
The author advises avoiding the use of deodorants, as they can interfere with the body's natural detoxification processes.
What is the author's view on the use of deodorants?
The author considers fluoride to be a toxic substance that can have negative effects on the body's defenses, and advises against its use.
What is the author's opinion on the use of fluoride?