..and rightfully so, about time these Gerson Institute had a
fair crack? The truth will win sooner or later..
observer.guardian.co.uk0,6903,12482Open ↗
82,00.html
Now Charles backs coffee cure for cancer
Angry doctors warn of dangers as Prince of Wales lends
support to controversial alternative treatment. Health
Editor Jo Revill reports
Sunday June 27, 2004 The Observer
Prince Charles has never made a secret of his love affair
with alternative medicine. Now he has infuriated the medical
profession by backing a controversial cancer treatment which
involves taking daily coffee enemas and drinking litres of
fruit juice instead of using drugs. Charles gave an
enthusiastic endorsement last week to the Gerson Therapy,
which eschews chemotherapy in favour of 13 fruit juices a
day, coffee enemas and weekly injections of vitamins. Cancer
specialists have told The Observer that there is no
scientific basis for the theory and that it can be dangerous
because patients who are seriously ill often come off their
normal treatment to try something unproven which may leave
them badly dehydrated. Speaking to a room of 200 healthcare
professionals at a conference, Charles said: 'I know of one
patient who turned to Gerson Therapy having been told she
was suffering from terminal cancer and would not survive
another course of chemotherapy. Happily, seven years later,
she is alive and well. So it is vital that, rather than
dismissing such experiences, we should further investigate
the beneficial nature of these treatments.' Charles's
spokesmen last night refused to say whether the patient he
referred to is a close friend or someone he met in his role
as patron of four cancer charities. What has become clear is
that a tight network of friends and associates are advocates
of the therapy. Dudley Poplak, an interior designer who has
a client list of the great and the good, is the man who is
thought to have first alerted Charles to the treatment.
Poplak redecorated Highgrove House for Charles and Diana and
designed their apartment in Kensington Palace. He gave
Charles a copy of the book A Time to Heal: My Triumph over
Cancer - Beata Bishop's story of how she beat malignant
melanoma 23 years ago by following the strict dietary
regime. Bishop would not comment yesterday on whether the
prince had read her book, but said: 'For years the orthodox
medical profession has been totally ignorant of the immense
potential of nutritional therapy. Finally they have admitted
that if you eat the right food you can prevent serious
illness, but they still say that if you are ill, you can do
nothing. I am not the only one who has survived on Gerson;
there are many others like me.' Max Gerson, a German-born
physician, gave his name to the rigorous diet, which he
initially used to cure his own migraines. He gained a huge
following and moved to the US after practising in Paris, but
incurred the wrath of the American medical profession for
presenting five patients alive and well to a US
congressional committee, years after they had been sent home
to die. He believed that cancer was the symptom of a
diseased, polluted body in which tumours form when the
liver, pancreas and other organs are out of balance, and
reasoned that animal and dairy products and other chemicals
must be banned. The coffee enemas are used to strip the gut
of harmful bacteria and pollutants, but specialists argue
they often lead to other problems such as dehydration.
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Max's 82-year-old daughter Charlotte, has an office in
California but runs its main clinic in Tijuana, Mexico,
because the US forbids doctors to practise it. Treatment
costs $4,900 a week and usually lasts for around three
weeks. Another of Charles's associates, the hereditary peer
and crossbencher Lord Baldwin of Bewdley, went to the
Tijuana clinic in 1996 when his wife Sally was seriously ill
with breast cancer. She spent eight weeks at the clinic,
followed by another two years of using the regime at home.
Her disease recurred and she died three years ago. Lord
Baldwin, who has known the Prince of Wales for many years,
invited Charlotte Gerson to address the House of Lords in
1999 and expound her theory. From his home in Oxford,
Baldwin said yesterday: 'The subject does arouse passions on
both sides but there is an enormous need for proper studies
into these treatments. I watched my wife's tumours shrink
away but the treatment is a very difficult one to follow.
The drugs companies have millions to spend on research, but
there's nothing to spend on research into how nutrition
might work.' Charles set up the Foundation for Integrated
Health, an initiative to integrate different systems of
medicines and therapies, six years ago and has managed to
persuade ministers to put millions of pounds more funding
into alternative medicine in the NHS. Surveys suggest it is
growing in popularity with some 20 per cent of people using
an alternative treatment such as acupuncture between two and
five times a year. In his speech, delivered on Thursday in
London, Charles argued that it was impossible to separate
the mental and physical states of wellbeing, and that the
NHS should be developing more funding to different
approaches. 'We must commission and produce research that
looks at the efficacy of complementary medicine. For
example, many patients use and believe in Gerson Therapy,
yet more evidence needs to be available as to who might
benefit or what the adverse effects might be.' One of the
patients, Frances Carroll from Cheshire, said at the
conference she had benefited from Gerson Therapy for the
past seven years. Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer
eight years ago and turned to the therapy after she did not
appear to respond to conventional treatment. She said: 'It
is a means of staying alive. I think it has extended my life
expectancy. One might say I've beaten the odds.' But the
American Cancer Society warns that the therapy may be
dangerous. On its website it states: 'Gerson Therapy can be
very harmful to the body. Coffee enemas have been associated
with serious infections, dehydration, constipation, colitis
(inflammation of the colon), electrolyte (salt and mineral)
imbalances, and even death.' One prominent British proponent
of Gerson Therapy is the Oxford don Michael Gearin-Tosh, who
wrote a book about his 'medical mutiny' after he was
diagnosed with cancer nine years ago. He converted to the
Gerson Therapy and has stuck to the rigorous regime of fruit
and vegetables. Professor Tony Goldstone, head of the North
London cancer network, said there was evidence that some
patients reached a 'natural plateau' in their disease which
could last for years. He attacked the raising of 'false
hopes' which 'lead patients in the wrong direction'. Other
cancer doctors pointed out that many units, including
Goldstone's, are now offering an array of complementary
therapies alongside conventional treatment, because it is
popular with patients and because it can be relaxing and
mentally helpful for them. But there is still an enormous
lack of evidence, as Prince Charles pointed out, to show
what works. One eminent cancer specialist who asked not to
be named said: 'If I start to see patients coming off
treatment to embrace this therapy, I'm going to be very
angry. Charles is abusing his position to put around wacky
ideas which have no scientific credence. Imagine the row
there would be if Tony Blair did something like this.' Yet
leading cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora says the
role of diet in treating cancer is extremely important and
needs more research. 'There is no rationale for the Gerson
diet, which is quite radical. Why would a coffee enema work?
It's very popular among the higher end of the middle
classes, partly because it's expensive and because there's
an element of religious mania to it. 'I think that some of
what the prince has done in calling for assessment of
complementary medicine is a good thing because it can help
improve the quality of life. But the idea that huge amounts
of Vitamin C can cure you of cancer is simply wrong.' ·
Additional reporting by Mark Hudson The Gerson regime What
is it? A gruelling nutritional regime which would typically
consist of 13 glasses a day of fresh organic carrot apple or
broccoli juice, vegetarian food, weekly injections of liver
extract and vitamin B12, and five coffee or camomile enemas
a day. Yoga is also recommended. How popular is it? An
estimated 1,000 people are following it worldwide, but the
cost of the injections - more than £20,000 a year - means
many cannot afford the treatment. So what is the theory? Its
creator Max Gerson believed cancer was caused by poor
nutrition and long-term exposure to pesticides, chemical
fertilisers, air and water pollution, and that the right
foods and enemas boosted the body's ability to eliminate
these toxins - and the cancer. Is there any evidence for
this? There is growing evidence that eating lots of fruit
and vegetables has a protective effect against cancer, but
studies on the role of food during treatment are sparse.
Scientists say there is no evidence that huge doses of
vitamin C or enemas can destroy tumours completely.
Special reports Medicine and health
Useful links British Medical Association Department of
Health General Medical Council Health on the Net Foundation
Institute of Cancer Research Medical Research Council NHS
Direct World Health Organisation