Gersday Thursday: Why So Much Juice?

Hello again everyone!

One question we get quite a bit is about the amount of juice that Sy drinks on his therapy. His schedule now requires him to drink 2 green, 2 carrot, and 6 carrot/apple juices each day. That's a lot of liquid!

One of the two main facets of the therapy is correcting any nutritional deficiencies and providing the cells of the body with more than enough of what they need to do their jobs the best they can. In Sy's case, we have been slowly trying to correct the fact that his immune system sees food as a foreign invader. If we can help support the body as a whole, we hope to encourage Sy's immunity system to focus more on attacking the right things. As you made have seen from a past post, Sy's endoscopy last November was well within normal ranges...something we have never seen with him before. With other chronic diseases, the Gerson Therapy looks to practice the same principle and support the body to heal itself (like it was designed to do), unhindered.

After many years of trials and research, Dr. Gerson found that these particular kinds of juices made the biggest impact on improving health. It's not to say that other kinds of fresh juices aren't great (as long as the amount of fruit is limited) but when you are focusing on healing through therapy, stick with what's been proven.

The reason that the fresh produce is juiced is for a couple of reasons. One is the fact that your body does not have to do all the work of breaking down the foods to get the nutrients out. Our digestive systems are set to absorb the nutrients we give it, so if it's already broken down, you're going to get even more bang for your buck. The Hallelujah Acres site wrote a great article on this:

According to Dr. Kirschner (M.D.) in his book Live Food Juices, eating a carrot forces your digestive system to separate the carrot fiber from the carrot juice. This uses a lot of energy and destroys over 65% of the nutrients in the process.

Dr. Kirschner goes on to say that juicing carrots before consuming them is a different story. The juicing machine removes the pulp for you, eliminating much of the digestive process. As a result, 92% of the nutrients are available at cellular level for almost immediate use.

Another thing that people often ask is why Gerson doesn't stress drinking water when on the FULL therapy. Does this mean that you should never drink pure water and that it's bad for you? No way. Sy is an active little guy and definitely needs his water when playing in the nasty Florida summer weather. Anyone would tell you that dehydration is not a good thing and causes the body to do goofy things; however, if you consider the amount of liquid you are consuming on the therapy, you would understand that you are getting plenty of healthy hydration. Sy makes plenty of trips to the bathroom with just drinking juices and his output shows that he is staying plenty hydrated. If Sy drinks tons of water on top of his juices, he will float away! 

I hope this post gives you a little insight to the ideas that have been researched and documented with Gerson. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments.

Do you juice? If so, have you seen benefits in your own health? Post us a comment and let us know!

Gersday Thursday: What If I'm Considering Gerson?

The Gerson Therapy has obviously made a huge impact in our family's life. To make a tremendous turnaround with a severe case of a disease that is thought to have no cure is more than noteworthy, especially when it's your child. We have heard and seen so many stories of people who were almost completely out of hope and found an option that made all the difference with Gerson.

When we came to the end of the road with conventional medicine, we were forced to desperately search for another way. It was in this time that the Gerson Therapy came to our attention and it deserved a closer look. Let me just say that Heather and I (mostly Heather) spent countless hours digging and trying to find the real scoop on what was going on. Since our son's health was on the line, it was more than worth it, but it was a frantic time of trying to get the real information we needed to move forward. After doing the work, we took the next steps and made even more investments of time and money to see if it was a viable option. Once we listened, learned, and prayed, we obviously made one of the best decisions we could ever make. This decision opened door after door and we are where we are today because we went "all in" on this.

When we talk to other people who are interested in Gerson, it's very difficult to take a person from knowing nothing to getting them to a place of understanding the whole picture in just a conversation. The bottom line is that people have to do the same digging and grunt-work it took us to get to really understand and believe in what we are doing. Let's be frank, this therapy is not how we unwind in a day. It takes hours upon hours of work, but when healing (or even living in some cases) is on the line, it definitely outweighs any negative aspects.

So, let's talk about what we always tell people who are looking into considering Gerson for themselves:

1. Watch the documentaries

The Gerson Institute has worked extremely hard to put out their information in an easy to digest manner. There are several documentaries that give a great overview of the therapy and interviews with people who have had experience with it. Watching a few documentaries is the smallest time commitment you can make and is much easier than trying to dig through books. Here are the documentaries that you can find on either YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu: Dying to Have Known, The Gerson Miracle, and The Beautiful Truth. There is also a new documentary that has just been put out by Gerson Media called Heal Yourself, Heal the World. We haven't seen that one yet, but it's on it's way to us. We'll let you know!

2. Order the books

If you are ready for even more information, it's time to do the studying that you MUST do for yourself. Gerson has several resources available, but the one to start with is called Healing the Gerson Way. It will give you a good in depth look at the whys and hows of doing the Gerson Therapy. There is also a handbook that nicely condenses a lot of the information in the book for quick reference called the Gerson Therapy Handbook. For those of you who are more scientifically minded, you may want to get some of Dr. Gerson's very detailed case information and order A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases.

Hear me on this one: If you want to get the best information you can, you have to know enough information to ask the right questions for your specific need. If you really take the time to research this information, you should be in great shape. You know yourself the best and the Gerson Institute is designed to help empower you to take your health into your own hands. You really have to believe in what you are doing if you are going to undertake the serious commitment to healing.

3. Go see it for yourself (either live or virtually)

The Gerson Institute provides informational workshops that allow you to go even more in depth and have the interaction you need. It's a few days of a lot of information, but again, they want you to know why the therapy works. They are extremely open with their information and have a done a great job of not compromising a proven protocol. The live workshop also gives you a great opportunity to connect with the Gerson folks themselves and others who are on their own health journey. It's pretty amazing to see folks who had stage four cancer (other life threatening/debilitating diseases) who were given no hope to live, completely healed and thriving! Check out a Gerson Basics Workshop or a Gerson Basics Live Stream.

I would also like to mention that the Gerson Institute isn't trying to sell you anything. They focus solely on getting information out about what has made a difference in so many people's lives. They are a non-profit organization and only sell books, media, and a few other things to help keep the lights on in the office and continue to spread the word. Take specific note of that.

4. Consider the big commitment and weigh the financial costs

Just tonight, Heather and I were again saying how reduced our lives have become (socially, recreationally, relationally, etc.) just to keep this ball rolling. If you saw the difference between Sy's health before the therapy and now, you would understand why we keep going. However, I'm not going to lie. It has taken every ounce that we have been able to give and then some. This isn't just a little something that you will just add in to your day but again, it is so worth it!

I would also like to say that this therapy could not have even been considered financially without faith that God would make something happen if it was His will. Since we were convinced that this was the road we had to pursue, we allowed Him to do things that we were not able to do. We have seen miracles happen right in front of our eyes! It has been through Him that others have rallied around us and kept us going day after day (holla to our peeps!). I don't know how it's exactly going to work for you, but you have to be open to even the most unexpected provision.

5. Go For It!

The Gerson Clinic allows you time to be monitored by doctors and staff when you are kicking this thing off. Depending on the severity of your condition and the time sensitivity, this may be for you.

The therapy itself is designed for you to do it from home (with lots of help from loved ones). Instead of being dependent on other facilities or professionals to make the right decision for you, you have control of how you want this to go. It will probably take a lot of adjustment to your lifestyle (especially in your kitchen and bathroom), but when you need healing, you have to go for it...

So much to consider, I know. If you know that natural healing is the way for you or you've run out of options, you will make time for something this important. We can't say enough good things about it!

Disclaimer: Neither us nor the folks at Gerson can tell you what you should or shouldn't do. You must make the decision for your health, regardless of what avenue you decide to pursue. Just promise me that you won't be afraid to ask lots of questions, no matter who you are talking to. We hope you find clear direction with your healing journey!

So What Is The Gerson Therapy?

Over our past year of Sy being on the Gerson Therapy (and making a miraculous turnaround in this health), several people have asked questions regarding his therapy and how it can help so many chronic conditions. The therapy has plenty of years behind it and even more documentation, but we thought we'd at least give you a brief overview.

Dr. Max Gerson began his medical career with a great ability to observe and learn how living things were affected by their environments and the quality of their consumption. Because he was often incapicated by severe migranes when beginning his medical career, Dr. Gerson was forced to desperately seek answers to find relief from his serious condition. He sought out answers from experts and medical professionals who told him that he would just have to deal with it (sound familiar to you?). Unsatisified with accepting a lower quality of life, Dr. Gerson began searching for answers outside the traditional circles. After reading about another migrane sufferer who improved through a change in diet, Dr. Gerson began to look into this option.

To make a really long story short (you can read in more detail here), Dr. Gerson found that by including some foods and excluding others, he was able to cure himself. Keep that in mind...cure! As a person who accepted a role in helping others to the best of his ability, Dr. Gerson prescribed his "migraine diet" to another patient who needed help. Not only did his diet stop the migraines, but it also cured a then-incurable disease that the patient also had--skin tuberculosis. Because TB was a major problem at the time, this required a closer look. The bottom line came that during an controlled study, Dr. Gerson's diet cured 446 out of 450 tuberculosis sufferers. This was absolutely unheard of at the time. Because these same patients carried other disorders and conditions, cures were also seen in those areas.

Over a period of 30 years, Dr. Gerson continued to clincially study diseases and the impact of his diet on them, namely multiple types of cancers. He published these results and sought hard to share this amazing information with anyone who would listen. In 1946, Dr. Gerson also had the opportunity to sit before a Congressional Subcommittee about his advancements (and seek funding for future cancer research), but it was not accepted that diet could have a significant impact on health. Um, wait a second...

Because there are countless people who have been cured through this therapy (just ask Sy and see this post), it has continued to be researched and developed in accordance to our ever changing environment and food harvesting practices. There are so many great hearts continuing to push this information out, especially to those who have exhausted all their options.

Before I get into the details of the therapy, I would like to point out that the Gerson Institute is a non-profit organization that focuses on education, not selling you some product with their name slapped on it. Because Gerson has helped and supported putting the power of healing our son in our own hands, I have come to find that every person in that organization has a great heart for serving others. I have done plenty of examining of this therapy and it's proponents and have found nothing that seeks anything other than true health and healing for all mankind.

The Gerson Therapy today is based on two pillars: hypernutrition and detoxification. Because our bodies are wonderfully made, they can do amazing things when it comes to healing itself. If you give cells exactly what they need to efficiently work, in most cases, they will do the job they were intended to do. Also, because the list of toxins in this world gets longer every day, we have to support our body and find a healthy way to get the stuff out that doesn't belong there.

The first of the two factors of the Gerson Therapy are exercised by giving the body specific organic fruits and veggies, especially in the form of fresh juice. If you understand how our digestive system works and how the body can more easily absorb the nutrients from something it doesn't have to break down, this makes total sense. You would also be suprised how sufficient a vegetarian diet can be for the human body...and yes, even protein. For added nutrients, there are also a few supplements added to the regimen to fill in any gaps that exist and to support the body's normal function. Again, the point is giving the body exactly what it needs to do it's job, which is needed even more if your body is in crisis.

The detoxification part of the therapy requires one to really open their eyes to the world around them. Do you have any idea how many toxins you come in contact with in one day? In the air, water, food, chemicals, etc., there are just too many to count. This is not a fear-mongering tactic, but one of reality that must be realized. The point is that the body doesn't need toxins and they mostly just lead to more serious issues. Decreasing or eliminating these toxins takes time and work, so it must be taken seriously.

The part that most people love to talk about are the detoxifying coffee enemas. Yep, you read it right. I used to think that hole was strictly for exporting, but I was wrong. By looking at the history of the enema, you will see that this was a practice used by doctors and nurses without restraint. You will also see that this practice is used to support our natural detoxifying organ...the liver. I can bore you with a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo on why exactly it works, but you can research this yourself. We will work on posting some more info on this soon.

There are a few other small pieces that are added for additional support or comfort for those undergoing the therapy, but you can read all about it in their books here.

My personal experience has been that every stone I have turned over in this process has a reliable answer underneath. The part about this that you must remember is that it is a therapy...not a fad diet. There are many people who have recovered their lives through this therapy and refuse to deviate far from it because they already know where that led them before. The other thing I would like to say is that most people aren't at a place yet where they are willing to do the research and work it takes to embrace what's actually best for their body. Sometimes this takes driving people to the point of death. Sometimes it's too late before people get there. All of it is hard to watch, but doesn't mean we throw in the towel.

There are several lessons we've had to learn the hard way through our journey with Sy and his health. Don't ignore things that you know you should consider, don't believe everything you hear, ask LOTS of questions, look at things from a totally different perspective, ask difficult questions. Don't accept something less when you even have a miniscule hint that there may be more!

And most importantly...don't give up.

P.S. If you have some time, check out these documentaries...if you look on Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube, you will probably have some luck:

Dying to Have Known

The Beautiful Truth

The Gerson Miracle

Now In Stereo Sound!

Last night, Heather and I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Howard Straus, the radio host of "The Power of Natural Healing". We had plenty of time to dive into Sy's story and how his health has made a complete turnaround on the Gerson Therapy. If you get a chance, please check it out on his website here Monday at 11am Pacific Time. It will also be available in the archives later that week! This was our first opportunity to be on the radio and we had tons of fun. Thanks Howard!

A Visit From The First Lady...

...of health, that is!

We had a very special treat last week and we will forever be grateful. Charlotte Gerson and her family made a trip to Florida all the way from California. They took time out of their visit and schedule to come speak to a group of us who were eager to hear more about the rich history behind all of her father's work. It was so amazing to see this passionate 91 year-old speak so eloquently. This lady is sharp as a tack and has so much knowledge! We can all learn something from her vibrant lifestyle.

It was also so amazing to watch as Sy and Charlotte shared some special time together. One year ago, our family was just embarking on world of the Gerson Therapy and we were so desperate for a change in his health. As you can read in past posts, we have watched as Sy's body has made miraculous changes for the better!

So, this is just a short post to say thank you to Charlotte, the Gerson Institute, and all those who desire to see complete and total health in our community.

We are also excited to watch as God now begins to touch the other lives around us who desperately are in need. We will get there together! This has been the only way our family could be where we are today. We hope to spread the blessing as far as we can!



Wowed Yet Again!

We just had an amazing gal at The Gerson Institute bless our family by posting an article on their website about Sy. He is well on his way to getting his own star on Hollywood Boulevard! (Kidding!) This is the same person who is traveling all the way from California to participate in the road race to help support our family. It is so mind blowing how this group of folks on the other side of the country is rallying for our little boy's health and wellness.

You can read her great article here.

If you want more details on Sy's Snowflake 5K and Fun Run, go here.

Go Gerson!