Cancer is becoming increasingly widespread. At the start of the century it claimed the life of one in 30 and today it is estimated to kill one in five.

Despite over 30 years of research with billions of dollars spent each year, the conventional medical establishment's war on cancer has been a dismal failure. When the Director of the World Health Organisation took up his post he vowed to increase the minimal 13 percent success rate, however to date it remains around this figure.

There are alternatives to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, surgery and radiation for cancer. One such alternative is Gerson Therapy.

Lesley Pearce who was recently in Bermuda to introduce a massage technique called Manual Lymphatic Drainage to local therapists and PALS (Patients' Assistance League & Service) nurses, is a Gerson Therapist.

Gerson Therapy is about feeding the body an overabundance of organic foods, pure distilled water and some supplements, including high doses of potassium.

Dr. Gerson worked out that if we are ill it is for one of two reasons -- firstly we are deficient and secondly we are toxic, or both -- because if you have one the other follows. So if you have a toxic system, then overload it with `good stuff' and the body works to eliminate toxins, explains Mrs.

Pearce. The idea of the therapy is to stimulate the body's immune system to do what it normally does in a healthy body, namely to destroy and eliminate the cancer cells which we all produce. Dr. Gerson found that he could cure the majority of cancer patients who came to him with his dietary regime which consisted of a low salt vegan diet, supplemented ten times a day with organic, freshly crushed fruit (primarily apple) and vegetable (primarily carrot) juices. Mrs. Pearce said this therapy takes about 60 hours of kitchen work a week.

Dr. Gerson also found that cancer patients had an excess of sodium, far out-weighing the potassium in their bodies. The sodium acts an enzyme inhibitor, whereas the potassium is an enzyme activator. Anthropologically we were much higher in potassium than we are now -- due to our consumption of canned and processed foods high in sodium, Mrs. Pearce pointed out. The fruits and vegetables in the diet are used to correct this imbalance and this in turn helps revitalise the liver so it can begin to rid the body of malignant cells again. Coffee enemas then aid in the elimination of these dead cells.

Gerson Therapy evolved when Dr. Max Gerson, a Munich University Hospital Director sought a cure for his migraines by restricting his diet, avoiding fat, salt, pickled and smoked food. He succeeded and a clinical trial using Gerson's methods was run on 450 patients suffering from tuberculosis. A colleague of Dr. Gerson recounts in his autobiography -- `once he had discovered and put an end to the smuggling of sausages, cream and beer to the patients in the late afternoon' -- 446 patients achieved lasting cures. In 1928 the diet was first used in cancer, at the insistence of a woman who had undergone unsuccessful surgery for cancer of the bile duct. The woman fully recovered in six months. Many of Dr. Gerson's patients who he treated in the 1940s and 1950s are documented to have lived on in good health for many decades after their treatment.

Mrs. Pearce told me of a colleague of hers who was diagnosed with breast cancer and recommended chemotherapy by her doctor. She went to the Gerson Hospital and did the therapy. Two years later she took the original x-ray and the new x-ray to the doctor who had diagnosed her. According to Mrs. Pearce the doctor walked out without even saying a word, not even asking how she did it. Mrs. Pearce added that Gerson Therapy had also been very successful with melanomas.

There are about seven Gerson Therapists practising in the UK where Mrs.

Pearce, who also trained as a nurse, is based, and a good support group.

Although Dr. Gerson passed away in 1959, his work is being carried on by his daughter Charlotte at the Gerson Institute in Tijuana, Mexico. According to Charlotte, Gerson Therapy works for many, but it doesn't work for all, especially if a patient has already been on a heavy chemotherapy programme.

Charlotte does not discourage anyone from wanting to try the programme, but it is best to check with the Gerson Hospital first before booking a flight.

To learn more contact Lesley Pearce at Tel/Fax: 011 44 1372 375912 or locally Dick Johnson at tel: 292-5025 or visit the Gerson Therapy website at www.gerson.org.

HEALTH HTH