The Gerson therapy is a nutritional treatment which primarily uses fresh organic juices and a vegetarian diet in an attempt to de-toxify the body and let it heal itself. For three weeks, Ken drank fruit and vegetable juices every hour. Four times a day he took coffee enemas. He also took vitamins and supplements and mud packs for the pain his cancer causes him. And as a part of the treatment, he did meditation and received counseling. FLEENER: After they told me I didn't have long to live in Indianapolis, I was pretty depressed and now I feel very good myself and I sleep good and I don't have any more bad dreams and I don' think about dying. And I just think that I'm going to whip it and that it's a good program to use. PERL: Though the Gerson treatment has been available just over the border in Tijuana, Mexico for 20 years, a new Arizona state law that guarantees access to all medical treatments allowed Gerson advocates to open their first treatment center in this country one year ago. CHARLOTTE GERSON (PH), PRESIDENT, GERSON INSTITUTE: When you truly heal, you do not heal selectively. The body heals itself when you give it every opportunity and every support. And that's really what the Gerson therapy is about. Doctor McNay has since had his medical license revoked, following the deaths of four people he treated with aloe vera, who came to him from as far away as Waco, Texas. And he has been indicted on charges of defrauding cancer patients. Despite stories like these, thousands of people still opt for unproven alternative treatments. One of the main things driving them is a belief that traditional cancer medicines, radiation and chemotherapy drugs are poisons. Again, Berry Castlet. CASTLET: Many years from now, we will in fact look back on chemotherapy in particular, and radiation to a lesser extent, and realize that, you know, this is as fairly primitive means of treating a terrible disease. Right now, it's the best we have. Yes, chemotherapy is poison to fast-growing cells in the body. Fast-growing cells include malignant cells, that's why it kills cancer. And fast-growing cells include the follicles that produce hair. So, that's why your hair falls out. Your hair will grow back again, and presumably the cancer cells, we hope, will be destroyed. So, yes, these are toxic approaches. They're toxic only to certain kinds of cells. But how often are you going to kill a cancer cell, given our current knowledge and capacities? PERL: Today, nearly 60 percent of the time these poisons can cure cancer, and there are no credible studies that any of the alternative treatments can. But there are spontaneous remissions, cancer patients who occasionally beat the odds for no explicable reason. And there are anecdotes, people who swear that they have been cured by alternative treatments. And they tell their stories in magazines, on television, and on the Internet. Toni Sellhoffer (ph) of Ocean City, Maryland heard one of these stories while she was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymph system. Five months after she had a bone marrow transplant, her cancer returned. So, Tony decided to try an alternative treatment from Canada.

SEACT Tea (ph) and 714x. TONI SELLHOFFER, CANCER PATIENT WHO TRIED ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT: I heard about it on the news. This kid ran away from home a couple of years ago and it was national news. And he didn't -- he ran away from home because he didn't want to receive any more chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's Disease. He was on a couple of different talk shows. So, I then called his father in Massachusetts to find out exactly what he had done, because he was now cancer free after a going a year without treatment. He had done this alternative treatment. So, a -- and I thought he had -- you know, since he had the same kind cancer as me, maybe I had a shot at it. PERL: SEACT Tea was developed by a Canadian Nurse. It contains the herbs slippery elm, sorrel, and burdock (ph) among others. It is said to boost the immune system and break up tumors. But both Canadian and American studies have found it ineffective. 714x is a liquid made up of camphor and nitrogen. The treatment is based on the theory that cancer cells can be converted into normal cells by bathing them in nitrogen. There's no scientific evidence that this is true. Nevertheless for a year, Toni injected 714x into her groin. During that time, her cancer spread. This upset Imar Tabara, (ph) her oncologist at George Washington University Hospital. IMAR TABARA, ONCOLOGIST, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Treating cancer, the best treatment or the best outcome would be when you have minimal disease and that's where you have a chance to control that disease the best way you can.

Critics to ortodox treatment to killing cancer Plant based treatments cannot produce large profits because they cannot be patented. Large profits are needed to pay for the expensive FDA approved clinical trials. So plant based treatments never get FDA approval to treat a disease. Your doctor can only prescribe treatments that are FDA approved. If your doctor prescribes treatments that are not FDA approved, he or she can be sued or lose their license.

Most tumors contain a small percentage, approximately 2%, of multiple drug-resistant cells (MDR cells). Chemo is not effective against these cells. After the first round of chemo, if the chemo is effective, all of the cells that are not MDR, are destroyed. Since this accounts for the vast majority of the tumor mass, the tumor will appear to be effectively destroyed. However, the MDR cells remain and start to multiply. Eventually, a new tumor is formed that is entirely MDR. The next time chemo is used, none of the cells will be destroyed because they are all MDR.

For a doctor to recommend chemo a second time when it is clear that the tumor is mostly MDR is a tremendous error. Unfortunately, conventional medicine has nothing that works against MDR cells. The alternative cancer treatment, Paw Paw is the only cancer treatment that has shown effectiveness against MDR cells. But, of course conventional doctors cannot recommend it.
The first way is to kill the cancer cells, either directly or indirectly (e.g. indirectly by building the immunity system). Laetrile (i.e. Vitamin B17), carrot juice with beet juice, the Brandt Grape Cure, food grade hydrogen peroxide, ozone therapy, and many, many other treatments, appear to work by killing the actual cancer cells and/or by building the immunity system. But on an individual level, if cancer patients knew the truth, they would NEVER for one minute (except in rare cases) subject themselves to ANY orthodox treatment for cancer. The "true cure rate" for orthodox medicine, stripping away their sophisticated statistics, is 3%. Yes, 3%.

Dimethylsulfoxide DMSO Used in Recurrent Neoplasms [i.e. cancer cells or tumor cells]," by E. J. Tucker, M.D., F.A.C.S., and A. Carrizo, M.D. in International Surgery, June 1968, Vol 49, No. 6, page 516,

It was shown that DMSO bound to the dye (i.e. haematoxylon) and targeted cancer cells. Some of the cancer patients were cured during this study, even though DMSO was only being combined with a dye!!

"In spite of my criticisms, there are some parts of this study which do interest me very much. The fact that the Haematoxylon [a color die, which allowed the researchers to see which cells absorbed the DMSO and haematoxylon] and D.M.S.O. solution had a particular affinity for neoplasms [i.e. cancerous cells], and did not stain other tissues in animals could be most significant."

For the past 25 years, Dr. Jerry Mc Laughlin has researched acetogenins and their role in cellular protection. During that time, he has published over 100 articles and studies related to the health benefits of these compounds that are found naturally in certain herbs. A recent clinical study with over 100 cancer patients shows that the extract (containing a mixture of acetogenins) may support the body’s cells during times of cellular stress. The most potent available source of acetogenins is the

paw paw tree (Asimina triloba) . The twigs contain the most concentrated amount of acetogenins, especially if they are harvested when they are most biologically active.

Important new alternative treatments for breast cancer are emerging from research on our evolutionary past. For example, many anthropologists have documented the importance of breast feeding across cultures for immune support and optimum nutrition in infants. Now fascinating new research links breast feeding to protection from cancer for both the infant and mother. Given our evolutionary heritage of extended nursing (for much longer periods than today) and our modern lifestyle of virtually no breast feeding, this discovery offers new perspective on the increase in breast cancer incidence in developed societies.
Herbal medicines are also effective in helping to prevent or control breast cancer and its side effects. One promising Indian herbal formula called

Amrit can reduce the side effects of chemotherapy according to researcher Dr. Han Sharma, a professor emeritus and former director of cancer prevention and natural products research at Ohio State University. He and researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi recently completed a study on Amrit. Patients reported Amrit improved their overall well-being during chemotherapy by reducing instances of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, anorexia, and boosting their energy levels. Amrit is a combination formula that contains 44 herbs and is rich in antioxidant minerals and vitamins, including large amounts of vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene. Research shows it helps support liver detoxification during cancer and chemotherapy.

We have evolved with exposure to natural light and dark for thousands of years and are highly dependent on it for health. Richard Stevens at the University of Connecticut Health Center and colleagues in Finland found that women who are completely blind had 60% fewer breast cancers than women with normal sight. Those women who were only slightly blind had similar breast cancer rates to fully sighted women. The researchers found a proportionate decrease in breast cancer that coincided with the severity of the women's visual impairment. The disruption of natural cycles of light and dark, normal sleep patterns and melatonin produ ction has also been raised as a possible explanation for the 200% higher risk of breast cancer faced by Finnish air stewardesses. At first, it was suggested that cancer could be triggered by exposure to higher than average levels of radiation at high altitude. But leukemia, the prime cancer associated with radiation, was not as common among the women as would be expected. Further studies of mice that have been exposed constantly to light or had their pineal glands removed, and so cannot produce melatonin, have shown that they can suffer higher rates of breast cancer. Rats that had their pineal glands removed but received melatonin supplements developed fewer tumors. The disruption of melatonin production by artificial light may be increasing estrogen levels leading to breast cancer.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

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