OT - Cancer revisited - Dr. Gerson's Suppressed 1946 Congressional Testimony

December 19, 2008

For anyone interested, this is very interesting and very revealing about cancer

politics in the USofA.

~Tonio

Subject: Dr. Gerson's Suppressed 1946 Congressional Testimony

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 3:16 PM

" As you undoubtedly know, there is no evidence at the present time that any food

or any combination of foods specifically effects the course of any cancer in

man. " -- Statement by the American Cancer Society, July 8, 1957.

The 4 minute historical clip below was taken from a must see documentary " The

Beautiful Truth " movie (see trailer here). It will be premiering on 14th, Nov.

2008 in New York, NY and then Los Angles, Ca on 26th, Nov. 2008

Sadly nothing has changed today....

" .....no diet has ever been shown to cure cancer. " ---Barrie Cassileth, Ph.D

---American Cancer Society Spokesperson (2007)

Oddly even the 1953 Fitzgerald Report - Suppressed Cancer Treatments does not

mention Dr. Gerson which is very strange indeed. Obviously it was too

threatening to the establishment and has been suppressed big time.

Here is what Straus, Dr. Gerson's grandson, who kindly sent me the copy

of the Dr. Gerson's 1946 Congressional Testimony included in this post had to

say...

" Pepper-Neely Hearings July 1-3, 1946

It was so heavily suppressed that it has been completely expunged from the

record. It took me quite a while to find a microfiche at a satellite library

facility. You have to have quite some political juice to get things deleted from

the Congressional Record, plus all copies of it in all Depository Libraries

around the country. Then I located in our old archives a reprint that was done

by the Gerson Foundation much more contemporaneously. " SG

Sadly, in addition to the mainstream medical Mafia, even some of Dr. Gerson's

colleagues eventually turned on him and he was poisoned twice with arsenic and

his seminal book: A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 cases' manuscript was stolen

and had to be rewritten before he passed away.

" At the time Doctor Gerson testified. he was still on the staff of the Gotham

Hospital of New York. Today, he is not on the staff of any hospital. Once he

instructed his associates in his method of cancer therapy. Today he finds it

impossible to secure medical assistants. Approaching the age of eighty, he now

practices alone. For over thirty years he has demonstrated excellent results in

treating cancer, his approach is on a highly scientific level, and his

credentials are the finest. Yet he has never received a penny to aid in his

researches ... Despite the fact that the Gerson therapy is based on authentic

physiology, discoveries in biochemistry and nutrition. it has met the usual

blackout. The originator is isolated: the medical journals will not publish his

work. " Natenberg, Maurice: The Cancer Blackout. Chicago: Regent House, 1959

The following is an embellished extract form a must read book: " Censured For

Curing Cancer " by S.J. Haught

Gupta

http://tinyurl.com/5l57tg

------------------

" The editorial in the AMA Journal of Nov. 16. 1946. had mentioned Dr. Gerson's

appearance before a Senate subcommittee that year. Hearings were being held - " A

bill to authorize and request the President to undertake to mobilize at some

convenient place in the United States an adequate number of the world's

outstanding experts, and coordinate and utilize their services in a supreme

endeavor to discover a means of curing and preventing cancer. " (Bill S. 1875)

It was the first time in history that the Senate had honored a physician in this

way.

But, as Don C. Matchan wrote in Herald of Health Magazine, " The committee report

of 227 pages, Document No. 89471, gathers dust in the archives of the Government

Printing Office. "

I Wanted that report and told Dr. Gerson that I was sending to Washington for

it.

" They will not send it to you, " was his firm reply, and once again the challenge

provoked a feeling of exasperation.

" Of Course they will, " I protested. " I'm a newspaper. "

But, newspaper or not, I was informed by a senator's office and by the

Superintended of Documents that there were no more copies left.

Mrs. Gerson finally located a copy for me, and I would like you to read some of

it. It is important to keep in mind that the hearings were held in 1946 and

bitterly discouraging to realize that nothing has been done. Cancer, the

unwelcome visitor, the bearer of sorrows, continues his rounds and widens his

territory. First it was only the house on the comer, the house across the

street, and then the house next door. He is not a stranger any more in your

neighborhood.

Following are some excerpts Bill S. 1875

CANCER RESEARCH - HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN

RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE - SEVENTY NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 1875

A BILL TO AUTHORIZE AND REQUEST THE PRESIDENT TO UNDERTAKE TO MOBILIZE AT SOME

CONVENIENT PLACE IN THE UNITED STATES AN ADEQUATE NUMBER OP THE WORLD'S

OUTSTANDING EXPERTS, AND COORDINATE AND UTILIZE THEIR SERVICES IN A SUPREME

ENDEAVOR TO DISCOVER MEANS OP CUR> 1X0 AND PREVENTING CANCER

JULY 1, 2, AND 3, 1946

The complete bill is here.

..... " I have seen patients who appeared to me to be so far gone as the result of

the ravages of cancer as to be beyond the pale of anything but miracles. These

miracles are in fact being performed by Max Gerson, M.D., 815 Park Avenue, New

York.

I have seen some of these results....

......It appears. however, that some doctors are fighting Dr. Gerson. I can

readily understand that when results so fantastic are obtained that such claims

can hardly be believable. My quarrel with these gentlemen is the fact that they

will immediately say such things - impossible. or the doctor is a fake, without

even stopping to enquire what is being done. I have had the same experience with

my own doctors, who merely throw up their hands and say that anyone claiming to

cure cancer is a fake....

.....The very fact that the patients treated by Dr, Gerson are living today When

they were destined to die three or four years ago, according to the statements

of these good doctors who treated them, I say is a sensational result and the

least that can be said for it is that Dr. Gerson has accomplished something that

no one else in the medical profession has accomplished with respect to the

treatment of cancer, so far as I am able to ascertain.

I would hate to think that the antipathy to Dr. Gerson would be in any manner

associated with the fact that his treatments are dietary and are not surgical.

He does not use surgery or recommend surgery, as I understand it, unless there

may be some remote cases. Therefore, if this treatment is effective, as I

believe it to be, the public would be relieved of millions of dollars of

surgical fees, and I repeat, I would hate to think that such possibilities

should incense any of our surgeons, who after all are presumed to be

humanitarians as well. Dr. Gerson has no doubt made enemies as the result of his

dietary therapy, wherein he does not permit patients to smoke or to drink

intoxicating liquors or to consume canned goods and other items which could

materially affect trade in that respect if it became universal, and of course it

was not designed for Dr. Gerson to " make friends " but rather to treat cancer as

the result of the many years of his experience.

.....Now, what bothered me was, as I said before, millions are being spent for

research. We are still researching with animals while here an unassuming

Scientist in New York - and I hope the medical profession will pardon me for

using the word " cure " - is curing cancer today. "

The above extracted from Statement A. Markel

" ....the dietetic treatment was used in all other kinds of tuberculosis - bones,

kidneys, eyes, lungs, and so forth. It

too, was highly favorable in many other chronic diseases. such as arthritis,

heart disease, chronic sinusitis, chronic ulcers, including colitis, high blood

pressure, psoriasis, sclerosis multiplex, and so forth. The most striking

results were seen in the restoration of various kinds of liver and gall bladder

diseases which could not be influenced by other methods up to the present.

The great number of chronic diseases which responded to the dietetic treatment

showed clearly that the human body lost part of its resistance and healing

power, as it left the way of natural nutrition for generations.

......My experience leads me to believe that the liver is the center of the

restoration process in those patients who improve strikingly. If the liver is

too far destroyed, then the treatment cannot be effective.

Aware of the imperfection of this as well as any other theory. I shall try,

nevertheless, to explain the end results of the Gerson diet. It is condensed in

three surpassing components:

(1) The elimination of toxins and poisons and returning of the displaced

" extracellular " Na-group, connected with toxins, poisons. edema destructive

inflammation from the tissues, tumors, and organs where it does not belong, into

the serum and tissues where it belongs - gall bladder with the bile ducts,

connective tissue. thyroid, stomach mucosa, kidney medulla, tumors, and so

forth.

(2) Bringing back the lost intracellular K-group combined with vitamins,

enzymes. ferments, sugar, and so forth, into the tissues and organs where it

belongs: liver, muscles, heart, brain, kidney cortex and so forth; on this

basis, iodine, ineffective before, is made effective, continuously added in new

amounts.

(3) Restoring the differentiation, tonus, tension, oxidation, and so forth, by

activated iodine, where there were before growing tumors and metastases with

dedifferentiation, loss of tension, oxidation, Ioss of resistance, and healing

power.

(Dr. Gerson placed on file with the Committee a document entitled: Case History

of Ten Cancer Patients, Clinical

Observations, Theoretical Considerations, and Summary.)

The above extracted from Statement by Dr. Max Gerson M.D., New York, N.Y.

Primary biochemical investigations by Dr. Rudolph Keller indicate that the use

of the diet is soon followed by certain definite electrochemical changes,

notably shifts toward normal or markedly unbalanced sodium, potassium, and

phosphorus ratios in the blood serum and the body tissues. Dr. Keller, as a

result of his investigation of the diet, believes that this type of

electrochemical reaction can very well change the entire metabolism of the body

in cancer patients. A preliminary paper by Dr. Gerson describes the diet in

detail and cites 10 cases of cancer in which it appeared that the Gerson dietary

regimen favorably influenced the course and symptoms of the disease.

http://www.cancer-research.net/TenCaseHistories.pdf

.....Even the newly announced radioactive phosphorous cure of skin cancer, and

skin cancer only, does not approach the deeper body cancer problem from a

systemic or fundamental point of view...

.....These observations have become apparent to several distinguished physicians

who have witnessed the effects of

the Gerson diet on cancer patients and whose signed statements are also herewith

enclosed.

Therefore, it is my carefully considered opinion that in view of the success so

far and the excellent future promise of the Gerson dietary regimen, it would be

unthinkable not to give major consideration to these new avenues of approach to

the cancer problem in the research program contemplated by bill S. 1875. "

The above extracted form: Statement by Dr. Miley, New York

" There were quite a number of failures also, but they were, in my opinion, due

to the fact that Dr. Gerson accepted for treatment patients who were so far gone

that they were absolutely hopeless, even for the most optimistic observer. "

-Heinrich F. Wolf, M.D.

End of Extracts from Bill S.1875

-------------

On Wednesday. July 3, 1946, millions of Americans heard Swing's

broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company network. To the cancer sufferer,

to his family, to everybody who hated and feared the cruelest killer of all, it

was a message of almost unbelievable hope:

" I hope I have my values right if, instead of talking tonight about the

agreement reached on Trieste by the Foreign Minister in Paris, or the continuing

crisis of the OPA in Washington, or President Truman's signing the Hobbs

antiracketeering bill, I talk about a remarkable hearing before a Senate

subcommittee in Washington yesterday on cancer and the need for cancer research

in new fields.

" Let me first say that I well appreciate that one of the basic virtues of the

modem medical profession is its conservatism. For without the most scrupulous

conservatism in the statement and application of medical knowledge, there can be

no confidence in the integrity of medical science. But for the very reason that

the practice of medicine must be conservative, medical science must be bold and

unceasingly challenging. Otherwise, medical science will not progress as it can

and must, and will lose its integrity.

" A bill is before Congress, the Pepper-Neely bill, to appropriate a hundred

million dollars for cancer research under Federal control. It proposes that the

government go in for cancer research with something like the zeal and bigness

with which it went for the release of atomic energy, turning the job over to the

scientists with resources generous enough to solve the problem.

" This alone would make a good theme for a broadcast, just as an example of the

use a great democracy can make of its intelligence and wealth. But the subject

has been made peculiarly gripping by unprecedented happenings yesterday before

the subcommittee which is holding hearings on this bill, and of which Senator

Pepper is chairman.

" He invited as a witness a refugee scientist, now a resident of NewYork, Dr. Max

Gerson, and Dr. Gerson placed on the stand, in quick succession, five patients.

They were chosen to represent the principle prevailing types of cancer, and in

each instance they showed that the Gerson treatment had demonstrated what is

conservatively called 'favorable effect on the course of the disease.' That in

itself is remarkable, but it is all the more so because Dr. Gerson's treatment

consists mainly of a diet which he has evolved after a lifetime of research and

experimentation. To say that Dr. Gerson has been curing cancer by a dietary

treatment is medically impermissible, for the reason that there must be five

years without recurrence before such a statement is allowed. Dr. Gerson has

cured tuberculosis and other illnesses with his diet, but he has only been

working on cancer for four and a half years.

" Let me say right away that I am not discussing this Gerson diet as a cancer

cure-all. It has produced remarkable results. It also has the failures in its

records, which anything as yet unperfected is bound to show. It is not something

that offers release from the most rigorous and conservative medical observance

in its acceptance and application. Whenever something new and promising comes up

in medicine, the temptation of the outsider and even some physicians is to run

to glowing superlatives and expect too much from it. But anything that offers

even a possibility of treating successfully at least some of the four hundred

thousand existing cancer cases in this country is stirring news, no matter how

conservatively it is formulated.

" There would be no Pepper-Neely bill to appropriate a hundred million dollars

for cancer research if the existing research were coping with the need.

" .. .I have spoken about this carefully and abstractly, which is to lose some

of the shock and delight of the experience yesterday at the hearing of the

Pepper Committee. It is one thing to talk abstractly about chemistry and diet

and vitamins and other factors in medical science. It is another to see, as the

Committee yesterday saw, a seventeen-year-old girl, who had suffered from a

tumor at the base of the brain, which was inoperable, and which had paralyzed

her.

Yesterday, she walked without assistance to the witness chair, and told clearly

about her case and her treatment. There was a sturdy man, Who had been a

sergeant in the army, who had suffered from a malignant tumor, also at the base

of the brain, which had been operated on but needed deep X·ray treatment, and

this he could not receive because of the danger to the brain. Yesterday he was

the picture of health as he testified, and quite naturally he was proud of his

remarkable recovery. There was a woman who had suffered from cancer of the

breast which had spread. Yesterday, she was well and testified with poise and

confidence.

" A few cases showing such improvement cannot, of themselves, affect the outlook

of the medical profession. But they are attested facts and not flukes, and as

such they have to be accounted for. And there are many, many more cases which

could have been cited. It would seem to be the business of medical research to

leap on such facts and carry every hopeful indication to a final, conservative

conclusion.

" So the advocates of the Pepper-Neely bill can argue that unless we learn now

how to deal successfully with cancer. many millions of persons now living in

this country are condemned to die from cancer. A hundred million dollars is

little more than a token payment for America to make to avert such a sweep of

death, and they can then point to the Gerson dietary approach as a most

promising field for research. Already it has achieved results which, while

relatively few, are astounding and challenging*.

" Dr. Gerson was an eminent if controversial figure in pre-Hitler Germany. He was

bound to be controversial because he was challenging established practice in

treating illnesses such as tuberculosis by diet. He has been assistant to

Foerster, the great neurologist of Breslau, and for years assistant to

Sauerbruch, one of the great physicians on the Continent. The Sauerbruch·Gerson

diet for skin tuberculosis is well-known to European medicine and the account of

it is part of accepted medical literature. Dr. Gerson told the Pepper Committee

that he had first come upon his dietary therapy in trying to cure himself of

migraine headaches. Later he treated others, among them a man with skin

tuberculosis as well. Dr. Gerson was an acknowledged dietary authority in

Weimar, Germany, and was responsible for the German Army, of his time, being

placed on dehydrated, rather than canned foods.

But all the hope and promise and excitement were for naught:-Today, the

Pepper-Neely bill, which might have opened The door to a new life of worry-free

health for the present and future generations of the world. which might have

saved uncountable lives, itself lies forgotten behind closed doors: a dusty

testament of man's eternal folly and a legacy of bitterness for the children of

tomorrow.

* " At the time Doctor Gerson testified. he was still on the staff of the Gotham