“There is no cancer in normal metabolism,” wrote Max Gerson, M.D. ( 1881-1959)

Hard to believe that that long ago, someone was talking about health and ways to fight cancer.  Or better yet, how not to allow cancer to thrive in your body!  This still makes me very sad…and angry.  What part of “you are what you eat” is still not registering with us? 

Max Gerson, M.D., lived in the United States for 23 years.  He is the pioneer of what is known as nutritional metabolic therapy.  His therapy involves detox and nutrition aimed at restoring the body’s natural immunity and healing power.  His theory stated “cancer results from faulty metabolism due to poor nutrition and long-term exposure to pesticides, chemical fertilizers, air and water pollution, and other irritants that increasingly saturate the environment”.

Gerson believed cancer was systemic rather than a localized disease.  Systemic refers to something that is spread throughout, affecting the body as a system.  The program helps the body eliminate toxins and waste materials that interfere with your body’s natural defenses, like metabolism.  It also involves a low-fat, salt-free diet. This type of diet pumps the body’s cells with easily assimilated nutrients that will strengthen your natural immune defenses.

The core of the therapy is the diet.  It includes organic fresh fruit and veggies and thirteen glasses of fresh squeezed juices daily.  These give the patient high levels of vitamin C, beta-carotene, and other antioxidants.  His patients also received supplements.  No meat was allowed and all animal protein was omitted for the first six to twelve weeks.  The diet also included some yogurt and certain cheese.  Research shows that these fatty acids killed human cancer cells in tissue cultures.  They did not destroy normal cells.  What may seem unorthodox to you, is the coffee enemas that patients gave themselves several times daily.  This was the key detoxification method.  Gerson believed patients died from the liver’s inability to absorb the toxic breakdown of the dissolving tumor, not from the cancer itself.  What does caffeine do?  Caffeine is believed to stimulate the action of the liver, increase bile flow and open bile ducts so that the liver can excrete the toxins of the tumor as it breaks down.

More about Max Gerson.  He was a refugee from Nazi Germany.  With his salt-free vegetarian diet he successfully treated tuberculosis, migraines, arthritis, and cancer.  One of his most prominent patients was Albert Schweitzer.  He put him on a nutritional program, helping Schweitzer control his diabetes.  So well, in fact, that he stopped taking insulin.  He also cured Schweitzer’s wife of terminal tuberculosis.  In the United States in 1936, Gerson was persecuted and harassed by the medical establishment.  Does that sound familiar?  Gerson was expelled from the New York Medical Society due to his unorthodox cancer therapy.  His therapy remains today on the American Cancer Society’s Unproven Methods blacklist. 

Although there are skeptics to this therapy and to many others, I still believe the key to a healthy body and mind starts with your diet.  The addiction to food that most Americans have is scary.  I can only hope that it starts taking less time to get this message across.  I hope that it starts with you.  I hope that parents start teaching their children at an early age about the benefits of diet and exercise.  Peace.

Throughout this year we’ve talked about everything from an aching back to wheatgrass.  I’ve asked you to have a good cry, think twice about your non-dairy creamer, and made you wonder about your energy drinks.  There have been recipes for smoothies, raw ice cream, living foods and lots of other things you can make and juice with your juicer or blender.  We’ve talked about feelings (a lot) and I gave you alternatives to help you heal heartburn, warts, constipation, insomnia, cancer, stress, PMS, lyme disease and diabetes, to name a few.  Looking back at your year in health, how have you fared?  Has this information been helpful to you?  I certainly hope so. 

In just a few days, a new year will begin.  I’m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions.  I take life a day at a time.  So instead of beating yourself up for not keeping last year’s “things to do in the new year” list, how about starting today with just a small change.  A small step.  It doesn’t have to be on the first of the month.  It doesn’t have to be in the morning.  It doesn’t have to be on a Monday.  Today.  Today is the day you will make one small change in your life.  It could be your diet.  Is it time for a fast or a cleanse?  Maybe your exercise routine.  Maybe you will call that friend you haven’t seen in a long time.  Today is the day to do it.  Today is the day to make a change.

I write about health, but there are many other resolutions you could make.  How about volunteering?  Check out your local hospital, animal shelter, nonprofit organization, food shelf or local YMCA.  Volunteering is a great way to be of service.  Did you know there are many volunteer programs abroad?  It’s also a great way to meet new friends.  Mentoring is also another way to volunteer.  Look into mentoring at your local grammar or high school or if you are in a larger city, the local Youth Service organizations.

Thinking of going back to school to get that degree or maybe you just want to take a class?  There are many opportunities for online course taking.  Of course, you won’t meet any new people online, so how about at the local community college?   Maybe you just want to learn a new language.  Start by putting an ad in the paper or craigslist and see if there are others wanting the same thing.  Then you might be able to find a local person to take a class with. 

The library is a great place to start for clubs.  Join the book club or the camera club.  It’s all just a click away!  What a wonderful way to connect with people.  Making new friends and trying out different things is a great way to stay healthy.  It can make you smile more, laugh more and breathe more! 

So get out there.  It’s not just about exercise and healthy eating anymore.  It’s the whole package.  Life for all it’s worth.  Getting the most out of you. 

Keep me posted on your endeavors.  Every day is a new day!  Peace.

My 96 year old grandmother just passed away.  It’s very interesting to watch how we all want to avoid the “break-down” and prove to ourselves that we can get through an emotional time without the tears.  Or it could just not be the right time to cry.  Even at 96, her death was unexpected, so most of us were just trying to get through the service and everything that had to be done.  Once the adrenaline rush had dissipated, and we returned home, my daughter and I suffered through a 24 hour stomach bug.  That’s when the tears came and I was able to start to experience the grief and sadness of loss.

I rarely get sick and with the exhaustion of the week, I’m sure my defenses were quite depleted.  Eating a high raw diet and not being home is difficult to say the least.  Plus we are Italian, do I need to say more?  I ate fruit and just one meal, but that was too much combined with the emotion of the week.   After my daughter got better, it was my turn.  I don’t like being sick.  Who does?  Every muscle in my body ached.  I couldn’t walk, it hurt to move.  When I decided to finally let go and let the “bug” win, I cried.  I cried for all the times in my life when I hurt.  I cried for my grandmother.  I cried because I was in pain.  I cried because it felt good to cry and I felt better after I did.  I relaxed.

Why cry?  Simple reasons…. a response to pain or for more complex reasons.  Crying helps you become aware of emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, or grief.  Holding in tears only allows those feelings to bury themselves inside your physical body.  Eventually those feelings cause an overload of stress hormones and when levels get high, crying can release this and help you feel better.  People cry after receiving happy news too.   The feeling of powerlessness or the inability to influence what is happening can also lead to crying. 

How you cry is a factor too in relieving stress and actually feeling better.  There are the simple tears, the sobbing cry or the flat out wailing, beat on your pillow, cry.  The emotional insight to your tears could be the deciding factor on whether your tears are being beneficial to your growth, personal and spiritual.  For me, I’ve had times when the crying was just crying, and I got nothing out of it.  But when the tears came like they did when I was sick, I know they were helping me heal.  I could feel the stress I’ve held onto for so many years being let go of.  When you cry and don’t project that crying onto someone or something else, you can feel the sadness and grief on a deeper level.  We all have sorrow.  We need to release it.  Sometimes, as during my grandmother’s service, it’s just not appropriate to wail.  Tears? Absolutely. 

Take the time today or tomorrow, or this weekend, to cry.  I know when I’m in need of a good cry.  I watch a sad movie, or a love story.  That works!  Then I take the time to “feel” my tears.  To allow those tears to come from the depths of my pain.  Then I go even deeper into the sadness, the grief.  It’s all the same.  Sometimes the length of my crying is very short.  It doesn’t matter how long, as long as you are getting “in touch” with the emotions.

Donna Bergonzi-Boyle

It’s that time of year again when everyone talks about resolutions.  I was never a believer in these.  Every night I make a resolution for the next day.  Every morning I reaffirm that intention.  The power of intention.  If you think it, if you believe it….it will become reality.

Here are some ideas for you this morning(or afternoon or evening), it’s never too late to set an intention.  Before you start your exercise routine for the day, whether you take the stairs instead of the elevator or you work out at a gym, set an intention.  What do you want to get out of your routine?  How will you feel if you get what you want?  Think about this for a minute.  Let’s say your intention is to get up each morning and stretch for at least 10 minutes tomorrow.  If you do this, how will you feel after?  That is your intention.  Before I begin my yoga class, I set an intention.  How do I want to be with myself during this class?  How do I want to feel at the end of this class? How do I want to receive the rest of the day?

There is one big problem with setting resolutions as I see it.  The guilt if I don’t achieve what I set out to do.  Guilt is not a healthy thing.  I’m pretty sure all of you know this.  “Guilt may reduce the ability of the immune system to fight off illness.” Internal and external forces will cause “dis-ease” in the body.  If I think negatively about my food intake, about my exercise or lack of exercise, it will affect my physical body.  I find I can judge myself before I even eat something.  I guess that’s good….in a way.  Now I can use that inner voice of judgment and turn it around.

Before starting to write this blog, I wanted something else to eat.  I knew I wasn’t hungry, I knew my body didn’t want anything else, but still my mind was running away with this idea that I needed food, any food.  I talked to myself.  Asked myself questions about what I would feel like if I did eat something?  I knew it wouldn’t feel good.  My stomach would hurt, either now or during the night.  The intention I set this morning was to feel good all day and night.  That intention made it much easier to listen to my body tonight, instead of my head.  And yes, I’m still talking to myself tonight.  There’s a lot going on in my head tonight.  I’m trying not to judge myself.  Tonight I will set another intention for tomorrow. It may be the same as today, to just feel good.  Yes, I could fail at this tonight, but tomorrow is a new day.