Archived from Charlotte Gerson's booklet

Story

   Note: Debi's story is told here by her mother, Carol Beard.

   In 1966 when my daughter was six months old, she had her first
asthma attack. By the time she was 2-112 years old she was
suffering an asthma attack regularly every two months. These
attacks would last seven days each time. The doctor said she was
very young to start immunization shots but because the attacks
were so severe he wanted to start testing her for allergies. At the
age of three years she was tested at the Rees-Stealy Medical Clinic
in San Diego for 40 different allergies. Then they started her on
regular medication and immune shots every three weeks.

   Debi stayed on that regimen for six years. The shots would
make her sick, her eyes would puff up, and her arm would react
with redness and swelling. The day she got the shots she would
sleep all afternoon. (Later I would read about the medication she
was on, ephedrine atarax, and found that it is known by doctors
to cause liver damage. When I questioned the doctor about this
prior medication, he acknowledged the side effects as being
serious but said that the liver damage was the lesser of the two
evils! )

   One day I was talking about Debi's asthma to a woman I did
not know very well, she said I could do something about her
illness with nutrition. This concept was new to me. The woman
said I should visit the health food store and find some books on
the subject and read as much as I could. That research led to an
invitation to hear Charlotte Gerson speak about her father's work
and the Gerson Therapy.

   Charlotte Gerson's talk made a lot of sense to me. I bought the
book about the therapy: eventually I cleaned out all my cupboards,
and changed our way of eating. Debi was nine years old
at that time. It made quite a change for us. The whole family
followed the diet part of the therapy almost 100%.

   Debi did not get coffee enemas, but she stayed with the diet.
She has never had another asthma attack.

   Debi is 35 years old now [in 2002]. She is still pretty strict with
her eating. She enjoys more choices of foods but remains free of
asthma. For the last seven years she has had a pet golden retriever.
As a child she was not allowed play with animals because of her
severe allergies. Playing with animals would cause her an asthma
attack very quickly.