Archived from Charlotte Gerson's booklet

Story

   Dr.van Zsidy was born in 1933 and raised in Holland. During
the terrible upheaval of World War II, when Holland was under
German occupation, he suffered hunger and disease throughout
his childhood and, weakened by deprivation, contracted
tuberculosis. Also, as the result of an injury, his leg became
severely infected and was in danger of having to be amputated;
fortunately this could be avoided. Van Zsidy studied medicine,
qualified as a doctor with an MD. degree and practiced psychiatry
in Europe.

   Eventually, he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, and chose
to teach at university level rather than undertake further study
and exams in order to obtain a Canadian M.D. degree. He
married and started a family.

   Tragedy struck when both his wife and his 11-year-old
son died of cancer. In 1988, van Zsidy noticed that he was
often extremely tired, lacked energy and had developed itchy
spots all over his body. Moreover, he was depressed, and his
chronic mild constipation had become so severe that at times
he didn't move his bowels for four or five days. He also suffered
from nausea and particularly severe headaches and tried
to control his symptoms by taking aspirin and other medication.
He consulted a medical practitioner who said to him,
"Perhaps you should see a psychiatrist." All tests for hepatitis
A, Band C proved negative. Eventually, in 1990, about 1 1/2
years from the time he started to feel tired and depressed, he
started to lose weight.

   One morning, he was unable to get up. He was weak,
vomited, and had swollen lymph glands. Hospital tests yielded
no results, and no diagnosis could be made, even though
he had been seen in seven different hospitals By the time he
had lost some 50 pounds, weighing only 125 Ibs., his brother
became alarmed and read every available book on the subject,
searching for a solution. The only advice he found suggested
a high protein diet. So van Zsidy started to eat a great deal of
protein foods- eggs, milk, and so on. The only result was that
his condition worsened even more. Finally he consulted an
internist who took a scan and found three lymph nodes positive
for cancer. The right lobe of his liver had several tumors;
the left lobe showed one measuring 2 cm. x 3 cm. His feet
were swollen, his abdomen was full of fluid (ascites), his liver
was greatly enlarged, and even just looking at food made him
nauseous. At this point, his doctors searched for possible
treatments but it was clear that chemotherapy would not work
and because of Van Zsidy's childhood bout with tuberculosis,
he could not be given prednisone. By now, two years after the
onset of his symptoms, he weighed only 98 Ibs. He went into
the hospital on January 8th, 1992. By early March, he was
clearly dying.

   As a last throw, he tried to follow the Wigmore and the
Livingston alternative treatments, but they brought little
improvement. Then he found Dr. Gerson's classic, A Cancer
Therapy - Results of 50 Cases and decided to embark on the
Gerson program. As he was too ill to travel to Mexico, he had
to do so at home. Now, at last, he had found the right answer
to his many grave problems. Within a short time he began to
gain weight and his energy was returning.

   After eight months, his arthritic knees healed sufficiently
to allow him to take up jogging.And after two years on the
Gerson Therapy, he was able to state that he "felt better than
[he] had ever, ever felt before."

   Dr. van Zsidy remains well and active.