Archived from Gerson Healing Newsletter Jan-Feb 2011

Doing The Gerson Therapy on Her Own
by Charlotte Gerson

Lisa St. John was born on August 21, 1965. It was in May of 2002 when
she noticed that she didn’t feel quite right. She stands at 5’3” and had
always weighed around 105 pounds, never gaining or losing much weight.
Then, in a period of about two months she suddenly gained an incredible
65-70 pounds.

Lisa was living on her own by the time she was 15 years old, with no family
with whom to consult or provide any help. She worked for her living while
studying, sometimes holding several jobs at once. At the age of 19 she
finished her studies and earned a high school equivalency diploma. Lisa
worked at an amazing number of occupations, including work as a
cosmetologist and as an interior designer in her own business. In retrospect
she realizes that she was always working with chemicals of one kind or another.

What she really loved though, was working with animals. She remembers
that at the tender age of 5 years old she already seemed to have an intuitive understanding of animals’ needs. As Lisa grew older, more and more people
became interested in her work taking care of animals. She finally figured out
that this was the work she really wanted and needed to do in her life. At age
30 she had become a full time “Animal Nutritionist.”

Unfortunately, weakness and forgetfulness accompanied her sudden and huge
weight gain. In 2004 Lisa made an appointment to see a holistic physician recommended to her. Interestingly, this doctor’s mother was an iridologist.
The doctor performed a diagnostic scan, noted her symptoms and then studied
her iris. Lisa was then told by the doctor that she had a pituitary tumor and
probably had only about two months to live. The doctor told Lisa that his mother
had suffered the very same condition and managed to overcome the problem
with some herbal treatments. However, she felt certain that for her, an herbal treatment would not be enough.

In the meantime, Howard Straus of Carmel, California had consulted Lisa for
his dog’s health problem and was very impressed with her ability to help the dog. Shortly thereafter in 2004 when Howard was making plans to visit our great
friend and cinematographer Stephen Kroschel in Alaska, he invited Lisa to
come along. Stephen picks up abandoned baby animals in the Alaskan
wilderness in the wintertime and raises them. At the time Howard was unaware
of Lisa’s recent diagnosis of a pituitary tumor, but at Stephen’s home, she
learned about the juicing and food preparation that are fundamental to the
Gerson Therapy. She chose not to tell Howard about her problem to avoid
burdening him with any possible responsibility for her healing.

Lisa obtained copies of the Gerson Therapy book and DVDs and put herself
on the full treatment. She went through the usual difficult periods of healing, weakness, high fevers and even regular seizures, all the while completely
on her own. She persevered even though she had neither friends nor family
to help her. It took about two years before she really felt a great deal better
and had appropriate cravings for greens and the nutrients her body needed.
She was delighted, but not until 2009 did she feel decidedly better and lose
much of her weight. At present her weight has nearly returned to normal.
Lisa noted that her weight is coming off now almost as fast as it came on!
She is eating huge bowls full of greens now that she realizes this is what her
body needs, and she is doing the coffee enemas and juices by the book.

Along her healing journey, Lisa has become aware that animals go through
the same reactions and know what it is they need. She now finds herself
trying to explain to her clients, the owners of horses and other pets for whom
she renders care, just what these reactions are that they don’t understand.

Lisa points out that after six years, the two months of
remaining life predicted by her doctor have still not run out.