Archived from Howard Straus' gersonmedia.com website

Contributed: August 2006

“In 2000 life was going well for me. I was 29 and making a good living as a contract computer programmer. I was living with my girlfriend and we did a lot of traveling to various European cities. We owned a house having spent five years bringing it from a wreck to a very high standard.

Then in December 2000, I came down with a terrible flu like virus which flattened me for three months. Suddenly, I was very limited in what I could do. My mother came to visit me and she also got the virus. Six months later I was diagnosed with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What followed were four years of declining health and utter misery. I had to pace myself both mentally and physically and live a severely curtailed life. I also learned the perils of overdoing it and the price to be paid.

Initially I could work part time but it was difficult. Then in September 2003 I tried to return to full time work with disastrous consequences. My declining health plummeted further and I found my functionality had decreased to a terrifying level. In addition to crushing fatigue, I had terrible neurological problems. I found it impossible to use a computer or watch TV and even reading and speaking caused a terrible reaction in me. My head felt like it was full of cement. I was constantly cold. My skin was yellow and the whites of my eyes were a dirty color. It was extremely distressing. Over the previous years I had tried all sorts of things to recover my health.

I visited every consultant and doctor in conventional medicine but with no success. It seemed the only treatment available to me was to “rest” when I read an article in the Observer newspaper by a guy who had cured himself of cancer and Hepatitis C using Gerson Therapy I was impressed.

My mother too was suffering ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome though she was marginally better than me. She contacted the Gerson Support Group in England and spoke to Stephen Gamble, who is a Gerson Practitioner.

Stephen agreed to take us both through the Gerson Therapy. I knew the Therapy was challenging, but it offered hope in a hopeless situation. We began the Therapy in April 2004. We started slowly on four juices and one coffee enema per day plus all the other requirements. From the onset, I got huge relief from the enemas. I slept like a baby for weeks. Gradually Stephen increased the schedule to ten juices and four enemas per day. I was in extremely poor health and bed bound when I began the Therapy and for quite a while into it.

After four months on the Therapy something extraordinary occurred. One night, I was lying in bed when I felt a tremendous build up of energy at the base of my spine. Soon waves of energy began to move up my spine towards my head. The power of the energy was astounding; it felt like a jet engine revving up. As each wave of energy reached my head it moved into the center of my brain. What seemed like a fireball of energy began to move around my brain. Then I felt like an industrial strength vacuum cleaner was pressing right up against my brain inside my head. It was sucking something out. I’m sure now this was the beginning of my head beginning to detoxify in earnest. Two years on the vacuum cleaner is still there. The energy inside my head has not stopped, it fluctuates—increasing especially when I take an enema.

Prior to starting the Therapy, a doctor had tested me for mercury. The reading was very high. I had fourteen silver-mercury amalgam fillings in my teeth. Consequently, Stephen insisted that I have these fillings removed and replaced by a qualified dentist when I was strong enough. I began dental treatment with a mercury-free dentist in Dublin in November 2004. Each visit he would replace 1-2 mercury fillings with a composite filling.

They were all done by March 2005. I have been routinely tested for mercury while on the Gerson and the results have shown the mercury levels continue to fall. In addition to the Gerson supplements , I have also taken Chlorella to chelate the heavy metals in my body. Used in conjunction with the enemas, this works well. The chelating needs to be done carefully however as it is not a good idea to mobilize too many heavy metals at a time in your body. Also chelation should only take place when all the fillings have been removed I would have to say that for my illness, I found the detoxification extremely difficult. It is very hard on the body and I had very little energy for anything other than lying in bed and letting it happen, so I lay there for eighteen months. Occasionally when I overdid the detox, I would suffer and often I couldn’t sleep as the energy in my head was going too fast. However difficult it felt, I knew my body was responding to the Therapy. It was doing its best to rid itself of the poisons and rebuild.

I had a struggle trying to tolerate caster oil. It took me a year to build up to managing one tablespoon of castor oil orally and two tablespoons rectally. As I staggered through the Therapy my functionality gradually improved.

I found I could speak for longer periods. I could read for longer periods. I was regaining a little more physical and mental energy. I wasn’t as cold anymore. My skin returned to its normal pink color and the whites of my eyes became exceptionally white. Best of all the lump in my head was very slowly dissolving, like an ice-cube melting.
My head was feeling more and more normal.

On Christmas day 2005 I woke feeling very unwell. As the day wore on I realized I was entering a healing reaction. It was to be a very severe healing reaction which lasted nine weeks. My body began to release toxins at an even greater rate. I felt extremely ill in my stomach and found it hard to eat. The strain on my body was tremendous; I lost a lot of weight. As a consequence of the weight loss my mother had me hospitalized after the ninth week. The doctors stabilized me and got the weight back on. I am indebted to them for the great care I received.
After the healing reaction I noticed that I was no longer cold and my body temperature returned to normal. My head improved and I found I was regaining some more of the function I had lost. I could now listen to the radio and I was feeling better all round.

It amazes me how the toxins just keep coming out of me. I was obviously very toxic. From where I was it is nothing short of a miracle that I am here to be able to what I can do today.
Now in August 2006 I can drive the 70km round trip twice weekly to see my young toddler son. He is demanding in his play and I’m able to cope. I’m so grateful to be able to be his Dad imperfect though it is. I can now get out and about, which is terrific.

Stephen Gamble has been fantastic to work with. He went over and beyond the call of duty and supported me through some very difficult times. Gerson is not an easy experience for someone with such severe ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is however, easier than being left with this horrible illness. At least you are getting better every day instead of worse. We adhered 100% to the Gerson protocol and ate copious amounts of fruit and vegetables.

Thanks to Gerson, I am getting my life back and I am very grateful for this chance.

— Paul S. August 2006”

Archived from stephen-gamble.com/testimonials

“I was severely affected by ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; my health was in a dire state. I was 33. Bed bound, hardly able to speak; unable to use a computer, watch TV or even listen to a radio, I didn’t know if the Gerson Therapy could help me, but it offered hope in a hopeless situation. Both conventional and alternative medicine had failed me dismally.

I read all of the Gerson literature and it made a lot of sense to me. One thing I had learnt on my medical journey was that mercury was a big problem for me as a result of mercury leaking into my body from the 14 amalgam fillings in my mouth. I had long suspected that my illness was due to poisoning from mercury and God knows what else and Gerson showed me a way of removing the toxins from my body and rebuilding my health.

By a stroke of luck, I came into contact with Stephen Gamble and he agreed to take me through the therapy. It was a very difficult journey for me to undertake as I was so toxic. However, I had very little left to lose and everything to gain so I grasped at the chance it offered. I adhered 100% to the therapy and to Stephen’s instructions. He took the time to tailor the therapy to my requirements and monitored my progress through regular blood tests, mercury tests, follow-up patient forms via phone and e-mail. With the help of a mercury free dentist and under Stephen’s guidance, I had all of my fourteen amalgam fillings removed and replaced with composite fillings. Through the help of my mother, family, some friends and bought-in help, I was able to undertake Gerson. It is intensive and expensive but very powerful and thorough. The therapy takes most people on average, two years to purge all of the toxins from their body. In my case it was five years, with the first three years being the most intensive.

For the first 18 months, I didn’t see much progress though I knew my body was responding to the therapy. My days were spent in bed, taking the juices and coffee enemas and sometimes if I was lucky, I could speak for five minutes. After 18 months I had a massive healing reaction. It was very difficult at the time but proved to be a seminal event, accelerating my progress. After it, my health improved; I was back on my feet and out of the bed and could continue the therapy whilst having some quality of life.

Over the course of the first three years, I went from being a bed bound zombie to leading a good quality of life. My ability to speak returned. Then I could listen to a radio. Then I could watch TV and use a computer. Literally, as toxins jammed in my body – and especially my brain – were removed, my functions were restored. It took another two years to rid myself entirely of toxins but I was able to undertake this part much more easily. Gerson is slow and in my case it was very slow.
It is no exaggeration to say that it is a miracle that I recovered my health from the abominable place I was in; it is thanks to Gerson and the support and guidance of Stephen that I did. If you are considering embarking on the Gerson therapy, I would encourage you to read all of the Gerson literature. The therapy doesn’t work on its own; you make it work by following it diligently. However, when you feel your body responding to the therapy; when the healing process kicks in; when your energy returns; when your mind becomes so alert; when your friends ask you who your plastic surgeon is because you are looking so well – it is a wonderful feeling. The hardships imposed by the therapy: strict diet, heavy workload, high expenses, and being practically under house arrest were trivial compared to suffering under ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Gerson paved a pathway out of hell for me and I followed it with eternal gratitude.”
Paul Stuart, Ireland