Using Coffee as a Treatment for Cancer

Dr. Max Gerson, a German physician who died in 1959, first used coffee enemas in his medical practice when attempting to detoxify patients' livers. He later introduced coffee enemas as treatment for cancer patients in the 1930's. He based his work on German lab findings, and believed the caffeine would stimulate the liver and gallbladder to discharge bile. Believing this would help the health of the cancer patient, he decided to use it in his treatment protocol for them.

Independent Scientific Work That Gives Credence to Coffee Enemas as Cancer Treatment

• Dr. Lee Wattenberg and his colleagues in 1981 were able to demonstrate that unique substances in coffee—kahweol and cafestol palmitate—support the activity of a key enzyme system, glutathione S-transferase. This system detoxifies a wide range of electrophiles from the bloodstream.

  Gar Hildenbrand of the Gerson Institute reports that this system, "must be regarded as an important mechanism for carcinogen detoxification." This enzyme group neutralizes free radicals which are harmful chemicals now known to result in cancer.

How Coffee Enemas Work in Treating Cancer

• It is believed that coffee enemas enhance the body's detox systems in the liver and small intestine and neutralize common tissue toxins such as ammonia, toxic-bound nitrogen, electrophiles and polyamines.

  Two other chemicals in coffee, theophylline and theobromine, counter inflammation of the stomach and dilate blood vessels. They enhance the enzyme system which removes toxic free radicals. The fluid of the enema stimulates the visceral nervous system to promote peristalsis. Then the transit can occur of diluted toxic bile from the duodenum and out the anus.

  As the enema is held internally for about 15 minutes, and all the blood in the body passes every three minutes through the liver, "these enemas represent a form of dialysis of blood across the gut wall" (Healing Newsletter, #13, May-June, 1986).

Max Gerson's Detox Diet to Accompany Coffee Enemas

• Dr. Gerson also believed in having his cancer patients follow a strict diet while receiving the coffee enemas. The coffee enemas were meant to achieve detoxification of the poisons in the body introduced by poor diet. He placed his patients on a strict diet of natural fruit juices, vegetables and calves' liver.

  After the body is detoxified, "the essential organs destroy the cancer cells by an allergic inflammatory reaction." (Colonic Irrigation," Health Encyclopedia-Diseases and Conditions, http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/342/main.html#cont)