As I point out in my book "Action! Nothing Happens
Until Something Moves," the worldwide medical
establishment has long been known for its vigilance in
defending the status quo against maverick truth messengers.
One of the earliest truth messengers to feel the sting
of the American Medical Association's (A.M.A) attacks
was Dr. Max Gerson, a German immigrant born October
18, 1881 in Wongrowitz, Germany. Gerson attended the
Universities of Breslau, Wurzburg, Berlin, and
Freiburg from 1901 to 1906. He then served as an
intern at a number of hospitals and clinics throughout
Germany.
In 1910, Dr. Gerson, who had suffered from severe
migraine headaches for years, came across a book
written by an Italian doctor who claimed that some
migraine headaches could be relieved by a milk diet,
while others could be relieved by a
fresh-fruit-and-vegetable diet.
Gerson first tried the milk diet, but without success.
He then put himself on the fruit-and-vegetable diet,
with an emphasis on apples, both raw and cooked. In a
short period of time, his migraines disappeared. He
further experimented by adding salt and a variety of
other substances to the fruits and vegetables, only to
find that his migraines returned very quickly,
sometimes within a half hour.
After serving in World War I, Dr. Gerson set up
practice in Bielefeld, Germany as an internist and
specialist in nervous diseases. Expanding his
experimentation with diet, he was successful in curing
446 out of 450 supposedly incurable cases of lupus (an
autoimmune disorder characterized by skin lesions).
For his work in this area, Dr. Gerson was hopeful that
he might earn the Nobel Prize for Medicine. To his
disbelief, he instead was challenged by the German
medical establishment and hauled into court. The
charge was that he was not a specialist in skin
disorders, and therefore his work in this area was in
violation of the German medical code.
After having similar success with "incurable"
tuberculosis, he again was challenged by the
establishment medical community. Unfortunately, before
he was able to prove that his natural diet therapy
did, in fact, cure tuberculosis, Dr. Gerson, who was
Jewish, had to flee his homeland because of the
increasingly dangerous political situation.
After his escape from Germany, Dr. Gerson lived in
Vienna and then moved to Ville d'Avray near Paris to
become chief of staff at a sanatorium. Finally, after
a short stay in England, he emigrated to the United
States.
In New York, at age fifty-five, Dr. Gerson had to go
to school with first and second graders to learn how
to speak English, a prerequisite for his earning a
medical license. (He received his license in January
1936 after passing the New York State Board
examination.)
After setting up practice in New York
City, he continued his diet experiments with incurable
arthritis and cancer patients. His success rate was
astonishing even to him, and it made the medical
establishment very uneasy.
On July 3, 1946, Dr. Gerson demonstrated his healing
techniques before a U.S. Senate subcommittee headed by
Senator Claude Pepper, bringing with him five cancer
patients whom he had cured with his organic
fruit-and-vegetable therapy. The A.M.A went berserk—to
put it mildly.
In its November 16, 1946 edition, the Journal of the
American Medical Association stated, "Fortunately for
the American people, this presentation received
little, if any, newspaper publicity."
Later, in its
January 8, 1949 edition, the same publication
declared, "There is no scientific evidence whatsoever
to indicate that modifications in the dietary intake
of food or other nutritional essentials are of any
specific value in the control of cancer."
The A.M.A pressured hospitals, laboratories, and other
doctors not to do business with Dr. Gerson. This made
it difficult for him to document his work, because he
was prevented from bringing his patients to
established medical facilities for testing.
The final blow, however, was when Dr. Gerson was
invited to be a guest on a radio talk show hosted by
the popular Long John Nebel. The show lasted for
several hours, and the public's response was
overwhelming. The result? The radio network was
threatened by the A.M.A, and Nebel was fired the next
day.
Finally, on March 8, 1959, after years of harassment
from the A.M.A and other segments of the establishment
medical community, Dr. Max Gerson, the ultimate
medical messenger, died of pneumonia.
In reflecting on Dr. Gerson's work, Albert Schweitzer,
the renowned doctor and humanitarian who won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1952 (and whose wife Gerson had cured
of tuberculosis) said, "I see in him one of the most
eminent medical geniuses in the history of medicine.
. . . Unfortunately, he could not engage in scientific
research or teach; and he was greatly impeded by
adverse political conditions.
"In ordinary times he would have been able to expound
his ideas for many years as a professor at one of the
important German universities; would have taught
pupils who could carry on his research and teachings;
would have found recognition and encouragement. . . .
All this was denied him.
"His was the hard lot of searching and working as an
uprooted immigrant, to be challenged and stand as a
fighter. We who knew and understood him admired him
for working his way out of discouragement again and
again, and for undertaking to conquer the obstacles."
Dr. Gerson was the most hated kind of messenger,
because the message he delivered threatened not only
the incomes of doctors, but also of hospitals,
clinics, and those involved in the manufacture and
sale of pharmaceuticals and surgical equipment. After
all, if people ate healthy food, where would the
medical community get its patients?
That's why, long after the silencing of Dr. Gerson,
corporate giants in the dairy, beef, tobacco, and
pharmaceutical industries, along with the American
Medical Association, continued to shoot down one
medical messenger after another in an effort to
repress the hated, profit-killing truth.
Today, of course, every halfway intelligent, rational
person recognizes that alcohol, drugs, and foods
loaded with saturated fat, cholesterol, salt, and
sugar are the very things that lead to diabetes, heart
disease, stroke, and cancer.
The importance of a natural diet for the prevention,
and even cure, of most diseases is now pretty well
accepted, thanks to modern medical messengers such as
Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Roy Walford, who have the
luxury of being able to stand on the shoulders of
giants like Dr. Gerson.
Thus, the problem is no longer a lack of knowledge.
The relationship between what a person eats and his
health and longevity is well known to all. The real
problem, particularly in America, is the renunciation
of self-discipline and the addiction to instant
gratification on the part of the general public.
This is graphically demonstrated every time another
obese woman appears on television, sobbing and telling
the world that it's not her fault that she vacuums
down two Big Macs, a large order of fries, and a
milkshake every morning at ten a.m. It's because
"McDonald's makes it look so good in its ads." In
other words, the devil (or the clown?) made her do it.
The reality is that the only thing the devil really
made her do was file a frivolous lawsuit, and the
devil I'm referring to is usually sitting right next
to her on the talk show where she's venting and
lamenting. And that devil isn't Ronald McDonald. He's
that money-grubbing humanoid we have all come to
lovingly refer to as a "personal injury attorney."
Of course, all of these frivolous lawsuits will
ultimately be lost, because lethal food doesn't kill
people any more than guns do. Sorry, gun-control
advocates, but the reality is that it's people who
kill people (and sometimes themselves). And they don't
just do it with guns. They also use ropes, knives,
lead pipes, and even their own hands. Which is why the
whole notion of gun control is irrational, if not
idiotic.
And it's the same with food. Fast-food can't kill you
unless you choose to eat it. If the object is to kill
as many Americans as possible, Al Qaeda is not the
enemy we need to worry about. Nor is it the fast-food
killing machines that try to make deep-fried food look
so delectable.
The real enemy is our own lack of self-discipline,
which, along with self-delusion, is the number-one
killer on earth. These two culprits are not only
killers in the absolute sense, they can also kill a
person, figuratively speaking, in many other ways—including financially, spiritually, and emotionally.
To end on a high note, the good news is that, as a
human being, you have the capacity to choose to employ
self-discipline and think and act rationally. And you
can be certain that the results of self-discipline and
rational action are a lot more fun than crying,
playing the role of victim, and disrobing yourself in
front of millions of people on Oprah.
"Over the years, there have been tens of thousands of
books written on success, motivation,
self-improvement, deal-making, and more, but Robert
Ringer's works stands among the best. What separates
Ringer from the pack is his unique and unconventional
insights, as well as the fact that he speaks and
writes from firsthand experience.
All this is once again underscored in his latest and
greatest book, "Action! Nothing Happens Until Something
Moves." It's is an incredible work, unlike anything
I've ever read. In fact, I believe it's one of the few
books that can make an immediate and dramatic
difference in a person's life, no matter how high or
low he/she is on the success ladder at the present
time." —Bill Glazer, President, Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle
