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Prince Charles has never made a secret of his love affair with alternative medicine.
Now he has infuriated the medical profession by backing a controversial cancer
treatment which involves taking daily coffee enemas and drinking litres of fruit
juice instead of using drugs. Charles gave an enthusiastic endorsement last week
to the Gerson Therapy, which eschews chemotherapy in favour of 13 fruit juices
a day, coffee enemas and weekly injections of vitamins.
Cancer specialists have told The Observer that there is no scientific basis for
the theory and that it can be dangerous because patients who are seriously ill
often come off their normal treatment to try something unproven which may leave
them badly dehydrated.
Speaking to a room of 200 healthcare professionals at a conference, Charles said:
'I know of one patient who turned to Gerson Therapy having been told she was suffering
from terminal cancer and would not survive another course of chemotherapy. Happily,
seven years later, she is alive and well. So it is vital that, rather than dismissing
such experiences, we should further investigate the beneficial nature of these
treatments.'
Charles's spokesmen last night refused to say whether the patient he referred
to is a close friend or someone he met in his role as patron of four cancer charities.
What has become clear is that a tight network of friends and associates are advocates
of the therapy. Dudley Poplak, an interior designer who has a client list of the
great and the good, is the man who is thought to have first alerted Charles to
the treatment. Poplak redecorated Highgrove House for Charles and Diana and designed
their apartment in Kensington Palace. He gave Charles a copy of the book A Time
to Heal: My Triumph over Cancer - Beata Bishop's story of how she beat malignant
melanoma 23 years ago by following the strict dietary regime.
Bishop would not comment yesterday on whether the prince had read her book, but
said: 'For years the orthodox medical profession has been totally ignorant of
the immense potential of nutritional therapy. Finally they have admitted that
if you eat the right food you can prevent serious illness, but they still say
that if you are ill, you can do nothing. I am not the only one who has survived
on Gerson; there are many others like me.' Max Gerson, a German-born physician,
gave his name to the rigorous diet, which he initially used to cure his own migraines.
He gained a huge following and moved to the US after practising in Paris, but
incurred the wrath of the American medical profession for presenting five patients
alive and well to a US congressional committee, years after they had been sent
home to die.
He believed that cancer was the symptom of a diseased, polluted body in which
tumours form when the liver, pancreas and other organs are out of balance, and
reasoned that animal and dairy products and other chemicals must be banned. The
coffee enemas are used to strip the gut of harmful bacteria and pollutants, but
specialists argue they often lead to other problems such as dehydration.
Today the Gerson Institute, run by Max's 82-year-old daughter Charlotte, has an
office in California but runs its main clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, because the
US forbids doctors to practise it. Treatment costs $4,900 a week and usually lasts
for around three weeks.
Another of Charles's associates, the hereditary peer and crossbencher Lord Baldwin
of Bewdley, went to the Tijuana clinic in 1996 when his wife Sally was seriously
ill with breast cancer. She spent eight weeks at the clinic, followed by another
two years of using the regime at home. Her disease recurred and she died three
years ago.
Lord Baldwin, who has known the Prince of Wales for many years, invited Charlotte
Gerson to address the House of Lords in 1999 and expound her theory. From his
home in Oxford, Baldwin said yesterday: 'The subject does arouse passions on both
sides but there is an enormous need for proper studies into these treatments.
I watched my wife's tumours shrink away but the treatment is a very difficult
one to follow. The drugs companies have millions to spend on research, but there's
nothing to spend on research into how nutrition might work.'
Charles set up the Foundation for Integrated Health, an initiative to integrate
different systems of medicines and therapies, six years ago and has managed to
persuade ministers to put millions of pounds more funding into alternative medicine
in the NHS. Surveys suggest it is growing in popularity with some 20 per cent
of people using an alternative treatment such as acupuncture between two and five
times a year.
In his speech, delivered on Thursday in London, Charles argued that it was impossible
to separate the mental and physical states of wellbeing, and that the NHS should
be developing more funding to different approaches. 'We must commission and produce
research that looks at the efficacy of complementary medicine. For example, many
patients use and believe in Gerson Therapy, yet more evidence needs to be available
as to who might benefit or what the adverse effects might be.'
One of the patients, Frances Carroll from Cheshire, said at the conference she
had benefited from Gerson Therapy for the past seven years. Carroll was diagnosed
with breast cancer eight years ago and turned to the therapy after she did not
appear to respond to conventional treatment. She said: 'It is a means of staying
alive. I think it has extended my life expectancy. One might say I've beaten the
odds.'
But the American Cancer Society warns that the therapy may be dangerous. On its
website it states: 'Gerson Therapy can be very harmful to the body. Coffee enemas
have been associated with serious infections, dehydration, constipation, colitis
(inflammation of the colon), electrolyte (salt and mineral) imbalances, and even
death.'
One prominent British proponent of Gerson Therapy is the Oxford don Michael Gearin-Tosh,
who wrote a book about his 'medical mutiny' after he was diagnosed with cancer
nine years ago. He converted to the Gerson Therapy and has stuck to the rigorous
regime of fruit and vegetables.
Professor Tony Goldstone, head of the North London cancer network, said there
was evidence that some patients reached a 'natural plateau' in their disease which
could last for years. He attacked the raising of 'false hopes' which 'lead patients
in the wrong direction'.
Other cancer doctors pointed out that many units, including Goldstone's, are now
offering an array of complementary therapies alongside conventional treatment,
because it is popular with patients and because it can be relaxing and mentally
helpful for them.
But there is still an enormous lack of evidence, as Prince Charles pointed out,
to show what works. One eminent cancer specialist who asked not to be named said:
'If I start to see patients coming off treatment to embrace this therapy, I'm
going to be very angry. Charles is abusing his position to put around wacky ideas
which have no scientific credence. Imagine the row there would be if Tony Blair
did something like this.'
Yet leading cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora says the role of diet in
treating cancer is extremely important and needs more research. 'There is no rationale
for the Gerson diet, which is quite radical. Why would a coffee enema work? It's
very popular among the higher end of the middle classes, partly because it's expensive
and because there's an element of religious mania to it.
'I think that some of what the prince has done in calling for assessment of complementary
medicine is a good thing because it can help improve the quality of life. But
the idea that huge amounts of Vitamin C can cure you of cancer is simply wrong.'
· Additional reporting by Mark Hudson
The Gerson regime
What is it? A gruelling nutritional regime which would typically consist of 13
glasses a day of fresh organic carrot apple or broccoli juice, vegetarian food,
weekly injections of liver extract and vitamin B12, and five coffee or camomile
enemas a day. Yoga is also recommended.
How popular is it? An estimated 1,000 people are following it worldwide, but the
cost of the injections - more than £20,000 a year - means many cannot afford
the treatment.
So what is the theory? Its creator Max Gerson believed cancer was caused by poor
nutrition and long-term exposure to pesticides, chemical fertilisers, air and
water pollution, and that the right foods and enemas boosted the body's ability
to eliminate these toxins - and the cancer.
Is there any evidence for this? There is growing evidence that eating lots of
fruit and vegetables has a protective effect against cancer, but studies on the
role of food during treatment are sparse. Scientists say there is no evidence
that huge doses of vitamin C or enemas can destroy tumours completely.