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These scenes before your eyes would have been incomprehensible 100 years ago. What has become daily normal life is no longer synchronized with the blood that flows through our veins. Seen from these actual NASA satellite pictures, we have illuminated the night in a mad celebration of our progress. Toxins kill, whether quickly or slowly over a period of years, cloaked in the disguise of old age. Warm air moves north, and airborne transport of dioxins eventually reaches the once pristine Arctic. Arctic peoples are showing major health problems from bioaccumulation of dioxins.
30 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill is like the Russian nuclear Chernobyl accident. They are considered historic disasters. Over 30 million gallons of oil from individual consumers in the form of automobile runoff enters the ocean every week, the exact equivalent of the Exxon oil spill in our oceans. PCBs and over 200 other hazardous compounds are first consumed by microscopic organisms called zooplankton, and from there the poisons travel up the food chain to polar bears, seals, and whales, and then to people.
One thousandth of one millionth of a gram of dioxin can cause harm to the body, yet humans are now inadvertently consuming 3 to 600 times that amount every day. From the Arctic to [Music] Antarctica, trees, the very living organisms that clean the air and produce the oxygen we breathe, are sliced off at the ground with the most careless abandon, as if there is a limitless supply. In North America alone, we have intact only 2% of our wilderness areas of a century ago. At one point, it had been said that a tree squirrel could jump from tree to tree, following the hard wooden coniferous forest belts from the East Coast to the West Coast.
Global human populations have become a problem only because of our collective consumption at the expense of environmental sustainability, and the illusion of instant economic reward feeds the self-destruction. We are refusing to live in harmony with nature, and our bodies are the alarm clock. In the late 1940s, the incidence of cancer was 1 in 16. Today, it is one in two in industrialized nations. Cancer, cancer cells are essentially parasitic and immortal. They do not develop special functions, merely developing their own blood vessel network to siphon nourishment away from the normal cells, then grow to such an abnormal state that they will kill their own host. In addition to this ugly killer, a plethora of other chronic diseases is dramatically rising. Shockingly, now the chance of each of us getting cancer or some other chronic disease at some point in our lives is almost assured because of two key factors that are the underlying cause: deficiency and toxicity.
This discovery was at the core of a young MD's research. His name was Dr. Max Gerson. As a boy in Germany in the late 1800s, Max loved to play in the forests and gardens of his grandmother, fascinated by what he [Music] observed. He watched with great interest whenever chemical fertilizer was applied while planting potatoes. He noticed the earthworm's adverse reactions to these toxins, and they would crawl out and away. Day by day, he gained insight into the relationships between plants and the nutrients they gained from the soil. Young Max concluded from these and many later observations that the soil and all that grows in it is not something distant from us, that it must be regarded as our external metabolism, which produces the nutrients for our internal metabolism. Therefore, the soil must be cared for properly. It must not be depleted or poisoned, otherwise these changes will result in serious degenerative diseases in animals and humans.
Under a microscope, active leaf cells known as chloroplasts busily undertake the process of manufacturing chlorophyll. The miraculous process of photosynthesis begins. These live cells and enzymes in vegetation are the nucleus of what we need to ingest to heal a sick body or maintain a healthy one. Prior to receiving his doctorate as a medical student, Max Gerson suffered from severe and repeated migraine headaches, leaving him essentially unable to function for days. After 2 years of experimenting, Dr. Gerson was able to eliminate his migraines completely by eating only certain raw fruits and vegetables. Apples were a staple. Cooked vegetables were also included, minus the fat, salt, and spices, and alcohol present in the standard heavy German diet.
By 1918, word was spreading about the Gerson migraine diet, but on one occasion, a patient returned with an observation: not only had the migraine been relieved, but his skin tuberculosis also disappeared. The astounding news spread like wildfire. In April 1924, famous lung specialist Dr. Ferdinand Z. Brook offered to do a clinical trial with 450 incurable skin tuberculosis patients. At the commencement of the study, Zar Brook said to Gerson privately that if even one patient showed improvement, he would believe every word of Gerson's treatment. 446 out of 450 patients recovered, over 99%.
Dr. Gerson and his wife Gretchen had three daughters: Joanna, Ger, and the youngest, Charlotte. Of all the children, Charlotte took a special interest in her father's work, even as a youngster, much to the delight of everyone, especially her father. By the late 1920s, Dr. Gerson's fame had spread throughout Europe, especially after he cured Dr. Albert Schweitzer's wife, Helena, of pulmonary tuberculosis and Schweitzer's daughter's skin disease. When Dr. Schweitzer was 75 years old, he came to Dr. Gerson with diabetes and was also cured.
Between 1933 and World War II, Gerson and his family fled Nazi persecution, eventually settling in New York. Dr. Gerson's seven siblings died in the Holocaust. Throughout the 40s, Dr. Gerson's success at his New York clinic stunned the medical community, but also evoked the dark forces within it. Dr. Gerson was curing patients with cancer, and as a consequence, he testified before the United States Senate on July the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in 1946, along with five of his recovered cancer patients and the medical records of five more. So stunning was this testimony that on the evening of July the 3rd, 1946, renowned ABC News correspondent Raymond Graham Swing declared on his radio broadcast to the entire United States that for the first time in history, there had been discovered a cure for cancer. The public response was overwhelming, staggering, lighting up the switchboards at ABC nonstop, out of control, unbelievable. But what happened next was even more so. Two weeks later, Raymond Graham Swing was fired from his position at ABC that he had held for over 30 years, and the Pepper Anti-Cancer Bill of 1946, document number 8947, now gathers dust in the archives of the United States printing [Music] office.
All during these years, Dr. Gerson's daughter Charlotte worked intensively with her father. Now married, she had a son, Howard, and a daughter, Peggy. Charlotte encouraged and initiated her father to publish his first book in 1958, "A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases," published in numerous foreign languages and selling in the hundreds of thousands. This book demonstrated to the world the seemingly miraculous examples of patients with every form of horrifying and advanced cancers, given up to die by their medical doctors and surgeons. The patients came to Dr. Gerson with their biopsy reports, X-rays, and other medical records and found cures. And to Dr. Gerson's care, some of these patients, almost 50 years later, are still alive today. Of course, although the title is about 50 cases, these merely serve as representatives of thousands of complete recoveries, well beyond the 5-year survival mark, and the miracles of recoveries by the countless thousands across the world continue to this day. At the time of his death in 1959, Dr. Gerson was tracking over 1,500 patients. The files have been preserved by his daughter Charlotte, who's now in her 80s. Charlotte carries on the work of her father through the establishment of the Gerson Institute in California and the hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. She loves to reminisce about Dr. Gerson's legacy.
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We have some letters here of Albert Schweitzer, and uh, they had a very active correspondence. My father, Dr. Gerson, and Albert Schweitzer and his family, and my... were patients. And uh, he also expressed in this letter, he expressed his uh admiration of this specific uh uh cancer research that Dr. Gerson did. Of course, all the letters are in German, and I'm trying to... some, as well as uh the remarkable results that he saw, not only with constipations, but with his wife who had tuberculosis, and their daughter who had a very undecipherable skin disease. One of the things Schweitzer did was he gave Dr. Gerson a gift of a carved crocodile. Actually, this is an elephant's tusk, and uh, the natives in Africa made it, and uh, this was uh a gift to Dr. Gerson by Albert Schweitzer.
Many of the famous whose lives were snuffed out prematurely by usually cancer, who contributed so much to society, undoubtedly would still be alive today had they either known of the Gerson Therapy or followed through with it. And we have seen so many patients who were returned to creativity and long lives after being told that they had three or six months to live.
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Charlotte established the Gerson Institute in 1977 in San Diego, California, for the purpose of educating the public and patients alike about the therapy and highly effective ways with seminars, luncheons, consultations, follow-up care for recovering patients, mailings of books, booklets, and media kits. The list of activities at the Institute are as varied and numerous as the patients [Music] themselves.
In addition to the Gerson Institute, the hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, was established over 27 years ago to treat patients for cancer and other chronic diseases. Laws in virtually all the United States prohibit any other treatment for cancer other than radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery, even though they are usually ineffective at best and completely ineffective at worst. Chemotherapy, for example, does not cure cancer at all, and usually merely poisons and kills the patient instead of the cancer. On this particular day, two medical doctors from Czechoslovakia consult with Anita Wilson, who was executive director, about the possibilities of opening a hospital in Czechoslovakia. Cancer, you boost the immune system, you rid the body of those years and years of accumulated toxins from the way we've eaten and the way we've lived. I've been so impressed with the international interest in this work. Not a day goes by that we don't hear something from a patient or a physician or a group of people perhaps interested in starting a clinic or a support group.
Many of the staff at the Gerson Institute have had personal experiences of the potent effectiveness of the Gerson Therapy. Carol Beard, president of the Gerson Institute. I first met Charlotte Gerson in 1975. My daughter was 9 years old at that time and had suffered from asthma attacks almost every other month. She had an asthma attack that lasted 7 days. When I heard about the Gerson Therapy, it sounded uh good to me. It made sense. I went home and practically threw everything out of the cupboards, changed our way of eating, and Debbie never had another asthma attack.
In 1999, I started getting sick and um experiencing a lot of pain, chronic fatigue. I, in high school, I was one of those dieters, uh anorexic and bulimic. When bulimia when it wasn't really written about, I think I destroyed my digestive tract. The doctors couldn't uh diagnose me, but exactly. They said, um, irritable bowel syndrome. They weren't sure. They finally gave me a CAT scan. I had to fight for that. It took about a year of arguing to get a CAT scan, which revealed uh some lesions and tumor on my liver. Um, they said that one was suspicious of metastases, but they didn't think so. They wanted to wait and see. Well, I knew about the Gerson Therapy, so I decided I would just go on the therapy. And a year later, that same tumor, the one that they thought could be uh metastases, was gone. Totally gone. And my energy was back. The pain had left as soon as I started eating the foods. I, it was just, um, the way to go for me. I used the uh medical doctors as a diagnosis and knew already what I was going to do.
Several interesting things about the Gerson Therapy, but one I'd like to mention is the healing reactions. I was uh 16 in an automobile accident when I was 16 years old. My face hit the windshield, and I had over 50 stitches in my face. After being on the therapy for about a year, I noticed when one day when I was rubbing my nose that I could feel the bone on the right side of my nose for the first time. Prior to that, there had been a lot of scar tissue and lumpy bumpiness right in this area, and I could feel the bone. The scar tissue dissolves along with tumors. It's the body's reaction to healing.
Another staff member, Suzanne Brunt, Charlotte Gerson's niece. At one time was diagnosed with inoperable cervical cancer. I did the therapy 19 years ago, and so I can sit here and say that I'm a success.
Many recovered patients visit the Gerson Institute regularly to donate their time to encourage others. Paul. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1990. Through the rectal exam, the sonogram, and a biopsy determined that I had three sections of the cancer, malignant cancer in the prostate. And therefore, they wanted to take the prostate out. The next day, I told them that don't call me, I'll call you. I didn't want that removed. I then searched for cancer agencies, alternative cancer agencies, and they found Gerson. And I talked with Gerson Institute and went to the hospital in in Mexico and talked with the doctors and the patients. After 3 months, I found that I was losing weight very readily, lost 27 lbs. And after 18 months, my PSA showed 0.06, which to me was was the end of the treatment. I was cured. The doctor thought I was great. He said I had a better PSA than he did. I'm not an easy one to get along with because I'm a maverick. You can tell me something, but I don't believe you until you know. Ding Thomas. I put my hand in. Okay, now I believe it. The Gerson Institute gave me life back.
Dr. Gerson discovered early in his research that vegetables and fruits must be juiced to flood the body with nutrients that have been lacking within the human organism for so very long, sometimes for decades. A particular type juicing method must be utilized, however, implementing a grind and press device. [Music] When the vegetable is inserted, it is pulverized to the point that the fibrous cells in the vegetable are ripped open, leaving a mush that falls onto a cloth, ready to be pressed. Once the press, for approximately one ton, is applied, all the vegetable's available nutrients and living enzymes flow out, giving a potent concoction of nutrients. When juice is drunk, it can enter the bloodstream almost as fast as alcohol.
This juicer was originally designed in the 1930s by a scientific researcher named Dr. Norman Walker. Dr. Walker maintained that when we provide live organic nutrients to our bodies on a consistent basis, the result would be not only vibrant health but ideal longevity of approximately 120 years of age. Dr. Walker died on June the 6th, 1985, at the age of 117. The effectiveness of the juicing is obvious. An enormous amount of nutrition can be captured in a glass of juice in minutes, and within a few more minutes, be flowing within the veins of the patient. If this same amount was eaten, it would take hours of digestion, and much of the nutrients and enzyme times within the food would be burned up in the digestion effort. Dr. Gerson required his patients to drink one 8-ounce glass of juice 13 times a day. As you can see, an entire day's worth of juices is equivalent to an enormous amount of food, which weighs in at a little over 20 pounds a day.
But they don't just drink juice. In addition, the patients also enjoy a cornucopia of delicious organic foods that exceed their wildest imaginations. Not only is the food colorful and tasty, but serves as a compliment to the juices and is once again an organic medication straight from the table of Mother Nature. But just eating different is not enough to heal a seriously ill patient. Nutrition is only half of the equation. Resolving the accumulated toxicity in the body is the second half.
Got to die from something as detrimental to health as a cigarette symbolizes. There is a Pandora's Box of poisons and stresses on the body that are just as bad, if not worse, than cigarette smoke found in day-to-day life. The lifestyles we now live have us dying while we are still alive. To seem to be healthy, it is slow, relentless. Realizing this, Charlotte Gerson included a chapter about it in a book about the Gerson Therapy that underlines in layman's terms the principles of the Gerson Therapy. [Music]
Within one section of the book, environmental stresses that can lead to cancer are underscored. Types of these hits are in the most surprising places. Our exposure to toxins in today's environment borders on the absurd. It is practically impossible to avoid. It is analogous to dodging bullets in a hail of gunfire from multiple machine guns. Not only are there poisons we ingest, but stressors such as electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation that interfere with the body's own electrical circuitry and rearranges molecular structuring, causing damage, sometimes irreversibly, to the brain and other organs.
A typical example of daily toxic ingestion or precursor hit: be when you get into your automobile. Prior to even starting the engine, you will have already ingested dioxins given off from the dashboard to the fancy fake leather seat. Suppose you continue your journey and stop at a motel for the evening. Perhaps you chose a non-smoking room. However, someone else has taken the parking spot in front of your room and left their car idle for a short time, even for a few minutes. A nightmarish mix of airborne toxins in the car exhaust have slipped into the room from the space under the door. Once inside, from the power switch activating electromagnetic fields to the microwave radiation leaking from the oven as it prepares your plastic-wrapped, heavily salted, and preserved nutritionist instant dinner, to the carcinogenic chemicals in the soap on the bathtub rim, you're inundated with hits. The soap and shampoo are just the start, however, of what will be absorbed through your skin once you turn on the bathtub faucet, which will provide chlorinated and fluoridated water to help you get clean. Chlorine and fluorine help destroy the thyroid gland. The toilet seat has been sanitized for your protection, but what does that mean? The residual toxins in the chemical cleaning process of the seat will be absorbed by contact once you sit down. The toilet paper will also smear chemicals from solvents to dyes into your bloodstream. The chars use chemical detergent residues that will be activated once they hit the moisture of the skin. At the bathroom sink, you may actually drink the chlorinated water from a cheaply manufactured plastic cup that allows serious toxins from the plastic itself into the water. The freshly painted wall and its vapors are nothing compared to the plywood and the continuing emission of formaldehyde gases. Over to the lamp to get a cup of coffee to relax. It is coffee that has been sprayed with chemical poison, grown organically. The artificial sugar and the artificial cream add a nice touch to the mix. The good news is that you're not going to use a cell phone to receive or place a call. It was a cell phone. Repeated lengthy uses have shown to interfere with and challenge the neurotransmitters of the brain. The amount of radiation from the TV will be small, but when the TV set is discarded or incinerated, it will come back to you via the air, water, or food. This room contains a brand new carpet. The outgassing of chemicals for the next 6 months is extremely hazardous to body tissue if inhaled. As we finally turn off the light to sleep, the electromagnetic field from the clock next to your head will almost imperceptibly influence the slumber and dreams one hopes to have. Even the film to make this movie uses extremely poisonous chemicals in its manufacturing processing. As ridiculous as this scenario may sound, it is one more hit for your body to fight.
The good news is that most of these toxins can be removed with strict adherence to the Gerson Therapy. But how is this fully accomplished? The answer is organic coffee. Dr. Gerson discovered that if a patient drank more than a pint of juice a day, the powerful enzymes would dislodge poisons in the body's cell systems, and this is where the coffee comes into play. Once the poisons are dislodged into the bloodstream and absorbed by the liver, the liver can become overwhelmed and even damaged unless it gets some help. Dr. Gerson found that an organic coffee solution introduced rectally stimulates the bile duct in the liver to essentially dump captured free radicals and pathogenic poisons into the colon for expulsion through the rectum. When coffee enemas are utilized in conjunction with juice drinking, it is detoxification at its finest. The immune system will now have the upper hand, destroying cancer or rather degenerative conditions. [Music]
But how does one make a coffee enema? It starts on your kitchen stove with a quart of distilled water. [Music] Three tablespoons of drip ground coffee are dropped [Music] in. After a few minutes, the burner is turned down, and coffee is left to simmer for 15 [Music] minutes. Once the coffee is done, it is strained into a measuring cup. Additional water may be added to make up for water lost in steam in making the coffee. [Music] [Music]
Puy coffee enemas are best taken in a relaxing atmosphere to ensure maximum [Music] effect. Once the coffee cools to body temperature, it is poured into the enema [Music] bucket. A tiny plastic stopper at the end of the hose is slid back to release the air in the tube. It is then slid back in place to stop the flow of coffee until rectal insertion is accomplished. The hose clamp is readjusted to at least 8 inches from the end of the tube for rectal insertion to that length. Once the coffee solution drains into the patient, it is retained in the colon for 12 to 15 minutes. During this time, the liver has a chance to absorb the coffee's caffeine and other agents. Simultaneously, the liver in turn excretes poisons into the colon for expulsion.
Charlotte Gerson is not only responsible for keeping alive her father's principles of healing but guarding the integrity of those fundamentals and their application. Over the years, hundreds of holistic physicians in the United States and around the world have been trained by Charlotte and the Gerson Institute. Unbelievably, it is illegal in the United States to treat and cure a disease patient in a hospital with Gerson Therapy. Because of this, Charlotte had no choice but to establish a hospital 27 years ago in [Music] [Music] Mexico. Because Charlotte resides in Southern California, it is easy for her to drive regularly to advise and encourage the endless numbers of patients that arrive at the hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, under the care of a staff of physicians and nutritionists. Most patients who come in with inoperable cancers and with no hope of recovery leave within 1 to 4 weeks to continue the treatment at home, and usually on leaving the hospital, they're well on their way to recovery. Many patients experience the disappearance of their tumors while at the hospital. And the patients pouring in from around the world, and the making of this film, one cameraman accompanied Charlotte on a random day without any patient at the hospital aware of what was going on. The hope was that at least one of the patients would not be shy and would agree to peer on camera. Charlotte and the cameraman were not disappointed. The first patient that they saw was Alejandra, who graciously allowed them to enter her hospital room. She seemed in very good [Music] spirits.
And we have a biopsy from March of last year, and uh, it shows uh grade three or four uh cancer inside. And uh, after only about two weeks of the Gerson Therapy, there's no malignant cells showing in the core biopsy. It's very exciting. I'm very happy, very, very happy to know about the Gerson Therapy. Um, after only two weeks on the therapy, um, I find after the pathologist report that I'm free from cancer now. So it's fantastic. It's been a blessing. It's wonderful. And you can stay well, and if you want children, you have children? Yes, I can have children, and I've been given new life now, and I plan on staying on the therapy for the rest of my life. Modestly, but yes, this has saved my life.
What's your problem? What brings you here? I have um primary peritoneal cancer, cancer with... And you were... or what did you... a doctor? I was in Alaska where I'm from, and um, I was diagnosed with um, or I had pain. I had pain myself. You were diagnosed. How did you have a biopsy? Well, no, I, I flew to the Mayo Clinic, and I was, had a regiment of tests, and um, they found malignant cells in ascites. I had 10 pounds of ascites in my... The name of the doctor? It was, um, Dr. Ra... Dr. L? Yes. And he did a biopsy, and then he was able to tell you what the problem was? Ordered a biopsy, and the pathology came back with, um, carcinoma. Okay. And, uh, you had a... a stage of swelling? I had 10 pounds of malignant ascites in my abdomen. And they told you it wouldn't go away very easily? They said that the ascites would not go away unless it was tapped, that the chemotherapy could also dry it up. I see. Okay. And that was several doctors that told me that. But you didn't have chemo? I did have chemo. You did have chemo? How much? Um, one course. One course. And then when did you come here? Um, after I was finished with my chemo, and it didn't work, and they wanted me to have surgery and more chemo and more surgery and more chemo. Then you came here. And how long did it take for to come down? Um, I lost 8 cm off my stomach in the first day that I was here. The first day? Wow. And then it's been about 2 cm a day ever since.
There were other patients improving dramatically that day. Not all wanted to have a movie camera pointed at them, but nonetheless, they conveyed their deepest joy at how they were steadily improving. To Charlotte, this day was a typical and normal one. To the cameraman, it was like being witness to a miracle. Whatever you call it, it is working. The cases of full recoveries become a dizzying mix of joyous celebration and curiosity. But despite the success and statistics, each and every person who is forced to stare cancer in the eye wants reassurance, reassurance that what they have can very possibly be [Music] defeated.
Always seeking new ways to cheer up, empower, and restore hope to the supposed hopeless, Charlotte addressed several prevalent types of cancers in booklets. Within the pages of each booklet are personal biographies and the medical records of recoveries. Many of these patients were so sick with other maladies that cancer was the least of their worries, but their living nightmares were transformed into beautiful dreams. [Music] [Music]
Many former patients stay in touch with Charlotte Gerson and form lifelong friendships. One of these people is Debbie Wagner. Debbie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 9 years ago, stage 3B. Um, my dad had told me about the Gerson Therapy, and I did research. Um, I was planning to do chemo, and my dad told me about this, and during the research, I found out that the best way to cure yourself is to do it the healthy way, not put more poisons into your body that would kill you. And that's what chemo did. It kills your body, the good cells and the bad cells. Where the Gerson Therapy, it rebuilds all your good cells so that it will be able to digest all the bad cells and get rid of them. Um, I, I did the therapy, and it's 9 years, and I'm cured. I have not had any recurrence of cancer. I was, um, given the diagnosis from my doctors, and when they, they told me that I had the ovarian cancer, um, they had told me I had 6 to 9 months to live. And, you know, when I didn't want to go against the doctor, when you have panic attacks, you believe in your doctor. But I believed in the Gerson Therapy more, and I went for it. And when I go down to UCLA, and that's who did all my, my blood work and my MRIs to to check to see if everything was okay, I'd go into my doctor, and he'd just look at me, and he'd say, "I just can't believe you're one of my cancer patients. I, I don't have cancer patients that come in with all the, the, um, enthusiasm that you have and the energy you have." And that just really made me feel good every time I went in there. And seeing the patients that were in there, I, I did not look like a normal cancer patient. And to me, I have Charlotte and the Gerson Therapy to thank for that, because I just, if I would have done the chemo the way I was supposed to, I truly, truly in my heart, just don't think I'd be here.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, um, I knew of three other ladies that had the same cancer I had, and they also were given the 6 to 9 months. And the longest one of them made it, was 9 months, and they all three did the chemo. And I'm the only one here 9 years later, and I turned down chemo.
I'm Shanti. I'm Debbie's daughter. I was 12 years old when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. One of the girls that I grew up with, we, we took our summer and and made my mom's juices every day, and helped my mom when she was doing the coffee enemas. You know, we'd go in there and play cards with her to try to get her mind off of it, and she would, she would do her coffee enemas at night, and she wouldn't be able to sleep, so she would wake me up at like 2:00 in the morning and say, "Let's go to Walmart."
I'm, uh, Steve, Debbie's husband. When I first came into the Debbie life, it was uh several years ago, and when we first met, I was so touched. There is for Charlotte a reluctance to get emotionally attached to any single case since there have been thousands. But occasionally, a phone call will leave her effervescent with cheer, as in a case recently in Colorado.
12-year-old Stephanie was diagnosed 6 and 1/2 years ago with Wilms' tumor, a kidney cancer seen only in children. Her parents agreed to do immediate surgery. The surgeons removed the right kidney, but during the surgery, it discovered that the cancer had spread to the vena cava, the principal vein draining the upper portion of the body. But the claw of the cancer had not ended there either. It was discovered that the lungs too were riddled with cancer, and more horrifying still was the revelation that the cancer had made it all the way to the right chamber of her heart. The surgeon then opened her sternum and started with removing the tumors from her lungs. From there, he moved to her heart, and in open heart surgery, removed the tumor from her right heart chamber. The procedure took 10 and 1/2 hours. For the next four years, little Stephanie's ravaged body endured a total of 16 surgeries and massive amounts of drugs, chemotherapy, and radiation. But the powerful forces of cancer returned again and again with a vengeance. Now, even her liver was invaded by cancer, and both lungs were also reclaimed by the seemingly immortal, unstoppable disease. By this time, Stephanie was a bald skeleton, drained and reduced to the weight of a feather.
The doctors at Valley Children's told us that, um, she's not going to be able to, um, the cancer was back, and she's not going to make it. So my mom, she heard about this alternative stuff. So, first we went down to Tijuana and met Mrs. Gerson and learned more about the diet. So we went back home, and then I think it was January, something we were down at the Gerson, and, and we were doing the diet for there for about 2, 3 weeks. I think I had come down there sick myself, M. Candida, and, and like the second week, I started noticing with all the juices and the coffee breaks and all that stuff that, um, I was feeling better. I wasn't, I had regular yeast infections all the time, and they were clearing up. Yeah. Then we started on the diet, and I started feeling better after having been hypoglycemic, and just felt better, more energy. And the food, at first, I thought it was kind of weird because it wasn't, it didn't, well, it kind of looked weird, and the soup didn't taste that good at first, but after like a week, it started tasting better. And so we went back home, and, let's see, and we've been doing the treatment for 2 years, about, yeah, 2 years since this January.
From that point on, hope returned, and life began to change for the entire her family. Even the dog was happy [Music] again. For now, this is obviously not a report of a totally cured patient. Stephanie has a long way to go, but the poisons are now being excreted, and her body is building itself back up with powerful enzyme and nutrient forces. She is on the road to recovery. But where Stephanie's Orthodox medical doctors had only given her 6 months to live 2 years ago, she has now astounded them and, of course, confounded them. [Music]
Here, come on, boy. Let's go. I've been feeling a lot better. I've been having more energy when I was on the diet, when I am on the diet, and I feel very healthy and stronger and much better than I did this past spring. Rosy-cheeked Stephanie and her little sister visited Charlotte. Charlotte observed that they ran around playing and enjoying life as though the scourge of cancer had never visited this resilient child.
For many patients like Stephanie that are under Gerson Therapy care, an in-depth series of laboratory tests are taken to adjust the therapy precisely to the needs of the patient. There are also non-toxic, non-pharmaceutical supplements called biologicals that are utilized in a greater or lesser measure depending upon the patient's condition. One of the most important of these is a natural potassium mix of potassium gluconate, acetate, phosphate in equal amounts that Dr. Gerson put together after doing nearly 300 experiments. It is extremely beneficial to restoring the potassium in the body's cell systems that was lost due to most people's unrelenting use of inorganic sodium, such as found in table salt and hidden within everything from processed foods to toothpaste. Table salt is a poison, and even though iodine is needed by the body, adding it to table salt destroys most of that value. The use of inorganic sodium causes despite replacement of potassium found naturally in human cells, leaving them vulnerable to attack by diseases. Dr. Gerson's potassium supplement is dissolved in a quart of distilled water and incorporated in small amounts in the juices.
When it comes to fats in the diet, Dr. Gerson painstakingly searched until he found only one answer for that need: flax oil. Robert Gaffney, president, AMGA Flax Oil Production. Welcome to our plant here at Omega Nutrition. We're located in Bellingham, Washington, and, um, it's a pleasure to show you around. Here comes the one of the vehicles that delivers, uh, our... Our plant facility is a brand new, rebuilt from, uh, basically from the ashes of a fire that we had in 1996. So this is the newest, most sophisticated oil facility in North America. And, uh, basically, what, what it would be is a microprocessing facility. Flax seeds are cold-pressed at a temperature of less than 90°F. The pressed and ground flax seeds, essentially the leftovers, are used for fertilizer and animal [Music] food.
Dr. Gerson stressed that flax oil is to be ingested raw and cold. It is not a cooking oil. Flax oil delivers nutrients to the body's cells effectively, as well as activating enzymes within the body to help destroy cancer and other diseases. A true miracle [Music] oil. The Gerson Clinic, uh, with all of the good work that Max Gerson did in the past, really understood the value of of flax oil. It wasn't a, uh, anything that actually, they educated us more than we could even educate them on the value and the benefits of how flax oil really helped their modalities.
The use of these natural holistic supplements on the Gerson Therapy as part of customization to the specific degenerative condition of the patient. There are many holistic approaches to healing. The Gerson Therapy utilizes some of them in the recovery process. None in and of themselves can, for example, cure cancer, but they can sometimes fortify Gerson's Therapy's effectiveness when it comes to helping the body recover, whether from the common cold or cancer. Today, over half the medical visits in the US and Canada are to alternative therapists, despite the efficacy. And in the United States, especially, it is estimated that our understanding and acceptance of holistic medicine is still 75 years behind the rest of the world. The only area in which established Orthodox medicine in the United States is superlative is in the cost. Medically, we trail many third-world countries. Our medical system is collapsing under the load of so-called incurable chronic and degenerative diseases that Dr. Gerson cured nearly three-quarters of a century [Music] ago.
The foundation of the Gerson Therapy is fresh, organically grown vegetables for juices, salads, and delectable entrées, in conjunction with organic coffee for detoxification. It is imperative that patients have access to such food choices. The organic food market has increased almost 20% annually for the past 7 years, mainly as the result of the economic law of supply and demand. Mass-produced, commercially grown fruits and vegetables, produced with chemicals and sprays, are fertilized with only three minerals: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. But the plant, like the human body, really needs over 50 more. As a consequence of this tiny mineral contribution in the fertilization process of commercially grown crops, the plants are sick and must be kept on life support with more toxic chemicals until market. This process is now repeated in the consumer. In simplified terms, on the other hand, organically grown food is raised with natural fertilizers of decaying matter that supplies with the minerals required for healthy plants, which in turn enables the plants to fight off disease and resist pests naturally. [Music]
In a beautiful reflection of this process, in simplified terms, the consumer now will reap the benefits of the same natural protection by eating these [Music] plants. But discerning consumers want to be reassured that what they are buying is truly organic. Meet Wes Shimoto, foreman of an organic farm growing corn and vegetables in Southern California. Here at MK Ranch, we've been expanding our organic program, and we find it's very important to, you know, uh, provide sustainable agriculture to the community around us and throughout the United States. I know that in the past, um, people had different uh perspectives of what was truly organic, and we would have some growers come in and say, "Well, their their groves are organic," but basically just by virtue of neglect. And last year, the government uh set forth an NOP program, which stands for the National Organic Program, which set aside rules and regulations for everybody to abide by if they wanted to become organic. So that set forth a set of rules and regulations such that uh anybody who did want to become organic would truly be in the same uh playing field and would have to abide by the same sets of rules. We have found that, uh, uh, the attributes of, uh, truly doing a certified organic is, uh, beneficial not only for the people but also for the ground and, and etc. So that's something that, uh, we truly look forward to expand upon and to provide for the local community and also for the people, um, throughout the United States and worldwide.
By popular demand, undoubtedly based largely on the discovery of the incomparably better flavor of fresh organic produce, organic farmers frequently stock popular local farm stands with delicious samples of their produce for their neighbors' benefit before shipping their product to an ever-increasing world market. [Music] [Laughter]
Charlotte Gerson follows the Gerson Therapy herself as a lifestyle of prevention. She is known as millions of others have discovered that the principles of the Gerson Therapy raise the bar for getting the most out of life. The physical senses are at their greatest acuity, and the haze of mental deterioration disappears. One is resoundingly well. Now in her 80s, Charlotte's skin has the quality and texture of someone much younger. She doesn't need reading glasses, has an alert mind, has no osteoporosis, never gets sick, and sustains stamina, initiative, and energy that is comparable to someone in their youth. Using the Gerson Therapy, one need never again worry about dieting to lose or gain weight.
Charlotte explains, "When we're dealing nowadays extremely, uh, seriously with obesity, which has become an epidemic, obesity is almost always nothing but hunger. And the reason is that foods are so depleted, they are damaged, they're processed, they're, uh, dead in cans and jars and pickles and preserves and so on, so that actually the body is not getting nutrition, and people are very hungry because even though they're full, they are not truly nourished. So they continually have hunger and start eating more and more, but eating the wrong things, so that they become obese and are still not nourished and are still craving foods."
It has been said that supermarkets are like mausoleums, with the day's dead food lying in state. Once heat and pasteurization takes place, the enzymes are dead, and the molecular structure of food itself changes, making it hard to assimilate even its few remaining nutrients. Good health can exude beauty, not only skin deep but all the way through the bone. The Gerson Therapy is an approach to life that galvanizes the power of each and every person to experience life to the fullest and be assured of a life free of disease or some nagging, unknown medical condition. For many, it also grants them a higher vibration or spiritual consciousness that spans every faith and walk of [Music] life.
Day-to-day life experiences are fraught with perplexities that can be addressed in a negative or positive way. Life-changing success or failure results from our reactions to a flow of stimuli. The principles of the Gerson Therapy clear the mind to inspire positive responses to stimuli. In cases of drug addiction, crime, and chronic mental illness, these afflictions too can be overcome. For example, cocaine and heroin addicts destroy their cravings for drugs in usually less than 72 hours on the therapy. The human brain is capable of storing information, recalling it at any second, like books in a library. The knowledge imprinted in this organ of the body can be added to without limit throughout one's life. The only obstacle that arrests or commences to subtract those books is long-term lack of nutrients and environmental toxicity. Dr. Gerson observed that when nutrients are plentiful and the body is detoxified, the brain is restored to normal function. When the brain detoxifies, calm and clarity return. Mental and emotional fog lift.
Over 2,400 years ago, Plato wrote, "No attempt should be made to cure the body without curing the [Music] soul." The body is a miracle in its design and flexibility. It is a forgiving machine. Even following decades of punishment, it can rebound. One of the first steps we can take is to avoid environmental poisons, even those we think are insignificant. Harmful fractions such as chlorine and fluorine belong to a dangerous class of chemicals called halogens. These chemicals are found in virtually all municipal drinking water and inflict severe damage on the body's endocrine system, particularly the thyroid gland. Fluorine, a highly toxic byproduct of aluminum manufacturing, is very dangerous and expensive to dispose of. Industrial principles once convinced the American Dental Association that it would prevent cavities, an assertion that has since been proven false. Nonetheless, they found a way to dispose of this product by putting it in the public water supply. The only way to rid the water of this dangerous chemical is by steam distillation.
But there are other semi-hidden dangers in ingestion of daily poisons that can be avoided. Charlotte cites one example in particular: "Well, the dental amalgam is now coming more and more to the fore. Even while dentists used to dispute it, it's interesting to note that the American Dental Association claims it's perfectly harmless in your mouth. However, if there is any of the amalgam left over from what goes into your tooth, if it's just left in the office, they are required to dispose of it as toxic waste. But in your mouth, it's safe. Of course, it isn't, and it's been clearly demonstrated that a lot of children have, uh, uh, seizures and all kinds of mental disturbances from the dental amalgam, and so do adults."
The danger of illegal street drugs in public and private schools is heavily publicized, but there are wolves dressed as sheep that are welcomed as they walk through the front door. The trouble with Ritalin is sometimes, first of all, it's never been tested on children under six, and they're giving it now to children in preschool, in kindergarten. If the nurse or if the teacher feels that the kids are restless or are causing a problem, then they report them, and the nurse reports them to the doctor, and without any further thought, they put them on Ritalin. It does cause permanent brain damage, even when they quit taking the Ritalin. And the American, uh, services like the Army, Navy..."
And Air Force will not accept any person into the service who has ever been un rling because they are uncontrollable. They are mentally disturbed.
Rest is essential for all living organisms. During sleep, not only is the nervous system replenished like a storage battery being charged, but the body rids itself of poisons in a way that only sleep can accomplish. That is why upon waking, energy is born anew. Sufficient rest is critical for children, and with the bombardment in daily life of hits to their systems in modern society, repeated lack of it can hinder and sometimes permanently damage a child's brain development. The developing brain of a child at this time in human history must clear a number of hurdles in a bid for genetic normalcy. Children are more vulnerable to environmental pollutants than adults because of their size and faster metabolism.
One of the more publicized vulnerabilities is exposure to lead, especially lead from older homes where leaded paint was used prior to the 1970s. Remodeling and sanding of older homes produces a ticking time bomb if the dust is breathed in. These airborne heavy metals, along with numerous other chemicals in the food and water, are now unintentionally passed on to the next generation. But the removal, known as chelation, of such toxins, even heavy metals such as lead, is possible with close adherence to the Gerson Therapy.
Even the body itself can overproduce a substance that becomes poison in excess. In stressful situations, if the liver is unhealthy and unable to neutralize it, it's called adrenaline. Meet filmmaker Steve Crushell. Steve films and performs stunts for Hollywood films that push the envelope and the adrenal glands to the limit. In an occupation that demands split-second life or death decisions, the adrenaline flows in excess, and if not neutralized, can poison the body into illness. The potency of this substance is profound. When a drop of adrenaline is secreted by the adrenal glands, which are located like little caps on top of each kidney, it enters the bloodstream and is diluted instantly to between 1 to 2 billionths of its original strength. This would compare to one single drop of ink spilled into 6 million gallons of water. The purpose of adrenaline secretion is to accelerate the fight or flight response to protect oneself in threatening situations. The largest gland of the body, the liver, when healthy, is able to neutralize the secretions. In today's world, the abuse of this magnificent organ is relentless. Many people have liver disease and don't even know it. For the detection of a liver problem via illness requires the liver to drop below 30% of its full working capacity before symptoms become detectable. One of the Gerson Therapy's main objectives is to restore the liver to 100% capacity and ensure its health.
Another of this filmmaker's occupations is showcasing wild animals in natural habitats for public education, as well as for the motion picture industry. Working with wildlife all my life, I've learned about nutrition. Like this lynx here, if he wasn't fed correctly, he wouldn't be tame and happy and uh come to me when I call him. We live up in the North Country here, and uh lynx are found in the wild, and I use them for education, and uh they're very beautiful animals. But if they're not fed right, they don't have beautiful fur, they're not friendly, and uh they certainly won't come back to me when I call him. There you go.
The Gerson Therapy has changed my life. This 43-year-old man follows the Gerson lifestyle as a preventative measure and in doing so has acquired tremendous energy to achieve a physical workload equivalent to several people. Like many others who do not have degenerative disease, Steve is immune to even the slightest viral annoyances such as the common cold or other discomforts such as headaches or other minor health hindrances.
Because many of the animals are carnivores at the Wildlife Center, the health and reproductive ability must be maintained at highest levels. Several years ago, scientist researcher Dr. Francis Putter ran humane experiments with regular house cats that lasted several years. He divided his cats into various groups and fed each group differently. Some he gave certain cooked meats, some he gave raw meats. Those that received just cooked meats, over a few generations, not only declined in physical robustness but were plagued with illness and had temperament problems. Eventually, they were unable to reproduce successfully. The feces from the animals receiving the cooked product was used as fertilizer to raise string beans, but the beans didn't grow. Some beans hardly even sprouted. The house cats given the fresh raw meat product thrived and produced through each generation successfully. Clearly, wild carnivores such as these were designed to hunt and kill and survive on prey composed of flesh. Their teeth, stomach acids, and short digestive tract bear this out.
Conversely, the tooth structure of a human being is quite different than that of this wild wolf's teeth. But the dissimilarities between wild carnivores and humans do not end there. The human digestive tract is far longer and more complex, which is consistent with all herbivorous creatures. Additionally, the stomach acid and intestinal enzymes of humans are unable to properly break down or digest flesh containing animal proteins. Carnivores have very short, simple intestines to excrete the masticated and digested meat quickly, often within 2 hours, which precludes the chance for the meat to have time to purify and poison their systems. In a human being, it takes generally 48 hours for meat to pass through. Invariably, some of it doesn't pass through at all, but instead gets snagged inside tiny pockets in the colon, putrefying not for hours, but days, months, and even years. The toll meat eating takes on all the essential human organs, particularly the pancreas gland, which is also involved in the digestive process, is enormous. The pancreas was never designed to break down animal protein or meat. Instead, the pancreas produces digestive juices to split the molecules of the correct kind of protein food found only in vegetation. In the digestion of vegetation, the pancreas then can serve its second purpose, producing pancreatic enzymes to fight disease. When meat must be digested, the pancreas is diverted from its important protective purpose. If we only eliminated animal products from our diet, the odds of getting cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, and the Pandora's box of woes that go along with all this, would almost vanish. But the standard American diet, referred to as SAD for short, has totally flipped that scientifically verifiable statistic upside down. Looking under a microscope, it is easy to see red blood cells floating around free. But after a fatty meal of any kind, the red blood cells stick together like rolls of pennies. Now, these billions of tiny cells are unable to fold over to deliver a full measure of vital oxygen to capillaries all over the body, including the brain.
Surprisingly, some foods like legumes, soybeans, and soy products are either deficient in nutrients or cause health deterioration by blocking absorption of nutrients. Currently, there is popular discussion about one subject that is of particular interest to women: osteoporosis. In the U.S., it is very widespread, painful, long-term, hunted over, you know, broken bones and and disability and all that. It's caused by milk drinking, and the doctors give it for supposedly curing osteoporosis because supposedly milk has calcium. Not only that, it's also caused by meat eating because meat in the body, in the digestive process, causes uh acidity, phosphoric acid, and in this kind of acidity, the body isn't able to function. The body has to maintain homeostasis. It has to maintain a very exact level of alkalinity versus acidity. But with meat eating and milk drinking, the acid level goes much too high, and the body has to balance it out. What does it use to balance it out? Calcium. Where is it going to take calcium? It is not absorbable from milk because in the milk, with pasteurization and all, the enzymes are missing, and the body can't use it. So, on the contrary, that adds to the problem. Instead, the body needs to use the calcium and draws it from the bones. The Gerson juices, particularly the carrot juice, in combination with the green juices, the carrot is very rich in calcium. With the enzymes of the greens and green juices, it produces the ability of the body to restore calcium to the bones. We relieve osteoporosis. No problem. When Orthodox medicine, even with the so-called HRT and that, what all of these things they use, at best, they stop the loss of bone. They don't restore. We restore.
I had, you know, canceled my health insurance when I was 34 years old. And the reason, the reason was not that I was very healthy only, but the reason was that I'm not interested in the kind of hospital or medical treatment that might be covered by insurance because it's toxic, it's drugs, it's chemicals, and I had, you know, more of an idea that they might kill you rather than help me if I had to go into a hospital. And over the years, I've saved an average of $2,000 a year for 45 years. That's roughly $90,000. But that's not the only benefit. When you eat organic, as I did, and vegetarian, I was never ill. It's much cheaper to live this way and to live healthy, and not even mentioning feeling good. I feel good. I have energy. I'm able to work. I'm able to travel and lecture and uh do all kinds of things, even now that I'm almost 82 years old. I'm always telling people, women particularly, wouldn't it be wonderful if you never had to worry about finding a lump in your breast? But if you eat healthy, that's what happens. As I mentioned, I'm 82. Up until this time, I've never ever had a mammogram because I feel very strongly that living in this manner, you don't risk cancer.
Without Charlotte Gerson's determination and iron will, her entire life, Dr. Gerson's battle to share with the world this unprecedented medical marvel would have failed. Even now, the suffocation of this therapy is unrelenting. Today, Gerson's name and therapy is known and honored worldwide by holistic physicians, nutritionists, and chiropractors. Only in the United States is Gerson's name still forbidden to cross the lips of a physician. Fortunately for Charlotte, her family upholds her task and has contributed markedly to radiating information of the Gerson Therapy throughout the world. The Gerson Therapy is unequivocally the Holy Grail to curing cancer and maladies that now afflict most of mankind. Charlotte's son, Howard, is helping educate people around the world about the Gerson Therapy through a tax-exempt organization, as well as radio and TV appearances. He also authors feature stories for the bimonthly Gerson Healing Newsletter. Howard has recently completed an historical overview of his grandfather's life and work and coordinates book signings with Charlotte, like this one at the Gerson Institute in Southern California. Cancer, you can cure any disease, or you can just maintain good health. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Nice meeting you. Thank you.
Charlotte's daughter, Peggy, along with husband Juliano and daughter, Eta, who live in Italy, also follow the Gerson protocol. Eta, only 14, is already an accomplished violinist and donates her musical talents to benefits and lecturing programs that Peggy puts together in Europe. Juliano, a poet, journalist, lecturer, and author, recently wrote his own tribute about Dr. Max Gerson's life, set as a novel.
This film would not be complete without a representative recovery of the most deadly cancer of all. Meet Pat Ayres from British Columbia, Canada. A successful businesswoman in the shipping industry, she remains extremely busy. Pat radiates good health and has a deep conviction about certain priorities in her life. Pat took over her husband's shipping business after he passed away of lung cancer some years ago. Ironically, he developed cancer after Pat had recovered on the Gerson Therapy, but unlike Pat, he refused any kind of treatment from anyone.
"1986, I was diagnosed with pancreas cancer, which had spread to my liver, gallbladder, and spleen. The doctors told me I had 3 months to live. To go home, get my finances in order, and prepare to die. Uh, my husband just wouldn't accept it. I was only 46 at the time, far too young. So we kicked around thinking, oh well, for, you know, it was such a, a blow that you just don't really start thinking for at least a month. And at the time, I had, I was throwing up mouthfuls of blood. I was on the therapy for 10 days. The bleeding had stopped. The pain had stopped. Came home, did therapy for 2 years. After 3 months, my doctor's here wondered why I was still living. They asked me if I would have a CAT scan, which I did. The masses with cancer had gone. They said, 'I don't know what you're doing. We don't want to know what you're doing. Just keep doing it.' The doctors at that time said I would never live to see my second grandchild, which he is now 19 years old. So we proved them wrong. Um, I have, uh, my two, I have four grandkids now and a granddaughter, and I just last night, they took me out. It was my 65th birthday party, and it was nice to have them all together as a family. After I hope they appreciate me. At the time I was fighting with pancreas cancer, we got a call from Michael Landon. You may remember him. He was on Little House on the Prairie. He had pancreatic cancer. They gave him 3 months to live, the same as they did me. Uh, he wouldn't go down to Mexico, but he started the Gerson Therapy at home with his family. He went on to the, uh, Tonight Show, and he looked wonderful. He said he felt wonderful. And the doctors, after seeing, I guess, him on the night show, tried to, uh, talk him out of doing the Gerson. But so he went with the doctors and did some procedure that they thought would work, and he wouldn't lose his beautiful long hair. He phoned us after the, after he did this treatment and said he knew that was the end, that he should have stayed with the Gerson. And there is no doubt in my mind that he would be alive today if he had stayed with the Gerson."
Pat is of Hungarian ancestry and read with great interest and delight about a new Gerson Hospital in Budapest, Hungary. This hospital is not your ordinary hospital. It is a medieval castle and is devoted to treating cancer or disease patients with the Gerson Therapy exclusively. Finally, after 75 years and tens of thousands of healed people, the world at last is embracing this answer to cancer. Other hospitals are opening in Asia and Eastern Europe.
The book of mankind's journey and history is a ride through profound darkness, despair, suffering, and indescribable sadness. But the story does not end there. And in recorded human history, there's also triumph and hope over seemingly insurmountable societal, individual, and environmental ills. As historians and scientists go back in time from the Fall of Ancient Rome as a result of drinking water from leaded pipes to the secrets of the distant past frozen in some of the world's greatest ice fields, we can see a traceable legacy of other cultures and life forms that have arrived and survived on Earth for tens of thousands of years. Only now, and for some perhaps hauntingly, the melting ice sheets reveal through fossilized remains that nothing is permanent, that life is fragile and beautiful.
Dr. Gerson, who was the first holistic physician in the United States, called his approach to medicine "totality." He was a health ecologist. To draw the connection, as Dr. Gerson did, of the large-scale environmental challenges and the viability of life hinging essentially upon what we pour into our cups and place on our plates is so simple, yet profoundly hard to grasp by modern medicine's modalities. Quite simply, the time has passed in which we cannot take for granted the substances that we swallow. The purity and soundness of food has taken on a whole new meaning, and with every meal, we're either digging our own graves with the silverware or ensuring a healthy, productive life for not only us but our progeny. The future of our children today is a mystery, and the future of their children is even more so. Will they see the natural world and the wild creatures therein only as historical snapshots? The pivotal moment for modern civilization is here. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, all wild creatures bear testament to the health of our external metabolism, our natural world, the environment. For each of us, eventually, whether we are ready or not, someday it will come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So too your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from or on what side of the tracks you lived. At the end, even your gender, has skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built. Not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, to encourage others to emulate your example. Or will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone. What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom, and for what. A life lived significantly is not one of circumstance as much as it was of unfailing dedication of choice. A life that touched and cured a dying and suffering humanity, then and now.