Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar series dramatizes this phenomenon through the story of Belle Gibson, an Australian influencer who claimed she had cured her terminal brain cancer using a natural and organic diet. It was all a scam: Gibson never had cancer and, therefore, could not have cured herself with a diet, no matter how nutritious, foods are not, in fact, medicines.
Although the series centers on Belle Gibson, my interest is Milla Blake, a character inspired by Australian wellness influencer Jessica Ainscough, The Wellness Warrior. Milla’s life took a dramatic turn at age 22 when she was diagnosed with a rare cancer in her left arm. Unfortunately, the only option that could have improved her life expectancy was amputation.
Faced with this devastating news, Milla began exploring other therapeutic options and came across studies suggesting a positive effect from Gerson Therapy — drinking organic vegetable juices, undergoing coffee enemas, eating a strictly organic plant-based diet, and taking various supplements.
After noticing what she interpreted as improvement, Milla became a passionate advocate for the therapy. Milla’s mother develops bowel cancer and, following her daughter’s example, adopts the Gerson protocol. She unfortunately succumbs to her illness, as does real-life Jessica a year and a half later.
While the series is fictional, it captures how emotional vulnerability can lead someone to become completely engulfed by a fallacious narrative. A narrative dressed in scientific jargon, propped up by cherry-picked studies that reinforce its ideas, and framed by a conspiratorial logic that usually hints at a “truth hidden by Big Pharma.”
Max Gerson’s Therapy
The fallacies and desperate attempts to exalt Gerson's legacy become immediately apparent in the book Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless, published by his grandson Howard Straus. From the outset, the reader encounters conspiratorial claims and exaggerated praise for the doctor. According to Straus, Gerson made revolutionary discoveries in dietary therapy during the 1920s and 1930s. Straus argues that Gerson might even have received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine if not for World War II and the resistance of medical associations.
The book emphasizes that after 1946, all references to Gerson disappeared from scientific literature, allegedly for defamatory criticisms, and he began to be portrayed as a “healer.” Straus describes Gerson’s original therapy as a salt-free, low-fat, primarily plant-forward, avoiding alcohol and stimulants.
To glorify his grandfather, Straus draws a dubious parallel between Gerson and Albert Einstein. Highlighting that both men were born in Germany, fled to the United States, and revolutionized their respective fields. But while Einstein became one of the most celebrated scientists of the 20th century, Straus laments that Gerson remains virtually unknown, claiming his rejection was out of envy or a conspiracy to suppress his work.
Gerson’s own experience with migraines during his youth led him to embrace unorthodox dietary ideas, e.g., the supposed benefits of radically restricting protein intake. With the rise of Nazism, Gerson went into exile in the United States, where he gained recognition for treating tuberculosis. However, the introduction of antibiotics quickly rendered his method obsolete. In response, Gerson shifted his focus to cancer, believing he could cure it through dietary interventions.
He theorized that his diet could reactivate the immune system, which he saw as a “healing response” characterized by fever and increased white blood cells. In some cases, this response would, according to Gerson, accelerate the elimination of tumor cells. But destroying cancer cells also releases toxins into the body, overwhelming the liver and potentially leading to hepatic coma—and death. For that reason, detoxifying the body became a central concern. Searching for a solution, Gerson reviewed his notes and rediscovered references to coffee enemas to support liver detoxification.
Gerson Therapy rests on a flawed premise: the belief that anything not “natural” is inherently harmful. It also assumes that a handful of seemingly positive outcomes are enough to validate a theory that has never undergone rigorous clinical testing. Gerson ignored established risk factors for cancer development, rejected any form of drug therapy or any substance he deemed a chemical, and treated diet as both the root cause and the cure for disease.
The Evidence
Interestingly, or tragically, depending on your perspective, Gerson Therapy has been questioned since the mid-1940s when a JAMA editorial stated it had received inquiries about Dr. Gerson’s dietary method, to which he had never provided any responses.
Gerson himself published some case reports in which, despite failing to demonstrate cancer remission, he claimed to have seen significant improvements in overall health and a reduction in tumor size in many patients. However, I believe this statement reflects more the doctor’s optimism than solid evidence, as all reports are based solely on clinical impressions of supposed benefits.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) reviewed Gerson’s cases and found that, although the reports included clinical notes and radiographs over time, the patients were not consistently followed up—often relying on mail or telephone communications. Later attempts to evaluate Gerson Therapy or complementary strategies based on it yielded negative results or suffered from serious methodological flaws, such as small sample sizes, lack of control groups, arbitrary exclusions of participants, and significant conflicts of interest.
If this were not enough to further marginalize the practice, the risks and adverse effects are deeply concerning. Coffee enemas, a central part of the Gerson Therapy protocol, have been linked to undesirable effects. Reports highlight fatal electrolyte imbalances, demonstrating that the treatment can pose significant risks, especially when the supposed “detoxification” process occurs intensely and without proper monitoring.
Before becoming outraged at the “stupidity” of those taken in by Gerson therapy, like Milla and her mother, many individuals have their own “pet” complementary approaches. An analysis conducted by the US National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health revealed a substantial increase in complementary health approaches over the past two decades, particularly for pain management, rising from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022.
Sadly, countless cases of well-known individuals have followed this path, often with tragic outcomes. For instance, Steve Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer, relied on psychics and an exclusive diet of fruits and vegetables, among other unconventional practices. More recently, Jeffrey Hatrix, former lead singer of the band Mushroomhead, was diagnosed with cancer and opted for the Morse Healthcare protocol: nine tinctures and two capsules taken three times a day, along with daily saunas and a fruit-and-vegetable diet. While I sincerely hope he recovers, history suggests this will not end well.
The reason is simple: most of these practices follow the same pattern as Gerson’s therapy: lacking scientific evidence, preying on people’s vulnerability, and encouraging patients to abandon evidence-based treatments—leading to avoidable deaths and unnecessary suffering.
And the saddest part is that while we strive to dismantle this nonsense—through means such as fact-checking, enforcing harsher penalties for charlatans, and creating strategies to teach scientific methodology to the general public—social media continues to boost the visibility of self-proclaimed experts who promote these practices and persuade more followers to adopt them. Unfortunately, unless we find a way to curb this virus of ignorance, often masked by a captivating yet dangerously fallacious and conspiratorial narrative, we will keep seeing more cases like The Wellness Warrior's, along with many others that remain unreported.
Sources: Gerson’s Cancer Treatment. JAMA. DOI:10.1001/jama.1946.02870460035013.
Use of Complementary Health Approaches Overall and for Pain Management by US Adults. JAMA. DOI:10.1001/jama.2023.26775 (2024).
