Thanks Cathy-

Since there has been so much discussion about coffee enemas recently, do you  have any idea what effect coffee enemas my have on the appendix?

"Our studies have indicated that the immune system protects and nourishes the colonies of microbes living in the biofilm," Parkers explained. "By protecting these good microbes, the harmful microbes have no place to locate. We have also shown that biofilms are most pronounced in the appendix and their prevalence decreases moving away from it."

Just wondering.  David 

No, David, I haven't heard or read anything about coffee enemas impacting the appendix one way or the other.  I think we'll find out one of these days that the tonsils are equally important to the immune system and shouldn't be removed.

I posted something about this on the NyTimes website, and someone has emailed me that she has used this succesfully with friend and family, including her husband when he got food poisoning. I wonder how long it took to work, since food poisoning will of course go away by itself.

At any rate, she does swear by them, but it is not a step I am willing to take yet.

And by the way I am back to taking artemsinin only with my currrent treatment, as platelet counts are brought way down with large amounts of curcumnin. And it is very hard to time antioxidants with something that is actually an oxidant.

Maybe oh maybe..I will not need yet another transfusion. Oh well..things could be worse.

Thanks.

Alex Maas

Alex-

Are you saying that a person sent you an email saying that she promotes coffee enemas to her friends and family, even her husband when he had food poisening?  That coffee enemas are a sort of cure all?  David 

Yes, that is what she claimed. My domestic partner, who is a clinical laboratory specialist (formerly known as medical technologist) says probably water would have done just the same. The idea really is that since coffe makes some people go (I cannot tolerate coffeee for this reason), Gerson got the idea it woujld work on the other end. We think it is a little silly actually..or probably proctologists would use it for colonscopies. This woman also said that coffee enemas were in the Merck manual until 1972.

You can take or leave the information as you wish.

Take care all,

Alex Maas

a.maas@cox.net

Igg Lambda Light Chain

Diagnosed 08/03 DOB 06/1959\

No Stem Cell Transplant

Coffee enemas are not taken for a laxative effect. There is a very detailed explanation of how they work in the Gerson book. It is too long to type in here, but briefly, coffee taken rectally causes hemorrhoidal blood vessels and the liver's portal veins to dilate from exposure to the caffeine; The bile ducts expand with blood, the bile flow increases, and the blood serum is detoxified as it passes throug the liver. This is particularly important when tumor tissue is being broken down; one of the main reasons Gerson used the coffee enemas was to speed up the process of getting toxic cancer breakdown products out of the body before they could repoison the body. Sometimes if a tumor breaks down too quickly the person can go into septic shock. In severe cases enemas are administered as often as every two hours, to make sure the patient is not poisoned by the cancer breakdown produts. The palmitates of coffee enhance glutathione S-transferase, which is responsible for the remove of toxic radicals from the blood.

Alex and Lisa-

So Alex is saying that coffee enemas are used for laxative effect (food poisening) and Lisa is saying that the benefit of this procedure is more than that.  I will ask John Wagner and hope that he can shed more light on the benefit.  David 

David, it isn't my opinion, I am just reporting on what I have read. The explanation of how coffee enemas work, on a scientific level, occupies several pages in the Gerson book.

 A naturopath I have gone to once told me that if it is hard to retain the coffee enemas, it is good to do a water enema first, to clean out the bowel, and THEN do the coffee enema, so that the coffee can be properly absorbed instead of simply being used as a purgative.

Lisa- I should have been clearer- I was just trying to clarify the two perspectives.  I will do more research on the topic to clarify the benefits.  David

Gerson has also recommended using 1 T. of blackstrap molasses to retain coffee enemas. This  seems to work well, as does the cleansing water enema prior to the coffee enema.  To follow up on a previous email regarding the origin of coffee enemas,  Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker, D.P.M. state in "The Gerson Therapy"  that a nurse who observed World War I surgeons benefitting from coffee decided to put coffee into the enema buckets of wounded soldiers to see if coffee would help them too, following surgery, since pain killers weren't always available. The soldiers reported that their pain was "much relieved."  Dr. Gerson learned about coffee enemas from the published work of two German researchers, who had heard about coffee enemas being used for pain relief in the field during the War. Dr. Gerson decided to use coffee enemas as part of his detoxification protocol, since coffee was both effective and easily available to patients.