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A
Moneychanger interview:
DR. NICHOLAS GONZALEZ ON NUTRITIONAL CANCER THERAPY
PUBLISHER’S WARNING & DISCLAIMER: By publishing this material,
neither The Moneychanger nor Dr. Gonzalez recommends nor
endorses any specific treatment or therapy for any physical
condition or disease, including cancer. This interview is offered
for information & research purposes only, & the reader should
receive it as such. Neither The Moneychanger nor Dr.
Gonzalez guarantees or warrants any results from any treatment
discussed. Neither The Moneychanger nor Dr. Gonzalez assumes
any express or implied liability for any use to which this
information is put. By this interview Dr. Gonzalez does not
prescribe any treatment whatsoever for anyone who is not his
patient.
Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez practices medicine in New York City, treating
primarily cancer patients with a nutritional approach known as the
“Kelley Therapy.” In August, 1991 I interviewed Dr. Gonzalez for
the first time. Shortly after that I learned that my elder sister
had breast cancer. After she had surgery she became much sicker, &
in October, 1991 she went to see Dr. Gonzalez. She tells me that
she began to feel better as soon as she began the treatment. Today,
her body is nearly free of cancer.
Dr. Gonzalez very kindly gave us this interview on June 16, 1995.
His office is located at 36 East 36th Street, Suite 204, New York,
New York 10016, & his telephone number is (212) 213-3337.
Moneychanger subscribers can send an SASE with 55¢ to us for a
complete copy of our August, 1991 interview with Dr. Gonzalez.
MONEYCHANGER
Tell me about the Kelley Therapy for cancer & other degenerative
diseases.
DR. GONZALEZ
You
can break Kelley’s work into three parts: diet, supplements, &
detoxification.
That
sounds simple enough, but Kelley was more sophisticated. His genius
lay in realizing that different people need different diets, ranging
from pure vegetarian to pure meat with all gradations in-between.
We use 10 basic diets & 90 variations.
Traditional Eskimos in northern Alaska, for example, were complete
meat eaters because there are no fruits or vegetables there. Their
diet was 80% saturated fat, a horror by the current orthodox
standards, but traditional Eskimos were among the healthiest people
on earth. They had no cancer, no heart disease, no arthritis, &
normal cholesterol levels. When they became westernized & began
living in town in the 1940s & ‘50s, all the diseases of civilization
became epidemic: obesity, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, &
cancer. When they ate a high fat diet they were perfectly well,
because biochemically Eskimos can’t use carbohydrates efficiently.
They lack the enzymes. On the other hand, some humans are pure
vegetarians, & there are all gradations in-between, particularly in
America where the melting pot contains all kinds of genetic
backgrounds.
The
individual’s need for vitamin & mineral supplements varies as much
as diet, so we use individualized supplement programs for each
patient. Even the forms of vitamin C we use vary depending on the
metabolism. We use six different forms of calcium -- calcium
phosphate, calcium lactate, calcium carbonate, di-calcium phosphate,
even calcium chlorate at times -- depending on the metabolism..
Doses also vary from patient to patient. Because every patient has
a unique biochemical makeup, he needs a unique diet & unique
combination of supplements.
For
cancer in particular we use large doses of pancreatic enzymes.
That is the main anti-cancer element of the therapy. The first
study showing that pancreatic enzymes have an anti-cancer effect
goes back to 1904. Traditionally orthodox medicine thinks these
enzymes have only a digestive function, but animal studies
document their anti-cancer effect. I firmly believe, as did
Dr. Kelley, that pancreatic enzymes & the pancreas, not the immune
system, are the main defense against cancer
MONEYCHANGER
But doesn’t the pancreas normally secrete enzymes into the digestive
tract as opposed to the bloodstream?
DR. GONZALEZ
Yes,
but then they are absorbed into the bloodstream from the intestinal
tract. This has actually been documented. One of the controversies
around this theory is that the orthodox people claim that all the
ingested pancreatic enzymes are destroyed in the gut. That’s been
disproven, & studies as far back as the 1940s clearly document that
orally ingested pancreatic enzymes are absorbed into the
bloodstream, not destroyed in the gut. In 1976 an article in the
eminent scientific biochemical journal Science showed that
pancreatic enzymes in animal models are absorbed & not destroyed in
the gut. When the pancreas secretes them into the intestinal tract,
they are absorbed into the bloodstream & circulated around the
body. It’s been known for years that pancreatic enzymes like
trypsin & amylase circulate in the bloodstream, & these are normally
measured, but no one really knew what they were doing there. We
believe they help the body scavenge & destroy cancer cells.
MONEYCHANGER
Pancreatic enzymes, the third major part of Kelley’s therapy,
actually attack the cancer & break it down?
DR. GONZALEZ
That’s a simple way of looking at it, but things get a little more
complicated. Increasingly we believe that tumors are not the
illness, but rather the body’s way to sequester waste material.
Some patients who have been with me now for five to seven years
still have tumors, but they are doing very well. These people have
really terrible types of cancer, like lung cancer, pancreatic
cancer, & colon cancer.
God
designed the body to work well, & when the body produces a tumor, it
has a purpose. In the orthodox world & even in the unorthodox
world, people think of tumors as the enemy to be destroyed. We
believe that the tumors are a sign that the body is too filled with
toxins, either inefficiently metabolized toxins from the from the
body itself, or environmental toxins like heavy metals or
pesticides. These toxins can overwhelm the liver’s ability to
process them, backing up & confronting the body with an enormous
load of toxic waste that (we believe) produces tumors which are like
accessory livers, the body’s main detoxification organ. Tumors are
actually the body’s intelligent defense to sequester, store,
& neutralize severe metabolic wastes.
Yes,
pancreatic enzymes attack these tumor areas, but they also seem to
help destroy toxic wastes throughout the body. They digest,
neutralize, & wash them out, & they seem to help liver function.
The pancreas itself has a detoxification function & the enzymes help
the body mobilize & get rid of this junk. In addition, pancreatic
enzymes help normal cells repair, rebuild, & then eliminate
all kinds of waste products.
We
say simplistically that pancreatic enzymes destroy tumors directly,
but actually they just help the body destroy abnormal cells, waste
material, & abnormal proteins that can be very poisonous to the
body, & eliminate all this toxic junk. Then as the body detoxifies
the tumors tend to shrink
MONEYCHANGER
Is that the same as saying that cancer is caused by some sort of
toxemia, i.e., poisoning?
DR. GONZALEZ
Unquestionably, & this is not an original idea for either Kelley or
me. In 1960 Casper Blond, an eminent English surgeon, wrote one of
the classics of biomedical science, The Liver & Cancer. He
was a very orthodox scientist who came to the same conclusion. He
began to believe that the tumors were not the illness, but the
body’s intelligent response to toxemia when the liver fails to
eliminate wastes efficiently. As that waste backs up, in
self-defense the body produces tumors, like accessory livers.
Although only about 30 people these days are aware of his brilliant
book, it is one of medical history’s classic genius monographs, but
it just never took hold & no one understood it. It fits in
perfectly with what we do.
MONEYCHANGER
The first two parts of the Kelley therapy are diet &
supplements.
DR. GONZALEZ
The
third part is detoxification, which includes the enzymes. As
the body repairs & rebuilds, it releases an enormous amount of
metabolic waste. On top of that, we live in a very polluted world
that exposes the body to enormous amounts of toxic chemicals. These
are stored in the body like toxic time bombs. With the Kelley
Therapy the body tries to eliminate these wastes, so we have a
series of procedures that help the body mobilize this toxic garbage
efficiently. These include pancreatic enzymes, coffee enemas, liver
flushes, & intestinal cleaning processes that are very, very
powerful. Coffee enemas are one of our detoxifying tools. They
help the liver & the colon work better. We also have specific
detoxification procedures for the colon. Since most Americans have
enormous amounts of junk stored in their toxic colons, that’s
critical.
MONEYCHANGER
Now wait -- coffee enemas. The mere mention of those
provokes a string of bad jokes & hysterical laughter, but I remember
from our previous interview that you use those yourself.
DR. GONZALEZ
I’ve
been using them for 14 years with only one effect: I felt better
from the first one I did. I’ve never looked back & I feel great
when I do them. All the terrible things that are supposed to happen
don’t happen. Coffee enemas don’t destroy bowel function or wipe
out your intestinal flora, but what they do is help the liver work
better. They are extremely powerful, one of the most powerful detox
procedures that we use. My whole staff does them. They just feel
better when they do.
MONEYCHANGER
Did Kelley originate the coffee enema?
DR. GONZALEZ
No,
actually Max Gerson used them for decades & really promoted them.
He was a nutrition-oriented physician who moved to the US from
Germany during the ‘30s & practiced here in New York. Gerson found,
as did Kelley, that coffee enemas helped the liver work better. In
Europe they were used routinely in the ‘20s & ‘30s to treat toxic
shock & all kinds of very serious illnesses. By the ‘40s & ‘50s, as
medicine became more “technologically sophisticated,” interest in
coffee enemas waned, but they appeared in all the major nursing
textbooks right through the 1950s as standard nursing procedures.
They were listed in the Merck Manual, the Bible of orthodox therapy,
until 1977. What nurses & other physicians noticed was that the
enemas made patients feel better, but they didn’t know why. It was
supposed to be a caffeine high, but that’s not it. Through a
neurological reflex the coffee enemas help the liver work more
efficiently.
The
liver is the body’s main detoxification organ. It processes &
neutralizes all toxic chemicals, whether they come from our own body
or the environment. In this toxic universe of 1995 the liver is
always overloaded, particularly when you have an illness. The
backed up toxic waste makes you feel sick, & we believe it can also
lead to tumor formation. Coffee enemas help the liver clean out,
help eliminate toxic chemicals more efficiently, & make you feel
better.
MONEYCHANGER
So anybody could do coffee enemas?
DR. GONZALEZ
Anyone should do them. Well, anyone who wants to feel good.
If you don’t want to feel good, absolutely don’t do them.
MONEYCHANGER
Why not just drink the coffee instead of taking it rectally?
DR. GONZALEZ
The
different ends of the body are about a thousand miles apart
physiologically. When you drink coffee, it stimulates
certain nerves that shut down liver function. When you take
it rectally the caffeine stimulates certain nerves
that immediately cause the liver to release its junk.
MONEYCHANGER
The proverb says, “The dose makes the poison.” You even recommend
organically grown coffee for your patients. Do you really think
that the very tiny doses of chemicals in our environment,
vanishingly small in some cases, can cause cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
First of all, the doses on a lot of crops, including coffee, are not
insignificant. Coffee originate outside the US where they use
pesticides that are outlawed here, & in very high doses. A
particular coffee bean may not contain much, but when you’re doing
coffee enemas day after day, it starts adding up & can stress the
liver. Cancer & degenerative diseases are becoming increasingly
epidemic (& the rates are increasing substantially) because
we are increasingly exposed to many, many different toxins.
MONEYCHANGER
You imply that the body does not normally excrete these toxins.
DR. GONZALEZ
It
does, but poor nutritional practices (common in the US) & exposure
to toxins in the water & the air & the environment overload our
liver. It faces a load far greater than it normally can handle, so
the stuff starts backing up & that leads to degenerative disease.
MONEYCHANGER
Over what time period are cancer rates increasing?
DR. GONZALEZ
In
the last five years many types have increased -- pancreatic cancer,
brain cancer, & breast cancer particularly. It’s been gradual,
i.e., not an epidemic increase in two years, but rates have
increased substantially, particularly in the last few decades.
MONEYCHANGER
Mammograms have been used more & more in the last 10 years. Is
there any connection?
DR. GONZALEZ
There are doctors who believe that rising rates of breast cancer
correlate completely with the rising use of mammography, & that we
may be like a dog chasing its tail. Frequent mammography exposing
that delicate breast tissue to X-ray may actually be precipitating
an increase in cancer rate. The very tool they’re using to diagnose
cancer may be causing it.
MONEYCHANGER
What about birth control pills?
DR. GONZALEZ
They’re a total, unmitigated disaster. First, the hormones are
synthetic,. so they stress the liver. They don’t work
physiologically, but they do cause a toxic hormonal situation in the
body.
MONEYCHANGER
Let’s say that a patient comes to you with cancer & decides he does
want to follow the Kelley Therapy. It’s not easy, is it?
DR. GONZALEZ
No,
as you know from your sister’s experience, it requires real
dedication. Attitude is the single most important determinant in a
patient’s recovery. This is a hard program, & you have to accept
that getting well is a full time job. My average patient is trying
to undo 30 - 50 years of damage, & it’s not easy.. It’s virtually a
full time job, but I do it myself. I’ve never had cancer, so I
don’t have to do everything my patients do, but I eat organic food,
I do carrot juice, & I take supplements. I do it because it makes
me feel so much better, & I like to feel good. But it is an
investment. You have your good health, & there’s no price you can
put on that. Feeling good is the greatest gift I’ve ever had, next
to knowing the Lord.
MONEYCHANGER
How big a part does carrot juice play?. I know my sister spends a
lot of time washing carrots & juicing them. One glass of
carrot juice makes a full meal for me
DR. GONZALEZ
It’s
really a nutritional powerhouse. In addition to beta-carotene it’s
got B vitamins, vitamin C, carbohydrates, & a lot of calories, so
for sick cancer patients who’ve lost a lot of weight, it’s a
godsend. Juice offers high quality nutrition that’s very quickly &
easily absorbed without the input of a lot of energy:
MONEYCHANGER
I know the Kelley Therapy takes a good bit of time every day. How
much does it cost?
DR. GONZALEZ
The
first year runs from F$5,500 to F$7,000, & then it gets
progressively cheaper.
MONEYCHANGER
Is that just the cost of the supplements?
DR. GONZALEZ
No,
that includes everything: supplements, my fee, & buying a juicer.
The second year might be F$1,000 - 1,500 cheaper.
MONEYCHANGER
What rate of cure have you seen with this therapy?
DR. GONZALEZ
Right now we are in the process of doing clinical trials to
document that. We estimate that of the patients who stick with the
program (which is most of them) about 70% get well. We lose about
30%, but the majority do very well.
MONEYCHANGER
What about people who come to you after radiation or chemo therapy?
DR. GONZALEZ
Many
patients we see have already undergone chemo or radiation. They’re
always tougher to treat. Not only are you dealing with the toxins
from the environment & their own inefficient metabolism, but also
with the extraordinary toxic load from that previous treatment.
Even antibiotics are toxic, & certainly aggressive chemo or
radiation are very toxic & damaging to the body. That leaves us
facing two battles: repairing the normal toxicity as well as the
damage done by the previous therapy. Those patients have more work
to do, but they can get well.
Of
course, there is a point of no return. I’ve had patents who’ve had
10 different chemo drugs & radiation. That’s above & beyond what
the human body can tolerate, & these people are going to die. The
side effects from therapy that extensive are not reversible. But
generally many patients who’ve had the standard chemo or radiation
doses can get better. It’s a little tougher, & they’ll feel a
little sicker, but they get better.
MONEYCHANGER
What do you mean when you say, “Seventy percent get well”? They
don’t die of cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
Basically. They may get hit by a truck in 15 years, but they don’t
die of cancer. I have patients who came in with terminal cancer &
have now been with me eight years, & they’re doing fine.
MONEYCHANGER
When you say you have a rate of cure where 70% of them get well,
i.e., don’t die of cancer, that embraces all kinds of cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
Pretty much. We see a whole variety of cancers. I hesitate because
there are some types of cancer like acute leukemia that I haven’t
just seen many of. I can’t speak to those because I just don’t have
a lot of experience with them.
MONEYCHANGER
What about biopsies? Do they actually spread cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
There are studies that show that biopsies of liver tumors & prostate
cancer can actually spread the illness. This is out of the orthodox
literature, I’m not making this up myself. The body’s attempting to
wall off toxins & you just leave those tumors alone, because the
body knows what it’s doing. When you mess around with the capsule
of those tumors, you’re going to spread the toxic wastes the body is
trying to control, like bursting a balloon.
MONEYCHANGER
How do you decide what sort of diet & supplements to prescribe?
DR. GONZALEZ
Our
biochemical workup includes blood work & a special hair analysis
(that’s experimental). We interpret that biochemical information to
determine the diet & supplements.
MONEYCHANGER
You are an M.D. with an orthodox medical education from Cornell
University. How did you become involved with this very unorthodox
therapy?
DR. GONZALEZ
I
started researching Kelley’s work as a second-year medical student,
under the direction of the then-head of Sloan-Kettering. What
started as a student project developed into a five year research
study examining thousands of his records. As eccentric a man as
Kelley may have been, I had no choice but to accept that he had
hundreds & hundreds of patients with obviously terminal disease who
were still alive 5, 10, & 15 years later. We documented all that in
a monograph. It took 5 years to do the study, & the data spoke for
itself.
MONEYCHANGER
How did Kelley figure this out? Wasn’t he an orthodontist?
DR. GONZALEZ
Yes,
and a very smart man. He became interested in nutrition as a result
of his dentistry. Around 1964 he was diagnosed with what was
thought to be pancreatic cancer, although it was never biopsied. He
was quite sick, & treated himself & got well. Gradually he began to
treat other cancer patients for whom there was no other option.
MONEYCHANGER
After you’d gotten out of Medical School & done this study, you
decided to go into this type of therapy?
DR. GONZALEZ
My
goal was to get clinical trials to prove its effectiveness. I was
trained as an orthodox scientist, & that’s what I felt was needed.
But back in the mid-’80s if you mentioned nutrition & cancer in the
same sentence they were ready to throw you in jail. That’s changed
a lot in 10 years. Back then I couldn’t get anyone to support
clinical trials. Now we have done that, but my goal has always been
to collect & present enough data so that sooner or later the
authorities in medicine would have to take this therapy seriously.
MONEYCHANGER
Kelley had pancreatic cancer. From the death of a friend a few years
ago I know that’s a very fast-moving cancer.
DR. GONZALEZ
It’s
the worst there is.
MONEYCHANGER
How long would a patient normally live with pancreatic cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
With
inoperable disease the survival is anywhere from three to four
months on average.
MONEYCHANGER
Kelley survived. What about the people he treated?
DR. GONZALEZ
Some
of them with diagnosed pancreatic cancer we followed more than 10 &
15 years.
MONEYCHANGER
These people had clinically diagnosed pancreatic cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
Yes. We actually tracked down every pancreatic cancer case he
treated between 1974 & 1982, & the average survival at that point
was 8½ years for the people who did his program. In the small
series that we were able to document, the ones who followed the
program had done extraordinarily well, & some are still alive.
MONEYCHANGER
It’s been almost 4 years now since my sister was diagnosed with
breast cancer. She had a mastectomy, but after that became much
sicker & didn’t begin to improve until she came under your
treatment. What about radical surgical treatment for breast cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
If
it’s really localized, there’s no question that surgery can cure,
although the toxic situation still exists. Again, we don’t think
tumors are the enemy but the body’s response to a toxic situation.
When you attack the tumor alone, you’re not really getting to the
root of the problem.
MONEYCHANGER
You said your therapy would cost F$5,500-7,000 for the first year.
In a hospital a cancer patient would run up a F$7,000 bill in three
days.
DR. GONZALEZ
Oh,
yes. The average cost for chemo runs anywhere from F$50,000 to
F$100,000 for a one year course of treatment, so it’s roughly
one-twentieth the cost of chemo & radiation.
MONEYCHANGER
What about the clinical trials you’re doing now?
DR. GONZALEZ
The
National Cancer Institute suggested we do a pancreatic study & it’s
been funded by an outside source. We’re doing a controlled clinical
trial under NCI oversight & direction.
MONEYCHANGER
How long will that last?
DR. GONZALEZ
Probably another year. We started toward the end of January.
MONEYCHANGER
Does anybody else in the country do this therapy besides you?
DR. GONZALEZ
There are people who say they do the Kelley Therapy or the Gonzalez
Therapy, & I’ve never even met them. Would I send someone I love to
someone like that? I don’t think so.
MONEYCHANGER
Do healthy people use this therapy on a prophylactic basis?
DR. GONZALEZ
My
whole staff is on it. You don’t have to be dying of cancer to
warrant this program. I think the whole world should be on it. If
you want good health, it’s a great program.
MONEYCHANGER
The individual patient comes to you, diagnosed already with cancer.
You do your biochemical workup, & you prescribe a diet &
supplements. What will this person’s life be like after that?
DR. GONZALEZ
A
cancer patient has to take pills ten times a day, they have to do
enemas maybe 6 -8 times a day initially, & then other purges & liver
flushes, eat organic food, drink carrot juice 3-4 times a day. It’s
a lot of work, but it’s not impossible, just petty stuff. I do it
myself, & I don’t mind it. To me it’s an investment in efficiency,
because I work better when I do it.
MONEYCHANGER
A lot of the patients feel sicker at first, don’t they?
DR. GONZALEZ
They
always feel sicker. When the body repairs & rebuilds an enormous
amount of toxic debris is released, & that will make you feel ill.
We try to control the rate at which the body repairs. If you repair
too quickly, you’ll have tumor breakdown wastes & all sorts of
stored toxic wastes released in the body & it’ll make you so sick
you can’t get out of bed.
MONEYCHANGER
That’s why you warn them before they start that the program will
require a lot of effort?
DR. GONZALEZ
We
don’t encourage them to do it. We try to discourage them, because
we want patients who are committed, who realize this is an
investment, & don’t want to be baby fed. They must be willing to do
the work to get well.
MONEYCHANGER
What about other degenerative diseases?
DR. GONZALEZ
We
treat everything, from multiple sclerosis to arthritis. Different
diseases require different protocols.
MONEYCHANGER
Do you have the same startling results with other diseases that you
have with cancer?
DR. GONZALEZ
I’ve
seen about half a dozen multiple sclerosis patients, maybe 10, & two
of them were already in wheelchairs & didn’t respond the way I
wanted. The others really did extremely well. I have a couple of
patients with ALS, & I’m not sure what we can do with that. The
longest has been with me two years & is still alive. We’re trying
our hardest to figure out how to reverse that, but I don’t have a
lot of patients with that. We have a lot of arthritis, a lot of
chronic fatigue, which has become epidemic.
MONEYCHANGER
You don’t think that’s viral?
DR. GONZALEZ
I
think the body’s too toxic so it doesn’t work right & then viruses,
bacteria, & candida, can start taking over.
MONEYCHANGER
Is the uproar about candida overblown?
DR. GONZALEZ
They’re treating that as the problem, but the real issue is that the
body is way too toxic. I don’t think it’s overblown. The overuse
of antibiotics has really caused an overgrowth of candida in
many patients, & has disrupted the normal bacterial flora.
MONEYCHANGER
So you’re chary of using antibiotics?
DR. GONZALEZ
You
have to be very careful with them. First of all, they don’t work
that well anymore because lot of the bugs are immune. In addition,
there are herbal & nutritional remedies that work better & are not
as toxic, such as echinacea. We also have a very powerful a thymus
preparation (the thymus controls the immune system) that we use as a
natural antibiotic.
MONEYCHANGER
There’s a yeast-free diet popular right now that’s supposed to boost
the immune system. Does it really work?
DR. GONZALEZ
[laughing]
You’ll have to ask whoever is using it. We have patients with
candida & we use things to clear it out, but it’s usually not
that difficult. If you get the people detoxed, if you get their
colon cleansed, you restore natural bacteria, you should get them
free of candida. It’s not that big a deal.
MONEYCHANGER
I’m amazed how many times you recur to this toxic bowel idea.
DR. GONZALEZ
It’s
the issue in a lot of these problems. Diseases result, we believe,
because toxic waste is backing up into the body. Basically it’s
auto-intoxication. You have to get rid of that some way.
MONEYCHANGER
Thank you very much, Dr. Gonzalez.
Reprinted from the July, 1995 Moneychanger.
P.O. Box 341753
Memphis, Tennessee 38184-1753
(901) 854-5138
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