What is and How-to-do Gerson Coffee Enemas

September 15, 2007 Kamala Amma's Grace

Dearest Friends and Family,
We have received lots of inquiries on how to do coffee enemas. We learned to do them through the Gerson Therapy, which we sought to apply for Anni. For us, we were not able to conduct the Gerson Therapy as it is meant to be done, for someone as sick as Anni was. The Therapy as a whole, for someone in Anni’s situation, needs to be done under the direct supervision of a medical doctor who has also been trained in Dr. Max Gerson’s methodologies. Unfortunately, there were none such in the United States of America, when we were there. The laws in the USA will take away the license of any medical doctor practicing the Gerson Therapy. Perhaps because it represents a threat to industries and business that thrive on sickness…the doctors there now are really pharmaceutical medical technicians. When people can take their healing into their own hands, and, especially, exercise preventive health care, then who makes money?
What follows is all that I have been able to find about the Gerson Coffee Enemas from two books published by the Gerson Institute plus our own experience:
(1) Gerson, C. and Walker, M. (2001). The Gerson Therapy: the Proven Nutritional Program for Cancer and Other Illnesses. Kensington. NY Copyright by Walker, M. and Gerson Institute.
This will be referenced as GT.
(2) Gerson Institute, (1999) Gerson Therapy Handbook. (revised 5th edition) Gerson Institute, San Diego, CA.
This will be referenced as GH.

[Note!] “Coffee enemas are safe when used within the context of the combined regime of the Gerson Therapy. Dr. Gerson’s stated intention in supplying a sodium-restricted, high potassium, high-micronutrient diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grains was to supply all nutrients, known and unknown which are necessary for cell respiration and energy production.” (pp.163-164, GT)

“Origins of Coffee Enemas as Gerson Therapy
The much disputed, ridiculed and controversial coffee enemas have an unusual origin in becoming a primary component of the Gerson Therapy.
Certainly enemas are not new, they were transcribed as part of the Manual of Discipline, , recorded two thousand years ago, comprising one of the books in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also, The Essence Gospel of Peace, a third-century Aramaic manuscript found in the secret archives of the Vatican, strongly advises about the taking of enemas….(pg.156. GT) [then there is a lengthy quote, of which I will only put the following:]
“Seek, therefore, a large trailing gourd, having a stalk the length of a man, take out its inwards and fill it with water from the river which the sun has warmed. Hang it upon the branch of a tree, and kneel upon the ground before the angel of water, and suffer the end of the stalk of the trailing gourd to enter your hinder parts, that the water may flow through all your bowels. Afterwards rest kneeling on the ground before the angel of water and pray to the living God that he will forgive you all your past sins, and pray to the angel of water that he will free your body from every uncleanness and disease. Then let the water run out from your body, that it may carry away from within it all the unclean and evil-smelling things of Satan. And you shall see with your eyes and smell with your nose all the abominations and uncleannesses which defiled the temple of your body… (pps. 156-157 GT)
“So enemas have been used for general purposes of detoxification since ancient times. However the use of coffee to increase the effectiveness of treatment and to reduce pain probably dates back only to the time of the First World War. A Gerson Therapy exponent, Dr. Jeffery Walters, tells the following story about the original administrations of enemas containing the coffee beverage:
During WW1, Germany was surrounded by the Allies’ military forces, and many imported materials were short or missing for German citizens. Among other things, morphine was running very low in supply. Also there was hardly any coffee available to drink. Moreover, painkillers, anesthetics and other drugs were lacking too. When soldiers were sent back from the front lines, severely wounded, and in need of surgery, there usually was just a bit of anesthesia available – perhaps only enough to get them through the surgical operation.
When the anesthesia wore off, obviously the pain set in for the wounded soldier. In many cases, after the doctors finished operating, they ordered plain water enemas for the patients. But the nurses were desperately looking for something more to help the soldiers deal with their pain.
It happened that there was always coffee brewing, available only for the surgeons to drink. They often had to work around the clock, and needed to be kept awake by caffeine in the beverage. Sometimes a little of their black coffee was left over. Apparently, some nurse that the idea, that, since the coffee was doing the surgeons good, perhaps it would also help the soldiers. So the nurses poured a quantity of the leftover coffee into the soldiers’ enema buckets. The soldiers receiving coffee enemas reported that these were doing them some good, and that their pain was much relieved.” (p.157 GT)
“These reports coming out of WW1 aroused the interest of two researchers, Prof. O.A, Meyers, MD and Prof. Martin Heubner, MD, at the German University of Goettingen’s College of Medicine…During the 1920’s, these two medical professors further examined the effect of caffeine when given rectally to rats. They observed that the caffeinated enemas stimulated the laboratory animal’ bile ducts to open, and the professors then published their findings in the German medical literature.
For some time after learning of this research…Dr. Max Gerson used a combination of the two drugs, caffeine and potassium citrate, in the form of drops that were added to the enema water. But he found later that a solution simply made by boiling coffee grounds was more effective and was much more easily available to everybody who wanted to take coffee enemas. Thus, Dr. Gerson incorporated a program of detoxification using coffee enemas into the Gerson Therapy, and the same procedure remains today.” (p.158, GT)

“The Beneficial Action of a Coffee Enema
…

During a 1985 conference on cancer treatment, conducted by…Harold Manner, Ph.D, …Dr. Manner discussed the internal workings of a coffee enema…
While the coffee enema is being retained in the gut (for an optimum period ranging from twelve to fifteen minutes), all of the body’s blood passes through the liver every three minutes. The hemorrhoidal blood vessels dilate from exposure to the caffeine, in turn, the liver’s portal veins dilate too. Simultaneously, the bile ducts expand with blood, the bile flow increases, and the smooth muscles of these internal organs relax. The blood serum and its many components are detoxified as this vital fluid passes through the individual’s caffeinated liver. The quart of water being retained in the bowel stimulates the visceral nervous system, promoting peristalsis. The water delivered through the bowel dilutes the bile and causes an even greater increase in bile flow. There is a flushing of toxic bile which is further affected by the body’s enzymatic catalyst known to physicians as glutathione S-transferase (GST).
The GST is increased in quantity in the small bowel by 700 percent, which has an excellent physiological effect, because this enzyme quenches free radicals. These quenched free radicals leave the liver and gallbladder as bile salts flowing through the duodenum. The bile salts are carried away by perstalsis in the gut, traveling from the small intestine, through the colon, and out the rectum.
In 1990, the Austrian surgeon Peter Lechner, MD…[reported these benefits about GST in the gut]…:

• GST bunds bilirubin and its glucuronides so that they can be eliminated from the hepatocytes (liver cells)
• GST blocks and detoxifies carcinogens, which require oxidation or reduction to be activated. Its catalytic function produces a protective effect against many chemical carcinogens.
• GST forms a covalent bond with nearly all highly electrophilic (free radical) substances, which is the precondition of their elimination from the body. The intermediate products of potential liver poisons (hepatotoxic cytostatics) also belong in this category of forming free radical pathology.” (pp.158-159 GT)

[a few more doctors are quoted, then] “The detoxifying of cancer cells has been demonstrated innumerable times by experiments on laboratory mice wherein detoxification of the liver increases by 600 percent and the small bowel detoxifies by 700 percent when coffee beans are added to the animals’ diet. Analogous results take place within humans who are giving themselves coffee enemas.” (p.160, GT)

“Coffee enemas cause excretion of Cancer Breakdown Products

The coffee enema has a very specific purpose in the treatment and reversal of degenerative diseases. As stated by Dr. P. Lechner, it lowers the quantity of blood serum toxins, literally cleaning the poisons out of fluids nourishing normal cells. Invariably, some small quantities of poisons are contained therein. Each cell is challenged by toxins, oxygen starvation, malnutrition, or trauma which collectively alter the cell’s molecular configuration and cause it to lose its preference for potassium. As explained….sodium competes with potassium for association sites in damaged cells.” (p.160-161 GT)

[As Amma, many Rishi’s and also Gandhi recommend, the Gerson diet is saltless. I won’t give all the technical medical reasons, but these paragraphs provide a clear picture of the damaging effects of salt to the body cells in the diet especially of a sick person]

“Loss of cellular potassium and increase of cellular sodium results in decreased electron flow though the damaged cell, which some biochemists refer to as a macromolecule. This injured macromolecule becomes unattractive to paramagnetic ions and a subsequent disorganization of water molecules may take place. Because bulk-phase water, structure in a high energy state, is the main mechanism controlling cellular water content and purity, any disturbance in water structuring will result in the cell’s swelling with excess water and extra cellular solute. When the internal environment of the macromolecule becomes polluted with excess water and extra cellular materials, mitochondrial production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is greatly impaired. The result is that macromolecules cannot produce sufficient energy to repair themselves unless the challenge is removed.”

“Endogenous serum toxins can be generated within macromolecules by bacteria and by malignant cells. It has been observed that surrounding almost any active malignancies are spheres of damaged normal tissue in which water structuring is impaired by the chronic insult of tumor toxins. Energy production and immunity are depressed in the macromolecules, which are swollen with excess salt and water. Such damaged tissue possesses a decreased blood circulation because oversized edematous cells crowd together inside the capillaries, arterioles and lymph ducts.
Teaching that improved blood circulation and tissue integrity would prevent the spread and cause the destruction of malignancies, Max Gerson, MD, held it as axiomatic that no cancer could exist in the presence of normal metabolism. …

Enzyme systems in the liver and small bowel are responsible for conversion and neutralization of the four most common tissue toxins, polyamines, ammonia, toxic bound nitrogen, and electrophiles, all of which can cause cell and membrane damage. Such protective liver and gut enzyme systems are massively increased in their beneficial effects by coffee enemas….[then, from an article taken from Physiological Chemistry and Physics in the 1970’s]…Caffeine enemas cause dilation of bile ducts, which facilitates excretion of toxic cancer breakdown products by the liver and dialysis of toxic products from blood across the colonic wall. (pp.160-161)
“The coffee enema is in a class by itself as a therapeutic agent. In no way does the oral administration of beverage coffee have the same effect as its rectal administration. On the contrary, drinking coffee virtually ensures re-absorption of toxic bile…it is a physiological fact that bile is normally reabsorbed up to ten times by the body before working its way out of the intestines in feces. The enzyme –intensifying ability of the coffee enema is unique among choleretics…it does not allow re-absroption of toxic bile by the liver across the gut wall, it is an entirely effective means of detoxifying the bloodstream through existing enzyme systems in both the liver and the small intestine….(pp.162-163 GT)

“Summarizing the physiological benefits of Coffee Enemas
…
Introducing a quart of boiled coffee solution into the colon will accomplish the following physiological benefits.

• It dilutes portal blood and subsequently, the bile.
• Theophylline and theobromine, major nutraceutical constituents of coffee, dilate blood vessels and counter inflammation of the gut.
• The palmitates of coffee enhance glutathione S-transferase, which is responsible for the removal of many toxic radicals from blood serum
• The fluid of the enema itself stimulates the visceral nervous system, promoting peristalsis and the transit of diluted toxic radicals from the duodenum out the rectum.
• Because the stimulating enema is retained for up to fifteen minutes, and because all the blood in the body passes through the liver nearly every three minutes, coffee enemas represent a form of dialysis of blood across the gut wall.

What you will need for a coffee enema

1. An enema kit! We use something that looks like a hot water bottle that we got from a nationwide chainstore called Walgreens in the US. It was about $12 there. Whatever you get, make sure it is something you can clean it out easily, that can air dry thoroughly. I like the Walgreens’ one, as we can boil the plastic part that goes into the rectum if we feel it is needed.
   The kit needs to have a way to hang it or be stable to put on a table.
   Whatever you get needs to be able to hold at least 32 ounces or 1 litre of coffee solution, and have a tube long enough to hang 18 inches or 50 CM’s above your body, and cover the distance to your rectum.
   The Gerson Institute uses a bucket system, with a catheter type tube. It is probably possible to make an enema kit from a food grade plastic bottle, a cork and catheter tubing with a clamp of some sort – maybe a strong clothespin or some such. Since there is such a big interest here, we are going to look into how we can do it, as the necessary size is not available commercially. Often, just bending the tube on itself, and keeping it pinched stops the flow.
2. A mat /cloth to lie on, and for spills.
3. Organic coffee and distilled or boiled filtered water. A stainless steel or ceramic or pyrex pot for boiling the coffee solution with a good lid.
4. A timer or watch or clock where you can see it.
5. Other accoutrements to be warm and comfortable.

Making the coffee solution

“In his writing, the formulation…offered as the best coffee enema concentration is the following: [note! Coffee must be organic]

1. Take three rounded tablespoonfuls of drip-grind coffee and add them to a quart of boiling water (use distilled water if your drinking water is furnished from a fluoridated water source, use filtered water if you reside in an average drinking water area.” (p.170 GT) [“It is very important for all fluids that are placed in the rectum to be sterile. Use boiled water only!” p.18 GH]
2. “Let the mixture boil for three minutes uncovered and allow it to simmer for another fifteen minutes more, covered.” (p.170 GT) [“to drive off oils” p.18 GH]
3. “Strain the solution through a fine strainer to catch floating coffee grounds. Or empty a coarser strainer lined with a filter cloth, such as an old used piece of white sheeting or a piece cut from a knit undershirt. Add enough hot water to refill a glass container up to the 1 quart level. (some water will have been lost in boiling and straining.). (p.170, GT)
4. “Fill a quart glass container with the liquid and let cool to body temperature.
5. “Use this solution at body temperature for purposes of bowel infusion.” (p.169 GT)

How to do a coffee enema

“Dr. Gerson suggests that the individual assume a specific body position when taking a coffee enema. He writes: “To make enemas most effective, the patient should lie on his right side, with both legs drawn close to the abdomen, and breathe deeply, in order to suck the greatest amount of fluid into all parts of the colon. The fluid should be retained ten to fifteen minutes.” (pps. 168-169 GT)

“If due to pain, the patient is unable to lie on the right side, it is acceptable to lie on one’s back, also with legs pulled up. Lie on the left side only as a last resort because the coffee enema goes deeper into the bowel most effectively from the right side.” (p.171 GT)

[we lie right side, on a plastic mat on the floor, with a thin towel or large rag for the lower body parts. I use a small pillow, keep a timer near me, and have reading material at hand. It can be a nice, inward time, despite the internal pressures. In the US, we did it in the bathroom itself, here, as the floor of the bathroom is most often wet, very near to the bathroom. A blanket in cold climes can be useful. The goal – be comfortable and relaxed. If you need to do it at bed level, protect the bedding and mattress appropriately. If unable to retain, the liquid will come jetting out. Keep this in mind.]

Gerson Caregiver Shirley Tice taught us that the tube needs to be only inserted 2-3 inches into the anus. Once ready to start the enema, we run a little of the solution out through the tube then re-clamp it, so that air in the tube will be displaced, and not enter the colon.

“Before you start your coffee enema, eat a small piece of fruit to activate the gastric tract. If enema is taken on an empty stomach, some people may experience problems.” (p.19 GH)
“Take your time letting gravity force the fluid into your rectum and bowel. Have the bottom of an enema bog or bucket elevated only about 18 inches above the tube’s end that is penetrating one’s anus. (p. 171 GT)
“As we’ve mentioned – and its an important point – the enema bucket or bag should not be more than 18 inches (50 cm) above the body so the coffee does not flow into the bowel under too much pressure. The reason for this becomes all too apparent rather quickly. An excessive height could cause excessive pressure and easily set up counterperstalsis with cramping.
If cramping occurs, stop the flow of liquid, either by pinching the tube closed, or by lowering the bucket or bag to the level of the body for a little while. Then resume the enema’s flow.
A number of patients, at the start of the treatment, have reported experiencing difficulty getting a full quart of liquid into the colon. If that becomes the situation for you or your loved one, start with whatever amount is most comfortably received. Let the patient intake and hold that lesser amount, expel it, and then accept the rest of the enema.” (pps.171-172 GT)
“The enema once fully infused into the colon should, ideally, be held for from 12-15 minutes. By that time, almost all the available caffeine has been absorbed. It is not suggested to hold it longer than 15 minutes since the liquid will also be absorbed into the system. If a person cannot hold the enema for 12 minutes, he or she should do the best they can without trying desperately to retain the fluid, which could bring on abdominal cramping. If she or he can only mange say 6-9 minutes, do release the liquid at that shorter interval. Eventually, holding the coffee enema inside the bowel for 12 minutes does become quite comfortable. It merely takes practice, and some people have taken three or four months before achieving the ideal time period.” (p. 171 GT)
“Some patients find it difficult to retain 32 oz. of the liquid, you may want to start with 24 oz. and later, slowly increaset he amount of fluid.
If the enema gets ‘clutched’ and doesn’t get expelled, the Gerson Therapy recommends a ‘back-to-back” experience – take another enema. One can also apply warmth to the abdomen to relax the area. Either way, don’t worry, it will eventually come out.

We have found that it take 5- 15 minutes to expel the enema from its travels in the gut.
Our situation is such that we have to reserve the time in the bathroom. Perhaps you do too.

Well, this has taken me the whole day. We hope it will be helpful to those who use it.
In loving service to your good health,
Kamala Aunty