If someone came up to you on the street saying you could restore your immunity and prevent cancer by eating only vegetables and using coffee enemas daily, you’d slowly back away from them as if they told you they just ate a puppy.
But when something is written down in the form of an article, it seems more believable, even if common sense says it most probably wouldn’t work.
S’pore Lady Died While Following An Organic, Plant-Based Diet That Can Supposedly Cure Cancer
A 39-year-old woman has died after following a plant-based diet that claimed to cure cancer.
Ms Mindy Chua Zu-Yin’s weight plummeted from 48kg to just 20kg over three to four years before she died last August of an electrolyte imbalance due to anorexia.
So, what the hell happened?
Join our telegram channel for more entertaining and informative articles at https://t.me/goodyfeedsg or download the Goody Feed app here: https://goodyfeed.com/app/
Gerson Therapy
Chua’s parents said she wanted to undergo a regime known as Gerson Therapy about 10 years ago because she wanted to restore her immunity as a form of “holistic treatment” as she had been putting on weight.
Gerson Therapy is a natural alternative treatment system that claims to “activate the body’s extraordinary ability to heal itself.”
It was developed by Dr Max Gerson in the 1930s in Germany to “reverse cancer”.
According to Healthline, it involves eating a plant-based diet, using coffee enemas several times daily for detoxification, and taking a wide variety of supplements.
There is, however, no scientific evidence that it is an effective treatment for cancer.
“She changed her diet to purely fruits and vegetables. Throughout the period that the deceased was undergoing Gerson Therapy, she kept losing weight”, Chua’s coroner said.
Committed an offence
Though the coroner said Ms Chua was allegedly put on a Gerson liquid diet by a “Dr Raymond Yuen” and told to completely abstain from salt, reports showed that she had only consulted him in October 2011. Dr Yuen also stated that he had not prescribed the Gerson Therapy to her.
According to The Straits Times, Ms Chua later committed an offence, which was not stated in court documents.
Subsequently, the State Courts referred her to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in 2016 to assess if she was suitable for a mandatory treatment order (MTO).
Offenders given an MTO have to undergo treatment for their mental condition in lieu of jail time.
History of mental health problems
Chua’s coroner said that the 39-year-old had a “complicated set of mental health problems that began in her teenage years”.
This included an excessive fear of becoming fat, food restrictions, abnormal dietary habits, and binging and purging – all features of an eating disorder.
Dr Yeo Seem Huat, a consultant psychiatrist in private practice, stated in a report last year that Chua had been observed for anxiety and kleptomania. She had also complained of being easily anxious and depressed.
However, she refused psychiatric treatment and only received counselling as well as natural supplements.
Refused to be admitted
On 13 Aug last year, Chua complained of breathlessness and went to Gleneagles Hospital.
Even though she was strongly advised that she needed immediate treatment for severe hyponatraemia (low blood salt levels), Chua said that said she was “absolutely adamant” that she did not wish to be admitted despite being cautioned that her blood salt level was critically low and might be potentially life-threatening.
She was then discharged after her father signed a “request for discharge against medical advice” form.
Just ten days later, Chua was found unconscious in her toilet after she asked her mother to prepare a coffee enema for her Gerson Therapy.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force ambulance was dispatched to her home, and she was pronounced dead by a paramedic at around 8.50pm on 23 Aug.
Chua’s sad tale serves as a reminder that we should never take medical advice from the internet or even a friend as long as it’s unsubstantiated.
Question everything you read, any never start any form of treatment without checking with a doctor first.
