Latest news with #HirschInstitute
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'Apple Cider Vinegar' based the Hirsch Institute on Gerson Therapy, a debunked cancer treatment by the 20th century doctor Max Gerson.
"Apple Cider Vinegar" features a controversial wellness camp called the Hirsch Institute. The pseudoscientific cancer treatments in the Netflix show include juices and coffee enemas. These treatments appear to be based on what is known as Gerson Therapy. Viewers of "Apple Cider Vinegar" — which tells the story of Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever), an Australian influencer who faked having cancer — may be wondering if the Hirsch Institute is real. The institute is fictionalized for the show but appears to be based on a pseudoscientific treatment called Gerson Therapy. The institute features in the show when wellness influencer and journalist Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is diagnosed with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and flies to Mexico to attend its wellness camp. She starts a treatment plan that involves drinking different juices every hour and using coffee enemas. Ultimately, Blake realizes that it doesn't work after her cancer spreads across her body. She reverts back to taking the treatment advised by her doctors, but it's too late and she dies toward the end of the series. Gerson Therapy is named after its creator Max Gerson, a German doctor who developed it during the 1920s and 1930s. It was first tried as a treatment for tuberculosis and migraines, according to the National Cancer Institute. Gerson claimed that eating an organic diet of fruit and vegetables, high in potassium and low sodium, would help rid the body of toxins and return the metabolism to "normal." The diet also included drinking 13 glasses of juice a day alongside coffee enemas to "clean" the liver and colon. People following Gerson Therapy are also required to take supplements, including vitamin B12, and potassium. The NCI says that having too many coffee enemas can change a person's normal blood chemistry, which can stop muscles, the heart, and other organs from working. In 1947 and 1959, the NCI examined 60 of Gerson's patients and the results "did not prove the regimen had benefit." Cancer Research UK said that researchers in a 2014 study found that "none of the previous reports on Gerson therapy proved that it was effective." It states that an organic diet has potential benefits, but reputable scientific cancer organizations do not support it as a treatment method. The US Food and Drug Administration has not approved Gerson therapy for cancer patients. However, some attend Gerson's Health Institute in Tijuana, Mexico, to undergo treatment — in the same way that Blake travels to the Hirsch Institute in "Apple Cider Vinegar." According to Gerson's Health Institute, these trips cost $6,000 a week and include all of the Gerson therapy meals, juices, and enemas as well as access to an on-site medical team, patient support groups, and a private room. Gerson's Health Institute did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Milla Blake in 'Apple Cider Vinegar' isn't a real person, but her story seemingly draws from an Australian wellness influencer's life
Netflix's "Apple Cider Vinegar" was inspired by Belle Gibson, who lied about having brain cancer. It features fictional characters that appear to be based on real people in Gibson's life. Milla, a character in the show, is reminiscent of real-life wellness influencer Jess Ainscough. Netflix's "Apple Cider Vinegar" is a "true-ish" (in the streamer's words) story about a woman who built a wellness empire on the lie that she had cancer. Belle Gibson, whose full name is Annabelle Natalie Gibson, claimed that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2009 and given a weekslong prognosis. In 2014, she launched her own nutrition app, The Whole Pantry. In 2015, reports emerged that she hadn't followed through on donations to charity — and then, she admitted that she had never had cancer. The television series presents a fictionalized version of Gibson's story (she's played by Kaitlyn Dever). It juxtaposes her narrative against that of another wellness influencer: Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a young woman who forgoes chemotherapy and treats her cancer using alternative methods. Unlike Gibson, there isn't a real Milla. However, her story on the show is reminiscent of the life of Jess Ainscough, a real Australian wellness influencer who died in 2015. "Apple Cider Vinegar" introduces Camilla "Milla" Blake as a young woman with a vibrant social life and journalism career in Sydney. Her diagnosis — undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma — throws her life into disarray. Milla refuses her doctor's recommendation to amputate, and instead opts for an experimental form of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, Milla's cancer returns. However, she forgoes the recommendation to amputate again and tries to treat her cancer through natural methods. She also seeks treatment at the fictional Hirsch Institute, which promotes methods including coffee enemas and a specific diet and is reminiscent of real-life Gerson therapy. Milla begins to blog about her treatment, eventually attracting a following that includes the show's fictionalized version of Belle Gibson. She publishes a book titled "From Hell to Well" and hosts events under her personal brand, Green Stone Healing. With the help of her friend-turned-manager Chanelle, she also nets brand deals and attempts to launch her own juice line. Milla's cancer worsens over the years, and she turns to black salve, a dangerous, corrosive compound that is banned for sale in the United States by the FDA and is not a cancer cure. Her mother also contracts cancer and dies en route to the Hirsch Institute in Mexico, where she intended to pursue the same treatment as her daughter. After a video of Milla goes viral and reveals to the public that the cancer has returned to her arm, she returns to her prior doctor. He informs her that the cancer has metastasized and is too far progressed to treat. "If it was an option, I'd be returning to conventional medicine," Milla writes to her followers following the news. "But it's not. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I believed it was my fault. It wasn't. I believed it was up to me to cure myself. It wasn't. I thought I could become whole through diet, and by listening to my own instincts. But I was wrong." Milla dies. The fictional Belle Gibson attends her funeral, crying loudly during the service. At the wake, she searches Milla's bedroom and attempts to console Milla's fiancé Arlo until he orders her to leave. Jess Ainscough was a wellness influencer who died in February 2015 at age 30, seven years after she was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma. Ainscough's doctors recommended amputation, but she pursued chemotherapy. She later turned to alternative medicine, including Gerson Therapy, which has not been approved by the United States FDA as a treatment for cancer. Before her diagnosis, Ainscough worked at the teen magazine Dolly. After she chose not to pursue conventional treatment, Ainscough began posting on her blog, The Wellness Warrior. She published a book titled "Make Peace with Your Plate: Change Your Life One Meal at a Time," and hosted speaking engagements. Ainscough's mother Sharyn was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in October 2013. The Guardian reported that Sharyn also supported Gerson Therapy. Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the reporters who broke the story in 2015 that Gibson had not followed through on promised charitable donations, reported for the Sydney Morning Herald that Gibson attended Ainscough's funeral in March 2015, and was seen crying loudly during the service. Gibson and Ainscough had met two years prior and interacted on social media, the pair reported, but Ainscough's manager said that the two women were not friends. Prior to her death, Ainscough was engaged to Tallon Pamenter. "Apple Cider Vinegar" is streaming on Netflix. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Apple Cider Vinegar' Creator Unpacks That ‘Tragic' Ending, Juggling Truth and Fiction Adapting Belle Gibson's Story
Note: The following story contains spoilers from 'Apple Cider Vinegar.' While Belle Gibson's rise to wellness fame in 'Apple Cider Vinegar' was full of organic recipes and posh galas, the latter half of Netflix series sees the dangerous and 'tragic' impact of the infamous scammer and her wellness-loving counterparts come crashing down on those closest to them. While Belle (Kaitlyn Dever) built her wellness empire on a fake cancer diagnosis after being inspired by Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey) — a real cancer patient who advocates for a juice diet and coffee enemas to cure her cancer — Milla is the one who ultimately suffers from the wellness industry's lies. First, after pursuing the Hirsch Institute treatment for her cancer, Milla's mom, Tamara, dies in an ending creator Samantha Strauss calls 'tragic.' 'I think my mom would probably do that if I had chosen to go Hirsch,' Strauss told TheWrap, echoing Tamara's words that if she'd let her daughter do it and not force her to go through traditional cancer treatment methods, she would have to do the same. Tamara's death, however, gives Milla the wake-up call she needed to go to the doctor and pursue cancer treatment. 'How do you walk back from what has become your whole identity … which is, 'I am this wellness guru influencer, and I have cured myself from cancer,'' Strauss said. 'What's the line between positive thinking and reality? She wants that to be true so much, and she has to realize and recognize, 'No, I got it wrong, and I wish I hadn't have done it.'' Ultimately, it ends up being too late for Milla, and the Netflix series, which is based on the book 'The Woman Who Fooled the World,' sees her pass away as well by the finale. Despite this fatal turn — paired with several articles outlining Belle's fraudulences — Belle sticks to her guns, showing up to Milla's funeral to the dismay of Chanelle (Aisha Dee) and Milla's husband Justin (Mark Coles Smith), later doubling down on her cancer diagnosis to her followers. 'Our Belle wanted to be sick so much — It would make her unimpeachable. It would make her a victim, but also a hero at the same time and it was such a shortcut to love,' Strauss said. 'I hope the viewers are left with sort of a fragile sense of hope for her at the end that she wants to be well, which is a big step.' Strauss makes the distinction between the Belle depicted in the series and the real-life Belle Gibson, whom she revealed she has never contacted, nor has Gibson contacted Strauss or her team. She added that despite 'Apple Cider Vinegar' filming in Gibson's neighborhood, the real-life scammer never showed up to set. 'Real life gave us some facts to work from, but this is very much our true-ish story,' Strauss said. 'We did a lot of inventing in the writers' room. I have no idea what Belle would have talked about in her private time … to people close to her.' Below, Strauss unpacks adapting Gibson's story of lies into the Netflix series with its own truths and fictions, discusses Lucy's ending and reveals if she knows where Gibson is now. TheWrap: Was there any hesitancy in keeping Belle's name for the series? Strauss: Legally, there wasn't. When you're writing someone, you have to develop a lot of empathy for them. You have to put yourself in their shoes all the time, and think, 'Why would they do this?' So you get attached to them, but in this case, it was so clear that that what she did had could have had horrific consequences, and so ethically, I felt okay about using her real name. Were most of the characters and stories pulled from real life? Milla is an amalgamation of lots of people, but also someone we created in the writers room and she's her own person. We thought it was really interesting to juxtapose Belle's story — she's lying to her, to everybody — whereas Milla is lying to herself. To see these two women pitted against each other, but behaving in ways that were sometimes similar, was was really interesting. The journalists were kind enough to let us fictionalize their lives as well — Beau [Donelly] and Nick [Toscano] are different to the people in the show. We didn't change Clive's name, who was Belle's partner and and there's also Julie, who was Belle's publisher. What about Lucy? Was she real? It felt really important that this story didn't only center Belle. It was an interesting thing in empathy and forgiveness that you want to understand what makes her tick, but you don't ever want to glorify what she's done. Every time we would start to feel a lot of empathy for her, it was important to us to remember people like Lucy, a real-life person … someone that we know … that is at the coalface of medicine and … could have fallen victim to Belle's lies. She wasn't married to our journalists in real life, but it felt like it was really important to us to have her voice across the series — that we're not glorifying that word, we're showing the consequences as well. Clive stays pretty loyal to Belle throughout the whole thing. Why do you think he stayed? Some of that is true to life, and it's in the book, but that was something we discussed endlessly in the writers' room. I kind of know relationships like that become co-dependent and and I do think, in our case, we decided that he was staying a lot, because he loves her child so much. In Belle's core is someone who doesn't feel like she has enough love and much probably has a quite a fragile self esteem. And perhaps that speaks to who Clive in our series is as well. I've never met the real Clive or had anything to do with them, but that's the dynamic we imagined for them. The show ends with that damning '60 Minutes' interview, and gives some hope for Lucy despite Milla's tragic ending. Why did you want to end the story here? Belle is, by that point, like 'I've had enough.' [Her] world has crumbled, but that who matters are the people who listen to Belle. In the end, Lucy's doing meditation and she's doing yoga, and she's having ice baths … and she's drinking apple cider vinegar, but she's also doing chemo and she's showing up for that. Even though we don't know if she'll live or die, there's hope. And for Justin, I think it's really frightening for him that he is watching someone, throughout the series, go off down the road of of alternative therapies that he and wanting to turn away from Western medicine, and how frightening that would be as partner, but you can't control somebody else's choices in that respect. We've all kind of lived that with the pandemic. For him to just show up, even though the worst thing could be that she dies, you know, and how hard that will be, is an act of love. We did want to end the series with love — that it matters so much. One of the great things about life is love and and that's what Belle craved so much. I hope she got it, in our creation of Belle after the series ends. Do you have any idea where Belle is now? No, she never showed up the set. We did wonder if she would, but she never did, and she hasn't reached out. I have no idea. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 'Apple Cider Vinegar' is now streaming on Netflix. The post 'Apple Cider Vinegar' Creator Unpacks That 'Tragic' Ending, Juggling Truth and Fiction Adapting Belle Gibson's Story appeared first on TheWrap.
