User:Ocaasi/Gabriel Cousens sources

Introduction
Gabriel Cousens is a physician, natural health practitioner, and raw foods advocate. He is the founder of the Tree of Life Foundation which operates the Tree of Life retreat center in Patagonia, Arizona. Cousens is the author of several books on nutrition, health, and spirituality, including Conscious Eating and ''Spiritual Nutrition".

Views
"Dr. Gabriel Cousens (physician, author of Conscious Eating, and another prominent promoter of raw-food living)." http://www.mountainx.com/article/10889/In-the-raw

Mercola: "As Dr. Gabriel Cousens, who is a devoted live-food vegan himself, explains in the blog linked above, one such nutrient is vitamin B12 -- which would make a wise addition to the diets of virtually all vegans." http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Diet/b12_0215120731.html

"In order to combat some of the concerns that followed the Andressohn case, the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, a retreat for raw food education in Patagonia, Ariz., is studying the impact of such diets on babies and children. Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the founder and director of the center, created a raw baby formula and is conducting a long-term study of the height, weight and health histories of babies fed all-raw diets." http://www.azcentral.com/health/kids/articles/0318rawfoods.html

contributor to Healing Heart of the World http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hcJkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sIYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=359,233169&dq=gabriel+cousens&hl=en

Rainbow Diet: Theistic form of vegetarianism, chakra healing, and color therapy advanced by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., a practitioner of auricular acupuncture, crystal healing, and homeopathy. Cousens is also the author of Conscious Eating, Sevenfold Peace, and Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet (1986). The Rainbow Diet's postulate is that every colored food -- except flesh, fast food, junk food, frozen food, and irradiated food -- "builds," "cleanses," "energizes," heals, and "rebalances" those glands, organs, and nerve centers associated with whichever major chakra is related to the food's surface color. http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/dictionary/mdqr.html

"Gabriel Cousens is a Petaluma, Calif., physician and author of Conscious Eating (Vision Books, $19.95). He also is a former college football lineman who wolfed down burgers and fries. Many people eat their food without ever thinking about it, Cousens said. They don't savor a meal. If you are not aware of the flavors and textures of a food, you will probably eat more until you can't help but notice some flavors and textures. Cousens suggested an exercise in which people eat some bites during a meal with eyes closed, allowing more focused thoughts on food in the mouth. Consider it a form of meditation, he said. You will find yourself naturally slowing down." http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1996-09-12/lifestyle/9609090407_1_conscious-eating-people-eat-eat-a-meal'

""Spiritual Nutrition," by Gabriel Cousens, is another book that encourages the reader to think of ordinary things in a new way-in this case, the topic is food and nutrition. Rather than define why certain foods are and are not beneficial from the standpoint of human health, Cousens examines what it would mean if people viewed what they ate as a spiritual journey." http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_3672310

"Gabriel Cousens received his MD from Columbia Medical School. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, a Diplomate in Ayurveda, and has also earned a Homeopathic MD. Since 1993, Dr. Cousens has been the director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center and Tree of Life Foundation. He has a program to reverse diabetes in twenty-one days. 33% of type 1 diabetics have come off their insulin and have a blood sugar of less than 100; and 55% of the varieties of type 2's have come off all medications and have a blood sugar of less than 100 within twenty-one days' time. The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center is known worldwide for its foundation in spirituality and living foods. As a leading fasting and detoxification center, The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center offers a diversity of spa vacations, spiritual retreats and spiritual and health education programs. Founded in 1993 by Doctor Sir Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D., The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center is an oasis for awakening, inspiration, and regeneration on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels."

"Diabetes is curable through nature-based therapy and diet. "Every Medical School disputes this," Cousens noted.  Claimed a patient could be cured within three weeks through a natural diet and live a normal life without drugs.  Believes diabetes is caused by toxicity in the body.  Considers junk foods, white flour and white sugar poisons that destroy the immune system and pre-dispose people to diabetes and other diseases.  Says Diabetes is the consequence of "corporate greed" http://www.ghananewsagency.org/details/Health/Diabetes-is-curable-Dr-Cousens/?ci=1&ai=31891

I attended a lecture by Gabriel Cousens, an Arizona doctor and the author of Depression-Free For Life: An All-Natural Five-Step Plan To Reclaim Your Zest For Living..."We are degenerating our diet through the generations," he tells the group, explaining the sins of the western obsession with white flour and sugar and the evils of pesticides, herbicides and bioengineered foods...But when Cousens claims a 90-per-cent success rate in the treatment of depression -- far outstripping any conventional antidepressant medication -- I have to raise my hand to ask an obvious question. Where is the data backing up this incredible claim, and what are the sources confirming his complex and specific formula? "We’re not at this stage yet," he concedes, basing his success rates on treating depression in his own practice at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Centre in Arizona. "I have no money to conduct such trials," Cousens notes, a common complaint among those touting unconventional remedies of all kinds.http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=124310&archive=19,52,2000

El que habla es Gabriel Cousens, un gurú estadounidense considerado la máxima autoridad internacional en el terreno de la "comida viva". Tiene el pelo canoso, una túnica blanca, la mirada como dormida y el paso lento. Entre la gente que lo acompaña, hay una discípula que no se separa de él. Ni siquiera ahora, cuando Cousens apaga las luces y dice que, para iniciarse en esta filosofía cuya premisa es preservar la energía de los alimentos sin cocinarlos, hay que pasar por todo esto. El "Shabbat Chamánico"...Tomándolos de modelo, la base de la dieta difundida por Gabriel Cousens desde su fundación Tree of Life lleva los conceptos del veganismo a un extremo. Si la regla principal del vegano es no comer ningún derivado animal (ni carne, ni lácteos, ni huevos, ni miel) los seguidores de la comida viva eliminan también las harinas y los alimentos cocidos o refinados...Abierto en 1993, Tree of Life es un centro holístico ubicado en el estado de Arizona, Estados Unidos. Ahí es donde la gente viaja a espiritualizarse, limpiarse y curarse con la guía de Cousens. Celebrities como Woody Harrelson propagan sus bondades desde la página web de la fundación (treeoflife.nu). "Siempre voy a estar agradecido al doctor Cousens", dice el protagonista de Asesinos por naturaleza mientras mastica una ensalada de brotes verdes. Porque el gurú lo recibió con los brazos abiertos, entre las rojas montañas de Arizona, y Harrelson recibió el mensaje: nos enfermamos porque perdimos nuestro ritmo santo. "Hay que amarse a uno mismo y al planeta para querer curarse", le dijo Cousens. La premisa de Tree of Life es la misma para todos: cuando uno cocina, pierde el 50% de las proteínas, el 80% de las vitaminas y minerales y casi el 95% de los filonutrientes. Si comemos "comida chatarra" genéticamente modificada y con herbicidas, baja nuestro nivel de conciencia, ensuciamos el cuerpo. Una alimentación viva, en cambio, crea una mente y un cuerpo activos y saludables. Cousens y sus seguidores aseguran también que este tipo de alimentación puede curar la diabetes. El plan de veintiún días es estricto. Los primeros tres de comida cruda, después siete días de ayuno y, quien se anime, puede seguir siete más, sólo con jugos (de pepino, apio, espinaca, acelga). Es la "dieta del arco iris verde". Cousens dice que abrió este centro porque las personas necesitaban una comunidad que pudiera enseñarles a comer de tal forma que pudieran volverse "conductores de lo divino"....Hasta ahora, Cousens lleva creadas seis fundaciones e incluso trasladó estos programas a Nicaragua, donde su plan es fundar otra comunidad para el mundo hispánico. Y Argentina es escala necesaria en su proceso de expansión. Las vacantes para los talleres y conferencias de su primera visita colapsaron. Más allá de la moda Palermo Green, Buenos Aires cosecha filosofías, militancias y seudorreligiones en el terreno de la alimentación. Aunque en Capital no existen censos alimenticios, es fácil rastrear las agrupaciones que nuclean a macrobióticos, vegetarianos, orgánicos, veganos… Incluso están los frugívoros y se habla también, casi mitológicamente, de los respiratorianos: un núcleo que asegura vivir del aire. Todos rechazan la carne, todos levantan banderas por un gurú, una política o una suerte de premisa espiritual en torno de la comida. Y uno de los puntos más extremos a los que el vegetarianismo puede llegar es la raw food. Hasta ahora, más de cien personas pagaron mil pesos por el taller semanal de "alimentación viva para la paz universal", dictado por Cousens. Asistieron a seminarios donde se enseñaron recetas, se degustaron platos y se hicieron meditaciones. Muchos participaron también en la celebración del último Shabbat y se transformaron en fieles seguidores del maestro. (pdf...Cousens y sus seguidores aseguran que este tipo de alimentación puede curar la diabetes. El plan de veintiún días es estricto. Los primeros tres de comida cruda, después siete días de ayuno y, quien se anime, puede seguir siete más, sólo con jugos (de pepino, apio, espinaca, acelga). Es la “dieta del arco iris verde”. Cousens dice que abrió este centro porque laspersonas necesitaban una comunidad que pudiera enseñarles a comer de tal forma que pudieran volverse “conductores de lo divino”. Pero también tuvo detractores. En su libro Health Food Junkies, los nutricionistas Steven Bratman y David Knight hablan de la comida vivacomo un “extremismo alimenticio” característico de la ortorexia: la obsesión por la alimentación saludable. “Es un desorden que ya está por reemplazar a la anorexia”, aseguran. “La preocupación por los alimentos y la preparación de la comida dominan la vida de quienes siguen esta tendencia.” En el foro de la página vegsource.com, un opositor hizo circular una especie de manifiesto en el que contaba que, siguiendo la dieta de Cousens, no había tenido más que problemas...De todos, el que más le gustó fue Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, de un tal Gabriel Cousens. Siguiendo sus consejos, Leo radicalizó el vegetarianismo: dejó las harinas, los lácteos y las verduras cocidas, se contactó con proveedores orgánicos para conseguir alimentos sin pesticidas ni fertilizantes, armó listas de semillas que podían traerle quienes viajaran afuera. También empezó a hacer ayunos de agua y jugos verdes con cada cambio de estación y quiso difundir esta corriente en las meditaciones con cuencos que dictaba con su mujer. Todo parecía fluir hasta que la pareja rompió y él se instaló en una quinta en Pilar. La separación lo había golpeado y pensó que un viaje para ver personalmente al gurú que hasta entonces sólo conocía por mail podía ser un consuelo: tal vez Tree of Life fuera un buen refugio. Estaba en medio de los preparativos, cuando se enteró de que el maestro estaba por llegar al país. Se ofreció a ser su asistente. http://www.rollingstone.com.ar/1319715

Bio
Gabriel Cousens M.D., M.D.(H), D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), Diplomate of American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, Diplomate Ayurveda He is also a psychiatrist, family therapist, Ayurvedic practitioner, homeopath, acupuncturist, medical researcher, ecological leader, and bestselling author of books such as Spiritual Nutrition, Conscious Eating, Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine, and There Is a Cure for Diabetes. A cum laude graduate of Amherst College, where he was captain of an undefeated football team, Dr. Cousens was selected as an All New England lineman and one of eleven National Scholar Athletes inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame. He received his M.D. degree from Columbia Medical School in 1969 and completed his psychiatry residency in 1973. Dr. Cousens was the Chief Mental Health Consultant for the Sonoma County Operation Head Start and a consultant for the California State Department of Mental Health. He is listed in the Who’s Who in California, Who’s Who among Top Executives, Strathmore’s Who’s Who, and National Register’s Who’s Who and is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA). As a spiritual facilitator, Dr. Cousens received much of his training and experience during a seven-year sadhana with Swami Muktananda. In 1981, Swami Prakashananda, Muktananda’s first liberated disciple, recognized him as a “yogi of real spiritual attainment” who has “realized the innate perfection.Gabriel Cousens, MD has developed the first live-food, vegan Masters program in the world in conjunction with University of Integrated Science California. He is the director and founder of the Tree of Life Foundation and the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, called by Harper’s Magazine, “One of the world’s best 10 yoga and detoxification retreats” Gabriel Cousens received his MD from Columbia Medical School. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, a Diplomate in Ayurveda, and has also earned a Homeopathic MD. Since 1993 Dr. Cousens has been the director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center and Tree of Life Foundation. He has a program to reverse diabetes in twenty-one days, in which 33% of type 1 diabetics have come off their insulin and have a blood sugar of less than 100. 55% of the varieties of type 2’s have come off all medications and have a blood sugar of less than 100 within twenty-one days.http://www.gabrielcousens.com/HOME/ABOUT/tabid/1953/language/en-US/Default.aspx

founder of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona and author of Conscious Eating and Depression Free For Life, you are widely considered one of the pioneers of the raw foods movement. "Why live food? Why the Tree of Life? What's in it for them? Why is it worth the effort to pursue a raw foods lifestyle?Cousens: That's a very good question. The bottom line is: Because it feels good. We don't know how long we're going to live, but if we're going to live, we should be in a totally healthy place. I've been on live foods since 1983. It's a very long time, and I'm in my sixty-third year, and the result of that is I'm more flexible than I was when I was captain of an undefeated football team at Amherst College, in the National Football Hall of Fame, and I'm stronger. I could do 70 push-ups then, and on my sixtieth birthday I could do 601." "The less you eat, the longer you live." "When you cook your food, you lose 50 percent of the protein. It becomes coagulated and you lose 78 percent of the vitamins and minerals. If you go live, you can eat half as much and still get the same amount." "When I went to Columbia Medical School, I saw that they actually didn't have a clue about the relationship between how to get the health and how to make people healthy. What they had a clue about was how to make pathological diagnosis. That was pretty good, but to get from pathological diagnosis to being healthy, no clue. I also saw that many of the patients had significant psychological problems, so as a third-year medical student at a medical ward, I really saw this. I began calling the psychiatric consults all the time, and many cases were cracked open because we had a psychological consult. I would tune in: This is a psychological problem. It's manifesting physically, but it's psychological, so I became a psychiatrist and family therapist.""most doctors aren't scientists. They're good: They get trained, they're smart, they say to take this drug for this problem, but they don't see the bigger picture, and they don't look to see what the all-around results are. What are the results 10 years down the line when I give this person this drug? Then, there's the drug to counter the side effects of that drug, and the drug to counter the side effects of that drug, so it got clear to me that I was approaching it like a scientist. I'm going to say, "What's my goal?" My goal is to create health. Then, being on a bunch of drugs to suppress symptoms was really not the way to approach it." "When you start to do the live food diet and you start to do the fast, the gunk kind of clears, and you start to get this ... I'm going to call it the divine kiss. It just feels good. Feeling good motivates most people, and that goodness is connected to spirit, as well. We can't separate the body and the spirit. What we eat affects the mind, and we've known that for thousands of years.""One of the biggest mistakes people make is they say there's one way to eat. Well, there isn't. We have 25,000 different genes and somewhere between 100,000 and 1.4 million genetic variations. You think there's one diet for all that? Of course not, so we try to help people tune into whether they need a high-protein diet, a low-protein diet, this-that variations and then eat in moderation.""genetically engineered food: Our bodies are not designed to handle it, and it causes distortion in the body, chaos in the body. We can think about disease as chaos in the field; that's a different way of talking about it. Healing is bringing coherence to the field.""It starts with the individual. It starts with an individual eating a healthy way, living a healthy way and thinking healthy thoughts. Then, as the mind gets clear, being able to create what I'm calling the global brain. The global brain already exists. We can fill it with TV, fear, misery, cruelty and greed, or we can fill it with love, sharing and compassion. I believe that the more we fill it with love, sharing, compassion and peace, in time, everybody will get it, and it doesn't take that many people, you know, maybe one percent of the population. We have to do it by practicing." founder of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, also a raw food enthusiast and a spiritual... how would you describe yourself? Cousens: Teacher, physician of the soul. www.naturalnews.com/015187.html

American doctor Gabriel Cousens. A medical doctor, psychiatrist and family therapist, he has become a household name in the subject of raw vegan food, and even sustains this diet can cure diabetes and depression.Dr. Cousens was trained traditionally but soon realized something very simple yet essential: curing disease is not only about medications, but also about changing habits and looking at the broader picture. "As a third-year medical student at Columbia Medical School I solved five incurable cases of people who had emotional difficulties that were showing psychosomatically, which made me realize that the mind affects the body", he explains. "Then I went into psychiatry and family therapy, and realized that an unhealthy body affects the mind too. It works in both directions." Cousens went on to found the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, a retreat center located in Arizona. His seventh book, There Is A Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program, comes from the work at the center with one particular disease: diabetes, which he sustains can be cured with a three week detox program. caloric restriction. Now when you cook food, you lose 50% of the protein, 70 to 80% of the vitamins and minerals and 95% of certain nutrients, so simply by eating raw or live food, you can eat half as much and you turn on all your anti-aging genes. On a spiritual level, when you're eating raw food you're eating the energy of the earth directly. When you cook the food you're not getting the energy, and when you eat meat, the cow got the energy, not you. Eating live food connects you with the living planet. "I don't want this to end up only in the medical implications, because what we teach truly is a spiritual awakening. Today we have a culture in which people are disconnected from the Earth, and therefore create lots of ecological damage to the planet. People need to go back and walk bare feet, reconnect to nature." http://www.treehugger.com/culture/dr-gabriel-cousens-on-curing-diabetes-with-raw-food-and-on-why-going-vegan-makes-sense.html

Simply Raw
As you can see, Simply Raw follows the story of six people, four of whom have type II diabetes, one of whom has type I diabetes, and one of whom is presented as having initially been diagnosed with type II diabetes but then diagnosed with type I diabetes. These six show up at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona to try to reverse their diabetes “naturally” with a “raw food” diet, having answered an advertisement for subjects in a “raw food challenge” to reverse diabetes. The center is described thusly on its website: The Tree of Life is the world’s leading spiritual, vegan raw and live food retreat center. It was founded in 1993 to promote spiritual awakening and to support an inspiring, healthy and “alive” lifestyle through education and first-hand experience. The Tree of Life serves as an oasis for the realization of whole-person, whole-planet healing. It is a place where people of all ages, nationalities, and religious and spiritual paths come to experience physical, mental, emotional and spiritual renewal and well being. The “healing modalities” offered at The Tree of Life are listed thusly:

Fasting, Juice Fasting & Detoxification Retreats Natural Cure for Diabetes Program Conscious Eating Program Living Modern Essene Way Workshops Modern Essene Minister & Priesthood Training Psycho-spiritual healing with our 4-Day Zero Point Program Mental Wellness program for Healing Brain and Nervous System

" it is clear that his methodology at The Tree of Life is a hodge-podge sampling from a veritable cornucopia of woo." The claim in the clip above comes from The Beautiful Truth and argues that the uncooked baby carrot is “alive,” with a photo of a seeming aura of “energy” surrounding it, while the cooked carrot is dead. The conclusion? Cooking and pasteurization “kill” food, and raw food is “living.” Given that Dr. Cousens traces the parentage of his diet all the way back to Max Gerson himself, it wouldn’t surprise me if he saw nothing wrong with the video clip above. What’s particularly irritating is that at the beginning of the 30 days, Dr. Couzens sits down with the six and tells them that “healing diabetes is easy.” He makes claims, such as that adding that cooking food decreases the protein content by 50% (which is utter nonsense; it’s more like 6%), 70-80% of the vitamins (it actually depends on the vitamin), and close to 100% of the phytonutrients (it also depends on the specific phytonutrient). There is even a scene of Dr. Cousens doing what appears to be live cell analysis on a blood sample of one of the six, pointing out what’s wrong with his blood. Live cell analysis, is, as regular readers here should know, rank quackery. Simply Raw is basically a single-arm, uncontrolled clinical trial consisting of six patients. Actually, it’s not even that. It’s basically six anecdotes from six different people of vastly differing ages, races, and backgrounds. As a result, it’s hard to generalize from the results shown in the movie. Five of the six appear to respond very rapidly to Dr. Cousen’s diet, within days, but one woman named Michelle does not. Once she is taken off of her insulin, her blood sugar readings remain, at least initially, between 350 and 400 mg/dl, way too high. As a result, she seriously thinks about leaving, leading the other five to try to persuade her not to go. Not surprisingly, this is a bit of false alarm, although useful drama for the movie, and Michelle–surprise! surprise!–ultimately decides to stay. At the end of the 30 days, she actually does have a good response to the diet. Of course, the doctor probably doesn’t realize that Dr. Cousens’ regimen is basically boot camp. People stay at his compound, isolated from their family and friends and interacting only with fellow residents and the center’s staff, eat only the meals Dr. Cousen’s staff makes for them or teaches them how to make, and are subject to serious peer pressure from the other residents there not to give up. Even so, even in this self-selected group, even under a situation of isolation from one’s familiar surroundings, one out of six bolted; one out of six had a relapse, and at least one more almost left. Dr. Cousens directed the movie. It’s quite clear that the message of the movie is that the best way to reverse diabetes is through a raw vegan diet of “living” food. Worse, although it features what Peter Lipson likes to call the “quack Miranda warning,” the movie also suggests strongly that diet can reverse type I diabetes. Representing what is in essence a set of anecdotes from six, self-selected diabetics, all with no science, it’s also highly effective propaganda. No one, least of all me, argues that diet isn’t incredibly important as a therapeutic modality for type II diabetes, but the entire Simply Raw package goes far beyond that, promoting vitalism and other dubious concepts as part and parcel of what is necessary to reverse type II diabetes. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/simply-raw-making-overcooked-claims-about-raw-food-diets/

The entire project took place at Cousens' Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in remote Patagonia, Ariz., 60 miles south of Tucson.http://www.marinij.com/sanrafael/ci_13191323

Set at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona founded by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., the film follows the participants as they are challenged to give up their traditional, American diets consisting of meat, dairy, sugar, processed foods, and cooked foods, as well alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, as they continue to reduce their dosages of insulin and prescription medications. “One of the most potent, pandemic diseases is Type 2 diabetes affecting 246 million people worldwide. We need to wake up to the possibility that simply changing our diet can significantly reverse and even cure this disease. The results of the participants in this documentary offer evidence of that,” states Dr. Cousens. The author of There is a Cure for Diabetes and founder of The Tree of Life, Gabriel Cousens, MD is a well-known holistic medical doctor for 35 years and published authority on alternative healing and raw living food nutritional therapies. He has helped thousands heal myriad diseases through the power of raw foods. By switching their diets and being more active in the outdoors (the film was shot on-location in Arizona, as well as the six hometown states of the participants), all of the Type 2 Diabetic subjects in the film eliminated their medication under doctor supervision in under thirty days during the making of the film. http://www.empowernewsmag.com/listings.php?article=2298

Controversy
"Arizona Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiner, death of a patient, 2001 decision to clear the doctor. board dismissed complaint against Dr. Gabriel Cousens, a licensed homeopath who practices holistic medicine and runs a spa called the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia. The complaint alleged that an elderly patient died of a gas gangrene infection developed after Cousens repeatedly injected him with "bovine adrenal fluid" as a treatment for fatigue. The family of the patient, Charles Levy of New York, sued Cousens for malpractice. The case was headed to trial when Cousens settled for an undisclosed amount of money paid to the family.  Cousens originally told police the substance he injected into Levy was "live sheep blood RNA and DNA," which is illegal to import for such a treatment, according to court documents.  Cousens later denied it was sheep blood and his documentation showed it was "bovine adrenal fluid," a less controversial substance derived from fetal cow tissues.A Pima County medical examiner concluded that the injections led to a large abscess on Levy's right buttock, which developed into the deadly infection. The plaintiffs alleged that when Levy complained about the swelling, pain and discomfort, Cousens misdiagnosed the condition as a muscle spasm and treated it over a period of four critical hours with only acupuncture and massage. Cousens said that Levy was already ill when he came to the spa and that the medical examiner misdiagnosed the cause of death, which Cousens believes was toxic shock unrelated to his treatment. The Levy family's lawyer, Tucson attorney Mike McNamara, called Cousens' claims about the case "outrageous." Cousens filed a complaint against the medical examiner with the state Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, alleging she botched her diagnosis. That board unanimously dismissed the complaint." http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1009homeopathic09sidebar.html

A malpractice suit involving cellular therapy was filed against Gabriel Cousens, M.D., a homeopathic physician who operates the Tree of Life Regeneration Center, in Patagonia, Arizona. The complaint stated that Cousens had treated Charles Levy over a 5-day period in 1998, during which time Levy developed and died from a Clostridium perfringens infection (gas gangrene) caused by injections with "bovine adrenal fluid." [24] The case was settled by an out-of-court settlement that included payment of an undisclosed amount of money. http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/cellular.html

In 1998, Charles Levy, 57, booked a flight to Arizona. Levy, an insurance agent, told his family he was in good health and planned to visit the Tree of Life Spa for a time of rejuvenation with a homeopathic doctor.He looked forward to the live organic vegan diet and spiritual rest described by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, whose Web site promotes him as an M.D. and M.D.h.Cousens is not eligible for an M.D. license in Arizona because his license was once taken away (but reinstated) in California and remains censured in New York. According to Arizona Medical Board spokesman Roger Downey, that makes a doctor ineligible for an Arizona medical license. If Cousens were a D.O., he would be eligible. But he's not. He's been practicing here as a homeopath for 15 years. According to court records from a civil suit filed by Levy's family, Levy showed up at Cousens' secluded campus in the green hills of Patagonia, Arizona. He was hoping for a time of physical and spiritual rest. Cousens told him that injections of cow adrenaline and/or sheep DNA could energize his body. Levy agreed to five injections, which aren't a homeopathic treatment but are allowed by Arizona's homeopathic board. Unfortunately, the injection site — on Levy's right buttock — grew infected, so he went to see Cousens about it. Cousens didn't recommend an antibiotic. Instead, he treated the growing abscess with acupuncture and massage. The infected area became green and black. It spread down Levy's thigh, and on March 1, 1998, Levy did not wake up in his dorm room at the Tree of Life Spa. Cousens found Levy unconscious and attempted CPR, with no success. Cousens did not call 911. Instead, he called an air ambulance, and arranged for a helicopter pickup on the football field of a nearby high school. Cousens and a nurse carried Levy — draped in a bathrobe, bleeding from his mouth and groin — to a car and drove him five minutes to the field. A Patagonia police officer was driving by the school when he saw Cousens and a number of spa guests gathered around an unclothed body lying on the grass. Levy's buttock and thigh were black and swollen. His eyes were wide open. He was dead. After the helicopter took the body, Dr. Cousens told the officer that he'd injected Levy with sheep DNA. Later, Cousens contradicted his statement, saying the injection was actually cow hormones. Whether the injection was cow or sheep didn't matter to Santa Cruz County Medical Examiner Dr. Cynthia Porterfield. She examined Levy's body and ruled that the injection and subsequent infection killed him. Specifically, she found that Levy died from Clostridium perfringens, a bacteria that grows in gas gangrene. During the Civil War, that bacteria claimed thousands of soldiers' lives when it grew in their battle wounds. Modern antibiotics can kill the bacteria easily when used. "I spoke with him the day before. The next day, I got a phone call that he was gone," Levy's son, Howard, says. "I pretty much haven't recovered since. He was not on any medication, didn't have high blood pressure, or a weight problem. He could go out and run three miles on the boardwalk." Levy filed a lawsuit against Cousens, and Cousens paid an undisclosed amount to settle the suit after the medical examiner pinned the death directly on him. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-04-10/news/arizona-s-homeopathic-board-is-the-second-chance-for-doctors-who-ve-lost-their-conventional-medical-licenses-in-other-states/3/

The osteopathic medical board also examined the autopsy and ruled that the medical examiner was right to name the injection and infection as the causes of death. But when Cousens' dead patient came up before the homeopathic board in 2001, the board dismissed the complaint — despite the medical examiner's findings. The board ruled that, though a patient did die, the doctor did not violate any laws of homeopathic medicine. In his October 11, 2000 court deposition, board member Dr. Garry Gordon says he served as the board's lead investigator into Cousens, but he also worked as an expert witness for Cousens in court. Because the homeopathic board dismissed the complaint, the medical board in California — where Cousens holds his M.D. — has no way of knowing Cousens injected a patient with animal hormones. It has no way of knowing he treated a growing infection with acupuncture or that a county medical examiner named his treatment as the causes of a patient's death. The Arizona board has since destroyed audio records from that meeting (technically, it did so legally). "I think it's a travesty that he's still practicing in Arizona," Howard Levy says from his home in New York. "Those people who are allowing this to continue to happen are just as guilty. The simple fact that he can continue to practice medicine in any way, shape, or form shows that the system is failing the general public." Today, Cousens still practices at his spa in Patagonia. He says he has "28 cubic feet of scientific literature" that disprove the medical examiner. He says Levy died of an extremely rare syndrome that strikes suddenly and kills in hours. Cousens also says Levy was sick when he arrived at the spa and had the gas gangrene infection long before his cow adrenaline injections. "Dr. Porterfield, the pathologist, really was neglectful," says Cousens, who also says he thinks he would have won the case in court. (He says his insurance company forced him to settle.) "I believe that if we were in front of the medical board, they would have cleared me just as well." http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-04-10/news/arizona-s-homeopathic-board-is-the-second-chance-for-doctors-who-ve-lost-their-conventional-medical-licenses-in-other-states/4/