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Before Gerson: The Forgotten Medical History of Coffee Enemas

Before Gerson: The Forgotten Medical History of Coffee Enemas

by | Nov 14, 2026

Post Categories: Aging and Longevity | Detoxification and Chelation | Integrative Medicine | Natural Living | Perspectives | Studies/Reviews | Toxins and Chemicals

In 27 years working with coffee enemas, one story about their history has come up more than any other. During the First World War, German nurses ran short of morphine and began using leftover coffee as enemas to ease the pain of wounded soldiers. The details change depending on who tells it, but the ending is always the same. The nurses tried something unusual, it worked, and coffee enemas were born.

Having built my career around this practice, I wanted to know where that story actually came from. When I started researching my book, I expected to find military medical reports or nursing journals from the time. I found nothing that confirmed it. What I did find was that coffee enemas had been part of conventional medicine long before the war.

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Scott Wilson

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