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Apricot Kernels -Vitamin B17 and Cancer

There is much written about the effects of vitamin B17 on cancer. Much of this writing is ill-informed and designed to scare people with stories of cyanide poisoning, in an attempt to justify the continuing multi-billion pound a year industry that is cancer. Below is a brief outline of how and why vitamin B17 is believed to be the vitamin that prevents cancer, just as vitamin C is the vitamin that prevents scurvy.

During the 1950s a father-son team of scientists Ernst T. Krebs senior and junior isolated a new vitamin that they named Laetrile. It is the 17th of the B vitamins hence its classification as vitamin B17.

This work was part of their ongoing and pioneering research into enzymes and their effects on cancer cells. It is this understanding of the importance of certain enzymes that is critical to the way vitamin B17 is thought to work.

The two names Laetrile and Vitamin B17 are often used interchangeably along with another common name amygdalin. However they are not the same thing and we shall refer here to vitamin B17 as it is the naturally occuring substance found in our apricot kernels.

Laetrile = LAEvomandeloniTrile-glucoside

Vitamin B-17 is a type of nitroliside, of which there are 14 different types spread across 1200 different species of plant.
These plants grow right across the planet and are available as part of the natural diet for all of us. They include plants as varied as maize, sweet potato, kidney beans, cassava and lettuce, to name just a few. However these nitrolisides are contained in the largest amounts within the kernels (seeds) of many non-citrus fruits such as peaches, cherries, apples and most of all apricots.

The Trophoblast Theory of Cancer.

Trophoblasts are stem cells that are present in the developing foetus. These stem cells act identically to cancer cells and are described as 'metastisising cells of the placenta'. These cells produce a hormone called Chorionic Gonadotropin which are also produced by cancer cells. This hormone is easily detetected in urine and is used in pregnancy tests. Levels of this homone are also an important tumour marker. In a woman the presence of this hormone means they are either pregnant or have cancer, whereas in a man ther presence always means that they have cancer.

These Trophoblasts are rejected by the foetus and mother during day 56 of pregnancy and come out during birth with the placenta and amniotic sac. They are rejected by the presence of a proteolytic enzyme called chymotrypsin.

The theory is therfore put forward that cancer is a healing process of cells that fails to switch off due to a lack of these proteolytic enzymes in the body.

So what does this have to do with vitamin B17?

Krebs research showed that vitamin B17 consumed in the right amounts in animals selectively kills trophoblast and cancer cells.
Vitamin B17 is inert and non-toxic to healthy human cells. However when it comes into contact with the enzyme beta-glucosidase it produces two poisons in minute quantities, hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde. The important thing here is that the beta-glucosidase enzyme is only present in tumours, and nowhere else in the body. When these poisons are released it is at the tumour site only, selectively killing off the cancer.

Why does the cyanide not effect healthy cells?

Many who do not understand the science behind vitamin B17 claim that eating it means we will be poisoned by cyanide. However as stated above the cyanide is only released at the tumour site by the presence of the enzyme beta-glucosidase.
Any cyanide and benzaldehyde that escapes into healthy cells is destroyed by the presence of another enzyme called Rhodanese. Rhodanese is present throughout all cells in the body, but never in cancer cells. The rhodanese deactivates the poisons and breaks them down into by-products that are actually beneficial to healthy cells, thiocyanate and benzoic acid.

We do not even need to know this science to appreciate that consumption of vitamin B17 will not harm you in any way, the evidence is in the world around us. Vitamin B17 is present in large quantities in the diets of many cultures. In particular the Hunzas of Northern Pakistan eat a diet containing 50-75g of vitamin B17 a day. In the 'West' with our modern diet we are lucky to consume this much vitamin B17 in a year. It is therefore no surprise to learn that cancer rates amongst these people are practically zero, and only occur when they come into contact with the 'Western Diet'.

We have struggled to find a single case of death by vitamin B17, but deaths due to the use of treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy rather than cancer itself are commonplace. In fact adverse reactions to prescribed drugs kill about 10,000 people every year in the UK, and 100,000 in the United States.

So why is Vitamin B-17 not a mainstream cancer therapy?

The answer to this is an unfortunate result of our global health care systems. Modern medicine is dominated by drugs. There is a drug, and often several, for every ailment known to humankind. Unfortunately drugs are designed to treat or mask symptoms, and very rarely treat the cause of a condition. However they are hugely profitable for the corporations that manufacture them. These corporations are driven by profit, and it is in fact a legal duty of those that run corporations to do everything in their power to increase profits for their shareholders. If it was proved that vitamin B17 was to cancer what vitamin C is to scurvy then it would overnight wipe out billions of pounds of profit from the corporations that make the myriad of cancer drugs.

This is not a conspiracy theory as many woud make out, but rather a statement of fact. Any pharmaceutical company that proved vitamin B17 was an effective preventative and cure for cancer would be breaking the law by threatening its own profitability.
The few weak trials that have been undertaken into synthesised Vitamin B17 (Laetrile) have been dogged by controversy. One of the largest trials into Laetrile was undertaken at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. One of the public affairs spokespeople there, a certain Ralph Moss, was horrified when he was told to present the research as showing Laetrile was ineffective against cancer, when in fact the reverse was true. He blew the whistle, and has paid for it with his job.

If there is the slightest chance that vitamin B17 could be as effective as the theories suggest then new, properly conducted and independant trials should be started as soon as possible. If it turns out that these emminent men of science are completely wrong then the worst that will of happened is that a few million £s will have been wasted. However if they are correct then the cancer plague that is sweeping the modern world would finally be halted in its tracks.

In the meantime we will continue to eat our Apricot Kernels everyday.