Laetrile / Vitamin B17 Treatment For Cancer

How It Works

Laetrile (i.e. officially it is called amygdalin) therapy works by killing cancer cells and building the immunity system to fend off future outbreaks of cancer. It uses two different methods for killing cancer cells. It invoves a strict diet and several supplements. It can be supercharged by combining it with other treatment plans.

How to Obtain Laetrile or Vitamin B17

The FDA has made the purchase of laetrile supplements effectively impossible. In order for a doctor to use laetrile supplements, they or their patient must "confess" to the FDA that the doctor is using laetrile in their practice. In other words, laetrile supplements are effectively illegal. Thus, if you illegally buy laetrile supplements, how do you insure you are buying it from a highly trusted source? This seems like an oxymoron.

Most people take laetrile in the form of apricot kernels. In the middle of a peach or apricot is a hard shell. If you break open the hard shell with a "nut cracker," pliers or hammer, you will find a small seed/kernel in the middle that looks like an almond. However, it is much softer than an almond and certainly does not taste like an almond. It is this seed that is rich in natural laetrile.

If you search for "apricot kernels" (use the quotes) on Google you will be able to find a lot of vendors of apricot kernels. Be advised, however, that apricot kernel sites cannot legally make any claims about laetrile being used to treat cancer. Thus, you are left to decide how many apricot kernels to take for cancer treatments.

Most experts will recommend a daily dose of apricot kernels from between 24 kernels a day up to 40 kernels a day, spread out over over the day.

Because I do not like any form of dehydration, especially if artificial heat is applied (it can affect the bioavailability of the latrile molecule), I like apricot kernels sold still in the shell. Yes, it is extra work to break open the shell for each kernel, but you KNOW the kernel has not been dehydrated. The vendor "Our Father's Farm" will, on request, sell apricot kernels still in the shell (see the link below).

Other things rich in laetrile are millet grain and buckwheat grain. Breads made with these grains, however, generally do not contain a high percentage of millet or buckwheat or else they would be too hard. Also, the seeds of berry plants, such as red raspberries and black raspberries are rich in laetrile. Red raspberries also have a second cancer killer in their seeds: Ellagic Acid, a phenolic. About four dozen foods have Ellagic Acid, but Red Raspberries have the highest concentration. Strawberries also have Ellagic Acid.

This means that when you buy berry jelly, make sure you buy preserves that have the seeds. Basically, the seeds of any fruit, except citrus fruits, have laetrile. My wife eats apples from the bottom up, meaning she eats the seeds and always has. This is a good habit to get into - I picked up the habit years ago.

Of course, apricot kernels are the best source of laetrile. Those who do not yet have cancer might want to plant a few apricot or peach trees in their back yard for a long term source of laetrile. I assume the kernels can be frozen while still in the shell.

The Binzel list of foods that contain laetrile include: apricot kernels, peach kernels, grape seeds, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, bean sprouts, lima beans and macadamia nuts (to name but a few).

If you live outside of the U.S. and are able to obtain laetrile pills, it is important to take them with natural water on an empty stomach and to not eat or drink anything for one hour after taking the pills.

The FDA claims that laetrile is toxic. This is an absolute lie. Read the first chapter of Alive and Well to see how absurd the FDA claim is.

The Theory

When the laetrile compound molecule comes across a cancer cell, it is broken down into 2 molecules of glucose, 1 molecule of hydrogen cyanide and 1 molecule of benzaldehyde. In the early days of laetrile research it was assumed that the hydrogen cyanide molecule was the major cancer cell killing molecule, but now it is known that it is the benzaldehyde molecule that is by far the major reason the cancer cell is killed.

The reason laetrile therapy takes so long to work, in spite of the marvelous design of the laetrile molecule, is because if the laetrile molecule happens to chemically react with the enzyme of a non-cancerous cell (rhodanese), before it reacts with the enzyme of a cancerous cell (beta-glucosidase), the rhodanese will break apart the laetrile molecule in such a way that it can no longer kill a cancer cell. Thus you have to take enough laetrile molecules, over a long enough time, that enough laetrile molecules coincidently (as far as we know) hits all of the cancer cells first.

The second way that laetrile therapy works is because of the laetrile diet. Like the metabolic diet, it is designed to build up the trypsin and chymotrypsin in the body, and let them work on the cancer cells. What they do is break down the enzymes surrounding the cancer cell so the white blood cells can kill the cancer cell.

The Basic Treatment Plan

The specific therapy that I discuss comes from the Binzel book: Alive and Well. There are other sources of a laetrile diet, but I would compare any other diet with the Binzel diet if you want to use another diet.

As with any cancer treatment, the place to start is with the "diet," meaning the foods you can and cannot eat. The Binzel diet is very similar to the Raw Food diet. This is interesting because he was taught by Dr. Krebs himself, thus the laetrile diet probably dates back over 60 years.

It would probably be better to simply go on a Raw Food diet rather than a modified Raw Food diet (i.e. the Binzel diet). The reason is that the Binzel diet does not take into account many discoveries made about the cancer killing nutrients in vegetables and fruits. In other words, the Binzel diet does not discriminate between the best cancer killing fruits and vegetables versus the far less effective (for treating cancer) vegetables and fruits. Thus, the base diet of the Binzel plan should be the Raw Food diet.

The question then becomes, how do we enhance the Raw Food diet to take into account laetrile. There are several ways. First, give preference in the Raw Food diet to those fruits (i.e. seeds), grains and nuts (e.g. almonds and macadamia) that are rich in laetrile. Mix these items with the Raw Food diet items.

Second, make sure you get the nutrients that are necessary in order for laetrile to work: zinc, Vitamin C, manganese, magnesium, selenium, Vitamin B, Vitamin A, etc. (vitamins, minerals, enzymes). Thus, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and selenium supplements should be used (multi vitamins don't have enough of these items), plus a very good multi-vitamin that has the rest of the items. You also must eat almonds with this diet to get synergistic nutrients.

Binzel also adds "Megazyme Forte" for its trypsin, chymotrypsin, bromalin and zinc nutrients - 2 pills three times a day. While there are many critical nutrients necessary for laetrile to work, zinc is the most important.

• "Zinc is the transportation mechanism for laetrile and nitrilosides in the body. Biochemists and researchers have found that you can give Laetrile to a patient until its coming out of the ears of the patient, but, if that patient did not have sufficient level of Zinc, none of the laetrile would get into the tissues of the body. They also found that nothing heals within the body without sufficient vitamin C. They also found that magnesium; selenium, vitamin A, and B all played an important part in maintaining the body's defence mechanism. This is way its important to understand that cancer is best treated with a total nutritional program consisting of diet, vitamins, minerals, laetrile and pancreatic enzymes."
  http://www.thefountainoflife.ws/cancer/zinc.htm

He also adds Pangamic acid (B15) 100 mg. - 1 pill three times daily. He also adds a Vitamin A supplement, but this should not be added due to the large amount of carrot juice in the Raw Food diet.

Binzel recognizes the need for vegetable protein, and thus allows grains, nuts, beans, etc. that provide that protein, even if they have to be cooked.

Binzel does not allow cottage cheese (it comes from an animal, thus it is forbidden), however, if you are taking the two key elements in the Budwig diet, cottage cheese is obviously OK.

Supercharging This Treatment

Unless you have more than a year and a half to live, you should not DEPEND on laetrile as the core treatment in a cancer treatment program. Anyone can take laetrile, but only those with more than a year and a half to live should depend on it.

For everyone else, it is necessary to use one of the major treatment articles as their base of operations:
Treatment For Stage I, II and III Cancer Patients
Treatment For Stage IV Cancer Patients