Vitamin B17, Fighting Cancer

The story about vitamin B17 appears in the worldwithoutcancer.org.uk website. Many names of doctors from various countries are given recommending the use of vitamin B17 to fight cancer and its outstanding success.

Unfortunately, there is no information whether the efficacy has been proved by double blinded studies.

The ENT surgeon’s story is remarkable. Her one kidney with the ureter and a little part of the bladder were removed and given radiotherapy seven years ago. She remained well for seven years and then in November 2009 there was a recurrence and a growth was removed close to the bladder. After eating manioc for one month she felt better and cystoscopy hadn’t revealed any pathology.

She attributes this cure to vitamin B17 in manioc.

The ENT surgeon remained well for seven years after the first treatment (surgery and radiotherapy). Recurrence was detected in November 2009 and a growth was removed surgically. I am of opinion that it is too early to get a recurrence within four months after the second operation, as the first recurrence was after seven years, and attributing the remission to taking manioc for one month is premature. I personally hope and pray that the learned surgeon will not get a recurrence even after several years.

This anti-tumour agent in manioc and other seeds — Vitamin B17, is commonly known as Amygdalin or Laetrile.

According to Dr. Ernest T. Krebs, Jr. its components make it vital for our survival without cancer. The greatest concentration is found in the seeds of the rosaceous fruits, such as the apricot pits and other bitter nuts. Various documents from the oldest civilisations such as Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and from China 2,500 years before Christ mention the therapeutic use of derivatives of bitter almonds. Egyptian papyri from 5,000 years ago mention the use of “aqua amigdalorum” for the treatment of some tumours of the skin.

But the systematised study of Vitamin B-17 really did not begin until the first half of the past century, when the chemist Bohn discovered in 1802 that during the distillation of the water from bitter almonds hydrocyanic acid was released. Soon many researchers became interested in analysing this extract and so Robiquet and Boutron isolated, for the first time, a white crystalline substance which they called AMYGDALIN.

This is what the FDA has to say:

“In the US the Food and Drug Administration has used regulation, not law, to keep doctors in some states from using Laetrile therapy. There is no federal law against Laetrile, nor does Laetrile appear on an official list of proscribed items. The Food and Drug Administration has also used regulation, not law, to ban the interstate shipment and sale of Laetrile by alleging that it is either an ‘unlicensed new drug’ or an ‘unsafe or adulterated food or food additive.’ It is neither. Amygdalin is an extract of apricot kernels, which makes it a food supplement and nothing more. Vitamin B-17 was the subject of great controversy 18 years ago when some of the world’s top scientists claimed that when consumed, its components make it 100% impossible to develop cancer and will kill existing cancer.

“Pharmaceutical companies pounced on this claim immediately and demanded that FDA studies be conducted. Pharmaceutical companies conduct studies on patented chemicals they invent so that at the end of their study, if the drug gets approved, they have exclusive rights to its sale. They never conduct studies on foods that cannot be patented and that can be sold at any supermarket (e.g. vitamins).”

Foods that contain Vitamin B17 are:

KERNELS OR SEEDS OF FRUIT: The highest concentration of vitamin B-17 can be found in nature, aside from bitter almonds — apple, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plum, prune.

BEANS: broad (Vicia faba), burma, chickpeas, lentils (sprouted), lima, mung (sprouted), Rangoon, scarlet runner.
NUTS: Bitter almond, macadamia, cashew.
BERRIES: Almost all wild berries. Blackberry, chokeberry, Christmas berry, cranberry, elderberry, raspberry, strawberry.

SEEDS: Chia, flax, sesame.

GRASSES: Acacia, alfalfa (sprouted), aquatic, Johnson, milkweed, Sudan, minus, wheat grass, white dover.

GRAINS: oat groats, barley, brown rice, buckwheat groats, chia, flax, millet, rye, vetch, wheat berries.

MISCELLANEOUS: bamboo shoots, fuschia plant, sorghum, wild hydrangea, yew tree (needles, fresh leaves).