The Cancer Therapy So Effective They “Had” to Ban It from America

They did it to protect you. Or so they said.

Mind you, it’s a nutrient found in food that the FDA is “saving” you from!

A nutrient that’s one of the most popular and best-established alternative cancer treatments yet discovered. It’s simple and highly effective, with cancer curing success clinically proven in studies by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute.

So why on earth is it banned in America and many other places?

Laetrile is the trade name of a nutrient that also goes by a number of other names -- B17, nitriliside, amygdalin, or sometimes, apricot kernels. It’s part of a large family of natural compounds known as cyanogenic glycosides. They’re found in high amounts in apricot seeds, among other nuts and seeds.

Researchers report that Laetrile acts against tumors because cancer cells have 3000 times the level of beta-glucosidase enzymes found in healthy cells. When a cancer cell comes in contact with Laetrile, these enzymes break down the Laetrile molecule into hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde.

The cyanide—yes, deadly cyanide-- destroys the cancer cell, while the benzaldehyde half of the molecule, when released, actually gives pain relief. Normal cells contain a different enzyme, called rhodenase, which renders Laetrile harmless. Thus, Laetrile only releases cyanide to kill cells when cancer is present, so it kills only cancer cells, not healthy cells.

The FDA puts Laetrile in its crosshairs

Over the last 50 years, the FDA has received numerous studies proving Laetrile’s safety and efficacy. Some of the research dates all the way back to 1921, when a British doctor discovered that members of a remote tribe that consumed diets high in Laetrile were virtually cancer-free.

In the early 1950s, Dr. Ernst Krebs, Sr., M.D. and his son Ernst Jr. became the first American doctors to use Laetrile to treat cancer patients. Their success inspired other doctors, like Dr. John Richardson, to also use Laetrile to treat cancer patients. By the 1970s, Laetrile was a popular alternative cancer treatment in the United States.

But remember, this is a naturally occurring substance that cannot be patented. So, it won’t surprise you to discover that as Laetrile rose in popularity, the FDA, on behalf of Big Pharma, worked tirelessly to discredit Laetrile’s success healing cancer.

In fact, in the 1970s, the FDA opposed Laetrile testing – unless conducted by those with an agenda  to disprove Laetrile’s efficacy.  Then, on September 1, 1971, the FDA announced it had found “no acceptable evidence of therapeutic effect to justify clinical trials…”

Consequently, Laetrile could no longer be promoted, sold, or even tested in the U.S.¹

Manufacturing the coverup 

From 1972 to 1977, Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, who was a highly respected senior lab researcher with over 60 years of experience, meticulously studied Laetrile. From his research, Laetrile was found to:

• stop metastasis (cancer spread)
• improve general health
• inhibit the growth of small tumors
• relieve pain
• prevent cancer cells from growing to begin with.

The official report also stated, “Dr. Sugiura has never observed complete regression of the tumors in all his cosmic experience with other chemotherapeutic agents.”²

To that point, Dr. Sugiura had published hundreds of scientific papers. A Russian cancer researcher famously quipped, “When Dr. Sugiura publishes, we know we don’t have to repeat the study, for we would obtain the same results he has reported.”

When Dr. Sugiura’s report on Laetrile went public, the cancer drug cash flow was more seriously threatened by Laetrile than ever before. Nearly everyone within Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center and the FDA was bent on proving him wrong, come hell or high water.

Fortunately, one group of Memorial Sloane-Kettering employees rose up in righteous indignation after discovering that their employer was stifling Dr. Sugiura’s results. They began circulating a series of open letters to the public under the name Second Opinion.

That’s when Big Pharma lackeys doubled down, performing more rigged studies aimed at convincing the public that Laetrile didn’t work. In an interview with Science magazine, Laetrile’s opponents straight up admitted that their intent was not to advance science, test a possible cancer cure, or find the truth of the matter. It was to “answer the laetrilists.”

A whopping 82% of patients helped!  

In 1978, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) launched a study to debunk the Laetrile movement once and for all.

Of 93 available cases demonstrating that Laetrile was effective, the NCI rejected all but 22. Despite this, they still found that 18 out of 22 – a whopping 82%! – showed some kind of beneficial response.

Very few “approved” anticancer drugs can come close to claiming that.

Still, the NCI reported, “These results allow no definite conclusions supporting the anticancer activity of Laetrile.”³

Regardless, by 1978, 70,000 American cancer patients had used it to help heal cancer. Among them were some famous Hollywood actors, like Steve McQueen.

The REAL story of Steve McQueen’s death  

In 1980, actor Steve McQueen made headlines when he traveled to Mexico for Laetrile and other untraditional cancer treatments.

He died four months later, and the press had a field day telling Americans that Laetrile is a fraud.

But they didn’t report the whole story. Here’s what they left out…

McQueen was desperate for an effective cancer therapy after treatment in the U.S. proved unsuccessful. Laetrile did succeed against McQueen’s cancer, and only a non-cancerous abdominal tumor remained. (Remember, most tumors are a combo of cancer and non-cancerous tissue.)

McQueen felt great, but decided to have the bulge removed for cosmetic reasons.  He was, after all, an actor.

He died of a complication from that surgery – not from cancer.

Yet his cancer recovery was never reported… reinforcing Big Pharma's lie that Laetrile was just another crackpot theory.

Brand-new research underway 

Though Laetrile was officially banned from the U.S., research continues in other countries.

Recent studies show benefits – including one showing that it stops the proliferation, migration, and invasion of cancer cells. However, officially, animal studies failed to back that up, according to the National Cancer Institute.⁴

Other recent studies suggest that Laetrile inhibits tumor cell migration, invasion, and adhesion… and, at higher doses, Laetrile also inhibits cancer cell growth in renal cell carcinoma, breast, bladder, prostate, and non-small cell lung cancers.^5,6,7,8,9

Other studies – mostly from Asia – conclude Laetrile is a relatively inexpensive and effective antitumor treatment with few side effects.

Still, most reports you’ll find online claim that Laetrile is ineffective, if not downright dangerous. Not surprising, given the pressure applied to cover up alternative therapies of all kinds.

This leaves you with two possibilities if you or a loved one would like to undergo Laetrile therapy:

1. Travel to Mexico (one of the few places it’s available) to get Laetrile therapy in their cancer clinics, where it’s usually administered by injection.
2. Eat foods that are high in amygdalin. Epidemiological studies show that where these foods are common, cancer rates are very low. Choice foods include:

• Raw nuts – bitter almonds, raw almonds, and macadamia nuts
• Veggies – carrots, celery, mung beans, lima beans, butter beans, and bean sprouts
• Seeds – millet, flax, and buckwheat
• Pits – from apples, apricots, plums, cherries, pears, and berries

Here in the States, we usually throw away the fruit’s pit, which could be the most nutrient-rich part.

In some places, it’s practically a national disgrace to throw the pit away. In the remote tribal area  of the Hunza in Asia, if you toss a fruit’s pit, people will follow you, retrieve it, smack it to release the inner seed, and eat the seed.

There’s virtually no cancer among the Hunza people. Their traditional diet contains about 200 times as much nitriliside (Laetrile) as the standard American diet. In fact, wealth there is defined by the number of apricot trees one owns! And the most prized food of all is – you guessed it – the apricot seed.

If you don’t own your own trees, you can buy apricot seeds, or kernels, online. Perhaps better, buy fresh apricots and smack the hard pit to release the softer seed, then consume it. But it does require a lot of apricots to get a clinical dose.

Answering the other “dire warning”  

One of the “dire warnings” the press loves to report is the risk of “cyanide poisoning” from eating apricot seeds, or kernels.

Yes, apricot kernels produce small amounts of cyanide, which is believed to aid the remedy’s effectiveness against cancer.

But a concocted, overblown, and inaccurate cyanide scare in 1972 dealt a severe blow to the idea of Laetrile as an effective and safe cancer treatment.

As an aside, it’s one thing for a health agency to warn people against stupid actions – and quite another to deprive people of an excellent food that’s safe if ingested in a reasonable way.¹⁰

Apricot seed grower and seller, Apricot Power, suggests these general guidelines for eating apricot seeds at home: Eat no more than three seeds per hour and no more than ten seeds per day. When injected, as Laetrile is used at cancer clinics, cyanide poisoning is barely even a remote possibility, because this method of administration  bypasses the GI system.

Patients on deathbeds live healthy for years  

If you want to learn more about the politics involved, we recommend you read the book World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B17 by G. Edward Griffin, available here.

This book details numerous case studies of patients who were on their deathbeds, were treated with Laetrile, and went on to live healthy, vibrant lives for many more years.

If movies are more your thing, watch Second Opinion: Laetrile at Sloan Kettering

It can also be rented here.

Best regards,

Lee Euler,
Publisher

References:

1. Press release, HFW/FDA, Sept. 1, 1971.
2. A Summary of the Effect of Amygadalin Upon Spontaneous Mammary Tumors in Mice,” Sloan-Kettering report, June 13, 1973.
3. N.M Ellison, “Special Report on Laetrile: The NCI Laetrile Review. Results of the National Cancer Institute’s Retrospective Laetrile Analysis.” New England Journal of Medicine 299:549-52, Sept. 7, 1978.
4. PDQ Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board. Laetrile/Amygdalin (PDQ®: Health Professional Version. PDQ Cancer Information Summaries [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Cancer Institute (US);2002-2016 Dec 21.
5. Juengel E, Afschar M, Makarevic J, et al. Amygdalin blocks the in vitro adhesion and invasion of renal cell carcinoma cells by an integrin-dependent mechanism. Int J Mol Med.2016;37:843-850. Doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2016.2454
6. Lee HM, Moon A. Amygdalin regulates apoptosis and adhesion in Hs578T triple-negative breast cancer cells. BiomolTher (Seoul).2016;24:61-66. Doi: 10.4062/biomolther.2015.172
7. Makarevic J, Rutz J, Juengel E, et al. Amygdalin influences bladder cancer cell adhesion and invasion in vitro. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e110244. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110244
8. Makarevic J, Tsaur I, Juengel E, et al. Amygdalin delays cell cycle progression and blocks growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro. Life Sci. 2016;147:137-42.doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2016.01.039
9. Qian L, Xie B, Wang Y, Qian J. Amygdalin-mediated inhibition of non-small cell lung cancer cell invasion in vitro. Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2015;8:5363-5670
10. Quoted from a letter from Dr. Dean Burk to Mr. B. Stenjen, President of the Waikiki Chapter of the National Health Federation, December 20, 1972, Griffin, Private Papers, op. cit.