Vitamin B17 “..cancer cells were dying like flies.”
In his UK Observer article entitled Quacks on the Rack, John Diamond summarily dismissed what is arguably the most famous of the natural and proven anti-cancer treatments known to man, the natural extract of the apricot kernel, otherwise known as Vitamin B17.
“Supporters of Laetrile (vitamin B17) and Essiac, in particular, made so much noise about their miracle cures that both have been through the research mill on numerous occasions and found to be useless.” [19]
Interestingly, Dr. Dean Burk, the former head of the Cytochemistry
Department of the National Cancer Institute, and one of the co-founders of this
famous American medical institution, had worked on Vitamin B17 personally. He
described this substance in very different terms:
“When we add laetrile to a cancer culture under the microscope,” said Burk, “providing the enzyme glucosidase also is present, we can see the cancer cells dying off like flies.” [20] (glucosidase being the enzyme heavily present in cancerous cells which triggers the unique cancer-destroying mechanism found in Vitamin B17. An excellent clinical analysis of this mechanism is found in ‘B17 Metabolic Therapy – In The Prevention And Control Of Cancer - a concise history of the research into this vitamin, including many clinical assessments. More details on this book can be found at the end of this article.) [21] Dr Burk also stated that evidence for Laetrile’s efficacy had been noted in at least five independent institutions in three widely separated countries of the world. [22]
So who do we trust in this matter? Diamond or Burk? Now we can ask ourselves whether it was perhaps the fault of some kindly but misguided soul who posted John Diamond an essay on the benefits of Vitamin B17 mixed with walnut water that caused him to dismiss B17 so emphatically. Or it could be that John actually trusted the conventional research reports he had accrued on this vitamin. By examining the sources from where John Diamond might have got his B17 research ‘information’, the ugly features of conventional cancer research move more sharply into focus.