Essay, Research Paper
Laetrile Is An Effective Treatment For Cancer
Many people in the world today suffer from various forms of cancer. Some
types are carcinoma, leukemia, sarcoma, lymphoma, and melanoma. One out of
three of us will develop cancer in our lifetime. That is eighty-eight million people in
the United States alone. And according to the American Cancer Society, 1.3 million
new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 1996 and more than 555,000 died from it.
One out of eight women will develop breast cancer. Every three minutes a woman is
diagnosed with breast cancer. Every two minutes, a woman dies of breast cancer in
the United States. Presently there are seventy six million people with cancer in the
United States. In spite of the availability of FDA approved treatments, more than
600,000 cancer patients die every year in the United States. Conventional therapy is
failing. With billions of dollars spent each year on research, we are finding that there
are more people today making a living from cancer than dying from it. An alternative
must be offered. Thousands of people today are testifying that when conventional
programs told them to go home and die, they sought out alternatives and because of
them, they are alive and well today. I will tell you about this controversial alternative
to cancer treatment that has been around for quite a while. It is called laetrile, and I
believe it has a positive effect on cancer patients.
About thirty years ago, people in the United States had heard rumors that the
mystery of cancer had been solved by a free apricot seed, apple seed, or any food
with the vitamin B-17 in it. During 1950 after many years of research, a dedicated
biochemist by the name of Dr. Ernest T. Krebs, Jr., isolated a new vitamin that he
numbered B-17 and called Laetrile. As the years rolled by, thousands became
convinced that Krebs had finally found the complete control for all cancers. Each
year, thousands of Americans travel to Mexico and Germany to receive Laetrile
therapy. They do this because it has been put down in the United States. Most
patients have been told their cancer is terminal, and that they have only a few
months to live. But after going through the Laetrile treatment, an incredible
percentage of them have recovered, and they are living normal lives. Meanwhile
hundreds of thousands of patients die each year after undergoing surgery, radiation,
or chemotherapy, but those treatments continue to be considered “safe and
effective”.
What is the Laetrile treatment, you might be asking yourself. Laetrile, also
known as Amygdalin, is a natural chemotherapeutic agent found in over 1,200
plants, particularly in the seeds of common fruits such as apricots, peaches, plums,
and apples. The seeds are called laetrile, and the extract is vitamin B-17. It is a
diglucocide with a cyanide radical that is highly “bio-accessible.” This means that it
penetrates through the cellular membrane, reaching high intra-cellular
concentrations very quickly. This is what makes this treatment so controversial.
Many scientists believe this cyanide is lethal to living organisms. But according to
the website entitled “Apricots From God”, some of the world’s top scientists claimed
that when consumed, the components of the seed make it 100% impossible to
develop cancer, and will kill existing cancer in most cases. There seems to be no
danger in this type of treatment because research has found that we have normal
cells in our bodies that contain an enzyme called Rodhanese, which “neutralizes”
the Amygdalin. This enzyme does not allow the Amygdalin to release the cyanide.
So because of this, the Amygdalin only serves as glucose to healthy cells providing
energy. There have been thousands of proposed non-toxic alternatives for cancer
treatments, but the majority of them have been promoted for a short time and then
abandoned. Laetrile has survived for more than 70 years.
Laetrile is available in many other countries except for ours. It is available in
Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Costa Rica, England, Germany, Greece, India, Israel,
Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, The Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, the
U.S.S.R., Venezuela, and Vietnam. But like I mentioned before, it is not allowed in
the “land of the free”. A while back, things such as the apricot tree became illegal as
individuals couldn’t even obtain them anymore. All over apricot seeds were taken off
the shelves by the store owners or by police raids. So laetrile, vitamin B-17 and
apricot seeds became outlawed and deemed ineffective by the American Medical
Association and National Cancer Institute. Well since then, apricot seeds and
vitamin B-17 became legal, but still no store will sell them and jeopardize being
raided. Even to this day, you can’t get apricot seeds in your health food store, only
the dried ones which have all the important enzymes killed off. I think all these
different seeds shouldn’t be banned from the public. They aren’t drugs or anything,
but just are nature’s own remedy for cancer. Vitamin B-17 is one of the main sources
of food in cultures such as the Navajo Indians, the Hunza, the Abkasians, and many
more. Within these tribes there has never been a reported case of cancer. And there
are doctors and scientists from the United States living within these tribes right now
studying this.
This type of treatment for cancer seems to be one of the most effective ways
of curing cancer out there. And it seems pretty natural and safe. The website I
visited had so many testimonials of the treatment being a success. I really believe
that the seeds and extracts are the way to go in terms of dealing with cancer. If it
wasn’t effective, many people would be dying from the cyanide that is supposedly
lethal. There has been much research and proof that laetrile does indeed work.