Apricot kernels and cancer:

One reader wanted to know if apricot kernels really were a cancer fighter. It’s a subject that’s been raised before and, once again, many readers point to the work of Philip Day, and his research into the subject, which is encapsulated in his book ‘Cancer: Why we’re still dying to know the truth’ (see: http://www.credence.org). One reader explains that apricot kernels contain vitamin B17, which is also known as laetrile or amygdalin. They’re used as metabolic therapy in clinics. It’s been recommended to eat 10 kernels a day as a preventative, and 40 as a therapy. They have a very bitter taste, and that’s because of the cyanide in them. Readers assure us that the cyanide is inert, and can cause no harm – a view not shared by regulators in Australia, where they have been banned, according to one of our readers in New South Wales. A herbalist in New York tells us that our healthy cells have an enzyme that helps protect them from the cyanide, but cancer cells don’t have the enzyme and so get zapped by the cyanide. It certainly seemed to work for one reader, who went for treatment at the Oasis of Hope clinic in Mexico. The therapy was mainly dietary, and focused on daily treatment with B17, vitamin C and other chelation infusions, plus the occasional colonic/coffee enema. Another reader stresses the importance of diet in relation to B17 therapy. He believes that cancer can be associated with a lack of two pancreatic enzymes and B17. While we produce the two enzymes naturally, we also use them to help digest animal protein, and so it’s important to follow a vegan diet while supplementing with B17. The vitamin is found in the kernels and seeds of many non-citrus fruits, such as cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums and apples, although its highest concentration is found in apricot kernels.