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I've read or I've been told that laetrile is dangerous.

During the controversy that raged during the decades following the 1950’s, one of the most misleading criticisms leveled at laetrile was that it is dangerous because it contains cyanide.

The correct position is that laetrile contains no free hydrogen cyanide. When and only when laetrile comes in contact with the enzyme beta-glucosidase the laetrile breaks down to form two molecules of glucose, one molecule of benzaldehyde and one molecule of hydrogen cyanide. (Binzel ch6)

Within the human body the cancer cell, and only the cancer cell, contains that enzyme in sufficient quantity to cause the breakdown. (Binzel ch6) It is this action by which advocates of laetrile explain its efficacy. The hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and the benzaldehyde are formed in the presence of the cancer cell to attack that and only that cell.

Cancer cells are deficient in another enzyme, rhodanese, commonly found throughout the body with the highest concentrations in the liver. Rhodanese mixed with HCN forms the harmless substance called thiocyanate. Therefore, any leakage away from the cancer site is rendered nontoxic by rhodanese.

The same cyanide molecule is found in vitamin B12 used to treat pernicious anemia, as well as occurring in blackberries, blueberries and strawberries.

By way of analogy, no one seriously claims that common table salt is dangerous despite the fact that it contains chlorine, a highly poisonous substance. Similar to HCN in laetrile the chorine is locked up, like a brick inside a brick wall, only to be formed or freed under highly specific circumstances.

Illustrations demonstrating the non toxicity of laetrile are given at the end of this chapter.

Another way to consider the issue is along the following lines.

Foods, drugs and poisons have one thing in common, each is capable of producing some sort of biological effect. The range of reactions of even an essential nutrient may vary from a lethal deficiency state to optimum health depending on the dosage. As the 16^th century physician Paracelsus said, “All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy.”

As Dean Burk points out, water taken into the lungs rather than the stomach can prove lethal. (private papers) Some people have a violent reaction to eating strawberries.

Therefore, a precise definition of poison is difficult to formulate because it includes virtually every known chemical and physical agent depending on the exact conditions of exposure. (Halstead p16)

Halstead (p23) concludes his discussion this way, “There is not even a remote comparison between the toxicity of the metabolic Amygdalin (laetrile) therapy compared to the extreme devastation usually resulting from the combined administration of surgery, radiation and extremely toxic chemotherapy.”

Illustrations

One of the earliest toxicological commentaries was written by Otto Jacobsen in 1887 and called Die Glycoside. He concluded that amygdalin is not toxic and provided 99 references covering a period of over 20 years. (Halstead p17)

In a 15 day test Dr Manner injected 40 experimental mice with doses of 2,000 mg/kg without harmful effect. In fact the eyes remained bright and the hair coat shiny in all groups at the end of the test. (The Death of Cancer)

Dr Navarro reported giving 20,000 parenteral injections of laetrile without any evidence of toxicity. (Navarro M.D., The Mechanism of Action and Therapeutic Effects of Laetrile in Cancer, 1957 Jnl Phillipine Med Assoc, 33:620-627)

During the 5 year Sloan-Kettering study of laetrile, laetrile was injected into mice in the human equivalent of doses as high as a pound a day with no sign of acute or chronic toxicity. (Moss the Cancer Industry p143)

At the height of the laetrile controversy the FDA took the extraordinary step of placing ‘Laetrile Warning’ posters in 10,000 post offices. The posters stated there had been 37 poisonings and 17 deaths however when the facts are checked more closely the real figure appears in fact to be 2 deaths. (Moss The Cancer Industry, p141)

Dean Burk observed, “Anthropologists and others tell us that Africa was the cradle of the human species. Be this as it may, it is certainly clear that the native dietary pattern in Africa frequently carried upwards of 1,000 mg of vitamin B17 (i.e. amygdalin) daily.” (private papers)

Most advocates recommend a daily dose of no more than 30 apricot kernels or seeds per day. Each apricot kernel commonly contains 4 or 5 mg of amygdalin though the content may vary by a factor of 6. Therefore, 30 apricot kernels will over time average out to about 120 to 150 mg.

For the past 3 years I myself have taken 20 to 30 apricot kernels each day, ground them into powder using an electric grinder, mixed the powder with pineapple juice and I’ve never felt healthier.