B17 and Cancer FAQ's

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The following
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
are provided for your information only.
They are not the be taken as a diagnosis or suggestion for treatment.

The answers provided for the questions asked are taken from the book World Without Cancer (WWC), by G. Edward Griffin, word for word, except where noted.

Q.- How much can I take?

A.- With cancer it is most important to eat the seeds. The seeds must be chewed and kept in the mouth for as long as it takes for them to practically liquify. One or two seeds per hour is what should be eaten when you have cancer. The best results have come when the person eats 3-5 seeds per waking hour.


Vitamin B17 is water soluble and non-toxic. It is as safer than sugar or salt.
Some people get nauseous if they take too many seeds at one time, the same as one would if one drank too much salt water at one time.

If this is the case, take less amounts of the vitamin B17 tablets at one time but more often throughout the day. If you presently have cancer, you can have ten of the 500 mg tablets per day for the first month.

If you find that you are getting nauseous, cut the tablets in half and have 1/2 every waking hour, slowly building up to the ten per day. It is a good idea to have a little food in the stomach just before taking the vitamin.

When you reach the maximum dosage of vitamin B17, you need to maintain on that dosage for 21-30 days. After the initial 21-30 days, a maintenance dose of 1 - 3 tablets per day for the following three months is the proper protocol. My opinion is to eat the seeds for the rest of your life. See Prevention below.

Prevention: If you do not have cancer, one or two of the 100 mg tablets per day is fine. Dr. Krebs states the whole food is the best. This means you MUST eat 7-10 seeds (kernels) a day no matter how bitter you think they are. Is your life worth saying "They are too bitter, I won't eat them?" (Editors Note).

Remember, only the apricot kernels have the enzymes that make the laetrile work in your body. If the apricot kernels make you sick or you absolutely will not eat them, then you will have to supplement with several other vitamin/enzyme tablets to make up for what you loose with not consuming the apricot seeds (kernels).

Q.-Can I take B17 and chemo together?
A.- The worst idea is to take chemo alone. It is better to take chemo and the b17 together. It is best to take the b17 (seeds) and other herbal formulas for compete healing and forget the chemo.

Q.-Can I have the seeds and the vitamin together?
A.- Of course. There are many components of the seeds that are not included in the vitamin. The seeds have vitamin B17 in them as well as many other vitamins and minerals that help the actual vitamin B17 assimilate into the body.

Consider, scientists have only identified about a thousand vitamins and minerals. They say that there are hundreds of thousands that are still not identified yet. That means that you cannot just be a supplement person.

One study shows scientists feeding one group of rats all of the vitamins and minerals known. The second group was given garbage. The vitamin and mineral eating group was skinny and sickly after a couple of weeks but the garbage eating group was, of course, strong and healthy.

At the same token a garbage eating group with supplements added can be even stronger. This study means always eat the whole foods along with the vitamins as the great Dr. Krebs states.

Q.-What should I take along with the Vitamin B17?
A.- If you have cancer, it is recommended by Dr. Manner (one of the pioneers of the B17 treatment) to take pancreatic enzymes and vitamin C. They can both be found in your local health food store. Just ask the manager for pancreatic enzymes.

Pancreatic enzymes occur naturally in:
Pineapple
Papaya
Their job is to help burn away the negative protein cell wall of the cancer cell for the B17 to get in and fully destroy it.

Besides killing the cancer cells, one's organs might be damaged due to cancer development. It is very important to nurture the rest of your body back to working condition.


Here is a list of helpful natural foods you can take along with Vitamin B17:
Beets (strengthen the kidneys)
Joint Fuel (health food store)
Bone Meal (will build up the bones again if you had bone cancer)
Bovine cartilage (will build up the bones again if you had bone cancer)
Shiitake mushrooms (have been found to have an antiviral substance called lentinan)
Stimulates the body's immune system
Deactivates viruses
Noni Juice (from Tahiti)
Stop cancer
Diabetes
Arthritis
Nervous system failures
Kombucha tea
Grape seeds (the actual seeds, not just the extract)
Maitake mushrooms
Fights cancer
Lowers blood pressure
Helps control diabetes
Aids weight loss
There are many different foods and herbs that have healing properties. It is common knowledge among scientist and holistic doctors that combinations of therapies are more effective than just one. Put together what you can with, of course, the key center, the middle core...the seed.

Q.-Can I take vitamin B17 with chemotherapy or radiation?
A.-Absolutely. Please find out if there is any success rate with chemo with the cancer you have. If the doctor says "yes" then ask him if he means success as in cured or success as in it might extend your life for a few months.

If you are about to have an operation where the cancer cells are going to be disturbed, it is imperative that you take the seeds and the vitamin B17 to kill any of the free cells. Vitamin B17 can only help. It lowers blood pressure and is one of the healthiest foods on earth; it strengthens the arteries and heart and, of course, targets the cancer cell.

Q.-How long does it take for the cancer to die out?
A.- The cancer cells start dying immediately.

Bone cancer takes a little longer since the vitamin has to absorb deep into the body.
Skin cancer reacts the quickest. Within one week a notable difference can be seen, and in many cases complete tumor regression is achieved in less then three weeks.
Carcinomas can take a few months to shrink.
Cervical cancer has been noted to completely regress in less then three weeks.
If you would like to speak to others that are completely better, please call our office for those that had your specific type of cancer. You must already be in the program for these numbers.

Q.-Can it help me?
A.-If you have first been diagnosed and you're starting B17 therapy without chemo or radiation treatment, you should be fine. Dr. Krebs claimed a 98% success rate and the Del Rio Hospital of Tijuana claims nearly a 100% success rate with virgin cases. A virgin case is an individual that has not had chemo or radiation.

In cases where the individual has had chemo and/or radiation, it depends on how far the cancer has spread and what damage has been done by the chemo and radiation. In either case, it is imperative for one to implement vitamin B17 into their daily consumption.


Q.-Why don't medical doctors use vitamin B17?
A.-Doctors are taught from the beginning that Laetrile is not effective. On their own they are not allowed to use it and can only refer to their book which holds the two false studies on Laetrile and not the many positive true studies. If a doctor does use vitamin B17, he risks losing his license and even imprisonment.

After attending years of medical school, internship and finally working in a hospital, most doctors only want to hear of the treatments that they're allowed to administer, even if they are not successful. Only researchers can know the truth, those that seek knowledge. Start with Mr. Griffin's book "World Without Cancer." This book is one of a few that tell the true story of vitamin B17 and will guide you in further research that proves the simple answer to cancer.

Q.-What is the attitude of the food and drug bureau of the State of California regarding B17 and/or laetrile?
A.-In 1971 Grant Leake, chief of the Fraud Section of the Food and Drug Bureau of California said: "We're going to protect them even if some of them don't want to be protected."
Ref. WWC, pp18

Q.-Have any charges been brought against Medical Doctors (M.D.) for treating their patients with B17 and/or laetrile?
A.-YES - In early 1974 the California medical board brought formal charges against Stewart M. Jones, M.D. for using Laetrile in the treatment of cancer patients. It was learned later, however, that Dr. Julius Levine, one of the members of that board, himself had been using Laetrile in the treatment of his own cancer.

When Dr. Jones' case came up for review, the political pressures were so great that Dr. Levine felt compelled to resign from his post rather than come out openly in support of Dr. Jones and his patients.
Ref: Laetrile Tiff. State Medic Out, San Jose Mercury (Calif), April 10, 1974.
Ref: WWC, pp18

Q.-Why is B17 and/or Laetrile banned in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)?
A.- With billions of dollars spent each year in research with additional billions taken in from the cancer-related sale of drugs, and with vote-hungry politicians promising ever-increasing government programs, we find that today there are far more people making a living from cancer than are dying from it.
Ref. WWC, pp19

Q.-Has Laetrile ever been tested by the FDA?
A.- NO. On September 1, 1971, the FDA announced that the AD Hoc Committee of Consultants for Review and Evaluation of Laetrile had found "no acceptable evidence of therapeutic effect to justify clinical trials." And then it announced that, because of their findings, Laetrile could no longer be promoted, sold, or even tested in the USA.
Ref. Press release, HEW/FDA, Sept. 1, 1971
Ref. WWC, pp 44

-As of 1974 was anyone taking Laetrile on a daily basis after all the publicity on the subject?
A.-YES - There are now several thousand persons in the USA taking Laetrile daily. M.D.'s by the hundreds are studying or even taking it themselves, and certain hospitals are now undertaking its study. FDA or no FDA, NCI (National Cancer Institute) or no NCI, obfuscation or no obfuscation.
Ref. WWC, pp45

-How did Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr. discover that B17 and/or Laetrile could fight and control cancer? Why is it called B17
A.- By 1952, Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr., a biochemist in San Francisco, had advanced the theory that cancer, like scurvy and pellagra, is not caused by some kind of mysterious bacterium, virus or toxin, but is merely a deficiency disease aggravated by the lack of an essential food compound in modern man's diet.

He identified this compound as part of the nitriloside family which occurs abundantly in nature in over 1200 edible plants and found virtually in every part of the world.

It is particularly prevalent in the seeds of those
fruits in the Prunus Rosacea family:
Bitter almond
Apricot
Blackthorn
Cherry
Nectarine
Peach
Plum
Also contained in grasses:

Sorghum Millet Cassava Linseed Apple seed
Many other foods that, generally, have been deleted from the menus of modern civilization
It is difficult to establish a clear-cut classification for a nitriloside. Since it does not occur entirely by itself but rather is found in foods, it probably should not be classified as a food. Like sugar, it is a food component or a food factor.

Nor can it be classified as a drug, as much as it is a natural, non-toxic, water-soluble substance entirely normal to and compatible with human metabolism. The proper name for a food factor that contains these properties is a vitamin.

Since this vitamin normally is found with the B-complexes, and since it was the 17th such substance to be isolated within this complex, Dr. Krebs identified it as vitamin B17.

Ref. WWC, pp52
Q.-What happens to animals that are in zoos when they are deprived of their natural diet in the wild?
A.-In the San Diego zoo.... animals are almost totally devoid of nitriolosides...over a 6-year period, five bears died of cancer.
Ref.WWC, pp54

Q.-How do cancer and other diseases compare in modern man and primitive man?
A.- All the diseases known to modern man are unknown in primitive societies.
Ref.WWC, pp55

Q.-Don't all the foods that we buy have the vitamins put back? I see "enriched" on all the labels. Doesn't this mean that the food contains all the vitamins we need to be healthy?
A.-NO - These are not the same as the original. As the June 1971 Journal of the American Geriatric Society reported: "Vitamins removed from food and returned as 'enrichment' are not a safe substitute, as witnessed by the study in which Roger J. Williams, PhD, reported that rats fed enriched bread died or were severely stunted due to malnutrition. " Even senility has been proven to be caused by a deficiency of vitamins B and vitamin C.
Ref: WWC, pp58

Q.-Don't all our foods have all the vitamins we need including B17?
A.- NO - In the past fifty years, the foods that once provided the American people with ample amounts of natural vitamin B17 gradually have been pushed aside or replaced altogether by foods almost devoid of this factor. Significantly, it is during this same time span that the cancer rate has moved steadily upward to the point where today, one out of every four persons in the USA is destined to contract this disease.
Ref. WWC, pp59-60

Q.-I have heard something about the Hunza. What is this about?
A.- In the remote recesses of the Himalaya Mountains, between West Pakistan, India and China, there is a tiny kingdom called Hunza. These people are known world over for their amazing longevity and good health. It is not uncommon for Hunzakuts to live beyond a hundred years and some even to a hundred and twenty or more.

Visiting medical teams from the outside world report that there never has been a case of cancer in Hunza. It is interesting to note that the average Hunza diet contains over two hundred times more nitriloside than the average American diet. In fact, in that land where there is no such thing as money, a man's wealth is measured by the number of apricot trees he owns.


The prince happily confirmed it and then described how it was not uncommon to eat 30 to 50 apricot seeds as an after-lunch snack. These often account for an excess of 75,000 International Units of vitamin A per day as well as over 150 mg of vitamin B17.


The women of Hunza are renowned for their strikingly smooth skin even into advanced age. Generally, their faces appear 15 to 20 years younger than their counterparts in other areas of the world. They claim that their beauty secret is merely the apricot oil which they apply to their skins almost daily.


It is important to know that when the Hunzakuts leave their secluded land and adopt the menus of other countries, they soon succumb to the same diseases and infirmities, including cancer, as the rest of mankind.
Ref. WWC, pp65-67

Q.-What is a trophoblast?
A.- The layer of extraembryonic ectoderm that nourishes the embryo or develops into fetal membranes with nutritive functions.
Ref. Websters College Dictionary, 1997
Also known as a cancer cell
Ref. WWC, pp89

Q.-What happens with our body system if:

Our pancreas is weak?
If the kinds of foods we eat require almost all of the pancreatic enzymes for their digestion leaving very little for the blood stream?
If due to surgery or radiation, there is scar tissue around the cancer which inhibits circulation and prevents the enzymes from reaching it?
If the rate of cancer growth is so high due to massive tissue damage that the pancreatic enzymes can't keep up with it? Then what?
A.-Nature has provided a backup mechanism, a second line of defense, that has an excellent chance of doing the job even if the first line should fail. It involves a unique chemical compound that literally poisons the malignant cell while nourishing all the rest.

It is vitamin B17 which is found in those natural foods containing nitriloside. It is also known as amygdalin and has been used extensively for well over a hundred years. In a concentrated and purified form developed by Dr. Krebs specifically for cancer therapy, it is known as Laetrile.
Ref. WWC, pp97-98

Q.-Who developed the trophoblastic thesis of cancer?
A.- Professor John Beard suspected that there was a nutritional factor in addition to the enzyme factor. In 1952 this "extrinsic" factor was discovered by Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr. and his famous father of the same name.
Ref. WWC, pp98-99

Q.-What are the qualifications of Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr.?
NOTE: The following answer is paraphrased from the written text.
A.- He completed three years of anatomy and medicine at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. Then he pursued his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois between 1938-1941. Specializing in bacteriology, he received his Bachelor's Degree at the University of Illinois in 1942.

He did graduate work at the University of California from 1943-1945 and later at the University of Mississippi, researching mostly in pharmacology. He is the author of many scientific papers including "The Unitarian or Trophoblastic Thesis of Cancer," and "The Nitrilosides in Plants and Animals." He was the science director of John Beard Memorial Foundation.


He is the discoverer of vitamin B15 (pangamic acid). By 1950 Dr. Krebs, Jr. had identified the specific composition of vitamin B17, had isolated it into crystalline form and given it the name Laetrile, and had tested it on animals to make sure it was not toxic.
Ref. WWC, pp100

Q.-How did Dr. Krebs, Jr. determine that B17 (Laetrile) is not toxic to humans?
A.-There was only one way to do that, of course. So he rolled up his sleeve and injected it into his own bloodstream. Just as predicted, there were absolutely no harmful or distressing side effects.
Ref. WWC, pp101

Q.-What is B17 composed of?
A.-The molecule contains two units of glucose (sugar), one of benzaldehyde, and one of cyanide, all tightly locked together within it.
Ref. WWC, pp102

Q.-What about the toxicity of cyanide?
A.- Cyanide can be highly toxic and even fatal if taken in sufficient quantity. However, locked as it is in this natural state, it is completely inert chemically and has absolutely no effect on living tissue.
Ref. WWC, pp102

Q.-This "locking" thing. Is there any other compound like this?
A.- YES - Chlorine gas is also know to be deadly. But when the chlorine is chemically bound (locked) together with sodium, forming sodium chloride, it is a relatively harmless compound known as common "table salt."

Q.-How then does B17 work to kill cancer cells?
A.- There is only one substance that can unlock the B17 molecule and release the cyanide. That substance is an enzyme called "beta-glucosidase," which is called the "unlocking enzyme." When B17 comes in contact with this enzyme in the presence of water, not only is the cyanide released, but also the benzaldehyde, which is highly toxic by itself.

In fact, these two working together are at least a hundred times more poisonous than either of them separately; a phenomenon know in biochemistry as synergism. Fortunately, the "unlocking enzyme" is not found to any dangerous degree anywhere in the body "except at the cancer cell," where it always is present in great quantity, sometimes at levels in excess of one hundred times that of the surrounding normal cells.

The result is that the vitamin B17 is unlocked at the cancer cell, releases its poisons to the cancer cell and ONLY TO THE CANCER CELL.
Ref. WWC, pp103

Q.-How come the cyanide does not poison us?
A.- There is another important enzyme called "rhodanese," which we shall identify as the "protecting enzyme." (Since about 1965, rhodanese has been identified in the technical literature as thiosulfate transulfurase.)

The reason is that it has the ability to neutralize cyanide by converting it instantly into by-products that actually are beneficial and essential to health. This enzyme is found in great quantities in every part of the body EXCEPT the cancer cell which, consequently, is not protected.
Ref.: WTC pp116

Q.-Can an overdose of B17 be harmful or fatal?
A.- YES - But B17 is as harmless as any substance can be. After all, even life-essential water or oxygen can be fatal if taken in unnaturally large doses.
Ref.: WTC pp118

Q.-Does roasting apricot seeds impair the Vitamin B17?
A.- NO - Roasting does not impair the vitamin B17, but it does destroy the unlocking enzyme. By roasting we lose whatever benefit there may be from chemical activity from the enzymes in the mouth, stomach and intestines.
Ref.: WTC pp120

Q.-How much B17 does a normal apricot contain, on the average?
A.- In the USA about 4-5mg.
Ref.: WTC pp122

Q.-Is Laetrile toxic to the body?
A.- Aspirin tablets are 20 times more toxic than the equivalent amount of Laetrile. Laetrile is even less toxic than sugar. But like aspirin or sugar, you can't take 20 tablets or eat 1/2 lb. at one time. It would make you quite sick, probably requiring a stomach pump.
Ref.: WTC pp126

Q.-Have medical doctors used Laetrile on their patients?
A.- YES - There have been at least twenty-six published medical papers written by well-known physicians who have used Laetrile experimentally in the treatment of their own patients and who have concluded that Laetrile is both safe and effective in the treatment of cancer.
Ref: A complete list of these papers is contained in "The Laetriles," pp 84-85
Ref.: WTC pp129

Q.-Has any medical doctor specifically endorsed the use of Laetrile for treatment and control of cancer?
A.- YES - Dr. Hans Nieper, MD, Director of the Dept. of Medicine at the Silbersee Hospital in Hanover, and is listed in the Who's Who in World Science and is the Director of the German Society for Medical Tumor Treatment, during a visit to the USA in 1972 told news reporters,"After more than 20 years of such specialized work, I have found the non-toxic Nitrilosides, that is, Laetrile, far superior to any other known cancer treatment or preventative. In my opinion it is the only existing possibility for the ultimate control of cancer."
Ref.: WTC pp130

Q.-Should I supplement the intake of Vitamin B17 with any other foods?
A.- YES - Dr. John Richardson of San Francisco suggests:

Eat all edible vegetables. Eat them raw, preferably, or only cooked slightly.
Eat all fish as fresh as possible, lightly cooked.
Eat skin free poultry.
Whatever does not fall within this formula, forget it.
Adequate liquid intake with fresh fruit juices plain or carbonated is also required.
Vitamin C at 1500 to 500 mg
Vitamin E at 1200 International Units
Multi-vitamins
Toxins of all kinds must be avoided including:
Tobacco
Alcohol
Coffee
Tranquilizers
Sedatives
Analgesics
Antibiotics are OK
Ref.: WTC pp137-138

Q.-What is Vitamin B15 and why should I include it?
A.- Vitamin B15, pangamic acid, detoxifies the liver as a transmethylating agent and increases the oxygen uptake potential of the tissues; therefore, the rationale should be obvious. Think of it as "instant oxygen." It also aids in the detoxification of waste products.
Ref.: WTC pp138 & 140