NaturalPedia > Laetrile

Quotes about Laetrile from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

 Email this page to a friend   |  Click here for FREE email alerts

page 1 of 5 | Next ->

"Apricot kernels are used to make the alternative cancer drug laetrile. Over twenty-five years ago, the National Cancer Institute claimed laetrile was an ineffective cancer treatment, yet many who seek alternative cancer treatments travel to Mexico, where laetrile remains available. In the seventeenth century, apricot oil was said to be used in England to cure ulcers. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania lauded apricot's aphrodisiac properties. Throw Me a Lifesaver!" - David W. Grotto, RD, LDN, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! (Get the book.)

"Krebs claimed that laetrile preferentially killed cancer cells but laboratory evidence suggests that this is not the case.3 Absorption Laetrile is not digested in the stomach but passes into the small intestine where it is acted on by enzymes that split it into various compounds, which are then absorbed. Sources Laetrile is found in apricot kernels and in the kernels of other fruits such as plums, peaches, cherries, peaches and apples. Mung bean sprouts and almonds also contain laetrile. Toxic effects Laetrile in large doses may be toxic due to its 6 per cent cyanide content." - Nicola Reavley, The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs (Get the book.)

"Celebrity advocates such as a dying Steve McQueen as well as other desperate cancer patients latched on to laetrile as a final hope, but it never seemed to cure anybody. Eventually, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a study to determine Laetrile's effectiveness. They found nothing. The New EnglandJournal of Medicine declared that "the evidence, beyond reasonable doubt, is that it doesn't benefit patients with advanced cancer, and there is no reason to believe that it would be any more effective in the earlier stages of the disease." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"So popular was laetrile that at one time it was available in health food stores in 27 states. Today, laetrile cannot legally be sold in this country, although it's readily available in Mexico and other countries. Does laetrile work? According to most experts, the answer is an emphatic no. "Laetrile is not only useless but also potentially fatal," says Maurie Markman, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center. Indeed, a study at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that laetrile frequently caused nausea, vomiting, headache, and other symptoms of cyanide poisoning." - Prevention Magazine, Prevention's New Foods for Healing: Capture the Powerful Cures of More Than 100 Common Foods (Get the book.)

"As a result, the sale of laetrile was banned, and some of its marketers incarcerated. It continues to be sold online from clinics in Tijuana. In recent years, the United States has cracked down on companies such as Holistic Alternatives and World Without Cancer, Inc., that have sold laetrile. The latest fruit panacea to hit the market has also been linked to the Hunza." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"Over twenty-five years ago, the National Cancer Institute claimed laetrile was an ineffective cancer treatment, yet many who seek alternative cancer treatments travel to Mexico, where laetrile remains available. In the seventeenth century, apricot oil was said to be used in England to cure ulcers. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania lauded apricot's aphrodisiac properties. Throw Me a Lifesaver! vision: Rich in vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant that prevents free radical damage to eye tissue, apricots may help to promote good vision." - David W. Grotto, RD, LDN, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! (Get the book.)

"There have also been several reports of laetrile causing serious, life-threatening toxicity when taken in large doses.2 Krebs claimed that laetrile preferentially killed cancer cells but laboratory evidence suggests that this is not the case.3 Absorption Laetrile is not digested in the stomach but passes into the small intestine where it is acted on by enzymes that split it into various compounds, which are then absorbed. Sources Laetrile is found in apricot kernels and in the kernels of other fruits such as plums, peaches, cherries, peaches and apples." - Nicola Reavley, The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs (Get the book.) "Laetrile in cancer treatment In a clinical trial in cancer patients reported in 1982, laetrile did not appear to cause shrinkage of tumors or alleviate cancer symptoms. Survival time was not increased and there were no improvements in feelings of wellbeing.1 There have also been several reports of laetrile causing serious, life-threatening toxicity when taken in large doses.2 Krebs claimed that laetrile preferentially killed cancer cells but laboratory evidence suggests that this is not the case." - Nicola Reavley, The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Herbs (Get the book.)

"Read the article mentioned in my reference pages called, "Laetrile: Another suppression story." It says if a person is going to try laetrile for cancer, it should be done before radiation and/or chemotherapy. When I eat apricot pits I sometimes eat almonds with them for a different taste. Almonds are also known to reduce inflammation in heart disease, cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases. Go to: www.peopleagainstcancer.com to find out more about it. This is a great site for people fighting cancer." - Gregory, A. Gore, Defeat Cancer (Get the book.)

"Instead, he started an intensive program of amygdalin (i.e., laetrile), Flor-Essence, shark cartilage, selenium, vitamin C, CoQIO, vitamin E, niacinamide and other oral nutrients. He also began receiving IV infusions of vitamin C, minerals and amygdalin. "On this program, so far, he appears to be doing great," reported Dr. Schachter. The same is true for LG, a 60-year-old engineer, for whom surgery was recommended, but was declined by the patient. On a similar program he has had a reduction of symptoms and improvement of his PSA. " - Freedom Press, Natural Cancer Cures: The Definitive Guide to Using Dietary Supplements to Fight and Prevent Cancer (Get the book.)

"Laetrile. The latest fruit panacea to hit the market has also been linked to the Hunza. According to a booklet called Goji: The Himalayan Health Secret, tests involving infrared molecular bonds, a spectroscopic fingerprinting analysis and a mathematical formula called the Fourier Transform suggest that the goji is "quite possibly the most nutritionally dense food on the planet!" The book's author, Dr. Earl Mindell (who bills himself as "the world's leading nutritionist"), starts by asking readers how long they want to live. "Eighty years? Ninety? One hundred-plus years? Perhaps even forever?" - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"She knew Ricki's case would not have a prayer if the treatment was truly experimental—or worse, a crackpot cure like laetrile. "I put my life into these cases," says Philipson. "I pour my heart into them. The emotional price for me is high, but the emotional price for patients . . . they are looking to me to get them something they think will save their lives." She told Ricki she would represent her, on the condition that they find published, scientific evidence that high-dose chemo was not experimental but established therapy." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"One of those patients was Sylvia Dutton, for whom laetrile unfortunately did not work. But laetrile was only one of many alternative health products. By the end of the 1970s, Americans were spending $1 billion a year on various supplements and potions that promised magical benefits.2 These included pangamic acid, which was touted as a previously undiscovered vitamin with virtually unlimited powers, various bee concoctions and other supplement products including garlic and zinc." - T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health (Get the book.)

"Some 30 years later, his son reformulated the extract and named it laetrile. By the 1970s, people with cancer who felt that they couldn't be helped by modern medicine were traveling to obscure clinics and paying exorbitant prices for this new "miracle" cure. So popular was laetrile that at one time it was available in health food stores in 27 states. Today, laetrile cannot legally be sold in this country, although it's readily available in Mexico and other countries. Does laetrile work? According to most experts, the answer is an emphatic no." - Prevention Magazine, Prevention's New Foods for Healing: Capture the Powerful Cures of More Than 100 Common Foods (Get the book.)

"This may be due to the Hunza diet, which includes large amounts of buckwheat, peas, broadbeans, lucern, apricots and apricot seeds, cherries and cherry seeds, and sprouting legumes — all of which contain vitamin B17, which is also known as laetrile. At one time, laetrile was used as a cancer drug in the United States, but there was a lot of controversy over it because it contains cyanide. The laetrile is present in very small amounts in the foods in the Hunza diet (except for the cherry and apricot pits), and so is considered not harmful." - Glenn W. Geelhoed, M.D. and Jean Barilla, M.S., Natural Health Secrets From Around the World (Get the book.)

"Amygdalin/Laetrile Known technically as amygdalin, or vitamin B17, laetrile was first synthesized in 1924.169 Amygdalin is one of many nitrilosides, which are natural cyanide-containing substances found in numerous foods, including the seeds of the prunasin family (apricots, apples, cherries, plums, and peaches), buckwheat, millet, and cassava melons. Much of the experimental work on laetrile has been conducted by Harold W. Manner, Ph.D." - Larry Trivieri, Jr., Alternative Medicine the Definitive Guide, Second Edition (Get the book.) "Chairman of the Biology Department at Loyola University, in Chicago, Illinois, whose work is considered to be among the first unbiased studies of the overall value of laetrile. He reported that laetrile is virtually nontoxic and that, when used along with vitamin A and certain enzymes, it stimulates the production of antibodies against spontaneous breast tumors in mice; there was complete regression in 76% of the treated mice.170 The best results using laetrile are usually obtained when it is used in conjunction with proteolytic enzymes, diet, vitamin A, and other vitamins and minerals." - Larry Trivieri, Jr., Alternative Medicine the Definitive Guide, Second Edition (Get the book.)

"The flurry of interest in DCA will continue just as Rife machines, laetrile and alkaline therapy for cancer has persisted for decades with no real observable cures. Once these cures become urban legends, they are perpetuated by the desperate and the naive. Resveratrol, known as a red wine molecule, has similar biological action to DCA without known toxicity, and should be investigated by cancer patients before racing to the internet to purchase DCA." - Bill Sardi, You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore (Get the book.) "Alternative medicine clings to marginal or outright disproven remedies from the past, like laetrile, shark cartilage, coral calcium, or the idea that alkalinity cures cancer. (See Chapter 4 for more on this.) While a revolution is underway in natural cancer remedies, backed by solid science, alternative medicine clings to archaic cancer treatments of the past, seemingly oblivious to the fact we now live in an era of genetic medicine where foods and dietary supplements can switch cancer genes off better than any prescription medicine." - Bill Sardi, You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore (Get the book.) "He is getting heavy doses of intravenous laetrile, vitamin C and ozone and UV therapies. Raul was surprised that the doctors in Mexico suggested the same chemotherapy drugs used at the MD Anderson Cancer Hospital. Alternative medicine has its surprises too. Raul later succumbed to his cancer. Conventional vs. Alternative Cancer Therapy Shari Roan, an accomplished health writer for the Los Angeles Times, related the one-sided story of a man who developed kidney cancer that had spread to his brain, and how he and his wife were fleeced by practitioners of alternative medicine. [LA Times, Feb." - Bill Sardi, You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore (Get the book.) "A criticism of laetrile is that it does not preferentially kill cancer cells. [The Journal of School Health 48:409-16, 1978] However, neither do conventional modern-day anti-cancer drugs. The Macrobiotic Diet The macrobiotic diet was developed in the 1930s by an educator in Japan, who moved to the United States where it was championed by one of his understudies. Macrobiotics is a quasi philosophical/therapeutic system of health that advocates a semi-vegetarian diet, with an emphasis on whole grains, soy beans, miso soup, raw foods and herbal teas." - Bill Sardi, You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore (Get the book.)

"Kreb's theory, and are therefore killed by free cyanide.27 In contrast to the early years of laetrile's use, when claims for antitumor activity were made, proponents more recently have cited laetrile's effectiveness as part of a wider metabolic regimen, including DMSO, vitamins, enzymes, and other substances.28 Many clinics in Mexico use laetrile in this way, including American Biologies-Mexico and Hospital Ernesto Contreras described above." - Michael Lerner, Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer (Get the book.) "Lethal doses of cyanide can be reached if an excessive amount of laetrile is ingested or if something is done to accelerate the release of cyanide, such as eating foods high in the enzyme that promote this release (e.g., nuts, lettuce, celery, or mushrooms).30 The use of laetrile is illegal in many states. The Cancer Control Society (213-663-7801), an advocacy organization for alternative cancer therapies, can provide information about laetrile, lists of practitioners who prescribe it, and the circumstances under which it may be legally obtained." - Michael Lerner, Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer (Get the book.)

"Sugiura found that laetrile did not destroy primary tumors in animals, but did inhibit the growth of tumors and signficantly retarded lung metastases. A San Antonio physician, Dr. Eva Lee Sneak wrote a letter to the editor printed in a publication of the American Medical Association: "Laetrile, properly used, has had, in my hands at least, as good a success as chemotherapy with far fewer side effects."14 In 1982, the National Cancer Institute funded a laetrile cancer study conducted by Charles Moertel, MD of the Mayo Clinic. Dr." - Patrick Quillin, PhD,RD,CNS, Beating Cancer with Nutrition (Get the book.) "Moss writes of a disturbing coverup that basically ended any legitimate assessment of laetrile.13 Dr. Sugiura found that laetrile did not destroy primary tumors in animals, but did inhibit the growth of tumors and signficantly retarded lung metastases. A San Antonio physician, Dr. Eva Lee Sneak wrote a letter to the editor printed in a publication of the American Medical Association: "Laetrile, properly used, has had, in my hands at least, as good a success as chemotherapy with far fewer side effects." - Patrick Quillin, PhD,RD,CNS, Beating Cancer with Nutrition (Get the book.)

"But laetrile was only one of many alternative health products. By the end of the 1970s, Americans were spending $1 billion a year on various supplements and potions that promised magical benefits.2 These included pangamic acid, which was touted as a previously undiscovered vitamin with virtually unlimited powers, various bee concoctions and other supplement products including garlic and zinc.2 At the same time in the scientific community, more and more health information, specifically nutrition information, was being generated at a furious pace." - T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health (Get the book.)

"The other side says laetrile contains a substance-cyanide that is poisonous and harmful to the body. Each side is vocal and sure they are right. The author makes no recommendation either for or against laetrile. This information (as is all information in this book) is presented only as that—information. It is your responsibility to study and make your own decision. Positive Effects-Those in favor of laetrile say it is a cancer preventative and cure. That it will decrease the size of malignant tumors, ease their pain and suppress the growth of cancerous tissue. Deficiency Disease-unknown." - Velma J. Keith and Monteen Gordon, The How to Herb Book: Let's Remedy the Situation (Get the book.)

"She knew Ricki's case would not have a prayer if the treatment was truly experimental—or worse, a crackpot cure like laetrile. "I put my life into these cases," says Philipson. "I pour my heart into them. The emotional price for me is high, but the emotional price for patients . . . they are looking to me to get them something they think will save their lives." She told Ricki she would represent her, on the condition that they find published, scientific evidence that high-dose chemo was not experimental but established therapy." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

page 1 of 5 | Next ->

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalPedia.com

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008, 2009 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of NaturalPedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.