Before I begin with my many criticisms of Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile, people are going to question my credentials. What's your background man? I will be straight up with you. I have no background in Science. I have a History degree. To the people who support this stuff and want to discredit what I write here, I don’t need to have a Doctorate in the Science of your choice to write a blog post to say something is bullshit when I read it. That is why I am referencing people who do have a background in Science to say what you read about Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile is bullshit.
Now on to the blog.
Saying it sucks that I have stage four Prostate cancer is putting it lightly. I plan on going out in my 80’s or 90’s, not any time soon. Sadly I am 43 and was diagnosed last year. Ever since my initial diagnoses I have been lucky enough to be pain free. I see so many dudes fighting this that are in rough shape. There is still the fear that I will join their ranks one day.
I have looked into other ways to keep healthy. I do see a lot of “alternative medicine” suggestions. There are some that are laughable like people taking “coffee enema’s” to detox... yes that’s a thing, coffee in the ass. People swear by it but it does NOTHING for you. It does just what caffeine does to you when you drink it. You poop. That’s it.
Then there is some scary shit out there like Vitamin B17. The first problem I have with this stuff is it doesn't act like a Vitamin. It’s the marketed name for a naturally occurring substance in certain foods like apricot and peach pits called Amygdalin or the simpler, partially man made version, Laetrile. The big deal about it is this supposed to kill cancer cells! Unfortunately there is a major side effect... you might come down with a slight case of death from cyanide poisoning. Yes, this supposed to break down into cyanide in your stomach.
Oh but don’t worry, it’s the good type of cyanide.
Seriously?
Here is a simple explanation of why the proponents of Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile say it is great. There is an enzyme called Beta Glucosidase in cancer cells that breaks open the cyanide from Vitamin B17 and kills the cancer. The healthy cells either don't have it, or don't have enough to break open the cyanide. Sounds great right? Here’s the problem, there are no more amounts of Beta Glucosidase in malignant cells than in normal cells too so it’s going to attack everything. This is specifically stated on the top paragraph in the second column on page 188 of this study if you click on this link. (Don’t worry, it’s only a 7 page .pdf. Forget about the first page it's nothing and I couldn't edit it out).
http://bit.ly/VitaminB17isunproven
Another of the many things about Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile that drives me crazy is how people say the FDA is suppressing this. No! No! No! No! GOD DAMN IT NO! The FDA and big pharma aren’t suppressing it. It’s not approved by the FDA because this SHIT DOESN’T WORK! When Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile was tested it either showed no signs of fixing cancer or it just makes things worse. Did I mention cyanide poisoning? This is also stated in the first study I provided.
It's stated in this one too.
http://karawacimatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Dangers-of-Vitamin-B17.pdf
There was a dude who used to be on my Facebook “I’m never going to meet you” Friends list who started posting about how great Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile was and how the big bad FDA banning it. After I told him it has poisoned and killed people, he responded to me with a “gotcha” and said how chemo is the same way, and then proceeded to block me.
That’s not a gotcha. That is what a puss does.
What he fails to realize is unlike Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile, there isn’t a doctor out there who will tell you how chemo is amazing. They let you know the dangers of it, how you’re going to feel and how it might not even work. It’s also in a controlled environment. With Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile people just say, “Have at it!” I will admit there are websites who tell people to be careful and take xyz amount per body weight. People even argue about whether it is safer to take it in IV form or just eat them.
Remember though, this digests AS CYANIDE!
If you’re not into reading and want to listen or watch other realistic information about Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile, check out Jeff Holiday’s video. He has a background on Biology he knows his stuff when it comes to research. He does get snarky about alternative medicines, and even if you are a fan of them you have to admit he does have a reason to get snarky about alternative medicine because not all of them are 100% legit.
There are two other great videos on why Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile is terrible for you. The dude who plays this character Professor Stick has his degree in Chemistry. It’s a detailed explanation as to why this stuff is crap, but he does know what he is talking about.
– Professor stick version 1
_Professor stick version 2
Here is my personal take on it though.
Vitamin B17 is not a Vitamin. Vitamins are substances that must be included in the diet in order to maintain health and prevent certain deficiency diseases. You don’t need this. It’s not a deficiency of Vitamin B17 that causes people to get cancer. It’s marketed this way to make it sound important.
Before writing this blog post I tried to find legitimate sources that say people cured their cancer with Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile, and there is NOTHING. No proof. I can’t find one piece of information that shows this works other than blog writers who say, “Hey, I’m cured.” There is one guy, Jason Vale, who said this stuff cured him but he went to jail and was fined 500K for marketing this as a cure. That’s about it. Everything else is just people commenting on blog threads or youtube videos about how it works great. They might as well say they play X-Box with President Obama because it holds just as much water.
I know you can site the Hunzas in India as proof this is harmless. Part of their diet is apricot seeds, which is a high concentration of Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile. It’s a valid point but people don’t take into consideration the body can adapt. They adapted to this over many generations, not just a few weeks. Contrary to popular belief, everyone’s genetics are different. Why are some people allergic to shellfish and some people aren’t. Why can westerners drink milk and be fine but Indians run to the toilet when they drink a class? I’m not allergic to poison ivy. Should I tell people don’t worry about it if I’m not affected by it? No, that’s stupid. Everyone is Biologically different.
Lastly, I get it. I understand why people would want to give Vitamin B17 / Amygdalin / Latetrile a try. Knowing what I have is frightening to me. Even though it’s a year into this disease, I am so so SO LUCKY to be where I am right now just living a normal life. I’ve been even better being off of the medicine that takes my testosterone to ZERO since March. There are so many people worse off than me so every day without the horrible pain I had when I was first diagnosed is a victory.
What if I take a turn for the worst? I am not giving myself that option, but I can’t ignore the possibility either. Would I be willing to take the chance of taking something that digests as cyanide to possibly help kill off my stage four prostate cancer? I really don’t know. When the cancer metastasized before I was diagnosed, that was some ungodly pain I would never wish on anybody. Out of desperation I might have given it a try.
That’s why I can’t stand people who promote this shit. They are praying on the desperate. People who think “everything that is natural is good for you” are encouraging others to give it a go. Even if you do take B17 and have not had the commonly known adverse side effects, I'm sure you've seen the studies that says this stuff is horrible for you. How can you honestly support people's use of it if many people have been poisoned by this crap? Or do you just write that off as "Big Pharma lies" ? Remember my analogy about not being allergic to poison ivy.
There is something I have taken that might have made my PSA level go down. I didn’t want this blog entry to be a “this product sucks, so buy this product instead” type posts. Am I being just as scummy as them? Then when I think what I am going to recommend isn’t going to poison people or cause them to die, those feelings go away.
I made a promise to my readers on my main blog that I would NEVER promote something that I don’t believe in. That is especially true when I want to point someone else who is fighting cancer in the right direction to something that would help them possibly get better. Click on the link below and I’ll tell you what I am using on my blog and hopefully it will help you or a loved one out too.
What is it? I'll give you a hint. This guy hated it.
http://karawacimatt.com/sulforaphane-review-why-its-better-than-vitamin-b17
If you read this far, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you guys, good luck and steemers, please promote this blog post if you can. Show it some love so the message can pop up on the first page on google.