#laetrile

In this 1978 essay, Susan Sontag argues against the use of illness as methapors. She makes comparisons between tuberculosis, cancer, syphillis and other dissease to exmine how people made meaning about illness and our "dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick," a rite of passage we must all endure.

From the Vice story:

Before his death from "unknown causes", ivermectin influencer (I can’t.) Danny Lemoi pushed apricot kernels, aka laetrile, as a natural cancer cure. His followers on Telegram dismissed warnings about cyanide poisoning as fear mongering.

I fact-checked the story by browsing Lemoi's Telegram group - going back to posts from 2022. And yeah, it’s full of misinformation and jingoistic memes. But also… was my reading experience really that different from how Tumblr appears from the outside?

No deep thoughts here. I just keep thinking about the headline:

Dead Ivermectin Influencer Told Followers to Take Cyanide to Cure Cancer.

— Irving J. Lerner, The Whys of Cancer Quackery (1984), p. 819.

Laetrile, marketed as “Vitamin B17", is a compound derived from apricot pits that was falsely promoted as a "natural" cancer cure in the 1970s. It has no definitive anticancer effect in humans and can cause cyanide poisoning, especially when ingested with common raw foods like almonds, carrots, and celery. These foods contain beta-glucosidase, an enzyme that breaks laetrile down into cyanide. Despite these risks, the "cure" was embraced by desperate patients, championed by political extremists, and protected by anti-regulation activists. Laetrile remains one of the most notorious cases of modern medical quackery.

The laetrile cult is perhaps the most bizarre, ruthless, deceptive, misleading and dangerous health cult to come along in this century.

— Victor Herbert, Laetrile: The Cult of Cyanide (1979), p. 1124.

Magical cures lurk at the intersection between the denial and bargaining stages of grief. It’s why vulnerable people start taking laetrile, ivermectin, or whatever the next so-called secret cure is. Be wary when poison starts looking like hope.

A few references:

He, X.-Y., Wu, L.-J., Wang, W.-X., Xie, P.-J., Chen, Y.-H., & Wang, F. (2020). Amygdalin – A pharmacological and toxicological review. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 254, 112717. DOI.

Herbert, V. (1979). Laetrile: The cult of cyanide. Promoting poison for profit. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 32(5), 1121–1158. DOI.

Lerner, I. J. (1984). The whys of cancer quackery. Cancer, 53(3 Suppl), 815–819. URL.

Vitamin B 17 is gaining popularity as a natural medicine, alternative cure treatment, or alternative medicine because of its chemotherapeutic properties. It is considered a natural remedy. Nowadays, people prefer vitamin therapies more than conventional anticancer therapies. This is because conventional methods like chemotherapy and radiation therapy have many side effects. Vitamin B 17 is also known as Amygdalin and Laetrile. It may also be used for various other diseases and pathological conditions like:

Pain and inflammation

Indigestion issues

High blood pressure

High oxidative stress

Leprosy

Why Is Vitamin B 17 Good For Health?

Dr. Ernst Kreb is one of the discoverers who brought Vitamin B17 into the light for its potential anti-cancer effects by developing Laetrile Therapy. According to him, deficiency of this vitamin B 17 is the main cause of cancer. Following are the key therapeutic excellences of vitamin B 17 (Amygdalin):

Anti-aging: Because of its amazing  antioxidant properties, it helps prevent the scarring and wrinkling of the skin. This makes your skin youthful and radiant.

Anti-inflammatory Action: It helps manage inflammation associated diseases like arthritis, endometriosis, general body pains, Dry-Eye Syndrome, and liver cell damage due to injury and inflammation.

Lung and Liver Health: It helps manage respiratory issues particularly asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. Moreover, it is also a potent detoxifier and efficiently eliminates toxins from the liver cells.

Optimization of Blood Pressure: It optimally helps manage the raised blood pressure levels by producing powerful blood pressure-lowering agents in the body.

Cell Protection: Being a powerful antioxidant, it protects our cell walls from getting  damaged by the free radicals attack. This helps enhance the cell life and keeps its contents intact inside.

Strengthens Immunity: It helps strengthen the body’s ability to fight infections by increasing the blood cell count in the body.

There are many evidence based studies in the support of high therapeutic richness of Vitamin B 17 (Amygdalin).

How B-17 works (a tale of two enzymes): Rhodanese is an enzyme found everywhere in the body except for cancer cells. Beta-Glucosidase is an enzyme found only in and around cancer cells.

Hold that thought.

Vitamin B-17 is a molecule made up of four parts: -2 parts Glucose -1 part Benzaldahyde -1 part Hydrogen Cyanide

I know what you’re thinking. Cyanide? Yikes! Don’t worry, cyanide in this form is non-toxic, just like it is in this form of B-12 (Cyanocobalamin).

Normal healthy cells contain the enzyme Rhodanese which neutralizes the Benzaldahyde and Hydrogen Cyanide in B-17. It converts them to the useful nutrient compounds Thyiocyanate and Benzoic acid.

Here’s the amazing part: The glucose delivers B-17 to the cancer cells, but cancer cells do not have the enzyme Rhodanese to neutralize the cyanide. Instead they have a unique enzyme called Beta-Glucosidase. This “unlocking enzyme”, found only in cancer cells, releases the Benzaldahyde and Cyanide from the glucose and each other creating a targeted poison that kills the cancer cell. It’s kind of like “natural chemo”.

This is also why integrative doctors and many health experts identify a lack of essential nutrients like a Vitamin B-17 and/or a proteolytic (protein digesting) enzyme deficiency, as contributing “causes” of cancer.

In other words, cancer is a natural process that occurs in your body when it is deprived of essential nutrients. Restore the nutrients and you empower your body to heal.

Where can you find B-17? In the foods no one eats of course! B-17 occurs in abundances in nature and is bitter to the taste. In order to improve taste of certain foods, the food industry has eliminated bitter substances like B-17 by selection and cross-breeding. When is the last time you ate something bitter on purpose?

John McLario, 1950 graduate and long-standing BJU Executive Committee member, was quite the advocate for all sorts of extremes. In 1977, he defended Menonomee Falls’ family for choosing laetrile treatments for their 7-year-old over traditional medical treatments for leukemia.

Remember laetrile? It was a complete hoax. All of us Gen-Xers know family members who fell for it.

And the Cox family, thanks to John J. McLario, were among the most publicized. They even made it to CBS News!

McLario’s argument is one of freedom of “choice” -- freedom to choose an unhealthy, unproven hoax over science.

No alternative medicine ever disappears when shown to be ineffective: The case of laetrile

Everything old is new again, or so it always seems with alternative medicine. Before I explain what I’m talking about a bit more, let me just preface my remarks with an explanation for why there was no post tomorrow. I realize that most people probably don’t care that much if I miss a day or two, but I care. Basically, I was in Chicago from Thursday through Sunday taking a rather grueling review…