Laetrile: The True Story Behind B-17 & Cancer Treatment

Dr. Ernest Krebs

During 1950 after many years of research, a dedicated biochemist by the name of Dr. Ernest T. Krebs, Jr., isolated a new vitamin that he numbered B-17 and called ‘Laetrile’. As the years rolled by, thousands became convinced that Krebs had finally found the complete control for all cancers, a conviction that even more people share today. Back in 1950 Ernest Krebs could have had little idea of the hornet’s nest he was about to stir up. The pharmaceutical multinationals, unable to patent or claim exclusive rights to the vitamin, launched a propaganda attack of unprecedented viciousness against B-17, despite the fact that hard proof of its efficiency in controlling all forms of cancer surrounds us in overwhelming abundance. Why has orthodox medicine waged war against this non-drug approach?

G. Edward Griffin, author of the book World Without Cancer contends that the answer is to be found not in science, but in politics, and is based upon the hidden economic and power agenda of those who dominate the medical establishment.

Each year, thousands of Americans travel to Mexico to receive vitamin B-17 (Laetrile) therapy. They do this because it has been suppressed in the United States. Most of these patients have been told that their cancer is terminal and that they have but a few months to live. Yet, an incredible percentage of them have recovered and they are living normal lives. However, the FDA, the AMA, the American Cancer Society, and the cancer research centres continue to pronounce that Laetrile is fraud and quackery. The recovered patients, they say, either had “spontaneous remissions” or never had cancer in the first place. If any of these people ultimately die after seeking Laetrile, spokesmen of orthodox medicine are quick to proclaim: “You see? Laetrile doesn’t work!” Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of patients die each year after undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, but those treatments continue to be touted as “safe and effective”.

In the U.S. the FDA has tried to use strict regulations, not law, to ban vitamin B-17 for over 18 years. Vitamin B-17, or Laetrile Therapy is only used by some hospitals in Mexico, which treat cancer with nutrition. These hospitals achieve nearly a 100% recovery rate with virgin cases (localised tumours/cancers that have not yet been burned up with radiation, poisoned with chemotherapy, or cut into with surgery). A majority of Laetrile-treated patients report positive responses, ranging from increase in the feeling of well-being and even brighter outlook of life, to such noticeable reactions as an increase in appetite, weight gain and, frequently, restoration of natural colour, reduction or elimination of cancer-connected pain and cancer-caused fetor. In thousands of cases, total regression of all cancer symptoms has been confirmed.

Vitamin B-17, commonly known as “Amygdalin”, or “Laetrile”, is a natural substance that can be found in a variety of species in the Vegetable kingdom. The greatest concentration is found in the seeds of the rosaceous fruits, such as apricot kernels and other bitter nuts. There are many seeds, cereals and vegetables that contain minimal quantities of vitamin B-17 and form part of our daily diet.

With great satisfaction we are proud to present this vegetable agent whose anti-cancer properties have been known empirically for many years, but in the last twenty years they have been scientifically proven, primarily through the clinical studies directed by Dr. Ernesto Contreras Rodriguez and carried out in the OASIS of Hope Hospital formerly known as the Centro Medico y Hospital Del Mar at Playas de Tijuana, B.C.N. Mexico. More than 100,000 patients have sought Contreras’ care since 1963.

The information on this web site will educate you on the benefits of metabolic therapy and prevention. All the food supplements mentioned in this site can be easily obtained by patients who are not able to go to Mexico because of financial reasons, patients who are too weak to travel, and by patients who have already been to these hospitals and need to remain on metabolic therapy. You will be taught how to benefit from metabolic therapy either in Mexico, or at home at a fraction of the cost. You will find information on where to obtain metabolic products in the “contacts” section of this site.

Throughout this web site you will find valuable information such as documents, research, and studies relevant to vitamin B-17, its monographic summary, clinical studies, the biological and chemical descriptions of the destruction of cancer cells by the components of B-17, testimonials, case histories, biographies, bibliographies, photos, graphs, links, and much more. This guide was created to explain the different elements of metabolic therapy and act as a reference when needed during the course of your therapy. Should you have questions, please refer to the “Frequently Asked Questions” section.

Source:  World Without Cancer

Mom’s Home From Rehab (2/20/09)

Hi Everyone,

Mom is home from rehab now.  She came home yesterday afternoon (Thursday).  She has made great improvements during her rehab therapy and is definitely on the road to recovery.  On Monday she saw the vascular surgeon, Dr. Brink, and he removed the stitches from her arm (from when she had the blood clots removed).  He said her thumb looks good and wants her to see a hand doctor in a few weeks when she’s feeling better.  The pad on her thumb has turned very dark and is dry.  This is a good sign – as any weeping from it would be very bad.  We’re just believing that there is going to be wonderful new skin under that dark skin and the pad of her thumb will be completely restored.  At this point, we still just have to wait and see what’s under there.  So, your prayers for Mom’s thumb are still very appreciated.

On Tuesday she saw her Neurologist, Dr. Kumar, and he said all of her neural function was great.  He said she was a little weaker on her right side than her left (which is sort of strange since it was her left that was so much weaker before).  But, this is probably just due to the Decadron.

She is weaning down to her final dosages of the Decadron and should be completely off of it in eight days.  She’s only on 1mg twice  a day for three more days, then she’s dropped down to 1mg daily for five days.  After that, she’ll be done.  We’re so looking forward to that!

We’re just so happy to  have her home.  She can walk with the walker now and isn’t even using the wheelchair at home any longer.  We’ll just use that when we leave the house for doctor appointments until she doesn’t need it any longer.

We had a really nice afternoon and evening.  The whole family got together and I made a huge pot of posole soup (Mom’s favorite).  Mom came home around 3:00 PM and visited with Dad and Gretchen for a while.  Then, she took a nap while I made the soup.  Once it was ready, she came out into the living room around 7:30 PM and visited with everyone.  Then, we ate together.

Little David was playing with the box that Mom’s shower bench came in.  Sophia drew a race track on the box with a Sharpie and David ran his little hot wheels around the track the rest of the night.  It’s amazing how fun a box can be when you’re two years old!

One by one everyone started heading home and Mom, Dad and I watched a few of Mom’s TV shows she had TiVo’ed from Animal Planet.  They were really interesting.

Then, around 12:30 AM, Mom was ready for bed.  So, she used her walker and got herself down the hallway and into her very own bed.

As you can imagine, it’s wonderful having Mom home.  Although all of her nurses and doctors were really wonderful and treated her very well, there’s just nothing like being home.  She’s finally going to get some rest.  It’s difficult to get good rest when you’re in a hospital or rehab facility because it’s a constant parade of people through the room at all hours of the day and night.  Now, she can get caught up on her rest and continue to get stronger every day.

Her only complaint today was that her brace is a little uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.  She’s wearing a TLSO brace to stabilize her back after her vertebroplasty surgery.  I’m not sure how long she has to wear it.  I vaguely recall someone (maybe the physical therapist) saying she had to wear it for six weeks, but I’m really not sure.  But, when it got really uncomfortable, Dad adjusted it and it seemed to help quite a bit.

Considering how much pain and agony she was in just a few short weeks ago with her back, the small amount of discomfort from her back brace is really not that big of a deal.  The brace is in two parts and attaches with velcro on the sides in three places.  They call it a “turtle shell” brace becauses the way it goes together does resemble a turtle’s shell.  When she was in St. Joseph’s the company that makes them, Hanger, came to her hospital room and measured her for the brace.  So, it’s custom made for her.  Once she was at the rehab facility, she went to Hanger and had it adjusted because it was too long and would ride up under her chin – making her feel like she was choking.  It’s much better now, but still not the most comfortable thing in the world.

At this time, we’d like to ask all of Mom’s friends to please resist the urge to call her at home.  While she’s come a long way in her recovery, she’s still got a ways to go yet.  She sleeps at odd times throughout the day and she really needs to get her rest.  As she feels better, she’ll start making phone calls to chat with her friends.

She has definitely appreciated all the cards and letters you have been sending.  They make her day when she gets one in the mail.  On some of her particularly rough days, just knowing that she has people out there who are praying for her and who love her has really helped her get over the emotional hurdles of all this.

I’ll update when there’s any new news.  Her next goal is to be able to get back to Dr. Jason Porter’s office and resume her high dose Vitamin C IVs.  It’s been over a month since she’s had an IV and we’re anxious to get her going on them again.

Thank you all so much for everything!

Tracey

Mom is in Physical Rehab Now

Mom was discharged from St. Joseph’s and transferred to a rehab facility in Mesa on Saturday night.  It’s a lovely place very close to home for me and Dad.  She needs a lot of physical and occupational therapy because of the muscle weakness (myopathy) created by the Decadron.  So, they anticipate they will keep her there for two or three weeks to recover.  She will have several hours and sessions of physical therapy every day to get stronger.

She is in a private suite (which is really nice) and is being well cared for.  The staff are all so nice and friendly and the place is really clean.

I’ll bring my camera and take some pictures of her over the next few days so you can take a peek at her.

She has done some moving around since the vertebroplasty and doesn’t seem to have any pain in her back anymore.  Yeah!!  We’re so happy about that.  So, now it will be much easier for her to do her exercises now that she’s out of back pain.  She’ll only have to worry about getting stronger – and not worry about pain management (which can be all-consuming).  Anyone who’s had chronic pain knows how difficult it is to work through it to do anything.  So, we are very grateful that the pain has been relieved by the back procedure.

Thank you all so much for all the prayers and positive thoughts for Mom over this past month or so.  It’s been a very difficult time for her (and for us too) and we’re so happy to be on the other side of all of it.  I’m guessing our girl will be up and about (and causing trouble again) in no time.

I’ll let you know if anything changes…

Tracey

Mom’s Vertebroplasty was Successful

Mom went down again to the Pre-Op area at St. Joseph’s/Barrow Neurological Institute this morning at 6:30 AM.  Her platelets were still a little low, so they gave her a platelet transfusion starting at 6:00 AM.

Dr. Porter came in and talked to us before the surgery.  He said there were a few spots on her CT scan that he wanted to biopsy to check for metastases from the lung cancer.  Honestly, we didn’t think it was that.  The Lord had given us a peace about that, so we weren’t concerned about it.

After he answered our questions about the procedure, he asked if he could pray with us.  We all four joined hands (Mom, Dr. Porter, Dad and me) and Dr. Porter led us in a wonderful prayer for Mom’s surgery.  We were so happy about that.  We’ve never had a doctor pray with us before.

Dad and I went to breakfast and went back up to the OR waiting room around 9:00 AM.  We watched Regis & Kelly and the Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb.  At around 11:00 AM, Dr. Wilson came in and told us that Mom was out of surgery and that it went well.  At around 11:20 AM Dr. Porter came in and told us that they repaired three of her lumbar vertebrae and that it all looked good.  He said he didn’t do a biopsy because there was nothing abnormal there.  Everything looked like normal tissue and just typical compression from osteoporosis.  He said Mom was awake and we’d be able to see her in about 30 minutes or so.

So, we’re still in the waiting room, but thrilled that Mom came through everything well.  Dr. Porter wants her to stay overnight for observation tonight, and then we’ll start talking about bringing her home tomorrow.

I’ll update you all if anything new and exciting happens between now and then…

Tracey

Mom’s Gamma Knife Procedure

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I didn’t update last night when I got home, but with all the crazy stuff going on lately – I forgot to pay my internet bill and I came home to find I had no internet connection.  Yikes!!  So, I figured I would just update it today when I came back to the hospital and leave the internet bill with my wonderful husband, Marc, to sort out.

We are so happy to tell you all that Mom did have her Gamma Knife procedure yesterday and it went well.  I took some photos to help document the story of her day.

5:00 AM – We had to get Mom to St. Joseph’s for admitting at the crack of dawn.  All of the Barrow Neurological Institute patients are first admitted to St. Josephs before they are transferred over to the Gamma Knife Center.

6:00 AM – We then had to go up to the second floor to the pre-op area where they put us in a little waiting area. 

Pre-Op Area

They asked Mom to change up into the hospital gown and get onto the gurney.

Well, that was easier said than done.  With all the pain in Mom’s back, it was just too much to ask her to try to stand up and move onto the gurney.  So, several very, very compassionate nurses went and got the sling maching and helped Mom get into the sling and then they were able to put her into the bed that way with very little pain.

While they were moving her they saw the condition of her arms and knew they were going to need their “master” blood person to put in her IV.  So, they brought in the specialist, Mary, to get her IV set up.

She had one of the nurses put a warm blanket on Mom’s arm about five minutes before she came over.  When she got there and took a look at Mom’s arm, she seemed confident she could find a good place to set the IV.  She was amazing and got it going on the first try.  She set her up with a very slow saline drip and got her ready to go to the Gamma Knife Center.

9:00 AM – After a few hours in the Pre-Op area, they finally came to get us and take us to the Gamma Knife Center.  This hospital complex is HUGE and is like a small city.  We were wound through various hallways and taken on elevators and walked FOREVER until we finally came to the Gamma Knife Center.  Yeah!!  All that work we have been doing for the past seven or eight weeks was finally going to make it happen.  We were all so excited.

Mom was a last-minute addition to the schedule, so they didn’t initially have a place for us.  So, we were parked in the hallway for about an hour.  During that time, Dr. Brachman came by to see her.  He is the radiation oncologist who’s on her Gamma Knife team.  He explained to her that at no time during the procedure should she experience any pain or any discomfort.  If she did, she needed to let them know so they could take care of it.  He was very nice.

Then we met Mom’s anesthesiologist.  She took a look at Mom’s chart and let her know that she would be putting a sedative into her IV during the placement of the head frame.  She would be asleep for that procedure and would wake up with the frame in place.

The Gamma Knife treatment is done in four steps:

1. Fitting the frame onto the head.
2. Getting an MRI of the head with the frame attached.
3. The doctors will plan her treatment based on the results of the MRI.
4. The actual Gamme Knife treatment.

10:00 AM –  Sometime during this hour Mom was given her designated room at the Gamma Knife Center.  This would be our home for the day.  We were introduced to her nurse for the day, Mary, who ended up being one of the nicest nurses Mom has ever had.  They told us we could stay in the room until we saw the whites of Dr. Porter’s eyes.  He would be coming to attach the frame and we couldn’t stay for that part.  I don’t think we would have wanted to anyway.  It’s a little on the freaky side.

So, Mom was all ready for Step 1:  Fitting the Frame Onto the Head.

11:00 AM – Dr. Porter arrived and greeted us and we left Mom’s room and went up to the family waiting area at the front of the building.  There were chairs and a TV up there and we watched “The Price is Right” with the other families and visited with them.  There were a total of four patients there for Gamme Knife treatment.  The nurse said the most they’ve ever had was five in a single day.

Gamma Knife Frame

It just took a little while for them to fit the frame onto her head and we got to go back and see her again. 

She was resting comfortably when we got back there. 

The frame was attached and we were so excited to have one more step completed in Mom’s Gamma Knife treatment.

At first, we were a little concerned that she might have some bleeding because of her low blood platelets, but we knew Dr. Porter wouldn’t have done the procedure if she were in any danger.

She slept when we first got back into the room because she was still slightly sedated.

But, after a little while she woke up and talked to us.  She says she has no memory of them attaching the frame.

When I spoke with one of the nurses, she told me that most of the Gamma Knife facilities do not use any anesthesia when applying the head frame – they just use a local numbing cream.  We were sure glad that Mom was in a facility that does utilize some anesthesia.  I think the mental memory of that could be weird if remembered.

Gamma Knife Frame

Once Mom had the frame on, we were now just waiting for her to get her MRI.

I took a few pictures of her in her head frame.  It was very interesting to see how the whole process worked.

There were two screws in the front (just above her eyebrows) and two screws in the back.  We haven’t seen those yet, so we don’t know if they shaved her hair a little bit or not.

The frame is made of aluminum so it’s lightweight for the patient (since it has to be worn for quite a while).

The weight of the frame is 2 pounds.  There are a series of pieces fixed together with bolts so it can be customized for the size of each patient’s head.

Mom's Cute Face!

I decided that the whole design of the thing had to be made by a man.  A woman (especially a Mom) would have designed it much differently.

First, a Mom would have considered how the patient would manage eating while wearing this thing.  A Mom would have made a hinge on the front piece so it could swing away from the mouth for eating.  lol

Mom was such a brave trooper.  She handled each thing that took place with courage and faith.

We just knew that if we could get her here, that would be the resolution to her brain tumor issue.  So, while everyone was so apologetic for various things – like putting us in the hallway, or for making us wait – we were very happy and grateful just to be there at all!  It was a long uphill battle, it seems, to get to this point and there wasn’t anything that was going to take away from that.

Another great thing that happened was that when Dr. Porter saw Mom when he was attaching the frame, he could see how much pain her back was in.  He decided at that point to keep her after the Gamma Knife procedure and take care of her back and get her out of pain.

Mary told us that she was trying to find Mom a room at the hospital so she could be re-admitted back into the hospital after the Gamma Knife treatment and have back surgery on Thursday.  I think we were all a little scared about that at first.  Not that we didn’t think she needed it, but we just didn’t know what it involved and we were concerned about her having back surgery in such a weakened condition.  Mary didn’t know the details about it at this point, so we were just hanging our trust on Dr. Porter because we all trust him very much to take good care of Mom.

11:20 AM – Step 2 – MRI:  Mary came in and told us that it was time for Mom’s MRI.  They said it would take about 40 minutes to complete.  So, Dad and I decided we would go get some lunch at this time.  Her wonderful nurse, Mary, told us that we could bring Mom something to eat and drink.  Mom asked for some herb tea and Mary told us that it was fine.  So, Mom was in heaven that she could have some herb tea (after her two week restriction from any water, tea or coffee).  So, Dad and I headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

Waiting for Gamma Knife

Noon – Step 3 – Dr’s Planning Treatment:  When we returned from lunch, Mom wasn’t back yet from her MRI. 

She came back shortly after we arrived and was thrilled to see that we brought her herb tea, french onion soup, and a fresh fruit bowl. 

She gobbled up the soup and fruit and enjoyed sipping her tea through a straw. 

I forgot to mention that because of the anesthesia and sedatives for the frame attachment and the MRI, she wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink since midnight the night before.  So, she was very parched by this point (actually, she was really thirsty since the morning).

She was in and out for the next several hours.  She complained about being a little bit claustrophobic because of the frame being right in front of her eyes and Mary brought her a Valium to calm her down.  We wanted to nip it in the bud so she wouldn’t start panicking and raise her blood pressure or anything.

Within a few minutes of taking the Valium, Mom was calmed down again and sleeping.  Once she ate, she mostly just slept during the next few hours.

At around 4:00 PM, she complained of a bad headache.  I told the nurses and they said she was just about ready for Gamma Knife.  They said she would probably be done before any pain med would start to work for it.

4:15 PM – Step 4 – Gamma Knife Treatment:  Dr. Porter came back and told us that the MRI wasn’t any different than it had been two weeks ago.  She still had a 1.13 cm lesion on her brain.  He told us they found two very tiny dots on her brain that they weren’t sure about.  He said they could be nothing, but just to be on the safe side he wanted to treat them.  We were all in agreement with that.  We were so thrilled to see that the tumor hadn’t grown in the two weeks that Mom’s been off her alternative medicine regimen.

He also told us more about the back surgery.  He said it’s really not a very invasive surgery at all.  It’s called something like vertibroplasty and they put cement in her spine to relieve the pain from the compression fractures he found on the CT scan of her spine.  I guess it fills in the spaces of her vertebrae and takes the pressure off the nerves (or someting like that).  Anyway, he said she should feel relief within a few days.  He said there’s virtually no recovery time and she’ll feel better very soon.

So, that’s so nice.  I was anticipating having to call her primary care physician and get a referral for a back specialists.  That could have taken weeks.  Then we would have had to take her to that appointment, then for imaging, then back for some type of consult.  And, then, finally — a month or two later — she would have gotten some back relief.

Dr. Porter rocks!  He’s awesome and we’re so grateful for his care of Mom.

Mary talking to Mom

Okay, now back to the Gamma Knife treatment …

Once we knew what the plan was, it was time for her to go.  They let us in the Gamma Knife room while they were preparing her for her treatment.

They moved from her gurney to the Gamma Knife table and adjusted the table to make her comfortable.

During this time Dr. Brachman spoke to Dad and me and explained that the whole procedure would only take 30 minutes for Mom – 40 minutes at the most.

We were just thrilled that this time had finally come.  She was actually in the Gamma Knife room and it was really going to happen!  We were elated.

Here are a couple more pictures of her in the Gamma Knife room once her frame was attached to the machine. 

Mom w/Gamma Knife machine

This will  keep her head from moving at all during the procedure so they don’t accidentally zap any healthy brain tissue. 

So, while it’s sort of strange and uncomfortable for her, we are grateful for the accuracy of the entire process and how targeted the gamma rays will be on her brain.

The machine looks a bit like an MRI, except that Dr. Brachman said it would be very quiet (which is very different from an MRI machine).

You’ll notice the label on the upper part of the machine that says “Gamma Knife Perfexion”.  I blew the picture of that up and that’s the first picture at the top of this blog post.

There was a whole team of people on computers who were going to be part of Mom’s team.

The whole experience was really neat.  Since Mom doesn’t remember much of it, this will document it for her too.

So, we said good-bye to Mom and good riddance to her brain tumor and off we went to Starbucks to get a latte during her procedure.

We called my sister, Gretchen, while we were on our Starbucks run and let her know that Mom was in the Gamma Knife machine.  We all rejoiced that it was finally happening for her.

5:00 PM – When we came back from Starbucks, Mom was already done with her treatment and her head frame was already removed.  Yeah!!!  When we saw her, she was looking great and feeling good too!

Mom resting after Gamma Knife

Mary told us that St. Joseph’s had found a room for Mom, so we were going to be going back to the Pre-Op area we started the morning in and wait for her room to be cleaned and readied for her.

Her nurses back in Pre-Op were wonderful and took her vital signs and even ordered a tray of food to be sent to her room so she would have dinner when she got there.

Mom was then wheeled back up to the 6th floor and into her new room.

It was a familiar site to us (as it is almost exactly like the room she had last week) and is only 2 rooms away from that one.   lol

7:10 PM – We made it up to Mom’s room at St. Joseph’s.  We met her nurses, Alicia, who was going off-shift in about 20 minutes.  She got Mom all settled in and introduced us to her night nurse, Susanne.  Susanne was wonderful and took great care of Mom during the night.

I went home about 11:00 PM and Dad stayed the night last night.  Mom had a wonderful day today.  Alicia was back on shift today and she took excellent care of Mom all day.  I came back this afternoon around 3:00 PM to relieve Dad so he could get home and get some sleep.

Mom is scheduled for vertibroplasty at 7:30 AM tomorrow morning.  So, once again, we’d like to ask for your prayers and happy, positive thoughts for Mom for tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for being there for Mom.  This has been an amazing journey with this whole Gamma Knife deal and we’re so thankful that it all went perfectly and she’s on her way to being pain-free after her back surgery tomorrow!

I’ll post more tomorrow night and let you know how that goes …

Until then,

Tracey

Mom is Home!

Well, we were finally able to get Mom home last night with the use of a mobile transport.  Two very cute paramedics brought Mom home on a gurney.  She chatted them up all the way home and they both wanted one of her business cards with info about this blog for people they know who have cancer.

I’m not going to lie and say that it’s easy right now because it’s not.  Mom is pretty much immovable and we’re having to do just about everything for her.  She’s in a lot of pain in her lower back, which is discouraging her from trying to do much.

At this point, we don’t really know what’s causing this pain and until we find out for sure – we don’t really want to push her too hard.  But, once we get the “all clear” from her doctors about movement – we’ll start getting her up out of the bed and moving again.

At this point, we’re just trying to get from Point A (home) to Point B (Gamma Knife surgery on Tuesday).  Once she has the surgery, we feel that we’ll start seeing a much bigger turnaround in her recovery.

She’s pretty tired from being in the hospital for so long, so these next few days are just going to be a chance for her to rest and catch her breath.

I probably won’t update the blog again until we get back from Gamma Knife on Tuesday evening.  I’m not sure if she’s going to come home with us after Gamma Knife, or if she’s going to go into a rehab.  That’s something we need to discuss with her doctor.

Thank you everyone for your prayers – not only for Mom, but for me and Dad too.  This is definitely one of Mom’s “valley” experiences, as we call it, and something that will be one of our darker memories during her road to recovery.

Until Tuesday night …

Tracey