Thinking of B17 Apricot Kernel seeds

All I can offer you is my personal experience with them and what I have read.

For personal experience, the first thing I will offer you is a big caution stamp. If you ordered the bitter kernels (and those are probably the ones you are looking for) they really do contain amygdalin, which can metabolize into cyanide. You really want to go slow and research this stuff so you know what you are getting into. I gradually worked my way up to 25-30 kernels per day, then I switched over to B17 capsules which I took for about the past year and a half.

For most of the time I was taking it, I did not experience too many side effects. At some points I did experience a racing heart rate and some dizziness, both of which are on the symptom list for cyanide poisoning. I'm not currently using it because I feel like I have become sensitised to it and it bothers me whenever I take it now.

I did use it the whole time I was on chemo and at that time I did not notice any additional side effects above the chemo itself. Likewise I did not find that the B17 did anything at all to alleviate my chemo side effects. For my type of chemo (FOLFOX) the pharmacist did not feel that the B17 would interfere with the standard treatment, so they did not advise against taking it. At my cancer center, they are either not really well informed about B17, or choose not to comment on it because it isn't on the regular treatment schedule. Your mileage may vary with your own Onc.

Best advice I can give you is just don't overdo it when you start with the kernels. They are NOT like snacking on almonds, and if you have too many, you are going to have a bad day. I found I was able to start slow and work up to more over time. I added maybe one or two kernels per day, and I did not eat all the kernels at once. Treat them like they are strong medicine. They can harm you if you don't use them with caution.

Second piece of advice is not to take them at the same time as you are taking vitamin C. From my experience they don't mix well together.

Would I take them again? Yes. There is quite a bit of good anecdotal evidence, but not much hard clinical testing that I could find. That was enough for me to put it in my maybe pile.

I do have links to things I've found and read if you are interested, but if not, I hope my little bit of info helps.

Thomas

Thomas has it covered.  One thing that my oncologist mentioned is when using things like herbs (Traditional Chinese Medicine etc.) and other alternative items is to be careful.  Mixtures can be as strong as chemotherapy (in terms of affecting the body). He was not against using other things, just cautioned to be real careful in terms of (a) clearing things when on chemo and how it could affect treatment and (b) overall affect.  I appreciated that he did not dismiss things out of hand.

JanJan63 said:

Why the B17 Thomas? I don't

Why the B17 Thomas? I don't think I've heard of that one. Thanks!

Jan

I got my CAT scan results yesterday and it was all clear, so we were busy doing the happy dance. I haven't seen a "small victories" thread on here. Thinking I should maybe start one up. Who doesn't want to share a happy dance once in a while right?

Ok, for the Why B17. For why B17 over apricot seeds: B17 is straight up amygdalyn. Basically it is the concentrated ingredient found in the apricot seeds that is supposed to have the anti-cancer properties. There are some people who feel that it works better as part of a whole food, and some people who think that the straight B17 is best in high concentrations. I haven't found any good information that proves a difference for one Vs the other, so I was interested in high concentrations.

For the why B17 at all, B17 is a molecule that contains cyanide and benzaldehyde, both of which are scary and toxic to be sure. They are both locked up in the molecule, and as long as they are, they are perfectly safe. Like having a tazmanian devil in a box, as long as he's in the box you're fine. (Yeah, I watched a lot of Loony Tunes as a kid) The interesting part is that cancer cells are supposed to produce an enzyme called beta-glucosidase. When you mix B17 with this enzyme, the two of them break down into glucose, cyanide, and benzaldehyde. In other words, when B17 enters a cancer cell, the cancer cell makes it release two strong poisons, which then kill the cancer cell.

What about regular cells you ask? Well, apparently normal cells don't make beta-glucosidase, they make a different enzyme called rhodanese. Rhodanese bonds with the cyanide, so it remains harmless in normal cells.

Sounds like the perfect cancer killer right? Well, that is the basic theory behind it anyway, and it would be great if did exactly that and only that. In the real world, the cyanide can also be released in the digestive tract by both your own probiotics and things like vitamin C. The Rhodanese produced by your normal cells can scoop up and neutralize the B17 before it does anything at all to cancer cells, so it isn't perfect by any means. From what I have read, you need a reasonably high concentration of it to make sure that it can reach the cancer cells, which is why I chose capsules.

Some studies say B17 has a positive effect, some say it has no effect. That is why this one hits my "Maybe" pile, but I thought the evidence was good enough for me to add it to my routine. So long as it isn't causing any harm, I considered the potential benefit worth it. Once I started to feel more side effects from it, I took it back out again.

Personal choice on that one for sure.

Hopefully that gives you at least a concentrated form of what is out there on the subject?

Have an awsome day!

Thomas

ThomasH said:

Sorry for the slow reply Jan

I got my CAT scan results yesterday and it was all clear, so we were busy doing the happy dance. I haven't seen a "small victories" thread on here. Thinking I should maybe start one up. Who doesn't want to share a happy dance once in a while right?

Ok, for the Why B17. For why B17 over apricot seeds: B17 is straight up amygdalyn. Basically it is the concentrated ingredient found in the apricot seeds that is supposed to have the anti-cancer properties. There are some people who feel that it works better as part of a whole food, and some people who think that the straight B17 is best in high concentrations. I haven't found any good information that proves a difference for one Vs the other, so I was interested in high concentrations.

For the why B17 at all, B17 is a molecule that contains cyanide and benzaldehyde, both of which are scary and toxic to be sure. They are both locked up in the molecule, and as long as they are, they are perfectly safe. Like having a tazmanian devil in a box, as long as he's in the box you're fine. (Yeah, I watched a lot of Loony Tunes as a kid) The interesting part is that cancer cells are supposed to produce an enzyme called beta-glucosidase. When you mix B17 with this enzyme, the two of them break down into glucose, cyanide, and benzaldehyde. In other words, when B17 enters a cancer cell, the cancer cell makes it release two strong poisons, which then kill the cancer cell.

What about regular cells you ask? Well, apparently normal cells don't make beta-glucosidase, they make a different enzyme called rhodanese. Rhodanese bonds with the cyanide, so it remains harmless in normal cells.

Sounds like the perfect cancer killer right? Well, that is the basic theory behind it anyway, and it would be great if did exactly that and only that. In the real world, the cyanide can also be released in the digestive tract by both your own probiotics and things like vitamin C. The Rhodanese produced by your normal cells can scoop up and neutralize the B17 before it does anything at all to cancer cells, so it isn't perfect by any means. From what I have read, you need a reasonably high concentration of it to make sure that it can reach the cancer cells, which is why I chose capsules.

Some studies say B17 has a positive effect, some say it has no effect. That is why this one hits my "Maybe" pile, but I thought the evidence was good enough for me to add it to my routine. So long as it isn't causing any harm, I considered the potential benefit worth it. Once I started to feel more side effects from it, I took it back out again.

Personal choice on that one for sure.

Hopefully that gives you at least a concentrated form of what is out there on the subject?

Have an awsome day!

Thomas

You can start a new thread whenever you want, and this is such wonderful news, you just need to share it. 

Tru

I took up to 10 kernels each day in my early experimentation and it didn't do anything negative. Whether or not it did anything positive, I can't say. I was trying so many things during my early years.

I wasn't on chemo when I took them (I stopped doing chemo in 2008), and from what I've researched about them, the active chemical in them (laetrile) is a known cancer-killer. I was also taking an enzyme that proportedly stripped the cancer-cell of it's protected shell where anything could kill it after that. I got a small mass in my lung that my doctor was so certain was metastasis, he wanted me to go directly into surgery. Within the month it took to schedule the surgery, he ordered another CT to get a better view of it, and I was juicing every day at the same time I was taking the laetrile/enzymes, and the mass vanished by the time I got the second CT. He was so surprised he ordered an MRI. I wish I could say the laetrile/enzyme is what did it, but I think it was the juicing. Maybe it was all three together.

I must add that I had another met in the other lung at the same time that they didn't think was cancer because it had remained stable for about three years. About a year after the little met disappeared, the stable lung met began growing aggressively and exponentially after I went through a stressful event (my cancer is big-time triggered by stress). I didn't try anything radical to get rid of that met - at that time I was still on the fence about whether or not diet could truly heal cancer, so I just went directly into surgery and had it removed.

I found a study once (I may have quoted it in my book), that correlated a diet high in apricot kernels prevented cancer. There's a tribe somewhere that lives almost exclusively on apricots and particularly the kernels. They also used grains high in nitrilosides - another suspected cancer-killer, and the instances of cancer among their people was zero. I'll see if I can't find that study and post it here when I get time.