Nutty cancer cure

I've just received a new bag of Apricot Kernels through the post. I usually eat about eight to ten of then per day. Why? Because they prevent and cure cancer. Or so I'm told.

Apparently there is a substance contained in apricot kernels (and a variety of other stuff), called amygdalin. The active ingredient in Amygdalin is cyanide. Under normal circumstances it is chemically inert and harmless to living tissue. On contact with a cancerous cell, the amygdalin breaks down and releases the cyanide which kills the cancerous cell.

In theory. The medical community regards this as nothing less than pure quackery. The FDA in America has banned all reaserch into this area of cancer treatment and the UK has done likewise. The governement likes to take down websites that advocate apricot kernels as a cancer treatment (although I did a quick Google search before writing this and found quite a few).

There is a more concentrated form of amygdalin called laetrile. An attempt was made to classify leatrile as a vitamin (B17) in order to circumvent the US drug laws. It was unsucessful.

This comes from the Cancer Reaserarch UK (the people who want to ban smoking in cars) website:

Manufacturers of laetrile promote it as an alternative cancer treatment. This means it is used instead of conventional cancer treatment. The first use of laetrile as a treatment for cancer was in Russia in 1845, and it was used in the USA from the 1920s. In the 1950s, some people began promoting laetrile as a ‘highly active compound’ that can cure cancer. Unfortunately, this is simply not true - laetrile cannot cure cancer. The active ingredient in laetrile is cyanide, which is highly poisonous.

Laetrile can cause serious side effects. We don’t recommend that you replace your conventional cancer treatment with any type of alternative cancer therapy, such as laetrile. Or that you use laetrile alongside your cancer treatment.

So why do I continue, as a rational person, to spend my money on Apricot Kernels when the theory that they prevent cancer is so widely considered to be bollocks?

The question is, who considers it to be bollocks? Big pharma. Why? Probably because any cancer treatment that grows on trees cannot make them any money. Who else? The government. Why? Because big pharma is hugely influential with the government.

The small portion of the scientific community that beleives there may be something to all this want to do some proper research but they can't because all reaserach has been banned.

Take a look at the electrofag. It looks like that is soon to be banned. Why? Because big phucking pharma can't make any money out of it.

So until the government allows real scientists to do some real reaserach, I am gonna keep eating them. Besides, they taste damn good.

This is one of the websites that explains in more detail.
This is the opposing view from Cancer Reasearch UK