Chapter Six
THE TOTAL MECHANISM

The nutritional factor as a back-up mechanism to the enzyme factor; a biographical sketch of Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr., and his development of Laetrile; the beneficial effects of vitamin B17 on a wide range of human disorders; and an appraisal of the complexity of nature's total anti-cancer mechanism.

As demonstrated in the previous chapter, cancer can be thought of as a kind of over-healing process in which the body produces trophoblast cells as a part of its attempt to overcome specific damage to or aging of normal tissue.

These trophoblast cells are protected by an electrostatically charged protein coat. But in the presence of sufficient quantities of the pancreatic enzymes, this protective coating is digested away, exposing the trophoblast to the destructive force of the body's white blood cells. Thus, nature has assigned to the pancreas the vital job of preventing cancer by keeping trophoblast cells under control.

But what happens if, due to age or hereditary factors, the pancreas is weak, or if the kinds of foods we eat consume almost all of the pancreatic enzymes for their digestion leaving very little for the blood stream? What if, due to surgery or radiation, there is scar tissue around the cancer which inhibits circulation and prevents the enzymes from reaching it? And what if the rate of cancer growth is so high that the pancreatic enzymes can't keep up with it? Then what?

The answer is that nature has provided a back-up mechanism, a second line of defense, that has an excellent chance of doing the job even if the first line should fail. It involves a unique chemical compound that literally poisons the malignant cancer cell while nourishing all the rest. And this is where the vitamin concept of cancer finally comes back into the picture.

The chemical compound in question is vitamin B17, which is found in those natural foods containing nitriloside. It is known also as amygdalin and, as such, has been used and studied extensively for well over a hundred years. But, in its concentrated and purified form developed by Dr. Krebs specifically for cancer therapy, it is known as Laetrile.

For the sake of clarity in this volume, however, we shall favor the more simple name: vitamin B17.

Professor John Beard, the man who first advanced the trophoblast thesis of cancer, had suspected that there was a nutritional factor in addition to the enzyme factor but was never able to identify it. It wasn't until 1952 that this "extrinsic" factor was discovered by Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr., and his famous father of the same name.

During the great flu epidemic of 1918 which took the lives of over ten-million Americans, Dr. Krebs, Sr., was able to save almost 100% of the hundreds of patients who came under his care. As both a graduate pharmacist and an accredited physician practicing in Nevada, he had taken a keen interest in the fact that the Washoe Indians of that area enjoyed almost complete freedom from the respiratory diseases of the white man.

He discovered that their native remedy for such ailments was called "Dortza Water," a decoction of the root of a wild parsley-like plant known botanically as Leptotaenia Dissecta. He experimented with this herb, devised more efficient methods to extract the active ingredients, and discovered that it possessed amazing antiseptic and healing properties.

It was this extract that was used to save the lives of his patients during the epidemic of 1918.

Thus Dr. Krebs, Sr., in 1918 was the first to introduce and use an antibiotic in scientific medicine. At that time, however, even the claim for the possibility of an antibiotic or "internal germicide" that would kill bacteria without harming the body was considered preposterous. The Journal of the American Medical Association on June 5, 1920, dismissed these claims out of hand.

Thirty years passed before Carlson and Douglas of the Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, rediscovered leptonin -the antibiotic in the roots of Leptotaenia - and published their findings in the Journal of Bacteriology in May of 1948.

Their summary reads:

The antibiotic activity of oil fractions from the root of Leptotaenia dissecta was determined on 62 strains and species of bacteria, molds and fungi. The ... agent was bactericidal for gram-positive bacteria ... and gram-negative bacteria.

In 1953, scientists at the University of Utah School of Medicine published a number of papers called "Studies on Antibiotic Extract of Leptotaenia."(1)

1. Antibiotics and Chemotherapy (3 (4) 393), 1953.

They confirmed the effect Dr. Krebs, Sr., had claimed for leptonin against flu viruses.

The reality of leptonin as a broad-spectrum antibiotic had become so well established that the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine granted a student a master's degree in microbiology for its study. The same student, Daniel Everett Johnson, later obtained his doctorate in microbiology at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1953 on the basis of his thesis showing the antibiotic action of leptonin against hundreds of different microorganisms.

Dr. Krebs, Sr., also had taken an early interest in cancer. He noticed that this appeared to be primarily a white man's disease. Remembering the lesson of "Dortza Water," he suspected that the key probably was hidden either in an herb or in the food supply. The final discovery, however, was made, not by him, but by his son who, by that time, had become totally wrapped up in the search for an answer to the cancer riddle.

Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr., initially wanted to follow his father in the practice of medicine. Soon after he enrolled in medical school, he realized that his interest lay, not in the treatment of patients, but in the world of medical chemistry. After three years of anatomy and medicine at Hahnemann Medical College, he changed his direction and became a doctor of biochemistry.

He pursued his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois between 1938 and 1941. Specializing in bacteriology, he received his Bachelor's Degree at the University of Illinois in 1942.

he did graduate work at the University of Mississippi and also at the University of California. . During his lifetime, Dr. Krebs authored many scientific papers Including "The Unitarian or Trophoblastic Thesis of Cancer" and "The Nithlosides in Plants and Animals."

He was the recipient of numerous honors and doctorates both at home and abroad. He was the science director of the John Beard Memorial Foundation prior to his death in 1996. He was also the discoverer of vitamin B15 (pangamic acid), which has proven to be an important adjunctive therapy in the treatment of many illnesses related to impaired circulation.

Early in his student work, Dr. Krebs became familiar with the trophoblast thesis of cancer advanced by Professor John Beard. Working within the context of this theory, and encouraged by Dr. Charles Gurchot, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California Medical School, he began a search for the nutritional factor hinted at by Beard.

By 1950 he had identified the specific composition of this substance, had isolated it into crystalline form, had given it the name Laetrile,(1) and had tested it on animals to make sure it was not toxic. The next step was to prove that it was not harmful to humans. There was only one way to do that. So he rolled up his sleeve and injected it into his own bloodstream.

Just as he had predicted, there were absolutely no harmful or distressing side effects. He was now ready for the final state of experiments - cancer patients themselves.

The B17 molecule contains two units of glucose (sugar), one of benzaldehyde, and one of cyanide, all tightly locked together within it. As everyone knows, cyanide can be highly toxic and even fatal if taken in sufficient quantity. However, locked as it is in this natural state, it is chemically inert and has absolutely no effect on living tissue. By way of analogy, chlorine gas also is known to be deadly. But when the chlorine is chemically bound together with sodium forming sodium chloride, it is a relatively harmless compound known as common table salt.

There is only one substance that can unlock the B17 molecule and release the cyanide. That substance is an enzyme called beta-glucosidase, which we shall call the "unlocking enzyme."(2)

1. The material was derived from apricot kernels. Because it was laevorotatory (left-handed) to polarized light, and because chemically it was a " Mandelonitrile," the first and last syllables were united to produce the word Laetrile.
2. This is a generic term applied to a category of enzymes. The specific one that appears to unlock the synthesized B17 known as Laetrile is beta-glucuronidase.

When B17 comes in contact with this enzyme in the presence of water, not only is the cyanide released, but also the benzaldehyde, which is highly toxic by itself. In fact, these two substances working together are at least a hundred times more poisonous man either of them separately; a phenomenon known in biochemistry as synergism.(1)

Fortunately, the unlocking enzyme is not found to any dangerous degree anywhere in the body except at the cancer cell, where it always is present in great quantity, sometimes at levels in excess of one-hundred times that of the surrounding normal cells. The result is that vitamin B17 is unlocked at the cancer cell, releases its poisons to the cancer cell, and only to the cancer cell.

There is another important enzyme called rhodanese, which we shall identify as the "protecting enzyme."(2)

1. In passing, it is interesting to note that nature has used this same synergism a defense mechanism for the poisonous millipede found in Louisiana and Mississippi. The creature is equipped with paired glands located on eleven of its segments. When threatened, it ejects cyanide and benzaldehyde from these glands with a deadly effectiveness that is well known. See "Secretion of Benzaldehyde and Hydrogen Cyanide by the Millipede Pachydesmus Crassicutis, "Science, 138;513, 1962.
2. Since about 1965, rhodanese has been identified in technical literature as thiosulfate transulfurase.

The reason is that it has the ability to neutralize cyanide by converting it instantly into by-products that actually are beneficial and essential to health. This enzyme is found in great quantities in every part of the body except the cancer cell which, consequently, is not protected.

Let us examine what, at first, may appear to be exceptions to these rules. We have said that the unlocking enzyme is not found to any dangerous degree anywhere in the body except at the cancer cell. That is true, but note the phrase "to any dangerous degree."

The unlocking enzyme actually is found in various concentrations everywhere in the human body. It is particularly prevalent in the healthy spleen, liver, and endocrine organs. In all of these instances, however, there also is present an even greater quantity of the protecting enzyme (rhodanese). The healthy tissue is protected, therefore, because the excess of this protecting enzyme completely neutralizes the effect of the unlocking enzyme.

The malignant cell, by comparison, not only has a greater concentration of the unlocking enzyme than found in most normal cells but it is totally lacking in the protecting enzyme. Thus, it is singularly vulnerable to the release of cyanide and benzaldehyde.

The non-cancerous organs, therefore, are endowed by nature with the unique capacity of protecting themselves and even nourishing themselves from the digestion of the B17 molecule, whereas cancerous tissue converts the same vitamin substance into powerful toxins against which it has no defense.

With this in mind, it is amusing to watch the scientific "experts" who oppose Laetrile reveal their abysmal ignorance and arrogance on this subject. In the 1963 report of the California Cancer Advisory Commission, for example, we read:

The opinion of Dr. Jesse P. Greenstein, chief of the laboratory of biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute, was obtained in respect to the distribution of beta-glucuronidase in neoplastic [cancer] and non-neoplastic [healthy] tissues, and as to the implication that there was a "tumor" beta-glucuronidase [unlocking] enzyme.

The fact is, reported Doctor Greenstein, that beta-glucuronidase is found in all tissues of the animal body... In other words, there is much more "normal" beta-glucuronidase than "tumor" beta-glucuronidase in any animal body.

In a letter dated November 10, 1952, Dr. Greenstein wrote,

"Such statement as... 'the malignant cell... is virtually an island surrounded by a sea of beta-glucuronidase' is sheer nonsense."(1)

Dr. Greenstein is perfectly correct in observing that the unlocking enzyme is found in all tissue of the animal body, but he is one-hundred percent in error when he tries to scoff at its abundance within and around the malignant cell.

His lack of expertise, however, is made abundantly clear by the fact that apparently he is totally unaware of the corresponding presence and counteraction of the protecting enzyme in these tissues. He is castigating as "sheer nonsense" a biochemical mechanism of which he apparently is totally ignorant.

Dr. Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize for proving that cancer cells obtain nourishment, not through oxidation as do other cells, but through fermentation of sugar.

Warburg explained:

From the standpoint of physics and chemistry of life, this difference between normal and cancer cells is so great that one can scarcely picture a greater difference. Oxygen gas, the donor of energy in plants and animals, is dethroned in the cancer cells and replaced by an energy-yielding reaction of the lowest living forms; namely, a fermentation of glucose.(2)

1. Report by Cancer Advisory Council, op. cit., pp. 14,15.
2. As quoted in Prevention, May 1968.

From this it is easy to see why anything that improves normal respiratory metabolism is an inhibitor to cancer growth.

The point, however, is that any benzaldehyde that might diffuse away from the cancer cell and come into contact with normal cells, will be oxidized and converted into harmless benzoic acid. Benzoic acid is known to have certain anti-rheumatic, antiseptic, and analgesic properties. This could partially account for the fact that B17 produces the unexpected effect of relieving the intense pain associated with terminal cancer, and does so without the aid of narcotics.

Although not a pain reliever per se, when it comes in contact with cancer cells, it releases benzoic acid right at the inflicted location and, thus, bathes that area with a natural analgesic.(1) Meanwhile, the benzaldehyde that remains at the cancer cell will find itself in an almost total lack of oxygen causing it to linger and perform its deadly synergistic action for a prolonged period of time.

On the other hand, if a small amount of cyanide should diffuse into adjacent normal cells, it is converted by the enzyme rhodanese, in the presence of sulphur, into thiocyanate which, as stated previously, is perfectly harmless.

But, more than that, thiocyanate is known as a natural regulator of blood pressure. It also serves as a metabolic pool for the body's self-production of vitamin B12 or cyanocobalamin, a substance essential for health. It comes as a great surprise for many to learn that cyanide is an essential and integral part of vitamin B12 as well as B17.(2)

1. It is the opinion of Laetrile clinicians, however, that the primary cause of pain reduction probably is the halting of the tumor's invasion and destruction of healthy tissue.
2. Vitamin B12 is not produced in plant tissue. It is the product of animal metabolism in which the cyanide radical is combined with hydrocobalamin (B12a) to form cyanocobalamin (B12).

Another unexpected, but welcome, consequence of vitamin B17 is that it stimulates the hemoglobin or red blood cell count.

As long ago as 1933 it was shown that exposure to small amounts of cyanide gas produced this effect in mice,(3) but only since the work begun by Dr. Krebs has this also been demonstrated in humans as a result of the internal chemical action of Laetrile.

3. Maxwell and Bischoff, journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapy

Other experiments have indicated that trace amounts of cyanide and benzaldehyde released in the mouth and intestine, far from being cause for panic, actually are a part of the delicate balance of nature and serve entirely beneficial purposes. In the mouth and stomach, these chemicals attack the bacteria that cause tooth decay and bad breath. In the intestines they interact with the bacterial microflora to suppress or eliminate the flatulence long associated with westernized foods.

The most interesting sidelight of all, however, is the probable connection between vitamin B17 and the disease, sickle-cell anemia. In Africa, the black race has developed sickle cells in the blood apparently as a natural immunity factor to malaria. The development of this trait was dependent, in part, on the rich nitrilosidic content of the native African diet.

Once the black man began to migrate into the modern cities of America and Europe, his eating habits were changed drastically. The result is the painful hemolytic crisis caused by the clumping of the red cells. It already has been learned that this disease can be ameliorated by cyanate tablets. But cyanate also can be produced by vitamin B17 acting within the body, and it seems logical to assume that this is the way nature intended it to be taken.

Let us pause, then, and reflect on the significance of these indicators.

• Is it possible that the rheumatic diseases, certain aspects of hypertension (high-blood pressure), tooth decay, many of our gastrointestinal disorders, sickle-cell anemia - and cancer - all are related directly or indirectly to a simple vitamin B17 deficiency?

• And if this is possible, what then of the other noninfectious diseases that plague mankind and puzzle medical research? Could their solutions also be found in the field of nutrition rather than drugs?

The answers to these questions may not be fully answered for decades, but let us return to the main topic - cancer - and to the realm of those questions for which we do have answers. It is no longer a speculation but a fact supported by a mountain of evidence that vitamin B17 is a vital part of an amazing biochemical process that destroys cancer cells while, at the same time, nourishing and sustaining non-cancer cells.

Every person possesses trophoblast cells as a result of the continuing and normal regeneration process. These, however, are held in check by a metabolic barrier consisting of the pancreatic enzyme chymotrypsin and the nitriloside food factor vitamin Bi7This barrier is an intricate and perfect mechanism of nature that simply could not have been accidental.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, there is much speculation today about carcinogens - the things that supposedly cause cancer. We are told that smoking, or extensive exposure to the Sun, or chemical additives to our food, or even certain viruses all can cause cancer. But, as we have seen, the real cause is an enzyme and vitamin deficiency. These other things merely are the specific triggers that start the process.

Anything that produces prolonged stress or damage to the body can trigger the healing process. If this goes unchecked because the body lacks the necessary chemical ingredients to restore the equilibrium, then the result is cancer.

Specific carcinogens, therefore, like cigarette smoke or viruses, do not cause cancer; they merely determine where it is going to occur.

Nature's defenses against cancer include more than just the pancreatic enzymes and vitamin B17. For example, doctors in Europe have reported that hyperthermy - the deliberate raising of the patient's body temperature - has increased the effectiveness of vitamin therapy so greatly as to suggest another synergism, as between cyanide and benzaldehyde.

They tell us that when the body temperature is raised from its normal 37 degrees to 41 degrees Celsius (98.6 to 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit), there is a gain in effect of from three to ten-fold. In other words, at the higher level of 41 degrees, it takes only one-third to one-tenth as much Laetrile to achieve a given anti-cancer effect.

It is possible that the fermentive function of the cancer cell is impaired by the increased oxygenation and circulation associated with fever.

Along this line, it is interesting to note that Dr. Wilfrid Shute (the world-famous champion of vitamin E therapy for heart patients) reported that, for some reason unknown to him, patients who were on massive doses of E did not appear to contract cancer as often as other patients.

Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling has suggested that vitamin C might also have value as an anti-cancer agent. Dr. Umberto Saffiotti of the National Cancer institute has blocked lung cancer in mice with vitamin A.(1)

1. "Is There An Anti-Cancer Food?" by Gena Larsen, Prevention, April, 1972.

And, as reported in the October, 1971, issue of Biomedical News, massive oral doses of the vitamin-B complex reduced the growth of cancer experimental mice by as much as seventy percent.

It is plain to see that there is much yet to be learned, and no one claims that vitamin B17 is the whole answer. In addition to hyperthermy and vitamins A, B, C, and E, it is probable that an important role is played by other enzymes, other vitamins, and even pH levels. Vitamin B17 seems to be the most vital and direct-acting of all these factors, but none of them can be ignored, for they are an interlocking part of the total natural mechanism.

Fortunately, it is not necessary for man to fully understand every aspect of this mechanism in order to make it work for him.

The necessity of eating foods rich in all the vitamins and minerals - particularly vitamin B17 - and of minimizing prolonged damage or stress to the body is all that he really needs to know.(1)

1. An excellent guide to the preparation of foods rich in vitamin B17 is June de Spain's The Little Cyanide Cookbook (Westlake Village, CA: American Media, 1975).

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