Laetrile (B17) Cancer and the FDA

Following on from A Town Called Allopath, I read a great book recently "Alive and Well" by Philip E. Binzel, Jr., M.D. ISBN: 0912986174

It is the story of "One Doctor's Experience with Nutrition in the Treatment of Cancer Patients". Again like the video from Dr Mercola's site it was shocking to hear of the behavior of the FDA in trying to suppress the use of Laetrile also kown as B17 and Apricot Kernal.

Here's an excerpt from the chapter 1 of the book Alive and Well.


Dr. Halstead then took the stand. He carried with him a book which he put in his lap. Under direct questioning from Mr Coe, Dr Halstead explained how all substances known to man can be toxic. He showed that while some oxygen is necessary to maintain life, too much oxygen can be fatal. He went through the same procedure with water, salt and other substances. He then showed that aspirin, sugar and salt were, milligram-for-milligram, hundreds of times more toxic than Laetrile.

On cross-examination, the FDA attorney asked Dr Halstead to give the toxicity figure for some substance (I don't remember what the substance was). Dr. Halstead said, pointing to the book in his lap but never opening it, "on page 311, Table 2, in this book you will find that the toxicity of that substance is ..." (whatever it was). The FDA attorney then named another substance and asked for its toxicity figure. Dr Halstead answered, "On page 419, Table 3 shows it to be ..." (whatever it was). The attorney tried a third time. Again, Dr Halstead came up with the page number, table number and toxicity.

The three FDA attorneys stared at each other for a minute, then one of them said, "How do you know all of this?" Dr Halstead calmly replied. "Because I wrote the book." "Impossible!" yelled the attorney. Without saying a word Dr Halstead took the book from his lap and handed it to Judge Bohanon. The Judge opened the book to its first page and read the following. "textbook of Toxicology, written by Dr Bruce Halstead, as commissioned by the food and Drug Administration of the United States." The Judge said to the FDA attorneys, "You fellows should have known that. You didn't do your homework very well." The FDA attorneys had enough of Dr Halstead. They dismissed him from the stand.

When Mr Coe informed Judge Bohanon that the defense concluded its testimony, the Judge turned to the FDA attorneys and said, "The court is now prepared to hear your witnesses and view your evidence." One FDA attorney replied, "Your Honor, we don't have any." The rest of the dialogue went like this:

Judge: "You are telling me that you have filled suit in this court that Laetrile is toxic, and you don't have a single witness or a shred of evidence to support such a suit?"

Attorney: "Yes that is correct, Your Honor."

Judge: "Then why have you filed such a suit?"

Attorney: "Because, Your Honor, Laetrile may be dangerous."

Judge: "Dangerous to whom?"

Attorney: "Dangerous to the Federal Government, Your Honor."

Judge: "How could Laetrile possibly be dangerous to the Federal Government?"

Attorney: "Because, Your Honor, the Government may lose control."

With this the Judge, now obviously angered, slammed down his gavel and said, "Case dismissed!"

As Mr. Coe, Dr Halstead, Bob Bradford, Betty and I left the court house, we saw a six-foot by four-foot poster on the wall in the lobby. It read in large letters, "BEWARE OF LAETRILE! IT IS TOXIC!" At the bottom, in small print was the statement, "Must be posted in all Government buildings by order of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States."

Is it possible that the FDA was lying to the people?


This is one of them books that's a right riveting read as well as being informative, well researched and presented.

What I found very balanced about the book is that it was very clear in not making Laetrile out to be a magic bullet but that it was a complete Nutritional plan that was called for and that the dosages of each vitamin needed to be in the correct ratio's.

As a final sanity check the reader is absolutely deterred not to self diagnose and try and treat themselves for cancer from this book.