Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, medical marvels,
scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults,
ghosts, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts or just the
plain unexplainable.
This week: Medical Marvels
Usually in Awesome or Off-Putting, we're throwing crazy stories
about aliens, monsters or pig-manure floods at you. Not today. Today
we're going to share a crazy medical marvel with you, a crazy medical
marvel that may just change your diet. It seems there's a people in the
Indian portion of Kashmir who have a zero percent cancer rate. Some
scientists think they know why.
The Hunza people in India have always been known for living
exceptionally long lives. An average life expectancy of 90 years has
been cited as normal, and some of the Hunzas are even said to reach a
120th birthday. In fact they're one of the rare groups with a zero (or
at least near zero) percent cancer rate.
Some scientists have attributed their low cancer rate and long lives to
their apricot-pit rich diet. The pits are said to be quite bitter, and
so are ground down and sprinkled on salads or other more palatable food
items.
The pits, you see are rich in Amygdalin, which is the direct ingredient thought to battle the cancer. whatreallyworks.co.uk says:
"Fresh apricots are a staple of the diet of the remote
Hunza people who live in Kashmir, India, and are said to be one reason
why this tribe is famous for living so long and never suffering from
degenerative diseases like cancer."
Not everyone shares this opinion, however. According to Wikipedia:
"While no double-blind clinical trials may have been
conducted, a clinical trial was carried out in 1982 by the Mayo Clinic
and three other U.S. cancer centers under NCI sponsorship. [Amygdalin]
and "metabolic therapy" were administered as recommended by their
promoters to 178 patients with advanced cancer for which there was no
proven treatment. None were cured or stabilized or had any improvement
of cancer-related symptoms. The median survival rate was about five
months. In survivors after seven months, tumor size had increased.
Several patients suffered from cyanide poisoning."
There you have it. Either apricot pits help the Hunza people live
seemingly indefinitely and dodge that pesky cancer bullet, or they
don't. There's definitely got to be something behind their 120 year
lives, but perhaps we will never know what.
Read More:
immehunzai says
hey !!!
well i jus went through ths website n i noticed that u have written that hunza is a part of kashmir admisntrated by india ..well by the way jus to correct your information Hunza is neither part of india nor of pakistan and niether it has any connection with present kashmir .so plz retify that .
Mike says
Washing your hands reduces your chances of contracting viruses and other disorders.
If you have a person with the flu wash his hands 3 times a day it does not reduce the severity of the virus.
And so- eating Apricot seeds could decrease our vulnerability to the onset of cancer but not cure it.
Earl says
@Mike
Or, someone with such fine reasoning skills might deduce that the Hunza people lead lives that are wildly different from ours in non-apricot related ways. Maybe it’s that they eat apricot pits… or maybe it’s that we eat processed foods that have been microwaved, walk around with cell phones clipped to ourselves, etc.
Andrej says
cargo cult?
Yoda Was Here says
Saying something is true based on what you read on the internet, more specifically, wikipedia, is like saying something is true because you read it on a bathroom wall. In the 70’s laetrile was studied time and time again and proved to treat cancer. Read the books. I know personally, a doctor who was diagnosed with liver cancer with metastasis. He was a rather famous pediatrician. His story appeared in the local paper and he said he had been diagnosed with late stage cancer. He explained how xrays and chemo will kill before the disease will and went on to explain that he would seek alternative therpy in mexico(it is sppeculated that he went there for laetrile treatments) and place his fate into God’s hands. This was in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. He just retired from his practice in 2009. He must be around 85-90 years old.
Another thing which makes the so-called study shown on wiki, the least bit suspicious, is the FACT that when studies are done to test the effectiveness of a drug for healing a condition, in the placebo group, there are ALWAYS patients who improve. This is called the placebo effect. It works in cancer treatment studies, and it works in baldness cure studies. So if latetrile is indeed as non-effective as the study shows, why no placebo effect in their controls?
Sharon says
My father’s best friend was diagnosed with colon cancer and told he had six months to live….he went to Mexico and purchased apricot pits – he is now cured and has lived an additional 10 years to the given 6 months.