I’ve gotten a lot of good advice from well-informed people over the past few months. And I mean that. As I have discussed the factors of my cancer with peers, a lot of truly interesting and promising information has come out. Of course, there has been a lot of well-intentioned advice that has come around, too, without any of what I would call “proper vetting.” While I appreciate all of the advice, because it truly appears to be heartfelt and sincere, I’ll admit to it causing an overload of research. This is especially true of the well-intentioned variety, which I separate from the well-informed not so much based on the desire to help as by the ability to be helpful.

And I don’t mean that to belittle anyone in any way, or to suggest that one person is by nature more helpful than another. In truth, many of the well-informed individuals were that way more through luck of association than through their own experience. For example, one may have been working with someone who had a recent and similar diagnosis to mine and was therefore able to relate a highly targeted piece of information. Well-intentioned folks, on the other hand, are more inclined to take something anecdotal that they had read or heard and wanted to believe and pass it along as something important to look into. The problem here is that the vast majority of this type of material sounds really promising but ends up being based on pseudo-scientific supposition or even outright fraud.

A classic example of this is Vitamin B-17. First of all, there is no Vitamin B-17. And it isn’t, as many would have you believe, because the FDA wants to squash it. The fact is, the product sold as Vitamin B-17 simply does not do what vitamins are supposed to do. If it doesn’t look like a duck and it doesn’t act like a duck, calling it a duck still won’t make it quack. And speaking of quacks, the long and storied history of Vitamin B-17 is rife with quackery. While I have had numerous friends and associates recommend it (some of whom take it either in pills purchased online or try to consume it by eating apple seeds or apricot pips), the only real studies that have been done show it to have no positive affect as a cancer treatment whatsoever and possibly even the dangerous side effect of cyanide toxicity.

But if books are written claiming it is a cure which the government doesn’t want you to know about, doesn’t that make it a valid option?

Um, well, absolutely not.

As a writer, I have the dubious honor of knowing how easy it is to convince people that your snake oil is good for them. A handful of books have been written about the Vitamin B-17 conspiracy, but these books have either been commissioned by the manufacturers of Laetrile, the patented synthetic brand of the natural component, Amygdalin, originally derived from apricot seeds, or the books have been written by profiteers in the natural health foods industry. Either way, by all accounts, the proponents of this Vitamin B-17 appear to have cleared hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over the years, making it a highly successful scam.

And as a cancer patient, I have the dubious honor of being introduced to many such potential scams and gimmicks. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Fortunately, I’ve had the time and energy to sort through them, separating the wheat from the proverbial chaff. As a proponent of natural foods and healthy living, I want to believe in things like the Vitamin B-17 cure as much as the next guy. But as a rational person with a logical approach, I also have to pay attention to the science behind all the claims.

Some things are worth pursuing, even if there is no clear scientific proof that it works.

I’ll eat carrots, for instance, but not in the excessive amounts that some people claim cure cancer. One reason for this is that the chemotherapy I am about to undertake works by oxidizing the cancer cells. Huge doses of carrot juice introduce high levels of antioxidants into the system. This would actually prevent the drugs from working properly, as well as causing me to turn an unattractive shade of orange. But in small doses, carrots are a terrific component of a healthy diet. I will also probably get a small trampoline to bounce upon, thus stimulating my lymphatic system which has no internal pump of its own. It’s true, if you don’t move, even just bouncing for a little while, the lymphatic system cannot do its job. I’ll do my best to follow any regimen that represents a healthy lifestyle. But I will avoid undoing the progress of my treatments by trying something considered unorthodox just because “the establishment” doesn’t want to see it succeed. Here is a fact: the establishment actually does want to see a new cancer therapy succeed. It is the opportunists in fringe industries and slick salespeople who keep the myth of the evil medical establishment alive. While there may well be some promising natural remedies still waiting to be discovered, the hucksters and alternative cancer specialists operating with their unsupported promises do more harm than good in the search for a cure.