Money-Driven Medicine Vs. Orthomolecular Medicine

Unfortunately corporate profits are the main concern of the drug companies. This often leads to a lack of ethics. The whole story could be called "Malice in Blunderland". On the other hand, natural substance can't be patented. You can't patent the sun. Therefore the use of natural substances has been more to benefit mankind. Although Pauling invented the term orthomolecular, the theory goes back to Lind of England. Lind discovered a cure for scurvy, which was killing millions of sailors. He discovered a then unknown substance in oranges which cured scurvy. The substance is now called vitamin C.

Orthomolecular Medicine

There are several websites on orthomolecular medicine including my own, which is http://www.craigolson.bizhosting.com/. Another is http://www.orthomolecular.org/. A third is the Huxley Institute website. Yet another is called "Orthomolecular Medicine" and has a URL of http://www.orthomedint.org/.

"The study of the diet of the primates, genetically closest to mankind, (gorillas, monkeys...) showed that they have a nutrition extremely different from ours and that they ingest, in particular, some macronutrients in quantities much larger than we do. The fact that they don't suffer many of the afflictions that we do leads us to primarily suspect our nutrition as a major causal factor." This quote is from the Orthomolecular Medicine website. The author is not given.

"Zinc is effective against infections." This is another quote from the same brilliant website.

"A whole food diet, unhindered by junk foods, sugar, additives, and free of allergens contributes greatly to overall health." My guess is that this quote may have been written by Hoffer, who probably worked on the Orthomolecular Medicine website. These are the views of Hoffer.
Yet another similar website is "Orthomolecular Medicine Online", which has a URL of http://www.orthomed.org/.

Kunin

"Orthomolecules have a low risk of toxicity. Pharmacological drugs always carry a higher risk and are therefore second choice if there is an orthomolecular alternative treatment." Kunin

"In 1969 Linus Pauling coined the word "Orthomolecular" to denote the use of naturally occurring substances, particularly nutrients, in maintaining health and treating disease." Richard Kunin, M.D.

"First of all, the orthomolecular data base rests strongly on the following areas of scientific knowledge: 1. nutrition, 2. biochemistry, 3. Cell biology, 4. physiology, 5, general medicine, immunology, 7. allergy, 8. endocrinology, 9. pharmacology, 10. toxicology, 11. gastroenterology, 12, parasitology, 13. nephrology, 14. physical medicine and manipulation therapies, 15. dentistry, 16. veterinary science, 17. food science, 18, agriculture, 19. climatology, 20. medical politics." Kunin

"The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of the United States Food and Nutrition Board are intended for normal, healthy people. By definition, sick patients are not normal or healthy and not likely to be adequately served by the RDA." Kunin

"Biochemical individuality is the norm in medical practice; therefore stereotyped RDA values are unreliable nutrient guides." Kunin

Kunin has carried on the work of Linus Pauling, as has Hoffer. Unfortunately Hoffer is quite old. Kunin may be the heir to the throne, so to speak.

"Blood tests do not necessarily reflect tissue levels of nutrients." Kunin

Giants of Psychiatry

This author will list some of the more brilliant scientists in the fields of psychiatry and neuroscience. There are those such as Willis of England who made contributions prior to the 19th century, but those contributions were mostly in gross anatomy.

Bard Is the Word

Rather than going in chronological order, this article will list scientists in alphabetical order. More space will be given to the more significant ones. Bard was an American physiologist who specialized in research on the central nervous system. P. Bard reported "a diencephalic mechanism for the expression of rage" in 1928. This was discovered in experiments on animals.

Betz

In the 19th century many of the most brilliant papers were published in German. In 1881 W. Betz published a paper on the finer structure of the brain. "Betz" cells were later named after him.

Brady

Brady & Nauta reported "affective changes following septal forebrain lesions" in rats. This adds to a lot of evidence for subcortical influences in mental disease. Previously workers considered mental disease to be in the cortex. In reality it may be in both the cortex and subcortical areas. The paper was published in 1953.

Broca

P. Broca was a 19th century French neurosurgeon. In 1878 he published a brilliant paper on the brain.

Cannon

W. B. Cannon published a theory of emotions in 1927. Cannon was American. Cannon was interested in the endocrine glands, particularly the adrenal glands.

Delgado

J. Delgado experimented with brain stimulation in animals. Some animal rights activists might not like Delgado's work, which was published in 1964.

Egas Monis

This Portugese surgeon is the only "bad" guy included in the list. He meant well, but he invented lobotomy. He published a paper in French in 1936. Unfortunately this paper created a sensation. Heath

R. G. Heath was very controversial. In 1964 he favored "new physiologic treatments in psychiatry". In 1954 he located schizophrenia to the septal area of the brain. In 1963 Heath, Leach, & Byers reported "taraxein", which was a "serological fraction" found only in schizophrenics. It was taraxein which made him famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view). This author (Olson) feels that Heath's work was largely correct.

Smythies

In 1966 Smythies reported "neurological foundations of psychiatry".

Conclusions

Needless to say a lot of great scientists, including Ramon Cajal, have been omitted. This was done for reasons of space. Cajal and Golgi were brilliant histologists who won the Nobel Prize. In the 19th century there was no Nobel Prize, so winning the Nobel Prize is not the only consideration. Alzheimer and Nissl probably should have won the Nobel Prize, but there were bad feelings towards Germany during and after World War I. For more information on these matters and on orthomolecular psychiatry, consult the bibliography.

Bibliography

1. www.associatedcontent.com/article/703807/why_orthomolecular_psychiatry.html

2. www.associatedcontent.com/article/696389/theories_of_orthomolecular_psychiatry.html

3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/693151/schizophrenia_is_organic.html

4. www.associatedcontent.com/article/692861/the_scientific_study_of_schizophrenia.html

5. www.associatedcontent.com/article/679899/the_molecular_and_cellular_pathology.html
6. www.associatedcontent.com/article/679607/world_research_on_schizophrenia.html