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( Orthomolecular medicine)
Orthomolecular medicine is a form of complementary and alternative medicine with the goal to preventing and treating disease with vitamins and nutrient suppliments.[1][2] The term "orthomolecular" was first coined in 1967 by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling in a paper on micronutrients and psychiatry[3] to express the idea of the right molecules in the right amounts (ortho is Greek for right[4]). In this paper he indicated that the right molecules are "substances that are normally present in the human body". Orthomolecular medicine began with a particular focus upon mental illness, and orthomolecular psychiatry remains a major subdiscipline.[5] Proponents state that orthomolecular treatments are based on patients' personal biochemistries[6] and employ naturally-occurring or bioequivalent (bio)molecules, particularly nutrients such as vitamins, dietary minerals, proteins, antioxidants,[7] amino acids, lipotropes,[8] prohormones, dietary fiber, fatty acids and other similar substances.[9] Some megavitamin therapies can be classified as components of orthomolecular medicine. Orthomolecular practitioners often recommend levels beyond the Recommended Daily Allowance, especially for vitamin C, and prescribe the removal of unhealthy foods from the diet. Megavitamin therapies have become relatively popular, with a survey in 2002 finding that approximately one in twenty-five US adults use high doses of vitamins as a form of therapy,[10] with this being particularly common in people diagnosed with cancer.[11] Nutrients are useful in preventing and treating some illnesses[12][13], but the mainstream medical consensus is that the broad claims of disease treatment by advocates of orthomolecular medicine are unsubstantiated by the available evidence.[14][15][12] The American Medical Association stated in 1997 that "much of the dietary intervention stressed by alternative healers is prudent and reasonable", but described as a "myth" the idea that "most diseases are caused by faulty diets and can be prevented by nutritional interventions".[16] Critics have described some aspects of orthomolecular medicine as food faddism or quackery.[17][18][19] Research on nutrient supplementation in general suggests that some nutritional supplements might be beneficial, and that others might be harmful.[20][21] Orthomolecular medical practitioners have counted Antoine Laurent Lavoisier,[citation needed] James Lind and Christiaan Eijkman,[citation needed] among others, as early researchers in the field.[22] Although these figures preceded later controversies and labels, and perhaps would have rejected the controversial treatments which were later called orthomolecular medicine, practitioners claim they were orthomolecular because of their emphasis on the role of nutrition in treating disease. In the 1920s Dr. Max Gerson developed Gerson therapy, a strict diet which he claimed could treat many diseases. In 1933 Drs. Wilfred and Evan Shute began to use vitamin E to treat heart disease.[23] Some of the concepts frequently utilized in orthomolecular medicine, such as individual biochemical variation,[24] inborn error of metabolism,[25][26][27] and exogeneous supply of essential substances in therapy [28] debuted in scientific and medical papers early in the 20 th century. Orthomolecular megavitamin therapies, such as with tocopherols and ascorbates,[29] date back to the 1930s.
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Orthomolecular medicine Subcategories
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