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Orthomolecular medicine or optimum nutrition, emphasizes the use of natural substances found in a healthy diet such as vitamins, dietary minerals, enzymes, amino acids, glyconutrients, and essential fatty acids in the prevention and treatment of diseases. Orthomolecular medicine focuses on the role of proper nutrition in relation to health. Nutrition comes first in medical diagnoses and treatment and drug treatment is used only for specific indications.

Orthomolecular medicine is defined as the provision of the optimum molecular constitution, especially the optimum concentration of substances that are normally present in the body, for the purposes of treating disease and preserving health.

Dr. Linus Pauling proposed the term Orthomolecular Medicine in 1968 in the journal Science. The field of orthomolecular psychiatry deals with the use of orthomolecular medicine to treat psychiatric problems.

Method

In orthomolecular medicine, diseases are assumed to originate from multiple nonspecific causes, congenital and acquired. These causes give rise to biochemical aberrations, the accumulation of which results in symptoms and signs, from which the perception of a disease state follows. Clinically-apparent diseases may be described as fuzzy sets of biochemical anomalies. Clearly, it is advantageous for physicians to recognize and to correct patients’ small sets of biochemical anomalies at an early stage, before expansion of the sets results in recognizable diseases.

In practice, the orthomolecular doctor relies heavily on laboratory testing. In addition to standard clinical chemistries, orthomolecular doctors now employ a wide range of sophisticated laboratory analysis, including those for amino acids, organic acids, vitamins and minerals, functional vitamin status, hormones, immunology, microbiology, and gastrointestinal function.

Orthomolecular therapy consists in providing optimal amounts of substances normal to the body, by oral administration. In the early days of orthomolecular medicine, this usually meant high-dose, single-agent nutrient therapy. However, some ailments require the withholding of normal substances. Thus, "optimal" is a matter for clinical judgment. Most often, the orthomolecular practitioner employs multiple vital substances--amino acids, enzymes, non-essential nutrients, hormones, vitamins, minerals, etc.--in a therapeutic effort to restore those (or derivative substances) to levels statistically normal for healthy young persons.

Often supplementation with relatively large doses of vitamins is given and the name megavitamin therapy has become popularly associated with the field. Megavitamin therapy is the administration of large amounts of vitamins, often several times greater than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA).

The substances may be administered by changing the diet to emphasize certain elements high in nutrients, dietary supplementation with tablets, or intravenous injection of nutrient solutions.

Popularity

A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focussed on who used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002. According to this recent survey, mega-vitamin therapy was the 9th most commonly used CAM therapy (2.8%) in the United States during 2002 ( table 1 on page 8) when all use of was excluded. Consistent with previous studies, this study found that the majority of individuals (54.9%) used CAM in conjunction with conventional medicine (page 6). "The fact that only 14.8% of adults sought care from a licensed or certified CAM practitioner suggests that most individuals who use CAM self-prescribe and/or self-medicate." (page 6).

Relation to conventional medicine

The International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine has many conventional doctors among its members. However most conventional doctors have little knowledge of the concepts of orthomolecular medicine and tell patients that a balanced diet will provide all the nutrition a person needs to be healthy. Critics arguing against vitamin therapy point out that high doses of certain vitamins are toxic and can cause problems. Proponents point to an almost zero level of deaths caused by overdosing of vitamins compared to the significant numbers from pharmaceuticals, including a number of over-the-counter items. Proponents also note that studies giving putative negative results use much lower doses, frequencies, duration or assimilable forms than they recommend or other special conditions, contamination, populations or statistical treatment often not clearly published in the documentation.

Evidence of effectiveness

• Hoffer L. J., Tamayo C., Richardson M. A. Vitamin C as a Cancer Therapy: An Overview. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. 2000; 15(4):175-180.
• Cameron E, Campbell A, Jack T. Related. The orthomolecular treatment of cancer. III. Reticulum cell sarcoma: double complete regression induced by high-dose ascorbic acid therapy. Chem Biol Interact. 1975 Nov; 11(5):387-93. PMID 1104207
• Riordan N. H., Riordan H. D., Meng X., Li Y. and Jackson J. A. Intravenous Ascorbate as a Tumor Cytotoxic Chemotherapeutic Agent. Medical Hypotheses (1995), Volume 44, Number 3, March 1995, pp. 207-213

Evidence against effectiveness

• Creagan E. T., Moertel C. .G, O'Fallon J. R., Failure of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial. N Engl J Med. 1979 27 September; 301(13):687-90. PMID 384241
• Stansfield S.K., Pierre-Louis M., Lerebours G., et al. Vitamin A supplementation and increased prevalence of childhood diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. Lancet. 1993 4 September; 342(8871):578-82. PMID 8102720
• Kleijnen J., Knipschild P., Niacin and vitamin B6 in mental functioning: a review of controlled trials in humans. Biol Psychiatry. 1991 1 May; 29(9):931-41. PMID 1828703
• Kershner J., Hawke W., Megavitamins and learning disorders: a controlled double-blind experiment. J Nutr. 1979 May; 109(5):819-26. PMID 374692
• Arnold L. E., Christopher J., Huestis R. D., et al. Megavitamins for minimal brain dysfunction. A placebo-controlled study. JAMA. 1978 8 December; 240(24):2642-3. PMID 712981

References

• Hickey, Steve & Roberts Hilary; (May, 2004), Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C, Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 1411607244 (Note: Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/ascorbate) is a print on demand self-publishing house.)
• Levy, Thomas, MD JD; (September 2002), Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, Xlibris Corporation (Paperback). ISBN 1401069630 (Note: Xlibris is a print on demand self-publishing house.)

External links

• Orthomolecular Medicine Online
• Analysis of Megavitamin Therapy
• Orthomolecular Therapy, a critical analysis by Stephen Barrett

• Orthomolecular medicine