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Orthomolecular medicine

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Optimum nutrition and, most broadly, orthomolecular medicine is defined by its proponents as "the treatment of disease by varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body." Its proponents claim that many diseases are caused by molecular imbalances that are correctable by administration of the "right" nutrient molecules at the right time. However, critics note that the claims of proponents are unsubstantiated, and leading scientific bodies such as the National Institute of Mental Health and American Academy of Pediatrics have criticized orthomolecular treatments as ineffective and potentially toxic. A task force of the American Psychiatric Association investigating orthomolecular claims concluded:

This review and critique has carefully examined the literature produced by megavitamin proponents and by those who have attempted to replicate their basic and clinical work. It concludes in this regard that the credibility of the megavitamin proponents is low. Their credibility is further diminished by a consistent refusal over the past decade to perform controlled experiments and to report their new results in a scientifically acceptable fashion.
Under these circumstances this Task Force considers the massive publicity which they promulgate via radio, the lay press and popular books, using catch phrases which are really misnomers like "megavitamin therapy" and "orthomolecular treatment," to be deplorable.

Linus Pauling proposed the term "orthomolecular medicine" in 1968 in the journal Science. Pauling defined orthomolecular medicine as "the treatment of disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body."

Orthomolecular treatments are utilized in both complementary and alternative medicine fields. 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 anomalies 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. Many of the newer tests have not been accepted by conventional medicine.

Orthomolecular therapy consists in attempting to provide optimal amounts of substances normal to the body, most commonly 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 many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Short chained fatty acids are produced by fermentation of dietary fiber in the colon, then absorbed and utilized, often aided with a combination of probiotics, prebiotics and "glyconutrients" added to the diet.

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 focused 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 . 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 11.8% 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).

Criticism and Relation to conventional medicine

Orthomolecular medicine claims an evolving nutritional pharmacology that overlaps between natural medicine and conventional medicine. The International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine has many conventionally trained doctors among its members and authors.

However, many conventional medical physicians regard most orthomolecular therapies as insufficiently proven for clinical use. Proponents contend that many conventional doctors have little familiarity with the detailed concepts and clinical background of orthomolecular medicine. Conventional medicine disputes the validity of most orthomolecular therapies based on the lack of authoritative studies and the results from some disputed studies. Proponents note that the disputed studies used 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.

The relationship of conventional medicine to Orthomolecular proponents has been sometimes technically adversarial. Some health professionals see orthomolecular medicine as an encouragement for individuals to dose themselves with large amounts of vitamins and other nutritients in an unsupervised way, which may be damaging to health. Rare risks of unsupervised misuse or deliberate abuse may include peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, congenital abnormalities, spontaneous abortion, gouty arthritis or jaundice. Many physicians express concern that megavitamin and orthomolecular therapies used solely as alternative treatments, if unsuccessful, may create dangerous delays in obtaining their conventional treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy for cancer.

Sometimes proponents claim partisan politics, pharmaceutical industry influence, and competitive considerations to be significant factors. Some other orthomolecular therapies have been long recognized and officially sanctioned within Europe and Japan.

Notable orthomolecular doctors

Orthomolecular scientists

Reference links

  1. Definition of Orthomolecular medicine at www.orthomed.org Accessed June 2006.
  2. nccam.nih.gov
  3. nccam.nih table 1 on page 8
  4. emedicine - Toxicity statistics, 2003
  5. PMID: 3153129
  6. PMID: 3737019
  7. Vitamin Therapy, Megadose / Orthomolecular Therapy, provincial BC Cancer Agency
  8. The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell
  9. fibrinolytic activity of nattokinase, Miyazaki Medical College, Japan
  10. Coenzyme Q10, prescribed for CHF in Japan since 1974, AAFP

Bibliography

  • Abram Hoffer (1998) Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0879836334
  • Abram Hoffer, M.D. with Linus Pauling (2004) Healing Cancer: Complementary Vitamin & Drug Treatments, CCNM Press, ISBN 1897025114
  • Pauling, Linus (1986) How to Live Longer and Feel Better, W. H. Freeman and Company, ISBN 0-380-70289-4
  • Roger J. Williams, Dwight K. Kalita (1979) Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine, Keats Publishing, ISBN 0879831995
  • Melvyn R. Werbach, Jeffrey Moss (1999) Textbook of Nutritional Medicine, Third Line Press, ISBN 0961855096
  • Joseph E. Pizzorno, Jr., Michael T. Murray (November 2005) Textbook of Natural Medicine, 3rd edition, Churchill Livingstone, ISBN 0443073007 · 2368pp

See also

External links

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