Orthomolecular Medicine
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What is Orthomolecular Medicine?Twice Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling proposed the term "ortho - molecul", meaning "right molecule that symbolizes optimum ecological environment for the body’s cells by correcting imbalances or deficiencies on the molecular level, based on individual biochemistry, using natural substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, hormones and essential fatty acids.
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How Can It Help Me?
This nutritional approach helps maintain good health, improve health through proper diet, and cure and treat illness. Some commonly treated afflictions include colds, heart disease, cancer, depression and schizophrenia. It can provide dramatic recovery when nothing else has worked.
People who take a daily multi-vitamin pill to supplement their diets are practicing orthomolecular medicine–they are trying to “correct” the nutritional deficiencies in the food they eat.
Proper orthomolecular therapy is an intense approach to nutrient supplementation. It takes into account individual nutritional needs on the basis of age, sex, activity, stress and the presence of disease. In this respect, it aims to employ “custom-made” therapies that, unlike conventional pharmaceutical preparations, remedy the underlying causes of diseases to prevent further problems. In effect, orthomolecular medicine helps the body help itself out of an imbalanced or diseased state.
People who take a daily multi-vitamin pill to supplement their diets are practicing orthomolecular medicine–they are trying to “correct” the nutritional deficiencies in the food they eat.
Proper orthomolecular therapy is an intense approach to nutrient supplementation. It takes into account individual nutritional needs on the basis of age, sex, activity, stress and the presence of disease. In this respect, it aims to employ “custom-made” therapies that, unlike conventional pharmaceutical preparations, remedy the underlying causes of diseases to prevent further problems. In effect, orthomolecular medicine helps the body help itself out of an imbalanced or diseased state.
Did You Know?
Vitamin C Helps Coronary Artery Disease
A recent study at Boston University found that patients with coronary artery disease, given 2 grams of vitamin C per day (which is approximately thirty times the RDA), had clearer arteries by the end of the study.
A recent study at Boston University found that patients with coronary artery disease, given 2 grams of vitamin C per day (which is approximately thirty times the RDA), had clearer arteries by the end of the study.
Treatment
The main problem is to discover the optimum levels of certain nutrients to relieve symptoms, and restore and maintain health. As noted above, these optimum levels may vary drastically for different people, and for a number of reasons. Simple trial and error is the most effective way to determine the optimum levels.
The first treatment option is always reformulating the diet to eliminate junk foods, refined foods, sugar and caffeine, as well as those foods high in chemical additives. Any food which the patient knows makes him or her sick should also be eliminated. A diet of whole, raw, live and unrefined foods, balanced in proteins, fats and carbohydrates, is basic to orthomolecular treatment.
In some cases, a patient’s nutrient needs cannot be supplied in the diet alone and must be supplemented. These dosages are quite high by modern medical standards. For example, in some cases the successful treatment of schizophrenia with vitamin B3 (niacin) took 3,000 mg per day, which is more than a thousand times the current RDA.
For example, high doses of vitamin C can cause intestinal gas and diarrhea, an unpleasant side-effect for the patient. In administering vitamin C, orthomolecular physicians attempt to find the level of “bowel tolerance”-that level just shy of producing gas and diarrhea.
Once a patient has displayed improvement, the dosage is slowly lowered. If any symptoms return, the dosage is increased. This process determines the “maintenance dose”-that dosage which, for a particular patient, is adequate to maintain health and freedom from symptoms.
The first treatment option is always reformulating the diet to eliminate junk foods, refined foods, sugar and caffeine, as well as those foods high in chemical additives. Any food which the patient knows makes him or her sick should also be eliminated. A diet of whole, raw, live and unrefined foods, balanced in proteins, fats and carbohydrates, is basic to orthomolecular treatment.
In some cases, a patient’s nutrient needs cannot be supplied in the diet alone and must be supplemented. These dosages are quite high by modern medical standards. For example, in some cases the successful treatment of schizophrenia with vitamin B3 (niacin) took 3,000 mg per day, which is more than a thousand times the current RDA.
For example, high doses of vitamin C can cause intestinal gas and diarrhea, an unpleasant side-effect for the patient. In administering vitamin C, orthomolecular physicians attempt to find the level of “bowel tolerance”-that level just shy of producing gas and diarrhea.
Once a patient has displayed improvement, the dosage is slowly lowered. If any symptoms return, the dosage is increased. This process determines the “maintenance dose”-that dosage which, for a particular patient, is adequate to maintain health and freedom from symptoms.
