"The methods principally used now for treating patients with mental disease are psychotherapy (psychoanalysis and related efforts to provide insight and to decrease environmental stress), chemotherapy (mainly with the use of powerful synthetic drugs, such as chlorpromazine, or powerful natural products from plants, such as reserpine), and convulsive shock therapy (electroconvulsive therapy, insulin coma therapy, pentylenetetrazol shock therapy).

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. " -- Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine 2,500 years ago.

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition." –Thomas Edison, inventor of the light-bulb, world record holder of 1,093 patents, founder of GE (General Electric).

Principles That Identify Orthormolecular Medicine: A Unique Medical Specialty
Richard A. Kunin, M.D.

In 1969 Linus Pauling coined the word "Orthomolecular" to denote the use of naturally occurring substances, particularly nutrients, in maintaining health and treating disease. At that time megadose niacin therapy for schizophrenia and dietary treatment of "hypoglycemia" were the major focus of the movement. Since then Orthomolecular psychiatry and medicine have emerged as a distinct and important specialty area in medical practice.

The growth factors that are essential for building the brain's nerve cell connections need nutrients to function. Numerous studies have shown that a lack of nutrients and, as a result, a lack of nerve growth factors, leads to nerve cell shrinkage and death. These effects may interfere with proper signaling between nerve cells, leading to symptoms of mood disorders.

Antidepressants have been shown to increase the brain growth factor levels somewhat, but several studies have shown that nutrients such as calcium and zinc appear to do a better job.

As early as 1968, Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel Prizes, speculated that some people may have a geneticially based need for more vitamins and minerals than the general population. He also proposed the idea that much mental disease may be due to lack of these nutrients in the brain.