Orthomolecular Medicine

Linus Pauling and Orthomolecular Medicine
Anyone who has studied chemistry will come across the name Linus Pauling. Maybe you're familiar with vitamin C? Dr. Pauling popularized vitamin C.

We're familiar with pharmaceutical drugs, of course. Well, Dr. Pauling was established the science behind modern medicine. Dr. Abram Hoffer, an orthomolecular physician said of Dr. Pauling, "In fact, it was Dr. Linus Pauling's work with the structure of molecules and the reactions of molecules within the body that created the basis for modern medicine today."

"Like the constant dripping water that wears away the hardest stone, the birth to death contact with dangerous chemicals may in the end prove disastrous. Each of these recurrent exposures, no matter how slight, culminates in the progressive build-up of chemicals in our bodies and so the cumulative poisoning...Lulled by the soft sell and the hidden persuader; the average citizen is seldom aware of the deadly materials with which he is surrounding himself; indeed, he may not realize he is using them at all." -- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)

"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.