Orthomolecular Medicine

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.

"You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment to a mineral deficiency," Dr. Linus Pauling, the only person in history who was awarded two unshared Nobel prizes. "Orthomolecular Medicine is the achievement and preservation of the best health and the prevention and treatment of disease by varying concentrations in the human body of substances that are normally present in the human body and are required for health."

Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD (Medical Doctor), PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), RNCP (Registered Nutritional Consulting Practitioner), founder of The Orthomolecular Vitamin Information Centre.

Dr. Andrew W. Saul is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. He has a nontraditional Ph.D. in Human Ethology and was on the faculty of the State University of New York for nine years.