The term “orthomolecular” was first used in 1968, by Professor Linus Pauling. Orthos comes from the Greek and means right, straight or healthy, and orthomolecular stands for: the molecules concerning. In orthomolecular medicine, the goal is to work with substances that the body can use and process without harm.
With nutritional support and, if necessary, the use of specific nutritional supplements, symptom reduction can be achieved in cases such as food intolerance, cardiovascular disease, Fibromyalgia, diabetes and the pre-stage of diabetes, elevated LDL cholesterol, COPD, Rheumatism, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease, PDS, joint complaints and so on.
The knowledge that food can have medicinal properties dates back centuries. For example, Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) mentions the medicinal effects of diet several times and Maimonides (1135-1204) maintains the proposition that: “no disease that can be cured by diet should be treated by other means. This idea faded into the background when, from about 1850, surgery achieved ever greater results and, after World War II, antibiotics were developed as powerful agents against infectious diseases. In addition to these highly effective treatment methods, the influence of nutrition was considered secondary.
In the early 20th century, more and more deficiency diseases were discovered that could be cured by administering a single vitamin. One example is scurvy that was found to be preventable and curable with vitamin C. That nutrition has more influence than just the prevention of the typical deficiency diseases became increasingly clear from about 1960.
Since then, a growing body of scientific research has shown that there is indeed a non-negligible relationship between diet and disease. It is now clear that poor dietary habits play a role in the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease and adult-onset diabetes, for example.
In the orthomolecular method of treatment, the main aim is to use nutrition to ingest as many necessary and useful nutrients as possible and as few harmful substances as possible. Unfortunately, even for a healthy person, it is almost impossible to consume optimal amounts of certain nutrients through diet. The most well-known example of this, though, is folic acid. Even mainstream physicians now advise healthy women who want to get pregnant to take extra folic acid to reduce the chance that their child will be born with spina bifida.
Both with the goal of preventing disease and with the goal of treating disease, it may be necessary to take additional nutrients in the form of dietary supplements, in addition to a diet as complete as possible. Dietary supplements are basically tablets or capsules that contain high levels of substances that are also found in smaller quantities in the diet. These can be vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids or enzymes, but also lesser-known groups of substances such as, for example, the bioflavonoids, phytonutrients and polyphenols. Therefore, phytotherapy is also part of my Orthomolecular treatment method.
Orthomolecular nutrition and nutritional supplements can generally be used without problems alongside other treatments such as regular medical treatments or homeopathy, for example. Yet sometimes orthomolecular remedies and regular medications can affect each other’s effects. Therefore, it is important to always discuss their cooperation. In most cases, Orthomolecular supplementation positively influences the effect of medication. That is, in many cases, you will experience fewer side effects from your medication. Medication often causes severe nutritional deficiencies. Targeted supplementation can correct this problem, reducing the risk of complications and side effects.
“The doctor of the future will no longer give drugs, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in nutrition, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
