The Orthomolecular Nutrition seeks to maintain optimal health and treat disease by varying the concentrations of substances that are normally present in the body and are necessary for good health.
The term orthomolecular is a hybrid of the Greek orthós (right, straight, correct) and from the adjective molecular (pertaining to molecules or concerning them), which derives from the Latin word molecule which is the diminutive of moles (corpulence or large lump).
The term is due to Linus C. Pauling, double Nobel Prize, Chemistry in 1954 and Peace Prize in 1962.
The word "orthomolecular"Was used for the first time by Linus Pauling in his article"Orthomolecular Psychiatry”, Which was published in the magazine Science (160: 265-271) in 1968.
Before delving into the meaning of this term, it will be helpful to review some of the events that led to its introduction.
In 1949, Pauling and his collaborators published an article in the magazine Science that heralded the discovery of the origin of the sickle cell anemia.
It is the first disease that was described as a molecular disease, due to an abnormality in the genetically transmitted hemoglobin molecule. This article demonstrated that single genetic mutations could contribute to disorders that alter organ systems and produce multiple symptoms..
He predicted that due to the molecular origin of the diseases, ways could be found to modify the expression and function of these genes to prevent the development of the disease..
Since then a large number of other molecular diseases have been described, such as phenylketonuria, in which an enzyme deficiency allows the accumulation of the amino acid phenylalanine in the body, leading to mental and physical problems.
The galactosemia it is another molecular disease. In children who suffer from it, galactose sugar accumulates due to the absence of an enzyme, causing mental and physical manifestations. Both diseases occur due to abnormalities in the amounts or structures of enzymes..
Towards the end of the 1950s Pauling had increased his interest in the role of enzymes in brain function and, thanks to funding from the Ford Foundation, he began to explore the biochemical and molecular bases of mental illness..
He learned about the changes in brain function that precede the clear manifestation of deficiency diseases due to lack of some B vitamins (pellagra, pernicious anemia, and beriberi).
Later he learned about the work of two psychiatrists, Abraham Hoffer and Humphry Osmond, who reported success treating schizophrenics with Niacin, the B vitamin that prevents pellagra.
In the case of phenylketonuria, treatment has consisted of restricting the amount of dietary phenylalanine. Similarly, galactosemia can be treated by eliminating milk (which contains galactose) from the diet..
Pauling cited these strategies as examples of orthomolecular therapy, which he defined in the article “Orthomolecular Psychiatry" What "treating disease by providing the optimal molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimal concentration of substances normally present in the body".
He later broadened this definition to encompass beyond the psychiatric setting and defined the orthomolecular medicine like "la preservation of good health and the treatment of diseases by varying the concentrations in the human body of substances that are normally present in the body and are necessary for health"And noted"the adjective orthomolecular is used to express the idea of the right molecules in the right amount".
Based on this definition, treating diabetes by injecting the correct dose of insulin and preventing goiter with iodine can be examples of orthomolecular medicine..
Pauling was especially fascinated by the vitamin C in the mid-1960s and quickly recognized that the intake of this vitamin and, consequently, its concentration in the body, significantly influenced health and disease.
But it is important to emphasize that, as can be seen with the examples explained above, orthomolecular nutrition is not based solely on providing high doses of a compound, since sometimes what is beneficial and necessary for health is the reduction of the amount of a compound. substance in the body (for example, homocysteine in hyperhomocysteinemia).
The orthomolecular nutrition seeks to proceed to an optimal regulation of the body, therefore, dietary supplementation providing in the appropriate dose essential and "non-essential" nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, fiber and phytonutrients, will be one of its main tools.
The concept of Orthomolecular Nutrition It encompasses a set of fundamental research, therapeutic techniques and prevention practices that we can summarize as:
Although it was Linus Pauling who coined the term "orthomolecular" and popularized the use of Orthomolecular Nutrition, the central idea of this new etiopathogenic vision arises in 1956 from the publication of the Dr. Roger williams: "Biochemical Individuality: The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept"(" Biochemical Individuality: The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept ") who demonstrated that the nutritional needs of each individual are as unique as their fingerprints.
Dr. Willians stated that the “genetotrophic diseasesAre those due to a demand for specific nutrients above the average, determined by genetic individuality, necessary to facilitate optimal function and prevent premature diseases.
Due to this predisposition or genetic characteristic, the person had a series of needs that, if they were not covered, the results of said undernourishment would manifest as diseases in their middle age.
He believed that most of the chronic degenerative diseases related to the aging process - cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and arthritis - were related to “genetotrophic imperfections".
In this category he even included alcoholism, mental illness and many other problems. All these diseases can originate when we do not obtain the optimal amount of nutrients from the diet; he was convinced that they were all due to a pairing of genes and environment.
He would even suggest that people take vitamins and minerals at doses higher than those recommended by the health authorities of his time.
Williams showed that the nutritional needs of individuals of the same species could vary in a ratio of 40 to 1. How can this be possible?
The genetic variations determine a specific enzyme activity and therefore different in each individual. As enzymes are proteins that conduct biochemical reactions, the level of enzyme activity in the body determines many things such as hormone production, fat metabolism, energy supply, and antioxidant activity..
Vitamins and minerals act as “cofactors” for most enzymes, which means they are necessary for the enzymes to work..
Higher amounts of some specific cofactors can "push" enzyme activity. For example, one person may need 2 mg of vitamin B5, while another needs 80 mg to reach the same level of certain enzyme activity..
It is obvious that we all live in different environmental conditions and are subjected to different stresses, so this in turn will determine different nutritional needs.
Studies show that our ability to detoxifying a wide variety of environmental toxins depends, in large part, on certain key nutrients. People exposed to high levels of pollution may have increased demands for specific nutrients (for example, people exposed to high levels of heavy metals such as lead or mercury).
In the same way, nutritional needs will vary if you are sick, pregnant, do intense sports, depending on the age of the person, if you take medications regularly, smoke, etc..
All this guides us to give more and more relevance to an individual evaluation, or at least more specific, of the nutritional needs of each person. Correct individualized nutrition is one of the most important factors to take into account when maintaining health and preventing future pathologies..
One of the first physicians to apply these principles was the Dr. Abraham Hoffer. As a psychiatrist with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, Dr. Hoffer in the 1950s brought an unparalleled perspective on mental illness..
Hoffer discovered in the urine of schizophrenics a series of unique compounds resulting from the oxidation of adrenaline. He also discovered that these substances produced toxicity in the central nervous system..
As a result of these discoveries, Dr. Hoffer proposed that certain forms of mental illness are caused not by negative experiences in early childhood, but as a consequence of altered brain chemistry.
Developed the adrenochrome hypothesis, which referred that there could be an excessive conversion of adrenaline into adrenochrome (red compound, resulting from adrenaline oxidation) in the body of schizophrenics.
Found that increased doses of the common B vitamins, niacin and pyridoxine, could treat these conditions in some schizophrenic patients.
Scientists at that time claimed that this substance was not produced in the body. However, it has now been shown that this compound can be synthesized in the body and several methods have been developed to measure it in blood..
Once again, the synthesis of a new idea that incorporated genetic biochemical individuality, nutritional regulation of gene expression, and functional physiology was a step forward in the field of biology-based psychiatry, orthomolecular psychiatry.
These three researchers have been the pioneers of the so-called Orthomolecular Nutrition.
The recognition that our genes do not determine our diseases, but rather that they determine trends and that it is in our hands to create the optimal environment for health, according to our particular individuality, represents a change in thinking within the scientific world..
But ... oh surprise! Other forms of medicine such as traditional Chinese and Indian Ayurvedic medicine, as well as oligotherapy and homeopathy already contemplated this type of approach long before. They reasoned them using terms such as prenatal Jing or congenital essence, original Qi or Yuan Qi or prenatal Qi, doshas and prakruti, diathesis, miasma, terrain, constitution, etc..
It is only a matter of time before this concept is integrated into the practice of medicine of any kind.
"The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything" - Louis Pasteur
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