Orthomolecular medicine according to Linus Pauling is an alternative medical method. It attempts to prevent disease by providing high doses of vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
What is orthomolecular medicine?
Orthomolecular medicine was largely influenced by Linus Pauling, who is now considered its developer. It is based on the premise that a biochemical imbalance in the body causes disease. To avoid this imbalance, the body must be supplied with sufficient amounts of vitamins, minerals and trace elements at all times. If it is, the imbalance is unlikely and diseases can be avoided according to orthomolecular medicine. Since there is no proof of the correctness of this assumption, it is a branch of alternative medicine. Orthomolecular medicine is essentially based on the intake of dietary supplements, some of which contain very high doses of trace elements. Of course, it would also be possible to take in these high doses of vitamins and minerals through food, but this is usually not practical. Proponents of orthomolecular medicine therefore usually resort to dietary supplements in practice.
Function, effect, and goals
Orthomolecular medicine has now existed for several centuries. That is why it has had a wide variety of applications. One of the early applications was the so-called megavitamin therapy, in which very high doses of B vitamins were prescribed to mentally ill patients for clinical pictures such as depression or schizophrenia. Today, on the other hand, orthomolecular medicine is recommended by alternative medicine to anyone who wants to take active steps against diseases of all kinds. After all, the approach is based on the assumption that every illness has something to do with deficiency symptoms and biochemical imbalance. Orthomolecular medicine is said to be able to have a preventive effect on serious diseases such as cancer. However, precisely because of this claim, it is also subject to criticism, because a number of studies have already been unable to establish any correlation between the treatment of cancer and the administration of high doses of vitamins. On the other hand, orthomolecular medicine is not completely wrong when it comes to supplementation for pregnant women or women who wish to have children. Since these women have an increased need for folic acid, iodine, and later iron, they are often prescribed high-dose supplements during this time, which may come from the field of orthomolecular medicine. However, they do not receive these uncontrolled and permanently, but in close-meshed control by their accompanying gynecologist, in order to avoid an overdose, especially of iron. The common use of orthomolecular medicine today consists of orthomolecular nutrition, in which the patient takes care to take vitamins and minerals in much higher amounts than recommended by the World Health Organization. This guideline applies not only to some, but to several or even all micronutrients. For this purpose, the patient helps himself with specially adapted dietary supplements from the pharmacy, since it is almost impossible to take the required amounts through food alone. Furthermore, orthomolecular medicine can also be used for already existing diseases, whereby individual micronutrients are now usually prescribed and taken in particularly high doses.
Risks, side effects, and dangers
Orthomolecular medicine rarely checks whether a person is already well supplied with micronutrients. Rather, it assumes a generally prevailing deficiency of micronutrients, although this has not been confirmed by studies. In third world countries this assumption may be true, but in industrialized countries there are few deficiencies. However, since orthomolecular medicine recommends dietary supplementation without major studies, this may lead to overdosing. Although the assumption prevails that it is difficult to overdose on vitamins, this can certainly happen. The consequences seem to be more long-term, according to findings from several studies. For example, people who overdosed on vitamins over a long period of time showed increased mortality in these studies.According to these findings, the overdose itself can lead to disease – although orthomolecular medicine claims to reduce the risk of disease through high dosage. In the case of minerals, an overdose is much more quickly dangerous, so an overdose can already result in serious symptoms relatively quickly. Fortunately, symptoms are usually quickly traced to the cause if the patient states that he or she is following orthomolecular medicine when visiting the doctor. Another danger is the claims of orthomolecular medicine in cases of serious diseases such as cancer. By administering various vitamins and minerals, it claims to be able to influence the disease and make any chemotherapy less toxic in some cases. However, such effects have not been demonstrated. As with many forms of alternative medicine that want to be able to help sick people with serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses, they address people at a psychologically very dangerous moment. In search of hope, people are more willing to engage in alternative medicine. However, in doing so, they may jeopardize the effect of the medication that can really help them. At worst, they may even reject it altogether, stopping the therapy that is actually effective and thus allowing the disease to progress more quickly, since they remain de facto untreated during alternative medicine treatment.
