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ORTHOMOLECULAR
MEDICINE HALL OF FAME: 2008 |
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Hall of Fame 2008 |
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Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame Inductees for
2008 by Andrew W. Saul, Master
of Ceremonies and Assistant Editor, Journal
of Orthomolecular Medicine. (From the
Hotel Vancouver, WELCOME to the Fifth
Annual Orthomolecular Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Tonight,
once again, as we honor the pioneers of nutritional medicine, we get to see
who will take home the “Orthie.” Many
years back, my 6th grade teacher taught me to debate fairly, by the rules and
by the book. The facts were the issue, she said, and they would speak for
themselves; whether or not people liked your position wasn't crucial. On
this, she is wrong. Facts simply do not speak for themselves. As Dr. Abram
Hoffer has said, “No amount of evidence can persuade someone who is not
listening.” Dr. Hoffer has also frequently stated that we need a new
paradigm of nutrition, one where “nutrition as treatment”
replaces the old “nutrition as prevention” paradigm. Yes, there are two paradigms. Two paradigms is more than just 8 nickels. Who writes this material?But striving for change, real innovation, is no laughing matter. The
great Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu told this story: Once
there was a big tree full of monkeys. They hung by their tails, they ate and
they chattered, and they scurried about the tree. Along came a hunter, who
shot an arrow up at them. One of the monkeys casually caught the arrow,
harmlessly holding it in his hand. The hunter, intrigued, shot another arrow
at that monkey. The monkey caught that arrow just as effortlessly, in its
other hand. "This
is incredible!" the hunter said to himself. "I must go tell the emperor." He
immediately went to the palace and described what they had seen. Of course
the emperor wanted to see it too, so he and a dozen of his best warriors rode
their horses at a gallop to the monkey tree. Things
looked just as before, with monkeys chattering, eating and scurrying about.
You couldn't tell one monkey from another. "Which
monkey is the clever one?" asked the emperor. "I
can't tell, your highness," said the hunter. "Then
we'll find out. Archer, shoot an arrow at the monkeys." The
king's best marksman let an arrow fly. It was caught by the clever monkey, in
his right hand. "Another
arrow," said the emperor. This
time the archer aimed straight at the clever monkey. The monkey easily caught
the arrow with his left hand. "Again,"
said the emperor. The
archer shot a third arrow, which the monkey caught using his right foot. The
emperor watched the monkey, now hanging by his left foot, grasping three
arrows, and chattering away. "I've
never seen anything like that!" exclaimed the emperor. "Now, all of you archers shoot at
once." The
twelve warriors all shot arrows together, and killed the monkey. The
pioneers of nutritional medicine, the orthomolecular innovators, have
suffered many arrows in their time. Ignoring
therapeutic nutrition carries a high price: The United States now spends well
over two million million dollars ($2,000,000,000,000; two trillion) per year
on disease care, and yet has well over a million people die annually just
from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Now, however, the public and the
professions are hearing a lot more about orthomolecular medicine. Google
Scholar indexes the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. Indeed, any
Internet search engine can find the new, free, online JOM archives
at http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom. The Journal of Orthomolecular
Medicine is now indexed by the French Institute of Scientific and
Technical Information (http://international.inist.fr/rubrique4.html),
British Library Direct (http://direct.bl.uk/bld/Home.do),
EBSCOhost (http://www.epnet.com/titleLists/aw-complete.htm),
and the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) (http://www.bl.uk/collections/health/amed.html). But not the U.S. National Library
of Medicine’ MEDLINE. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/medlineup.html)
Well, not yet, anyway. To be fair, it must be admitted that in May 2007, NLM
said, “While we hold the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
in our print collection here at NLM, it is not currently indexed for
MEDLINE/PubMed.” One might well wonder why NLM, a
taxpayer-supported public library, physically archives a journal, and yet
refuses to index it. JOM Associate Editor Harold Foster has wryly
observed that “Medline treats the Journal like a dirty magazine:
to be read privately, but the fact kept hidden from the public.” Therefore,
to increase public awareness, the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service has
been very active since 2005. OMNS has now (May 2008) issued a total of 39
press releases emphasizing the positive side, the safety and effectiveness of
nutritional medicine. (Read any or all of them at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml
) All
this must be done, and can be done, due to the very important contributions
by the scientists whose work we are pleased to honor tonight: Joseph
Goldberger, MD Michael
Lesser, MD Richard
Kunin, MD Adelle
Davis, MSc Robert
Cathcart Joseph Goldberger, M.D. (1874–1929) Only a few years ago, Dr. Hugh
Riordan said that “Orthomolecular is not the answer to any question
posed in medical school.” Such was definitely the case in
1895, when Joseph Goldberger completed his medical degree, with honors, at The justification was official: in
1914, a governmental commission declared that pellagra appeared to be
infectious, and that it certainly had nothing to do with diet. Fortunately,
such dissemination of official misinformation downplaying the role of a nutrient
has never, ever, EVER happened again. Right. It was when, that same year, the
US Public Health service assigned Dr. Goldberger to the problem that things
began to look up. Goldberger had the very politically incorrect idea that
pellagra was related to the malnutrition of poverty. He personally observed
what patients ate, and concluded that the cause of this tragedy was the
"three M's": a tryptophan- and niacin-deficient diet of some fatty
Meat, some Molasses, and a whole lot of corn Meal. Today it is sometimes forgotten
just how big the tragedy actually was. In addition to the infamous
“three D" symptoms of pellagra (diarrhea, dermatitis, and
dementia), there is a fourth “D”: death. It was as difficult then
as it is now to think that a nutrient deficiency could kill. Well, it can,
and it did. Of three million American cases of pellagra in the first half of
the 20th century, some 100,000 people died from it. A far higher
number were permanently disabled with mental illness. In later years, we learned that
the solution is supplementation with a vitamin: nicotinic acid, or niacin.
Simple? Sherlock Holmes was given to say that “All problems are simple
when they are explained.” But in 1914, the year World War I began,
science was winging it. I used to tell my students that science is built upon
the mistakes of those who came before us. Not this time. Dr. Joseph
Goldberger was innovative, and orthomolecular. He got it right the first
time. Goldberger believed that the amino
acid tryptophan was likely the “pellagra-preventive factor,” and
that supplemental yeast was the therapy. He was right on both counts. In
weeks, he cured pellagra right and left. In children. Orphans. Prisoners.
Psychotics. Tonight, nearly eighty years after
his death, we remind the world of the work of a great public health pioneer
who went against conventional medicine when he insisted, unto his death, that
a dreadful, fatal disease could be treated simply “by varying the
concentration in the human body of substances that are normally present in
the body.” That is Linus Pauling’s own
definition of orthomolecular medicine. Of course, Pauling had just turned 13
when Goldberger first practiced it. Tonight we proudly welcome Dr.
Joseph Goldberger into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame. (For
introductions to 2008 inductees Michael Lesser, M.D., and Richard Kunin,
M.D., please click here: http://orthomolecular.org/hof/hof2008.pdf)
Adelle Davis, M.Sc. (1904-1974) You know, you simply have not
lived until you’ve milked a herd of cows before the sun is even up.
Yes, I’m a former dairyman. I used to milk 100 head twice a day.
Starting at 4 AM. Somehow that makes the connection with Adelle Davis
somewhat personal for me. Her real first name was Daisie, and she was brought
up on a farm in rural But even the most senior of us
were in short pants when Adelle Davis earned her Masters degree in
biochemistry. That was truly an uncommon achievement for a woman in 1939 No mere health nut, Biased commentators have made much
of a handful of well-publicized deaths alleged to be due to readers following
Adelle Davis’ writings. It is interesting that her critics have rather
less to say about the 106,000 acknowledged deaths from prescription
medication each year. In the 61 years that Adelle Davis’ books have
been in widely in print, literally millions of people have been killed by
pharmaceutical drugs, properly prescribed and taken as directed. On the other hand, tens of millions of people have improved their health because of
Adelle Davis. I am one of them. I first came across Adelle Davis’ work
in the 1970s, right about the time I was a farmhand. I remain profoundly glad
that I read what I did. I left the farm, and kept the
books. Some of Adelle Davis’
readers have especially moving stories tell. I have one right here, from a
grandmother: "In November, 2003, my
3-year-old grandson was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. The next day I
visited the local health food store with only my 30 year old copy of Let's
get Well by Adelle Davis. It was there, on pages 235 and 243-245, that I
found evidence that vitamins helped. Then, I drove 100 miles to my daughter
and her husband's house to deliver a basket filled with bottles of vitamins
and other food supplements. Within the first week of supplementation there
were dramatic changes. For the first time in his little life, he left his
mother's side to run around and play with other children at a school
function. Soon afterwards, he began climbing steps without her help and up
the ladder to his brother's bunk bed. On my weekly visits I have witnessed
all these changes in his health, strength and personality. On Easter he rode
his two wheel bicycle with training wheels all the way down the street. "My daughter received no
nutritional guidelines or any help from her pediatrician or the university
hospital. When she asked physicians about nutrition and dietary supplements
they told her, 'There are no studies that indicate that diet and nutrition
make a difference.' The grandmother writes, one year
later: “Just
wanted to let you know the latest about our MD grandchild. In early
September, he was at the hospital for a complete cardiac exam. They found his
heart to be perfectly normal. The doctor at this clinic also told my
daughter: ‘All that you see there of your son is healthy and normal
muscle.’ He had the boy on lie the floor and asked him to get up. The
doctor smiled as he watched as he did so, shook his head and said,
‘There is even no sign of the Gower.’” (Usually, because of extreme
weakness of the hip muscles, a child with MD can stand up only by first lying
face down, then extending the elbows and knees to raise the body, then
bringing them together, and finally crawling upright. This is called the
Gower sign.) And this, in 2007: “The
doctors told my daughter in 2003 that Aaron would be in a wheel chair by the
age of seven. Yesterday was his seventh birthday and my present to him
was a mini trampoline that he enjoyed very much.” (http://www.doctoryourself.com/dystrophy.html) Pediatrician Dr. Robert
Mendelssohn was absolutely correct when he said, “One grandmother is
worth two M.D.s.” Adelle Davis great legacy is that she empowered
grandmothers, and children, and all ages of people everywhere to use nutrition
to get well. Tonight, it is our great pleasure,
on behalf of kids like eight year old Aaron, who at age 8 walks, runs, and
jumps up and down on his trampoline, to induct Adelle Davis into the
Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame. Reference: Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie
and Joy Dorothy Harvey, editors. The
Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient
Times to the Mid-20th Century. NY: Routledge, 1999, p 328-329. (1910-1987) In the early 1970s, one of the
first nutrition zingers I ever read was Dr. Carlton Fredericks’ comment
(in Food Facts and Fallacies) to the effect that diabetics could be
weaned off of insulin with extremely high doses of B-complex
vitamins. One may reasonably entertain doubts if a Type I diabetic could
ever be free of the need to take insulin. On the other hand, I have seen
diabetics require significantly less insulin when they take a high-potency
B-complex supplement every two to three hours. The action is so profound that
diabetics need to demand a suitably cautious therapeutic trial, with insulin
dosage adjustment made and supervised by their physician. Jack Challem writes, “In the
early 1980s, Carlton Fredericks, Ph.D., reported that high intake of the
B-complex vitamins, plus extra choline and inositol, helped the liver break
down estrogen into estriol, a non-carcinogenic form of the hormone. He said, "Not only does inadequate intake of
these vitamins interfere with the breakdown of female hormone by the liver,
but estrogen itself may cause vitamin B-complex deficiency." (January
1984 Let's Live.) Searching the shelves back in
1945, you would have found that one of Carlton Fredericks’ first books
was entitled "Living Should be Fun." Forty years later, the title
of one of his last books was “Arthritis: Don't Learn to Live with
It.” The man was nothing if not consistent. He promoted life and
health. Nothing wrong with that, except he also asserted that you needed
vitamin supplements for both. Criticized by many, vilified by a
few, And he was a health nut. Health nut is such a wonderful
epithet. I have often asked people if they are not a health nut, than what
kind of a nut are they? Ronald
Hoffman, M.D. tells the story how Another fan wrote that “When
asked about the efficacy of vitamin and mineral supplements by a hearer whose
doctor said they aren’t necessary, nutrition professor Dr. Alan Gaby
quoted Carlton Fredericks, who had been asked this same question by a doctor.
Yes, like all pioneers, The government was wrong. Dr.
Fredericks was right. To this day, all orthomolecular
physicians, nutrition researchers, and health writers owe a debt to Carlton
Fredericks, who led the media charge and took the heat. Robert Fulton Cathcart III, M.D.
(1932-2007) I saw Bob on Phil Donahue’s
television show over twenty years ago. I still remember it well. Part of an
on-stage expert panel, he could barely get a word in until the end of the
program. When Phil finally turned to him, Dr. Cathcart mentioned
bowel-tolerance, saturation doses of vitamin C. He called pneumonia
“the 100-gram cold.” Suddenly, the audience was alive with
interest. Questions continued at a rapid pace all the way through the
show’s closing credits. It was not easy to get the message
about the benefits of massive vitamin C therapy on television. Cathcart writes: “In 1978, a NBC reporter who had just won the “Photographers from PBS came to my office in “For 3 years straight, back in the early '80s, writers who
claimed to be writing for the National Enquirer interviewed me about massive
doses of C. The last time, I refused the interviews at first saying that they
would never print it and we would be wasting out time. The reporter was a
nice guy and said they printed stuff like this all the time. So I gave him
the interview. Three months later he called me and said that I was correct,
they would not print it.” (From Cathcart’s website, orthomed.com) To this, I have my own story to
add. When I taught for the State University of New York during the 1990s, I
got into trouble for recommend that my students read up on Bob’s
clinical work. When they did, they read things like this, one of my favorite
Cathcart quotes: “Since 1969 I
have taken over 2 tons of ascorbic acid myself. I have put over 20,000
patients on bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid without any serious
problems, and with great benefit." A block of registered dietitians
in my department complained to the chair. It seems that a number of my students
were now questioning party-line statements about vitamin C dosage, its value
against viral infection, allegations of kidney stones, and such. And right
during these other instructors’ nutrition classes. As my daughter, at
the time a college junior herself, said, "Gee, we can't have college
students questioning things, now can we!" I learned my lesson. Thereafter,
in lectures, I would specifically instruct my university students to not go to Cathcart’s website.
Heh, heh, heh. A few years later, I would meet
Bob on the internet. He knew of my then-brand–new doctoryourself.com
website, and he linked to a number of my articles. I asked him for advice. He
told me to forget trying to publish in the print journals, and not to waste
time trying to convert physicians. Instead, he said, go straight to the
people by way of the internet. It was good advice, and I took it. All Dr. Cathcart’s advice
was grounded in hard-won experience. He wrote that he had “been consulted by many researchers
who proposed bold studies of the effects of massive doses of ascorbate. Every
time the university center, the ethics committee, or the pharmacy committee
deny permission for the use of massive doses of ascorbate and render the
study almost useless. Seasoned researchers depending upon government grants
do not even try to study adequate doses.” (“Delay By
Intellectualization,” July 9, 1999) But some researchers did. Linus
Pauling, for one. Pauling had great respect for Dr. Cathcart, and as early as
1978 featured him in the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine
newsletter. The honor that Pauling commenced
exactly thirty years ago, we are happy to continue tonight. As Abram Hoffer
says, “Bob Cathcart’s work will live on forever.” Right and
right again. For
additional biography of each 2008 Orthomolecular Hall of Fame inductee,
please click here: http://orthomolecular.org/hof/hof2008.pdf
Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader
reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html
) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html
) For ordering information, Click here
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