ORTHOMOLECULARISM-1
 R.A.S HEMAT, MB;BCh, FRCSI, DUL.
Orthomolecularism is a framework that is probably one of the next, major steps forward in the evolution of medicine. Orthomolecularism postulates that normal metabolic mechanisms function on the basis of the right molecule being at the right place at the right time; and both preventive and curative medical treatments should support the natural metabolic mechanisms so that inherent processes can better work toward restoring proper function.
Good judgement requires good information, but there are forces that would over-rule individual judgement as to whether published information is applicable to certain patients. Each person is a biochemical individual. Any information, whether or not it is accurate or good, can be abused or lead to harmful effects. The medical establishment must understand the physiological basis for nutritional intervention. Medical doctors must give their patient a goal they can meet. There is a mismatch between the attitude of the public, who appear willing to accept dietary advice from professionals, and the reluctance on behalf of these professionals to fulfil this role. Medical models of chronic pain management have failed to produce a reliable, effective treatment. NSAIDs induce nausea, liver disorders, kidney damage, ulcers, and skin rashes and bone marrow suppression. Dieticians urge the use of complex carbohydrates (starch) instead of sugar. Starch is rapidly digested and absorbed, raises blood glucose faster than sucrose (half fructose, half glucose) does.
Refining foods result in ill-health. The patient is the ultimate loser. There is a vast amount of sound medical research that is ignored due to lack of or limited profit potentials. Many diseases result from disordered body chemistry, whether genetic or acquired, intervention is best achieved through correction of these chemical imbalances. It is possible to eat large quantities of nutritious foods and get no benefit at all from them if other foods are eaten at the same time, which interfere with the proper digestion of vitamin and mineral bearing foods. Foods may cause mental and behavioural symptoms by a variety of mechanisms including cerebral allergies, food addiction, caffeinism, hypersensitivity to chemical food additives, and reactions to amines in food. Drinking coffee causes a significant loss of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamins B and C, calcium, iron, and zinc.
Biological treatment of schizophrenia is inexpensive, and often results in a complete recovery. Biochemical treatment appears to be about 85% effective in combating depression. Many nutritional treatments offered are highly generalized and can produce unpleasant effects. Nicotine, as an addictive substance, acts by occupying the GABA receptor sites on dopamine cells, drowning out GABA, thus causing increased dopamine production and addiction.
Oxidative stress causes cellular injury by chemical modification of biological molecules, which alters and/or interfere with normal biologic processes and be toxic directly to the cell. Modified biological molecules may stimulate the host immune response and cause an autoimmune-like disease. Proxidants can confer highly specific changes in a cell at concentrations well below observable chemical damage. The amount of oxidants produced during liver ischaemia/reperfusion may be too low to cause significant direct chemical changes early in the disease.
The activation of NFkB is linked to oxidant production. NFkB inhibition causes apoptosis. Oxidants also modify intracellular signaling through activation/modulation of cytokine expression. Allopurinol prevents the accumulation of lipid droplets in the hepatocytes. Steatosis caused by alcohol is considered the result of NADH redox inhibition of mitochondrial b-oxidation caused by alcohol metabolism. TNFa increases free fatty acid release from adipocytes in the periphery, increases lipogenesis in hepatocytes, and inhibits b-oxidation of fatty acids. Some classic antioxidants may mediate protection in vivo, not by directly scavenging prooxidants, but by stimulating intrinsic antioxidant production through activation of the antioxidant response element on genes.
Stress is defined in a physiological context as any factor that acts to destroy homeostasis. More precisely, it is the body’s response to any factors that threaten its ability to maintain homeostasis. The stress response is part of the larger general adaptational syndrome. This syndrome is composed of 3 phases: a- alarm, b- resistance, and c- exhaustion.
Heavy consumers of soft drinks (with or without sugar) spill huge amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals into the urine. The more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging. Soft drinks are harmful because the substances added to the carbonated/distilled/filtered water are really the problem. These include sugar or artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame), caffeine, dyes, artificial flavours, and phosphoric acid.
Disability is a general term used to represent the interactions between individuals with a health condition and barriers in their environment. As the leading cause of disability, arthritis is a leading cause of difficulty in performing personal care activities and thereby a leading cause of loss of independence. Arthritis trails only heart disease as a cause of work disability. Arthritis, like other chronic pain conditions, has an important negative effect on a person's mental health. Rheumatoid arthritis patients are at greater risk of premature death from respiratory and infectious diseases. Health impact of osteoporosis is increased risk of fractures (1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men aged 50 years and older will experience an osteoporotic-related fracture in their lifetime). Health impact of low back pain (LBP) includes: 1- activity limitation, 2- impairment, and 3- disability. Back pain occurs in 15-45% of people each year, and 70-85% of people has back pain some time in their lives. There is a popular belief that arthritis is part of normal aging that a person can do nothing about it, and that it affects only old persons. Two-thirds of persons who fracture a hip do not return to their prefracture level of functioning. Changes in the outward appearance of people experiencing these fractures are a loss of height and the development of a humped back.
Microwave radiation is odourless and invisible and therefore hard to detect. Microwave oven radiation is present whenever a microwave oven is turned on. The microwave energy causes the water molecules in the food to vibrate rapidly. Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy, like light waves or radio waves, and occupy a part of the electromagnetic spectrum of power, or energy. Microwaves are used to relay long distance telephone signals, television programs, and computer information across the earth or to a satellite in space. Food molecules especially the molecules of water have a positive and negative end in the same way a magnet has a north and a south polarity. In simpler terms, a microwave oven decays and changes the molecular structure of the food by the process of radiation. Microwaving baby formulas converts certain trans-amino acids into their synthetic cis-isomers. The athermic effects of microwaves can also deform the structures of molecules and have qualitative consequences, e.g., weakening of cell membranes.
Ionising electromagnetic radiation carries enough energy per photon to break bonds in the genetic material of the cell, the DNA. Severe damage to DNA can kill cells, resulting in tissue damage or death. Lesser damage to DNA can result in permanent changes, which may lead to cancer. Appliances that have the highest magnetic fields are those with high currents or high-speed electric motors (e.g., vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, electric washing machines, dishwashers, blenders, can openers, electric shavers). Electric trains can be a major source of exposure, as power-frequency fields at seat height in passenger cars can be as high as 60 mT.
Traffic exhaust contains known carcinogens, and traffic density is correlated with cancer incidence.
Chemicals from the plastic bottle may have leached into water. Plastic can release artificial oestrogens into food and water. Increased oestrogen concentration in the body may increase the risk of breast cancer and cause early puberty in children. Sulfur dioxide is a major urban pollutant resulting from combustion of sulfur-containing fossil fuels. Human exposure to acute air pollution and to less severe episodes is generally correlates with an increase in mortality and morbidity. Other components of air pollution that endanger human health include nitrogen oxides, ozone, and smoke. Sulfur dioxide is a toxic, choking gas that is almost never found in foods. When the gas is mixed with water a variety of salts of sulfurous acid form, e.g., sulfurous acid (is a hydrated sulfur dioxide gas), bisulfite ions and sulfite ions. Sulfite bind to cellular protein and nuclear DNA, and form sulfonate compound. The white grape juice is normally preserved with added sodium bisulfite at levels exceeding wine. Wine vinegar (and apple cider vinegar) is also treated with added sulfites and wind up with sulfur levels not too different from wine. All foods on this planet contain natural sources of sulfur oxide. Drugs can contain sulfite preservative like food. About 5% of all asthma sufferers are quite sensitive to sulfites. In foods sulfur can easily combine with organic molecules taking the place of carbon and oxygen groups.
The term immunosenescence designates that deterioration of immune function seen in the elderly that is believed to manifest in the increased susceptibility to cancer, autoimmune phenomena and infectious disease of the aged. Immunosenescence is clinically relevant for protection against infectious disease in the elderly. Healthy life may be extended by preventing these infections using interventions designed to prevent, ameliorate or reverse immunosenescence. Vaccination may have a less long-lasting effect in elderly. The prime cause of death is infectious disease in the elderly over 80’s (pneumonia, influenza, gastroenteritis, bronchitis). The major predictor of mortality in the elderly is lung function. Vitamin C supplementation enhances the mitogenic responses of lymphocytes, and Vitamin E supplementation enhances lymphocyte proliferative responses and IL 2 production in elderly people. High-dose vitamin E significantly enhances lung virus clearance in elderly. Not only vitamin but also trace element-deficiencies in the elderly may contribute to immunodeficiency. Some antidepressant drugs, used to treat Alzheimer patients, can cause increased sweet cravings.
S-adenosyl methionine protects mitochondrial glutathione pools against alcohol by normalisation of the microviscosity of the mitochondrial inner membrane. Phenyalanine is decarboxylated to phenylethylamine (PEA), which has amphetamine-like stimulant properties (found in high concentrations in chocolate). Phenylalanine is also hydroxylated to tyrosine, which eventually forms epinephrine. Tyrosine, which is necessary for the formation of norepinephrine, is low in depressed patients.
It is difficult to trust that the vitamins and minerals we need are still in the food we eat. Vitamin E is almost completely destroyed by food processing and by cooking, making nonsense of claims that we get more than enough in our diets.
The mortality profile of prostate cancer mirrors that of breast cancer. Phytotherapy is the treatment of health conditions with plant-derived medicine. Thirty percent of modern drugs remain plant-derived substances.
Many elderly patients already are following a diet deficient in protein, minerals, and vitamins and so are vulnerable to further restrictions.
January, 2004
The information in this article has been excerpted from the following book:
PRINCIPLES OF ORTHOMOLECULARISM, by R.A.S. HEMAT.
Note: Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this document electronically as long as it is unmodified. This article may not be sold in any medium, including electronic, CD-ROM, or database, or published in print, without the explicit, written permission of Dr. R. A. S. Hemat.
Clinical Orthomolecularism Classroom
Dr. R.A.S HEMAT declares no conflicts of interest or financial interests in any product or service mentioned in this article, including grants, employment, stock holdings, gifts, or honoraria.
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