Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 19 April 1968:
Vol. 160. no. 3825, pp. 265 - 271
DOI: 10.1126/science.160.3825.265
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Orthomolecular Psychiatry

Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease

Linus Pauling 1

1 The University of California, San Diego, P.O. Box 109, La Jolla, California 92037

The functioning of the brain is affected by the molecular concentrations of many substances that are normally present in the brain. The optimum concentrations of these substances for a person may differ greatly from the concentrations provided by his normal diet and genetic machinery. Biochemical and genetic arguments support the idea that orthomolecular therapy, the provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents of the brain, may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients. Mental symptoms of avitaminosis sometimes are observed long before any physical symptoms appear. It is likely that the brain is more sensitive to changes in concentration of vital substances than are other organs and tissues. Moreover, there is the possibility that for some persons the cerebrospinal concentration of a vital substance may be grossly low at the same time that the concentration in the blood and lymph is essentially normal. A physiological abnormality such as decreased permeability of the blood-brain barrier for the vital substance or increased rate of metabolism of the substance in the brain may lead to a cerebral deficiency and to a mental disease. Diseases of this sort may be called localized cerebral deficiency diseases. It is suggested that the genes responsible for abnormalities (deficiencies) in the concentration of vital substances in the brain may be responsible for increased penetrance of the postulated gene for schizophrenia, and that the so-called gene for schizophrenia may itself be a gene that leads to a localized cerebral deficiency in one or more vital substances.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Vitamin C: working on the x-axis.
M. Levine and P. Eck (2009)
Am. J. Clinical Nutrition 90, 1121-1123
   Full Text »    PDF »
Dietary HDAC inhibitors: time to rethink weak ligands in cancer chemoprevention?.
R. H. Dashwood, M. C. Myzak, and E. Ho (2006)
Carcinogenesis 27, 344-349
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Expanding Evolutionary Psychology: toward a Better Understanding of Violence and Aggression.
I. Mysterud and D. V. Poleszynski (2003)
Social Science Information 42, 5-50
   Abstract »    PDF »
High-dose vitamin therapy stimulates variant enzymes with decreased coenzyme binding affinity (increased Km): relevance to genetic disease and polymorphisms.
B. N Ames, I. Elson-Schwab, and E. A Silver (2002)
Am. J. Clinical Nutrition 75, 616-658
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Naturopathic Medical Education: Where Conventional, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine Meet.
D. Poorman, L. Kim, and P. Mittman (2001)
Complementary Health Practice Review 7, 99-109
   Abstract »    PDF »
Controversial Approaches to Treating Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder.
L. B. Silver (1986)
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 140, 1045-1052
   Abstract »    PDF »
Nonstandard Therapies in the Developmental Disabilities.
G. S. Golden (1980)
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 134, 487-491
   Abstract »    PDF »
Megavitamin Treatment for Behaviorally Disturbed and Learning Disabled Children.
S. Adler (1979)
J Learn Disabil 12, 678-681
   PDF »
Dietary Factors and Schizophrenia.
S. S. KETY (1976)
Ann Intern Med 84, 745
   Abstract »    PDF »
Food Additives and Hyperactivity: A Comparison of Food Additives in the Diets of Normal and Hyperactive Boys.
S. Palmer, J. L. Rapoport, and P. O. Quinn (1975)
Clinical Pediatrics 14, 956-959
   PDF »
Megavitamin Therapy.
T. H. Jukes (1975)
JAMA 233, 550-551
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)