What is the Meaning of Orthomolecular Medicine?
Defining terms is important. The term “medicine” means the practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease using substances that heal.
Orthomolecular medicine does just that. Ortho means “straight” or “correct.” An orthodontist straightens teeth. An orthomolecular doctor corrects and straightens out the molecules of the body. What molecules are we talking about? Orthomolecular medicine utilizes the vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional agents that are either naturally occurring in the body or found in foods that build and support the function of healthy cells.
We are seeing a grand return to natural therapies across many disciplines. We see the return to natural regenerative farming practices to rejuvenate the life-giving properties of soil, and a turning away from GMOs, artificial fertilizers, and pesticides that have decimated farmland and lowered the nutritive values of crops across the planet. There is a health renaissance in progress, and we are happy to be part of it. The restoration of both mental health and physical health will benefit from this metamorphosis.
Restoring Balance With Naturally Occurring Substances
Restoring balance and correcting underlying causes is possible by using substances familiar to the body such as minerals, vitamins, trace elements, fatty acids, and amino acids, for example. Another primary concept in orthomolecular medicine is that hereditary factors can affect more than just the physical characteristics of a person. Biochemical settings are also found to be hereditary.3
Biochemical pathways in the body (the chemical chain reaction of enzymes and other factors) are of interest in studies of illnesses such as cancer, schizophrenia, atherosclerosis, and even depression. Research has shown that specific biochemical abnormalities can be isolated as contributing or causal factors of illness and that these abnormalities may respond to targeted supplementation and other natural treatments.2
“I believe all complicated phenomena can be explained by simpler scientific principles.” ~Linus Pauling, Proponent of Orthomolecular Medicine
Importance of Diet and Nutrition
In today’s Western society, the food industry has convinced many people to eat foods that are modified from their raw and original state into nutritionally dead, highly refined, processed food. Therefore, even when one eats these processed foods until they feel full, they are still undernourished. To persuade us into eating these foods; processed food manufacturers add artificial colors and artificial sweeteners. These chemically alter nutritionally dead products, which would taste horrible without all of the artificial modifications. Despite scoring high points for taste satisfaction, dead, overprocessed foods contribute nothing to mental health, and in fact, have been shown to have detrimental effects.8,9
“As long as the processing of food continues to take out essential nutrients, mental health will continue to decline.” ~Abram Hoffer
Dr. Abram Hoffer was right it seems. Since the brain utilizes the most blood, oxygen, and nutrients over any other organ, the brain, and the entire central nervous system start to feel the effects of biochemical deficiency long before any obvious physical symptoms manifest.
We realize that for true health to occur, the body and brain need to be well-nourished. These are aims that guide and inform orthomolecular therapy for mental health.9,10
At Alternative to Meds Center, orthomolecular medicine is a founding principle of our programs. We deliver personalized nutrient, mineral, amino acid, and other supplement-based therapies according to the results of lab tests and other medical assessments unique to each client.
Program participants at Alternative to Meds Center consume natural, whole, predominantly organic foods. Elimination of processed foods, chemical flavor enhancers, sugars, and caffeine is also beneficial. Fermented foods and other agents that support microbiome health are incorporated into a delicious daily menu. Residents may additionally participate in sauna therapy, exercise, counseling, and other healing treatments. This is truly a holistic approach that impacts every level of physical and mental health.
Education Components
Our educational series (Medication Titration & Neurochemistry Series) covers very diverse subject matters. We are teaching graduate-level clinical nutrition and environmental medicine and demonstrate the research that supports the view that nutritional deficiencies and imbalances and toxic accumulations break down the neurochemistry and can manifest many forms of dysfunction, including addictive cravings, medication use, and a wide range of mental health issues.
Our educational courses help equip our residents with lifelong tools for health and happiness.
Collectively, this is called Orthomolecular Science. We inform you what foods to avoid, such as farm-raised fish, sugars, and processed foods. We teach the participant the exact nutritional precursors that provide balance for their own particular case, and how to read their lab tests so they may truly become self-health care savvy. Even some hygiene products may have been overlooked as contributors to the toxic profile that has chipped away at their ability to find balance.12
We are also administering learning modules such as trauma clearing, stress reduction, life coaching, art, family dynamics, and many other tools for the participant to succeed in life. By learning what was done to establish balance, clients can then understand and implement those skills to maintain it.
Fundamentals of Orthomolecular Mental Health Therapy
All orthomolecular psychiatrists are medical practitioners and many have received psychiatric training. However, orthomolecular psychiatrists reject the psychiatric drug-based model for treating mental health issues. While drug therapy may have been necessary for a short-term crisis, long-term drug use often results in worsened mental health.11,13
Rather, a “medical model” is used, one that searches for biochemical, nutritional, or organic causal and contributing factors for unwanted conditions. Orthomolecular psychiatry is a division of orthomolecular medicine, a phrase that was coined by Dr. Linus Pauling.
Dr. Pauling defined the principles of orthomolecular therapy as preserving good health and preventing disease through changing the concentration within the body of molecules of substances that are necessary for life, including amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and essential fats.
The human brain best functions when it is chemical-free and properly fed.
Where psychiatry specializes in suppressing symptoms, Orthomolecular medicine offers a viable alternative therapy designed to correct the root causes of symptoms.
According to orthomolecular psychiatry, also known as OP, the human body is a biochemical factory. When that factory doesn’t receive an adequate amount of raw materials (nutrition) or receives polluted or impure materials, malfunctioning occurs and manifests as symptoms.
Nutrient deficiency and/or the stress of toxicity can cause mental disturbances according to the orthomolecular model.
Compounding the problem, mentally disturbed individuals may be out of touch as they can’t fully perceive reality. Their biochemically chaotic brains and sensory apparatus may view the world abnormally. In many cases, mental disturbances cease when the nutritional setting of the brain is changed and can correct the situation.
Prescription Drugs Are Not the Only Solution
If you have been told that the only solution for psychiatric problems is prescription drugs, please understand that orthomolecular psychiatry practitioners are available to help you.
At Alternative to Meds Center, and as research clearly shows, prescription medications are not a long-term solution for psychiatric problems.11,13 We use orthomolecular medicine models to identify the originating causes of psychiatric symptoms. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, addiction, ADHD, and other mental health issues can be treated holistically. We offer an alternative answer that educates people about how to cope with mental health naturally. Don’t get trapped in a non-stop routine of doctor visits, labels, and medications.
Orthomolecular psychiatry is practiced by orthomolecular psychiatry practitioners to treat mental illness. Our orthomolecular mental health center is the only one of its type in the United States.
The approach uses lab testing, and individualized diagnosis to determine an etiology for each client’s specific symptoms and tailors treatment accordingly, utilizing a combination of dietary changes, and prescription-grade supplements blended with holistic therapies. The aims include enhanced functionality and improved quality of life. Other goals include the eradication or lessening of symptoms and reducing or eliminating the need for prescription drugs. Orthomolecular medicine also aims to reduce or eliminate cravings for recreational substances.
Our underlying assessments and ideas are that wholesome food and proper nutrition, elimination of toxic accumulations, and stress reduction are precursors for mental health.
With Orthomolecular Medicine, you can nourish your mind, eliminate the toxic burden, and become mentally and physically healthier.
Dr. Abram Hoffer was the first serious orthomolecular medicine practitioner in the 1950s. His therapies included niacin, and other nutrients, to address acute schizophrenia. Dr. Humphry Osmond, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, and Dr. Linus Pauling continued the work that was started by Dr. Hoffer. Orthomolecular psychiatry follows “Pfeiffer’s Law”:
“For every drug that benefits a patient, there is a natural substance that can achieve the same effect.”
Possible Causes of Mental Health Disorders
Allergies are believed by many orthomolecular psychiatry practitioners to be one overlooked cause of mental illness. Research has found a positive association between seasonal pollen exposure and anxiety, for example.15
Industrial development fills our air, food, and water with numberless substances that may be chemically damaging to our neurons and our well-being.
Hypoglycemia is another one of the most frequently overlooked issues associated with emotional symptoms. Hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, is an interruption in sugar metabolism that is implicated in several mental and physical problems. Potential symptoms include anxiety, heart palpitations, alcoholism, insomnia, irritability, decreased sex drive, nightmares, violent behavior, crying spells, and nervous breakdowns.14 Hypoglycemia appears to be easily overcome with the professional help of orthomolecular psychiatry practitioners.
We are a professional team that works to find and correct the underlying causes of your psychiatric symptoms.
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What We Consume Does Impact Our Health and Mental State
Nutritional pharmacology is no longer on the outside of medicine.5 Food affects the brain. Food affects behavior. In order to address this pervasive problem, our orthomolecular psychiatry program offers clients orthomolecular nutrition and dietary therapy including organic, whole, natural food, we also recommend that sugar, caffeine, white flour, and white rice are eliminated from the daily diet. Since modern food processing strips most of the nutrition, an individual eating a modern diet often develops a vitamin and/or nutrient deficiency even though they might consider their diet is adequate. Psychiatric symptoms are frequently associated with a lack of proper nutrition and supplementation. One example from research published in 2021 clearly showed a positive association between anxiety and vitamin D deficiency in children.16
At Alternative to Meds Center, we create personalized treatment plans to meet the needs of each client.
When a person becomes symptomatic in a mental health way, they are almost always given psychiatric medication before any tests or other investigative work is done. Most of the time, medication is the length and breadth of traditional treatment. It is not uncommon for there to be no investigative efforts at all in conventional treatment. At Alternative to Meds Center, we have found more and more people with accumulated environmental toxicity, and these toxins disrupt the chemical relationships that are essential for mental health. These toxins include heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead, aluminum, pesticides, and organic toxins.1,12
You do not have to suffer from psychiatric symptoms or endure the ineffectiveness and side effects of traditional medicine. We offer a safe, holistic, drug-free approach.
We know how to stabilize the neurochemistry in a comfortable, effective way.
Our orthomolecular medicine practitioner’s aim is to discover which toxins a person has and eliminate them while investigating nutritional deficiencies and restoring these correctly through diet and targeted supplementation.
Fact Checked
Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
We facilitate chemical and heavy metal toxin removal based on toxicity testing and provide treatment via customized chelation and targeted neurotoxin holistic detox protocols. The detoxification protocol used by Alternative to Meds Center was designed for people who have accumulated toxins and is tailored to specifically remove those toxins.
