Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame: 2007

ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE HALL OF FAME: 2007

Hall of Fame 2007

Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame Inductees for 2007

by Andrew W. Saul, Master of Ceremonies and Assistant Editor, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.

(From the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Canada, 21 April 2007)

Welcome, everyone, to the induction ceremony for the Fourth Annual Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

It is my privilege, speaking on behalf of all of us here, to honor the pioneers of nutritional therapeutics. We do so with orthomolecular medicine’s lifetime achievement awards. Yes, tonight, once again, we get to see who will take home the “Orthie.”

Let me tell you about the most frightening man I have ever seen. He was not on a movie or TV screen. He was a prisoner at the medium-security prison where I was teaching in 1991. (And no, I was not an inmate.) Like most of my incarcerated students (I called them my "captive audience") he ate a high-sugar, low-vitamin diet. In class, I suggested improving it as much as possible, beginning with high B-vitamin foods like wheat germ and whole grains, and by taking supplemental vitamins.

A number of classes later, everybody was filing out of the room. But the Big Guy lagged behind. He moved up close beside me.

"Uh, can I talk to you for a minute?" he whispered.

"Sure, sure," I answered. (You got a better answer?)

"I, uh, I been eatin' that stuff, that wheat germ you told us about," he said.

"How did you come up with it?"

"They sell it in the commissary," he answered. "They got those vitamin pills, too. Been taking them."

There was an uncomfortable half-second pause, and than he continued:

"Well, I just want to tell you," he said, "that I’ve been taking those vitamins for a couple o' weeks now."

"And?" I said.

"And, well, I just want to tell you that I feel more clear."

He put an unusual emphasis on the word "clear," looking me straight in the eye.

It finally dawned on me that this was a compliment.

"Oh, good!" I said. "Keep right on doing it."

He left, squeezing through the door like a supertanker going under a low bridge.

From time to time, I have considered the benefits to society of having a man like that feeling more "clear."

Drugs will not correct vitamin dependencies. Orthomolecular medicine can, and does.

Preferring nutrition over drugs is not a new idea. Hippocrates advocated food as medicine. Benjamin Franklin said, “The best doctor gives the least medicines.” And, observed 19^th century physician Sir William Osler: “One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Oliver Wendell Holmes: "If we doctors threw all our medicines into the sea, it would be that much better for our patients and that much worse for the fishes."

And then there is the writing of Marx.

Chico Marx, that is.

It seems that Chico once had stomach trouble. His doctor prescribed plenty of milk, saying “Drink at least four glasses of milk. Milk is just the thing to cure you. So drink a lot of it."

Later that day, Chico was reexamined by the doctor, who then told him, "You’re much better now. Just be sure that, from now on, you don’t drink any milk. Not one glass. It’s not for you."

"But, doc," Chico exclaimed, "this morning you told me that milk was just what I needed, and that I should drink lots of it."

"Well, what do you know?" the doctor replied. "It certainly goes to show that we’ve made tremendous progress in medicine since the last time I saw you."

In truth, the biggest progress in medicine has been a growing realization that vitamins, in sufficiently high doses, are an effective treatment for illness.

That is good news for all. Tonight, we offer our deepest appreciation to the orthomolecular pioneers that have brought us this new paradigm of nutritional healing.

BERNARD RIMLAND

(1928 – 2006)

A Google search will yield over 75,000 results for Bernard Rimland in just two tenths of a second. Dr. Bernie Rimland has been honored all over the world. In Britain, newspapers such as the Guardian and the Independent featured his life and work. The LA Times called him “The father of modern autism research.”

Recently, TIME Magazine wrote: “In 1964, (Rimland) published Infantile Autism, a landmark book that argued autism had biochemical roots and upended the then conventional wisdom that it was a child's response to 'refrigerator mothers" who didn't show adequate affection. An adviser to the makers of Rain Man - his son was a model for Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning 1988 turn as an autistic savant - Rimland also controversially claimed metals like mercury (in vaccines) could trigger autism and vitamins could help treat it.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune writes: “In 1967, while employed as a Navy psychologist, Dr. Rimland founded his nonprofit institute a block from his home to create an international source of research and information for biomedical treatments. When he retired from his Navy job in 1985, he devoted the rest of his life to autism research.” This was literally true. “Now I spend 80 hours a week on autism,” he later said.

I have read many tributes to Dr. Rimland, but these next two I found especially moving:

The first is from a lady in Brewster, NY (where my grandmother lived):

“I never met Bernard Rimland. I never heard him speak. And yet he touched my life. When my nephew was diagnosed with autism, I read everything I could. I searched for answers. I don't believe everything I read. But I believed everything that came from Bernard Rimland. I trusted him. It was clear to me, from very early on, that his only agenda was to help. Bernard Rimland wasn't afraid to speak out if he believed many in the scientific community were wrong, and he didn't hesitate to defend those who needed it. Mostly, he listened to parents. He was smart enough to know that when he heard the same statements by numerous families, over and over again, then there might be some truth there, or at the very least, something worth investigating. “

Here is the other:

“I met Bernie in 2004 in Los Angeles. He was a remarkable person, simple and sincere. I had the same story like his, so he looked in my eyes and told me that my son will be all right. He is a true example of person who changed the perception of the world. He was a true leader and great healer, his successes and work will stay alive. I have learned a lot from him. I pray for peace for his soul.”

The writer is a medical doctor in Saudi Arabia.

Hugh Riordan aptly summed up: “The rest of us can learn a great deal from Dr. Rimland's lifetime of pioneering work. If orthomolecular medicine can have such positive effects on individuals who are autistic, just imagine the positive effects that it can have on those of us who are not.”

Tonight, we offer our collective thanks to Dr. Bernard Rimland as we add his distinguished name to the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

HENRY TURKEL, MD

(1903-1992)

It was thirty years ago this year that Dr. Henry Turkel testified before the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. His presentation was entitled, “Medical Amelioration of Down's Syndrome Incorporating the Orthomolecular Approach.” Dr. Turkel was the very voice of experience, having pioneered the nutritional treatment for Down’s syndrome in the 1940s. Since then, he had successfully employed a combination of vitamins and other nutrients, plus some medication, with over 5,000 patients. In addition, Dr. Turkel wrote two key books: Medical Treatment of Downs Syndrome and Genetic Diseases and New Hope for the Mentally Retarded.

Abram Hoffer has written:

“I first became interested in Down Syndrome when I heard about the work being done by Dr. Henry Turkel in Detroit many years ago. I published many of his papers in the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry and its earlier versions. Dr. Turkel suffered the fate of almost all early pioneers. He had the nerve to make his claims when everyone ‘knew’ that children with genetic defects could not possibly be treated successfully.”

Linus Pauling has specifically recognized Dr. Turkel’s work in his book, How to Live Longer and Feel Better:

“The physician who has made the greatest effort to ameliorate Down Syndrome is Dr. Henry Turkel of Detroit, Michigan. . . I know Dr. Turkel, and I can testify to his sincerity and conviction. The results that he reports are striking. Many of the children show a reduction of developmental abnormalities, especially of the bones. Their appearance changes in the direction of normalcy. Their mental ability and behavior improve to such an extent that they are able to hold jobs and support themselves. Rapid growth (increase in height) occurs during the period when tablets are being taken, and the growth stops during the periods when they are not taken. My conclusion is that there is little danger that this treatment or treatment with supplementary nutrients would do harm, and there is evidence that the patients would receive significant benefit. . . I think that all (people with Down’s syndrome) — especially the younger ones — should try nutritional supplementation to see to what extent it benefits them.” (p 206, HTLLAFB, 2006 edition)

Now, on behalf of the thousands of Down syndrome children whose lives have been changed by nutritional treatment, we proudly induct Dr. Henry Turkel into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

EWAN CAMERON, MB, ChB, FRCS

(1922-1991)

Linus Pauling has told the story of his first meeting with Dr. Cameron back in the 1970s. When Pauling arrived at the Cameron home in Scotland, Ewan came to the door with a wrench in his hand. This is because the toilet was broken. Pauling came right in and offered to help. The two got down and fixed the toilet together. So began the very first collaboration of a twice-Nobel Prize winner and the great pioneer of intravenous vitamin C for patients with advanced cancer.

It was over thirty years ago, in 1976, when Cameron and Pauling published their famous paper, “Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA. 73:3685-3689).

In a 1979 interview in Prevention magazine, he said: "If you can alter even a little the very, very advanced cancer patients, then all logic suggests that you should be able to alter the very early stages of the illness. And of course, the earliest stage of the illness is before the person has cancer at all. I'm pretty convinced that if people maintained a reasonable - I don't mean astronomic - intake [of vitamin C], that we would see a diminished incidence of cancer."

Cameron and Pauling published extensively, including their classic 1979 book, Cancer and Vitamin C. This was the first book on the topic I had ever read, and my nutrition lectures changed immediately. Not long afterwards, Dr. Cameron was appointed Medical Director of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine.

Dr. Cameron, the most dedicated of orthomolecular researchers, was way ahead of his time. He will also be remembered as a very compassionate physician. Of his many vitamin C and cancer papers, the title I like best has a marvelous subtitle, "My God. I Feel So Much Better, Doctor!" (In Bland JS (ed), 1986: A Year in Nutritional Medicine. Keats Publishing Inc., New Canaan Connecticut, 1986, p 115-123.)

Doesn’t this say it all?

We now welcome Ewan Cameron into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

FANNIE KAHAN

(1923 - 1978)

The United States Patent Office delayed issuing a patent on the Wright brothers' airplane for five years because it broke accepted scientific principles. This is actually true. And so is this: Vitamin B-3, niacin, is scientifically proven to be effective against psychosis, and yet the medical profession has delayed endorsing it. Not for five years, but for fifty-five.

But there was no such procrastination with Fannie Kahan. Fannie was writing and publishing articles on the importance of good nutrition as early as 1944, at age 21. She would be an outspoken advocate of orthomolecular psychiatry long before Linus Pauling had given it its name.

Fannie was formerly an editor of Winnipeg Free Press, then editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, and the Huxley Institute Newsletter. Humphry Osmond described Fannie as a “greatly valued friend. She has played a great part in the orthomolecular movement. The Journal (of Orthomolecular Medicine) is a monument to her, because without her, it would never have survived.”

Fannie was a prolific author. She wrote a number of pamphlets for the Canadian Schizophrenic Foundation, and many, many newspaper and magazine articles. She also wrote six books, contributing significantly to Hoffer and Osmond’s How to Live with Schizophrenia (first published in 1966 and still popular) and New Hope for Alcoholics (1968) which, you may be interested to know, now sells on the internet for between $232 and $300.

Fannie was an important pioneer of orthomolecular education. She had, writes her son Meldon, “a rare knack for describing schizophrenia in language the layman could understand.” Her husband Irwin fully agreed, saying: “Without the public’s understanding, involvement and support, research and new approaches cannot go very far. Fannie was a true soldier. . . and wanted to get things done so that more and more people could be helped.”

Mission accomplished!

Tonight, we are delighted to welcome Fannie Kahan into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

GLEN GREEN, MD

(b. 1923)

“Glen,” says Abram Hoffer, “was the first person after 1950 to take subclinical pellagra seriously, and to describe it clinically.”

A very experienced physician, by 1980, Dr. Green had performed 18,000 anesthetics, 1,000 operations . . . and delivered 1,500 babies. Working from the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test (HOD), Glen developed a simplified Perceptual Dysfunction Test that helps identify pellagric children that characteristically experience reading difficulties, depression, and behavioral problems. Helping patients get better with nutrition cost Dr. Green his medical license in 1982.

That is unjust, and here’s one of the many reasons why:

I helped raise a learning-disabled child that was conventionally, and erroneously, diagnosed as ADHD. On prescribed medication, the child experienced such dreadful psychotic episodes that at one point he had to be restrained. Then, off medication and on 3,000 mg of niacin a day, he was an entirely new and happy boy. The change was so profound that he regularly received compliments from his teachers.

This is what happens when subclinical pellagra, a vitamin dependency, is corrected with orthomolecular nutritional therapy. Thank you, Dr. Green.

Incidentally, Glen and Peggy were married in 1946. This year marks their 61^st wedding anniversary.

Now one more honor for a most honorable man: Tonight, we are genuinely delighted to induct Dr. Glen Green into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

MASATOSHI KANEKO, PhD
(b. 1935)

Medical Mavericks, the popular book by Dr. Hugh Riordan, is a collection of biographies of history's most important medical innovators. Every physician or researcher profiled there is an uncompromising, outspoken orthomolecular nutrition advocate. One of these innovators singled out for praise by Dr. Riordan is Masatoshi Kaneko.

Conventionally trained scientists who have embraced orthomolecular medicine know that they have forever crossed the Rubicon. That takes courage, because physicians and academics have not been educated to look for nutritional solutions to health problems. Or, as Hugh puts it: “'Orthomolecular' is not the answer to any questions posed in medical school."

That did not deter Dr. Kaneko, who continued to work successfully to raise Japan’s recommended daily nutrient dietary allowances. He also advocated increased public awareness of what makes good health. Finally, in a letter dated April 5, 2004, he wrote: “(T)he Japanese Government (has now) recognized the importance and the necessity of educating nutritional approaches. We can spread the idea and the policy of Orthomolecular Nutritional Medicine widely in Japan.”

Hugh writes: “From among the more than 30,000 members of his Know Your Body (KYB) organization today, many other physicians and health care professionals are now enjoying repeated success by following the same vitamin supplementation methods that Dr. Kaneko developed. He attributes the sustained success of his procedures not to his own merit, but rather to the orthomolecular ideas first instilled in him by Doctors Linus Pauling and Abram Hoffer.”

The appreciation is mutual. Abram Hoffer has named Dr. Kaneko as one of the major “Contributors to Orthomolecular Research, Theory and Practice.” Hugh has paid Masatoshi an even more unique compliment: He wrote a limerick about him.

As Dr. Kaneko has shown,

The key to health is clearly known!

And now in Japan

Every woman and man

May learn all about every muscle and bone!

It is our great pleasure tonight to add to Dr. Kaneko’s already highly-distinguished career as we add him to the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

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 )

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Andrew W. Saul

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