Positive Health Online

Just as we are publishing this June 2009 Issue 159 of PH Online, the death of Dr Abram Hoffer at age 92, has been reported. Dr Hoffer was one of the great pioneers of Orthomolecular Medicine, and he lived a long, eventful and productive life.

A fellow Canadian [what is it about these pesky Canadians who tend to be thorns in the side of the establishment?], Dr Hoffer and co-workers were "instrumental in the discovery that megadoses of vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid/niacin) were therapeutic for schizophrenia and can be used to lower cholesterol levels. Their discovery, published in 1955, is credited with the initiation of the new paradigm in nutritional medicine, i.e. the use of vitamins for treatment and not just for prevention of deficiency disease." Please read this Tribute to Dr Hoffer, prepared by the Alliance of Natural Health (ANH):
www.positivehealth.com/article-view.php?articleid=2611  

In a must-see You Tube Interview in 2007, Dr Hoffer outlined with considerable humour and irony his conflicts with the Canadian Health authorities and the psychiatric establishment: "He spoke of the psychiatric establishment being violently opposed to his work, "which did not have the support of the drug companies who were promoting their own products, the tranquillizers. Not a single attempt was made to repeat our double blind controlled studies (five), nor to examine our claims clinically. I decided I could be more effective free of any of these adverse influences."
 www.timescolonist.com/Health/Controversial+Victoria+psychiatrist+Abram+Hoffer+dies/1640012/story.html

Although I am still several decades short of age 92, I often feel exasperated at the almost non-existent changes in the medical establishment's attitude toward the clinical beneficial efficacy of many vitamins and minerals and other nutrients in health conditions ranging from heart disease, asthma and respiratory conditions to cancer. I will never forget, while reading the research literature for my Vitamin C book published in 1991 the cries in 1939 of Canadians Dr Shute who lamented that vitamins C and E ought to be compulsory and mandatory as emergency treatments for heart attacks!!!

"...way back in the 1930s, that's 50 years ago, a link between Vitamin C and arteriosclerosis and heart disease had already been established? Are you also aware that by 1953, 35 years ago, an intimate relationship between Vitamin C, cholesterol synthesis and atherosclerosis had already been documented, and that by 1957, it had been shown that atherosclerosis is reversible by Vitamin C? Even as early as 1947 it was suggested in a clinical article that Vitamin C be used for treatment of heart disease. Furthermore, Vitamin C also possesses significant therapeutic impact upon diabetes and hypoglycemia...."
www.drsgoodman.com/vitamin-c-chapter6.php  

PH Online is currently in its 15th year; every issue has published numerous editorial features and research updates describing the considerable clinical benefits of complementary and alternative treatment approaches for a multitude of health conditions, as well as over-arching mental, emotional and spiritual approaches to many health complaints.

This June Issue 159 is replete with a selection of splendid features, literally covering Mind, Body and Spirit. Mentally, Emotionally and Spiritually-oriented topics include The True Nature of Profit and Loss: Interview with His Eminence the 7th Dzogchen Rinpoche Jigme Losel Wango,   Manifest Hope: Crisis Brings Opportunity,   Approaches to Coping with Anger and Overcoming Anxiety, Building Confidence in Public Speaking.

Therapeutically-oriented features include Homeopathic Casebook: Birth Anxiety and the Overdue Baby,   Mud Therapy in Bulgaria,   The Arguments for Resonance, Health and Harmony and Homotoxicology for Migraine Relief.

Nutritional features are wide ranging and authoritative, including The Trouble with Binge Eating: Filling the Void,   Choosing Health – Preventing and Reversing Cellular Malfunction and The Re-Balancing Potential of Seaweed.

This issue's Bodywork Columns describes The Relevance of the TMJ, and there is a ground-breaking feature Tooth Decay – Surely More than Drill and Fill or Teeth Extraction.

It has felt to me for many years that effective complementary and alternative treatments appear to occupy a parallel universe to the conventional medical world, although there does not have to be any division; the apparent dichotomous worlds are wholly artificial. Healthcare is healthcare, whether it is delivered as drugs, vitamins, acupuncture, herbs or massage.

Why is there so much hostility toward treatments which have had hundreds, sometimes thousands of years clinical practice? I know that I don't wish to reach the grand old age of 92 still waiting for significant changes in the attitudes of authorities to such effective treatment approaches.