0. Hoffer's discovery of Niacin/ Vitamin C megadose treatment

The Discovery of Megavitamin Therapy

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, founded Megavitamin Therapy, now called Orthomolecular Psychiatry. He began this research in a hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the early 1950's, with a half dozen double blinds investigating megadose niacin and vitamin C for schizophrenia. These studies introduced double blinds to the field of psychiatry.
One of the early patients was a young boy, who had become catatonic, unable to speak or use the bathroom. He had eventually lapsed into a coma and his doctors, judging him to be dying from his schizophrenia, had placed him on a terminal care list. Hoffer gave him 5 gm vitamin C and 10 gm niacin, divided doses, and the next day he was out of the coma. After two weeks, he was completely recovered. Twelve years later, he was still taking vitamins, still well, and an active member of his community.
Many others in these initial trials showed similarly marked improvement. Hoffer has commented that God must be smiling down on researchers, to give such encouraging results at the early stages of research, steering them in the right direction. (Usually patients who are so ill take a lot longer to improve, with initial improvement not so clearly discernible.)
Orthomolecular psychiatry gathered momentum, with the contributions of hundreds of physicians and researchers. Treatment came to rely on a panoply of nutrients and herbs and, often, differentiation into biotypes, as well as attention to allergies, Candida, toxins, and other health factors. Laboratory testing helped distinguish unique individual needs.
The late and great Dr. Hoffer, for more than half a century, and up til the end of his life, nourished, expanded, and fought for this nascent medical field of orthomolecular psychiatry.

The following series of posts will focus on histapenia, the most prevalent biotype in schizophrenia. Hoffer's original niacin/C therapy is probably essential for virtually all patients who experience voices, but is particularly critical for the histapenia biotype.


For details on niacin, C, other vitamins, and biotypes, see my compendium on nutrient-based approaches for schizophrenia, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.
Available here.
You may also be interested in  Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder.
Available here.

This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you need treatment for schizophrenia or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

Major schizophrenia nutrients: Vitamin B3 and Vitamin C

Megavitamin Therapy (which evolved into Orthomolecular Psychiatry) began with the Hoffer/Osmond research into niacin (a form of vitamin B3) and vitamin C. See my post at: http://naturalhealingforschizophrenia.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-did-orthomolecular-psychiatry-begin.html

Over the next half century, although other supportive nutrients have been discovered, orthomolecular physicians and researchers have continued to find megadose vitamin B3 and megadose vitamin C to be major therapeutic agents for most adult psychoses. This applies to all biotypes, even histadelia (more on biotypes later). 

That is, niacin and C, within the context of a complex of indicated nutrients, health therapies, and other treatments, as per individual biochemical requirements, including contraindications.

For references, consult the literature, and see Natural Healing for Schizophrenia

Caution: My blog entries are solely educational. If you need treatment, consult a knowledgeable physician.

* Some exceptions: for pyrolurics and for young people, B6 or B6 plus B3, may often be more effective than B3 alone.

How did orthomolecular psychiatry begin?

The existence of vitamins (substances in food which are vital to life) was established in the first half of the last century. Some of the discoveries: Vitamin C cures scurvy (previously known to respond to citrus); and vitamin B3 reverses pellagra.

Both these nutrient-deficiency illnesses had a psychiatric component: depression, anxiety and, in more severe cases, psychosis.

In some regions of the US, half the patients hospitalized for mental illness were actually pellagrins, and recovered in a few weeks of vitamin B3.

Research into moderate doses B vitamins, C, and E for “mental” illness continued until interrupted by World War II.

Nutritional research resumed in the fifties with the schizophrenia studies of Dr Abram Hoffer and Dr Humphrey Osmond. They had seen that oxidized adrenalin can create a short psychosis (e.g., when asthmatic inhalers contain pink (oxidized) adrenalin). This suggested potential benefits of vitamin B3 (to limit adrenalin formation), and vitamin C (to prevent its oxidation). Furthermore they knew that these vitamins countered the psychosis of pellagra and scurvy, respectively.

To increase effectiveness, they chose relatively high doses, for the first trials: 10 grams of niacin (vitamin B3) and 5 grams of  C; both in divided doses.

In the hospital in which they worked, a youth was steadily deteriorating, despite all mainstream medical efforts. He had become catatonic, unable to speak or use the bathroom, and finally lapsed into a coma. His doctors believed he would soon die, due to his schizophrenia.

This youth became one of the first patients to receive the niacin/vitamin C treatments. The next day, the coma ended. After two weeks on the nutrients, he was pronounced normal. Twelve years later, he remained well and was an active member of his community.

The remarkable improvement in patients like this marked the beginnings of nutrient-based psychiatry, then called Megavitamin Therapy.

Twenty years later, Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel laureate, in a seminal article in Science, renamed it  Orthomolecular Medicine, i.e., a medicine which sought to optimize substances naturally occurring in brain and body (required and missing nutrients), by providing optimal doses of ortho (right) molecules, and eliminating toxins.


See:
http:///www.naturalhealingforschizophrenia.com
http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/hoffer/index.shtml