Megavitamin therapy

In nutrition and CAM, megavitamin therapy makes use of large amounts of vitamins, often many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA), to treat many types of diseases. Today it is an aspect of orthomolecular medicine which also employs other nutrients such as dietary minerals, enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, natural antioxidants and fermentable dietary fiber for short chain fatty acids. Historically it has existed in its own right as an approach to health.

Background

In the 1930s and 1940s, scientific and clinical evidence for beneficial uses of Vitamins C, E and B-3 in large doses began to emerge. Beginning in the 1930s, the Drs. Shute in Canada developed a megadose vitamin E therapy for cardiovascular and circulatory complaints, naming it the Shute protocol ^{[1]. Tentative experiments in the 1930s[2][3] with larger doses of vitamin C were superceded by Fred R. Klenner's development of megadose intravenous vitamin C treatments in the 1940s[4]. William Kaufman, MD, PhD, published two books in the 1940s that detailed his treatment of arthritis with frequent, high doses of niacinamide[5][6][7].}

In 1954, Professor R. Altschul and Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, developed the first officially recognized megavitamin therapy, applying large doses of the immediate release form of niacin (Vitamin B-3) to treat hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol). Confirmed by William B. Parsons, Jr. of the Mayo Clinic and the Canner study, more general medical recognition of niacin therapy for hypercholesterolemia followed the successes of several popular books in the 1980s. Niacin remains the only therapy proven in large scale, prospective, randomized, controlled trials to reduce long term total mortality. The Canner study of the Coronary Drug Project showed 11% reduction in mortality at 15 years follow up with only 6 years of niacin treatment. Niacin is used to treat hypercholesterolemia because of its low cost and its unique ability to broadly improve lipid profiles for ApoB^{[8], LDL, small dense LDL, HDL, HDL_{2b (extremely good cholesterol), Lp(a), fibrinogen and trigycerides[9]. Niacin's use still lags behind other, heavily promoted, heavily subsidized pharmaceutical treatments, which, in most categories, have been less effective than niacin and have had more serious side effects. [10][11][12]}}

The 1956 publication of Roger J. Williams' Biochemical Individuality was a major scientific milestone in modern therapeutic and preventive nutrition with concepts for individualized (mega)vitamins and nutrients. In the 1960's, biochemist Irwin Stone, author of The Healing Factor, observed that Vitamin C's utility in the megadose treatments of human disease parallels the amounts of Vitamin C physiologically produced in most animals and postulated humans' evolutionary loss of this capability.

Since the 1970s the wider field of Orthomolecular medicine has emerged and it has begun to subsume Megavitamin therapy within it.

Controversy

The efficacy of various megavitamin therapies has been controversial. Megavitamin therapies were publicly advocated by Linus Pauling in the late 1960s based on the extensive vitamin research of his generation as well as his own pioneering work in biochemistry, molecular biology and molecular disease. Megavitamin therapy is used under the principle that administration of large doses of vitamins can combat conditions which are considered wholly or in part due to individual biochemical variation and inadequate levels of essential nutrients. This type of treatment is based on the published scientific and medical research of the vitamin discovery era (ca 1920s-1950s) that is not easily accessed electronically.

Individual researchers and physicians, through private research, lifelong effort, numerous small clinical trials, and collaboration, evolved the current megavitamin therapies. Megavitamin therapies are not used in conventional medicine. An American cottage industry in the late 20th century, the evolving megavitamin therapies are integrated with orthomolecular and naturopathic medicine. Although megavitamin therapies still largely remain outside of the structure of conventional medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, they are increasingly used as adjuvants to conventional medicine.^{[13] In the 21st century, proposed megavitamin therapies with vitamin C are gaining new respect in conventional medicine for " colds" and cancer[14] as authoritative trials and objective scholarship[15] slowly move toward evaluation of the methods and quantitative treatment ranges published by Klenner and Cathcart.}

Side effects

Administration of very large doses of Vitamin A, Vitamin D and pyridoxine may have adverse side effects, usually when used alone rather than balanced with other vitamins, and are criticized by pediatricians as toxic. Megavitamin proponents claim an almost zero level of deaths caused by overdosing with vitamins compared to the significant numbers from pharmaceuticals, including a number of over-the-counter items.

See also

• Life extension
• Vitamin

References

• Abram Hoffer (1998) Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0879836334
• Pauling, Linus (1986) How to Live Longer and Feel Better, W. H. Freeman and Company, ISBN 0-380-70289-4
• Roger J. Williams, Dwight K. Kalita (1979) Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine, Keats Publishing, ISBN 0879831995
• Roger J Williams (1998) Biochemical Individuality: The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept. 2nd ed. Keats Publishing. ISBN 0879838930
• Canner, P.L., Berge, K.G., Wenger, N.K., et al. Fifteen year mortality in Coronary Drug Project patients: long-term benefit with niacin. J Am Coll Cardiol, 1986, 8: 1245-1255.
• Meyers, et al, Varying Cost and Free Nicotinic Acid Content in Over-the-Counter Niacin Preparations for Dyslipidemia, Annals of Internal Med. 2003 Dec 16;139(12):996-1002 [16]
• Guyton, J. R., Blazing, M.A., Hagar, J., et al. Extended-release niacin vs Gemfibrozil for the treatment of low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Arch Intern Med, 2000, 160: 1177-1184.
• Kamanna, V.S., Kashyap, M.L., Mechanism of Action of Niacin on Lipoprotein Metabolism, Current Atherosclerosis Reports 2000, 2:36-46
• Heady JA, Morris JN, Oliver MF. WHO clofibrate/cholesterol trial: clarifications. Lancet 1992; 340: 1405-1406.
• Frick MH, Elo O, Haapa K, et al. Helsinki Heart Study: primary prevention trial with gemfibrozil in middle-aged men with dyslipidemia. Safety of treatment, changes in risk factors, and incidence of coronary heart disease. N Engl J Med 1987; 317: 1237-1245.
• Irwin Stone (1972) The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease, GD/Perigee Books (Putnam Pub) ISBN 0-399-50764-7 [17]

Historical References

• Wilfred Shute (1980) Complete Updated Vitamin E Book. New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, ISBN 0879831510
• Jungeblut, C. W., Vitamin C Therapy and Prophylaxis in Experimental Poliomyelitis. J. Exper. Med., 1937, 65, 127. [18]
• Jungeblut, C. W., Further Observations on Vitamin C. Therapy in Experimental Poliomyelitis. J. Exper. Med., 1937, 66, 459.
• Klenner, F. R., The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases With vitamin C, So. Med. and Surg. vol. III #7, 113:101-107 July 1949 [19]
• Klenner, F. R., Virus Pneumonia and Its Treatment With Vitamin C, So. Medicine & Surgery, Vol. 110, February, 1948, No. 2, pp. 36-38, 46
• Klenner, F. R., Significance Of High Daily Intake Of Ascorbic Acid In Preventive Medicine, 1974 paper
• Lendon H. Smith, MD (1988) Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C - The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, MD [20]
• William Kaufman (1943) Common Forms of Niacinamide Deficiency Disease: Aniacinamidosis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
• William Kaufman (1949) The Common Form of Joint Dysfunction: Its Incidence and Treatment. E.L. Hildreth and Co., Brattleboro, Vermont [21]
• R. Altschul, A. Hoffer, J.D. Stephen, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 54, 558, 1955.

External links

• Orthomolecular Therapy
• The War Against Vitamin Therapy
• Megavitamin therapy description
• History of orthomolecular medicine