1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Abram Hoffer Centenary

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by RobH, Oct 25, 2017.

  1. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2006
    2,369
    978
    70
    Location:
    Sunnyvale, California
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Full press release available at: Abram Hoffer Centenary

    Abram Hoffer Centenary

    by Andrew W. Saul, Editor

    (OMNS Oct 24, 2017) One hundred years ago, the world was in the dark depths of the First World War. The Russian revolution erupted. Buffalo Bill Cody died. The Chicago White Sox won the World Series. John F. Kennedy was born, and so was Dr. Abram Hoffer. Born and raised on a farm in western Canada, Abram Hoffer began his education in a one-room schoolhouse, and on horseback he herded cattle. He would go on to complete both PhD and MD degrees, specialize in psychiatry, do pioneering research with niacin and other vitamins, and change medicine forever.

    On this centenary of his birth (November 11), I would like to honor Dr. Hoffer, who was my hero, mentor, coauthor and friend.
    ...
    Here are my favorite Abram quotes:

    "The history of medicine is a history of conflict. We should be making awards for infamy, but the list would be too long and thus no one would stand out."

    "Drugs make a well person sick. Why would they make a sick person well?"

    "The worst fate that can befall the critics of orthomolecular medicine is that they will never, ever use vitamins."

    "No amount of evidence will persuade someone who is not listening."

    "Double-blind clinical trials are for the birds."​


    The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine is a peer reviewed journal by and for doctors. But Medline does not index it. My comment is that mainstream medicine is less than scientific, as they exclude a significant group of knowledge in an area they claim to cover.
    ...
    More information on orthomolecular medicine is available at

    DoctorYourself.com: Andrew Saul's Natural Health Website
    Welcome To Orthomolecular.org
     
    #1 RobH, Oct 25, 2017
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,034
    49,112
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    and yet, drugs have proven to make a sick person well. happens all the time.
     
    #2 bisco, Oct 25, 2017
    RCO and pilotgrrl like this.
  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2004
    9,008
    3,510
    0
    Location:
    Kunming Yunnan China
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    I am strongly of the opinion that medical science (all science) has high potential to benefit from the presentation and testing of non-mainstream concepts. Science has frequently been wrong before, and its touted self-correcting aspects do not benefit from presumptuous exclusion.

    This brings us to one of the quotes above: "Double-blind clinical trials are for the birds." It would be most unfortunate to set aside this way of testing. Ultimately, of knowing. JOM (the journal) is free to read online. There one can see case studies, of one or few individuals, which are presumably not 'blinded' at all. Means that both the patient and investigator know what amount of what is being tested. There are also clinical evaluations, where methods do not always disclose if 'single blind' (investigator knows but patient does not) etc. I simply do not agree that 'blinding' is for the birds. It acts against placebo effects. Cannot think of a reason why clinical research would yield more reliable results when investigator knows the score and risks disclosing it in some way.

    Find and download this document:
    OrthomolecularMedicinePrincipals_1987-v02n04-p203

    and read that OM people wish for more therapeutic trials. I do as well, but 'no double-blind' won't help. But yes, more trials.

    Orthomolecular are compounds naturally present in foods but possibly in the wrong amounts. That is my understanding. For me, holding them in highest regard while opposing compounds absent from foods seems peculiar. Either kind has potential to be toxic at inappropriate doses. We are always looking for efficacy in treating disease, balanced against unwanted side effects. Present in foods is not an ideal starting point. Some antibiotics are present in foods (honey comes to mind). Antibiotics are present in non-food (penicillin comes to mind) but this does not mean you should eat Penicillium fungus. You'll get sick. You need to separate the efficacious compound from all the other side-effecty ones. A role for science.

    JOM the journal is not in Medline. I am not in a position to critique that. It is in NCBI. It is not in Scimago - they include only top 100 'alternative medicine' journals and it is not among those. Not among, based on how many times journal publications get cited. JOM is scarcely cited, either because other authors don't know it exists, or they know but find the work not appropriate to cite.

    As for 100 alternative medicine journals that do get more often cited, I am not in a position to explain.

    ==
    I am fully in favor of drawing attention to Dr. Hoffer and the journal he started. There may very well be a role for more orthomolecular in medicine. do not know how to achieve that. Might make sense to talk about that here.
     
    #3 tochatihu, Oct 25, 2017
    Trollbait likes this.
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)