In Greek, Orthos means the right/proper/correct thing. We also find the word in orthodoxy, the right doctrine/the right book and in orthopedics, the right training and treatment - i.e. of functional errors.
The name "orthomolecular" was introduced into modern science by the genious biochemist and double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. By using the right molecules in the right amounts in the cellular environment of the organism, the optimum inner ecology is achieved in which the self-healing powers of the organism will have the best opportunities of counterbalancing defects and surmounting sufferings.
The right molecules are the ones that the body is already familiar with and uses itself, i.e. they are compatible with the body and will therefore have a natural place in the bodily functions. Such orthomolecular substances will first of all be the nutrients; i.e. minerals, vitamins, amino acids, essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, enzymes of a type that the body itself organizes, and other nutrient factors that the human race through thousands and thousands of years have learned to absorb, detoxify, and utilize.
Orthomolecular treatment also has a healing effect in that it promotes the natural, inner ecology. It is therefore in direct contrast with the medical treatment of our time which is primarily based on xeno-molecules; i.e. foreign molecules, primarily synthetic farmaceutical substances that do not co-operate with the inner ecology but actually intoxicates it in the same way as pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial pollution poisons both our outer and inner environment.
Orthomolecular treatment of patients has taken great steps forward in many areas; the earliest and most convincing being in psychiatry. Orthomolecular psychiatry, however, is still practially unknown in many countries, even among experts in psychiatry. Naturally, amino acid therapy is the orthomolecular treatment par excellence.
