Megavitamin therapy (also known as orthomolecular medicine)-

The term “orthomolecular” was coined by the Nobel Lauriat Linus Pauling.  It is a neologism from the Latin meaning “correct molecules”, and is an alternative (not complementary) medicine philosophy that aims to maintain human health through nutritional supplementation.  Of course in the 1960s, nutritional supplements meant quite a different thing than they do today.  The orthomolecular medicine physicians date back to the 1930s when some doctors believed vitamins and supplements could cure diseases, even though the results were uniformly terrible.   Max Gerson developed a diet in the 1940s that he claimed cured diseases but the FDA in a series of studies demonstrated these claims were nonsensical. Megadoses of vitamin C were used as far back as 1948 and William McCormack touting this treatment that was later taken up by Linus Pauling himself.  Schizophrenia was treated with high doses of niacin in the 1950s and others used niacinamide without positive results. Orthomolecular medicine believes in dietary restriction, enormous doses of non-vitamin nutrients, doses of vitamins and amino-acids that are 10-1000 times that of the recommended daily doses (US RDA) in spite of such high doses being linked to increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and death.   Orthomolecular medicine does at times use mainstream pharmaceutical drugs, but not necessarily for their intended uses.  Orthomolecular doctors actually fabricated names for diseases such as pyroluria, histadelia, and histapenia, terms that do not exist in Western medicine.  Amino acid blood analysis is very important to doctors in orthomolecular medicine since they largely base their infusions of amino acids on these results.  The main uses of orthomolecular medicine are in treating schizophrenia, anti-aging, and advanced cancer- areas that are subject to fad therapies because treatments frequently are not compared to any controls.   When orthomolecular medicine is subjected to controls, frequently, the lack of effectiveness is demonstrated as with schizophrenia (Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1999 Feb;33(1):84-8.) 

Studies on orthomolecular medicine are almost universally poorly constructed, consist of anecdotes, or opinions, and rarely tout any effective medical treatments, therefore alpha evidence of effectiveness is zero.  A link to learn more about this type of “medicine” is found at www.orthomolecular.org