Page B4

THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Sunday, April 12, 1970

Linus Pauling Feels Vitamins
May Be Mental Illness Cure

By Dustin Harvey

STANFORD (UPI)
Chemist Linus Pauling, the
only man to win two Nobel
Prizes, is hard at work at the
age of 69 researching the
possibility that vitamins can
help cure mental illness.

Pauling, who won the 1954
Nobel Prize in chemistry for
his work on-the structure of
the protein molecule and the
1962 Nobel Peace Prize for
championing the atomic
test-ban treaty, has studied
the molecular basis of men-
tal illness for the past 15

y
“~The use of massive doses

of vitamins — primarily vi-
tamin B3, which also is
known as niacin or nicotinic
acid.— in the treatment of
schizophrenia was started 18
years ago in Canada.

The technique generally is
called “megavitamin” ther-
apy, although Pauling has
coined his own label of “or-
thomolecular psychiatry.” It
usually is used along with
other treatments for the
mentally ill.

A small but enthusiastic
group of doctors, mostly psy-
chiatrists, uses the vitamin
treatment, but the vast bulk
of the psychiatric profession
remains skeptical. Clinical
studies are being made by
several researchers in an ef:
fort to determine the tech-
nique’s real value.

Pauling supported the
theory in a scientific paper
published two years ago. He
contended most mental ill-
ness is genetic in nature and
may result from low concen-
trations of vitamins and
other chemicals in the brain.

“I believe that mental dis-
ease is for the most part
caused by abnormal (chemi-

cal) reaction rates, as deter-
mined by genetic constitu-
tion and diet, and by abnor-
mal molecular concentra-
tions of essential sub-
stances,” he said.

“Significant improvments
in the mental health of many
persons might be achieved
by the provision of the opti-
mum molecular concentra-
tions of substances normally
“present in the human body.”

Pauling said his recent re-
search has been a continu-
ance of studies on the bio-
chemistry of vitamins and on
the vitamin needs of schizo-
phrenics, particularly their
need for vitamin C, or ascor-
bic acid. —

He and his colleagues,
working on a $72,000 annual
grant from the National In-
stitutes of Mental Health,
are analyzing massive doses
given 100 schizophrenics and
100 “controls” -- normal
people.

Pauling said the research-
ers were .making “good,
steady progress” and their
study indicated schizophren-
ics had depleted levels of as-
corbic acid compared to the
control population.

“It may be that people
who have the gene for schi-
zophrenia would get along
all right on ordinary circum-
stances,” he theorized, “but
if they’re also a little abnor-
mal in some other gene that
involves one or another of
these vitamins, then this

of vitamins, the manifesta-
tions of the mental illness
might never show them-
selves.”

Pauling said vitamin treat-
ment is preferable to other
methods because it involves
use of natural substances al-
ready in the body.

“We know they are non-
toxic,” he said. “Why not try
them and see if the patients
get along better?”

Pauling has become so en-
thusiastic about vitamins
that for the past four years
he has been taking large
quantitites of vitamin C,
“which I think improves the
general health of almost
anybody, helping protect
against colds and generally
giving them more energy.

“I have asked the ques-
tion: Would the person who
is taking twice the recom-
mended amount of vitamin
C — which is 40 to 60 milli-
grams a day — be in any
better health? My answer is
yes, I think that he would.

“I myself take 3,000 milli-
grams a day. I haven’t had
any serious colds since I
started, where I was always
catching them before. Of
course, this is not evidence.
But a lot of people have said
the same thing.”

Pauling has not com-
pletely dropped the vigorous
antiwar activities which won
him his second Nobel Prize.

He has been active in the
anti-Vietnam war movement
on the Stanford campus.

extra abnormality may in-~

crease the penetrance of the];

gene for schizophrenia so
that they easily become
mentally ill.

“tf one could control this

vitamin abnormality, which}!

might require large intakes