Abram Hoffer
Encyclopedia
Abram Hoffer was a Canadian
biochemist
, physician
and psychiatrist
. Hoffer developed a theory that nutrition
and vitamins may be effective treatments for schizophrenia
. This general approach is called orthomolecular psychiatry
(and orthomolecular medicine
when addressing non-psychological issues) by its proponents and is not considered credible within the mainstream medical community. It includes includes the use of megavitamins
and is commonly called megavitamin therapy in general. Hoffer is also known for his "adrenochrome hypothesis" of schizo affective disorders and protocols for remediation based on natural compounds such as vitamins, minerals and specific fats. Hoffer also first developed the clinical use of niacin in hyperholesterolemia and other dyslipidemias.
, Canada
, in 1917, the last of four children. Originally interested in agriculture, in 1940 Hoffer earned a Masters degree agricultural chemistry from University of Saskatchewan
in Saskatoon
. He then took up a scholarship for post-graduate work with the University of Minnesota
, followed by work developing assay
s for niacin
levels at a wheat
products laboratory in Winnipeg
. Hoffer earned a PhD in biochemistry in 1944, and with an interest in nutrition
went on to study medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1945, earning his MD in 1949. He married Rose Miller in 1942, and his son Bill Hoffer was born in 1944 followed by two more children, John and Miriam, in 1947 and 1949. Though initially planning to become a general practitioner, Hoffer became interested in psychiatry
during his internship at the Saskatoon City Hospital
. Hoffer joined the Regina Psychiatric Services Branch, Department of Public Health in 1951, and was the Director of Psychiatric Research until entering private practice in 1967. He also founded the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine with Hugh D. Riordan. Critical of psychiatry for its emphasis on psychosomatic psychoanalysis
and for what he considered a lack of adequate definition and measurement, Hoffer felt that biochemistry
and human physiology may be used instead. He hypothesised that schizophrenics may lack the ability to remove a hallucinogenic metabolite adrenochrome
from their brains and speculated that he could decrease the concentration of adrenochrome in the brain by using vitamin C
to reduce adrenochrome to adrenaline and using niacin
as a methyl acceptor to prevent the conversion of noradrenaline into adrenaline. Hoffer called his theory the "adrenochrome hypothesis".
According to Hoffer and others, by the mid-1960s psychiatry was emphasising the use of neuroleptic drugs
. Hoffer and other researchers were snubbed and became the victims of a conspiracy, with their reports rejected by scientific journals. In 1967, Hoffer resigned some of his academic and administrative positions, entered into private psychiatric practice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and created the Journal of Schizophrenia as a means of publishing articles rejected by some mainstream journals. The journal was called the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
in 1986. In 1976, Hoffer relocated to Victoria, British Columbia
and continued with his private psychiatric practice until his retirement in 2005. Hoffer continued to provide nutritional consultations and served as editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He was also President of the Orthomolecular Vitamin Information Centre in Victoria, BC.
Hoffer died May 27, 2009 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
(who coined the term "psychedelic
"), Hoffer and other scientists sought to find medicinal uses for hallucinogenic drugs. Hoffer, Osmond and others treated alcoholics with LSD. Canadian scientists reported a fifty percent success rate in one study, although Hoffer speculated that it was more likely the psychedelic experience of LSD, rather than simulated delirium tremens, that convinced the alcoholics to stop drinking.
While working at the Regina General Hospital in the 1950s, Hoffer and James Stephen examined the effects of large doses of niacin on various diseases, including schizophrenia
; Hoffer theorized that adrenalin
, when oxidized to adrenochrome
was an endogenous neurotoxin
that could cause schizophrenia. At the same time, another Canadian working in Saskatoon, pathologist
Rudolf Altschul, was exploring the use of high doses of niacin to lower cholesterol in rabbits and patients with degenerative vascular disease. The three combined their work, and in 1955 produced a paper entitled "Influence of nicotinic acid on serum cholesterol in man" that reported high-dose niacin significantly lowered cholesterol in both high cholesterol patients as well as low cholesterol control subjects
. The results were replicated by researchers at the Mayo Clinic
and in Germany
the following year. High dose niacin has since become a treatment option for individuals with high blood cholesterol
and related blood lipid abnormalities
.
At such high doses niacin acts like a drug
rather than a vitamin
and may have side effects
of intense flushing
of the face and torso and, rarely, liver toxicity. Hoffer continued to promote niacin as a treatment for schizophrenia, though this approach was not accepted by mainstream medicine. Subsequent research suggested that Hoffer's adrenochrome theory had merit as people with schizophrenia have defects in the genes that produce glutathione S-transferase
, which eliminates the byproducts of catecholamine
s from the brain.
reported methodological flaws in Hoffer's work on niacin as a schizophrenia treatment and referred to follow-up studies that did not confirm any benefits of the treatment. Multiple additional studies in the United States, Canada, and Australia similarly failed to find benefits of megavitamin therapy to treat schizophrenia. The term "orthomolecular medicine" was labeled a misnomer as early as 1973. Its practices are currently considered by some as inadequate as a treatment for schizophrenia.
Hoffer predicted in the 1950s that it would take at least forty years for his methods to become accepted. In a 2006 interview, Hoffer stated that while he felt that current mainstream psychiatric care was "terrible", his theories and treatments were starting to become more accepted. "[W]e’re at a transition point. If I live another four or five years, I’ll see it." While his research on vitamins and schizophrenia has not been popular with some, the findings that niacin therapy helps reduce cholesterol has been generally agreed upon and frequently demonstrated in multiple independent studies and his contribution here has been significant.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
, physician
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
and psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
. Hoffer developed a theory that nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
and vitamins may be effective treatments for schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. This general approach is called orthomolecular psychiatry
Orthomolecular psychiatry
Orthomolecular psychiatry is the use of orthomolecular medicine for mental illness. The approach uses unorthodox forms of individualized testing and diagnosis to attempt to establish an etiology for each patient's specific symptoms, and claims to tailor the treatment accordingly, using a...
(and orthomolecular medicine
Orthomolecular medicine
Orthomolecular medicine is a form of complementary and alternative medicine that seeks to maintain health and prevent or treat diseases by optimizing nutritional intake and/or prescribing supplements...
when addressing non-psychological issues) by its proponents and is not considered credible within the mainstream medical community. It includes includes the use of megavitamins
Megavitamin therapy
Megavitamin therapy is the use of large doses of vitamins, often many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance in the attempt to prevent or treat diseases...
and is commonly called megavitamin therapy in general. Hoffer is also known for his "adrenochrome hypothesis" of schizo affective disorders and protocols for remediation based on natural compounds such as vitamins, minerals and specific fats. Hoffer also first developed the clinical use of niacin in hyperholesterolemia and other dyslipidemias.
Biography
Hoffer was born in southern SaskatchewanSaskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, in 1917, the last of four children. Originally interested in agriculture, in 1940 Hoffer earned a Masters degree agricultural chemistry from University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
in Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
. He then took up a scholarship for post-graduate work with the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, followed by work developing assay
Assay
An assay is a procedure in molecular biology for testing or measuring the activity of a drug or biochemical in an organism or organic sample. A quantitative assay may also measure the amount of a substance in a sample. Bioassays and immunoassays are among the many varieties of specialized...
s for niacin
Niacin
"Niacin" redirects here. For the neo-fusion band, see Niacin .Niacin is an organic compound with the formula and, depending on the definition used, one of the forty to eighty essential human nutrients.Niacin is one of five vitamins associated with a pandemic deficiency disease: niacin deficiency...
levels at a wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
products laboratory in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. Hoffer earned a PhD in biochemistry in 1944, and with an interest in nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
went on to study medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1945, earning his MD in 1949. He married Rose Miller in 1942, and his son Bill Hoffer was born in 1944 followed by two more children, John and Miriam, in 1947 and 1949. Though initially planning to become a general practitioner, Hoffer became interested in psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
during his internship at the Saskatoon City Hospital
Saskatoon City Hospital
Saskatoon City Hospital is a public hospital in the City Park neighborhood of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was originally opened in 1909, and it was the second municipal hospital in Canada. The hospital is operated by the Saskatoon Health Region....
. Hoffer joined the Regina Psychiatric Services Branch, Department of Public Health in 1951, and was the Director of Psychiatric Research until entering private practice in 1967. He also founded the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine with Hugh D. Riordan. Critical of psychiatry for its emphasis on psychosomatic psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and for what he considered a lack of adequate definition and measurement, Hoffer felt that biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
and human physiology may be used instead. He hypothesised that schizophrenics may lack the ability to remove a hallucinogenic metabolite adrenochrome
Adrenochrome
Adrenochrome, chemical formula C9H9NO3, is a pigment obtained by the oxidation of adrenaline . The derivative carbazochrome is a hemostatic medication.-Chemistry:...
from their brains and speculated that he could decrease the concentration of adrenochrome in the brain by using vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...
to reduce adrenochrome to adrenaline and using niacin
Niacin
"Niacin" redirects here. For the neo-fusion band, see Niacin .Niacin is an organic compound with the formula and, depending on the definition used, one of the forty to eighty essential human nutrients.Niacin is one of five vitamins associated with a pandemic deficiency disease: niacin deficiency...
as a methyl acceptor to prevent the conversion of noradrenaline into adrenaline. Hoffer called his theory the "adrenochrome hypothesis".
According to Hoffer and others, by the mid-1960s psychiatry was emphasising the use of neuroleptic drugs
Antipsychotic
An antipsychotic is a tranquilizing psychiatric medication primarily used to manage psychosis , particularly in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A first generation of antipsychotics, known as typical antipsychotics, was discovered in the 1950s...
. Hoffer and other researchers were snubbed and became the victims of a conspiracy, with their reports rejected by scientific journals. In 1967, Hoffer resigned some of his academic and administrative positions, entered into private psychiatric practice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and created the Journal of Schizophrenia as a means of publishing articles rejected by some mainstream journals. The journal was called the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine was established in 1967 by Abram Hoffer. It publishes studies in nutritional and orthomolecular medicine...
in 1986. In 1976, Hoffer relocated to Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
and continued with his private psychiatric practice until his retirement in 2005. Hoffer continued to provide nutritional consultations and served as editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He was also President of the Orthomolecular Vitamin Information Centre in Victoria, BC.
Hoffer died May 27, 2009 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Research
Working with Humphry OsmondHumphry Osmond
Humphry Fortescue Osmond was a British psychiatrist known for inventing the word psychedelic and for using psychedelic drugs in medical research...
(who coined the term "psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
"), Hoffer and other scientists sought to find medicinal uses for hallucinogenic drugs. Hoffer, Osmond and others treated alcoholics with LSD. Canadian scientists reported a fifty percent success rate in one study, although Hoffer speculated that it was more likely the psychedelic experience of LSD, rather than simulated delirium tremens, that convinced the alcoholics to stop drinking.
While working at the Regina General Hospital in the 1950s, Hoffer and James Stephen examined the effects of large doses of niacin on various diseases, including schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
; Hoffer theorized that adrenalin
Epinephrine
Epinephrine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. It increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, dilates air passages and participates in the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system. In chemical terms, adrenaline is one of a group of monoamines called the catecholamines...
, when oxidized to adrenochrome
Adrenochrome
Adrenochrome, chemical formula C9H9NO3, is a pigment obtained by the oxidation of adrenaline . The derivative carbazochrome is a hemostatic medication.-Chemistry:...
was an endogenous neurotoxin
Neurotoxin
A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells , usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Some sources are more general, and define the effect of neurotoxins as occurring at nerve tissue...
that could cause schizophrenia. At the same time, another Canadian working in Saskatoon, pathologist
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
Rudolf Altschul, was exploring the use of high doses of niacin to lower cholesterol in rabbits and patients with degenerative vascular disease. The three combined their work, and in 1955 produced a paper entitled "Influence of nicotinic acid on serum cholesterol in man" that reported high-dose niacin significantly lowered cholesterol in both high cholesterol patients as well as low cholesterol control subjects
Scientific control
Scientific control allows for comparisons of concepts. It is a part of the scientific method. Scientific control is often used in discussion of natural experiments. For instance, during drug testing, scientists will try to control two groups to keep them as identical and normal as possible, then...
. The results were replicated by researchers at the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
and in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
the following year. High dose niacin has since become a treatment option for individuals with high blood cholesterol
Hypercholesterolemia
Hypercholesterolemia is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is not a disease but a metabolic derangement that can be caused by many diseases, notably cardiovascular disease...
and related blood lipid abnormalities
Hyperlipidemia
Hyperlipidemia, hyperlipoproteinemia, or hyperlipidaemia is the condition of abnormally elevated levels of any or all lipids and/or lipoproteins in the blood...
.
At such high doses niacin acts like a drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
rather than a vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
and may have side effects
Adverse effect
In medicine, an adverse effect is a harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication or other intervention such as surgery.An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. If it results from an unsuitable or incorrect dosage or...
of intense flushing
Flushing (physiology)
For a person to flush is to become markedly red in the face and often other areas of the skin, from various physiological conditions. Flushing is generally distinguished, despite a close physiological relation between them, from blushing, which is milder, generally restricted to the face, cheeks or...
of the face and torso and, rarely, liver toxicity. Hoffer continued to promote niacin as a treatment for schizophrenia, though this approach was not accepted by mainstream medicine. Subsequent research suggested that Hoffer's adrenochrome theory had merit as people with schizophrenia have defects in the genes that produce glutathione S-transferase
Glutathione S-transferase
Enzymes of the glutathione S-transferase family are composed of many cytosolic, mitochondrial, and microsomal proteins. GSTs are present in eukaryotes and in prokaryotes, where they catalyze a variety of reactions and accept endogenous and xenobiotic substrates.GSTs can constitute up to 10% of...
, which eliminates the byproducts of catecholamine
Catecholamine
Catecholamines are molecules that have a catechol nucleus consisting of benzene with two hydroxyl side groups and a side-chain amine. They include dopamine, as well as the "fight-or-flight" hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline released by the adrenal medulla of the adrenal glands in response to...
s from the brain.
Controversy
Hoffer's claims regarding schizophrenia and his theories of orthomolecular medicine are questioned by some. In 1973, the American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
reported methodological flaws in Hoffer's work on niacin as a schizophrenia treatment and referred to follow-up studies that did not confirm any benefits of the treatment. Multiple additional studies in the United States, Canada, and Australia similarly failed to find benefits of megavitamin therapy to treat schizophrenia. The term "orthomolecular medicine" was labeled a misnomer as early as 1973. Its practices are currently considered by some as inadequate as a treatment for schizophrenia.
Hoffer predicted in the 1950s that it would take at least forty years for his methods to become accepted. In a 2006 interview, Hoffer stated that while he felt that current mainstream psychiatric care was "terrible", his theories and treatments were starting to become more accepted. "[W]e’re at a transition point. If I live another four or five years, I’ll see it." While his research on vitamins and schizophrenia has not been popular with some, the findings that niacin therapy helps reduce cholesterol has been generally agreed upon and frequently demonstrated in multiple independent studies and his contribution here has been significant.