In 1968 Linus Pauling introduced the word 'Orthomolecular' in his Science arricie,"0rthomolecular Psychiatry." With this report, now a classic, he announced ro the world his entry into a new field of medicine, much to the discomfort of the medical profession and equally ro the delight of the public at large. He had been familiar with the old vitamins-as-prevenrion paradigm, but within a brief period of time he had jumped into the vitamins-as-treatment paradigm, the modern paradigm which is sweeping into medicine so rapidly today. Adherents to the old paradigm accepted as articles of truth: (1) that vitamins were needed only to prevent vitamin deficiency diseases; (2) that only small quantities were required since they were catalysts; and (3) that they were contraindicated for every other condition not accepted as a vitamin deficiency disease.

Within the past five years the medical profession has begun to distance itself from this paradigm. The modern paradigm is based on a different set of beliefs: (1) that vitamins are useful in a large number of conditions or diseases, not only to prevent vitamin deficiency diseases such as beri beri, pellagra or scurvy; (2) that they are needed in optimum, or orthomolecular amounts, which may be small or large.