This book is well written, referenced, and complete. It should be read by every hospital administrator, every physician, in fact by everyone who values their own health. The biggest threat to our health is not the bacteria, it is our own ignorance and unwillingness to do what has to be done to ensure that we stay healthy.

Here is one example of how a single vitamin can help one of the supergerms go down in defeat. A surgeon called me several years ago. She suffered from tuberculosis of the pericardium and nothing was helping. She was so weak she barely had enough energy to dress and eat. Many years ago niacin was found to have bacteriostatic properties against the tuberculosis bacteria, i.e. it slowed down their rate of growth. Niacin cannot be patented. I assume that for this reason these early studies were dropped and attention was given to isoniazide, vaguely similar. I sent her the reprints. A few weeks later she was much better. A couple of years later I called her but she could not come to the phone. She was too busy in the operating room. One case is not proof, but it is a very important marker because it is statistically highly unlikely that she is the only human to so respond. We need to try the Huemer and Challem approach.

Aging Without Growing Old by Judy L. McFarland. Western Front Ltd, Palos Verdes, CA. 416 pages. Paperback, 1997

We cannot live forever, nor would we want to, but most people would like to be healthy until they do die. We would like to see very little correlation between adding years to our life and becoming old in a physical and mental sense. It is possible that if we lived in an optimum nutritional and psychosocial environment, i.e. optimum for the genes given to us by our parents, we would live much longer than we do. But I doubt this has ever occurred. Roger Williams pointed out many years ago how impossible it would be to provide each cell with the optimum chemical environment. But we can aim for this objective, knowing we can achieve it only partially,

The same two sets of factors apply as they do in the problem of containing bacteria. With aging, bacterial infection probably plays a role, but there are more clear cut biochemical factors such as over oxidation which are much more relevant. All the factors which weaken our resistance against bacteria will weaken our resistance against the factors which age us prematurely. In the same way, we must do our utmost to improve our bodies’ defenses against these factors.

We need a massive antioxidant program to contain the ravages of aging. There is not just one factor, but a large number. In Aging Without Growing old these are described. They include vitamins, minerals, and herbs, all substances that are natural to our bodies. Some of these are better anti aging factors than others. These are described. Special importance is given to the cardiovascular system and to thyroid function.

Finally a nutrition program is recommended. Almost all the nutrition programs designed to reduce aging, to protect against bacterial infection, contain the following elements: (1) to optimize the diet for each individual; (2) to supplement with the important nutrients in optimal amounts. This is the main message of orthomolecular nutrition. When this approach is followed we will live longer and, even more importantly, we will be healthier while we are enjoying enhanced longevity. I have observed that orthomolecular physicians who practice what they preach live longer. They include Linus Pauling, who died age 93, Allan Cott, who died over age 80, Carl C. Pfeiffer, who died over age 80, and Emanuel Cheraskin who is over 80 and still very much alive. They were and are not as healthy physically as they were at age 50, but there was no indication of mental deterioration except with Dr. Cott. These scientists remained productive and shared their scientific discoveries with the medical world until the end. If you want to live longer and feel better, study this book and follow the principles laid down.

Healing Depression by Catherine Carriga. Heartsfire Books, 500 N Guadalupe St, Suite G-465 Santa Fe, NM 87501. 272 pages. Paperback, 1997. US $15.95

This book by Carrigan is mostly for people who have or are suffering from depression, and for their relatives and friends who do not understand what is happening. This probably applies to about 40% of the total population, for it is impossible to know and experience what really happens, unless people who have lived in and through it describe their experiences. Since many will suffer future depressions, learning about what is possible in advance will prepare them to recognize it more quickly, and to take positive action to abort or to treat the disease successfully. It will also protect them from extravagant claims made by many forms of psychotherapy and counseling which are not based upon the whole body the chemical as well as the psychological.

I liked the manuscript which was sent to me by Carrigan, and therefore wrote the foreword which expresses my views about this valuable book. But before trying to persuade you why you should read this book, I should discuss the problems facing us all by the single word ‘depression’. There are many words in native northern languages for describing snow. We also need many words to describe the enormous varieties of moods which are forced into the depression mold. This one word is asked to do too much. A person is depressed if their mother refuses them candy. A failed exam can lead to depression. Loss of a spouse or child will cause major depression, and the same mood appears even when there is no reason whatever why it should be there. The short lived episodes of depression which are a normal response to disap-Book Reviews

pointment or loss, should not be considered in the same category as the prolonged depressions which run on and on with a life of their own, even though they may have been precipitated by social and psychological events. These are the depressions which force patients to seek help from their counselors, psychotherapist, physicians and psychiatrists. These are the ones we see in our offices, and in my case make up about 25% of my practice. Another 25% are schizophrenics, but even they suffer from severe depression.

This book deals mostly with the major depressions, now being called clinical depression in an effort to set these apart as different from grieving, mourning, and other mood disorders which do not require medical or psychiatric help. It is based upon the depression suffered by Carrigan. Her depression forced her to seek the best possible help by reading, study, and consulting others, and impelled her to share what she had discovered with the rest of us. I wish many more people would do the same, as we learn so much more from these accounts than we do from the dryas-dust clinical accounts in text books.

The first step is to discover why the depression is present. This means more than simply diagnosing that depression is present; this is not difficult. Most patients have already diagnosed themselves by the time they see their doctor. There must be a medical determination as to the probable cause of the depression. Unfortunately, psychiatry is the one branch of medicine that pays lip service to diagnosis since in most cases it does not matter what the diagnosis is, the treatment is invariant. For any of the fifty varieties of children with learning and behavioral disorders, the usual treatment is ritalin. For any of the psychoses the treatment is tranquilizers, and for every depression the treatment is one of the many antidepressants.

This book is an orthomolecular book which describes the many physical and psy

chological factors which lead to depression, including allergies. How many people realize they are depressed because they are eating a staple food they love? I have seen hundreds of patients recover from their depression when these foods are identified and removed. Depression will accompany any and every physical disease, and if it does not there is something wrong. For years we were taught that patients with MS were inappropriately cheerful when they should be depressed. Depression may arise from any type of malnutrition, from a deficiency of calories (starvation), to a deficiency of vitamins (e.g. pellagra), to a dependency on vitamins (e.g. schizophrenia).

Thus, the optimum treatment for depression is to recognize the causal factors, to deal with them rationally by altering the diet, by adding the correct nutrients, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and more, and if necessary combining them with the antidepressants. These drugs have anti allergy properties. They are more effective when the orthomolecular approach is used, as described in this good book.

–A. Hoffer, MD, PhD, FRCP(C)