FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, September 21, 2025

Orthomolecular Medicine and MAHA: A Historic Opportunity for Health Reform

By Richard Z. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this month, OMNS published Why Reforming the CDC Is Essential . That article argued that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has become too narrow, too pharma-centric, and too compromised by conflicts of interest to meet today's health challenges. True reform requires integrating nutritional immunology, metabolic health, and environmental medicine into its mission.

The response was strong. One reader wrote:

"Without doubt recognition of orthomolecular medicine needs to be embraced as one of the disciplines to improve health of the millions. But asking to get rid of the historic staff that has served the nation is to open a door to the current charlatan Kennedy and his tribe... Kennedy is espousing the most idiotic of measures, making vaccines difficult to access, denouncing the use of healthy oils and others. Some measures are useful, such getting rid of artificial additives, but most of his measures are just cranky, non science-based measures. Don't trust him."

This reaction highlights a key division-even within the OM community. Many of us are deeply anti-establishment, skeptical of Big Pharma, and convinced that medical reform is overdue. Yet when political leaders like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump carry that same anti-establishment banner, some in OM recoil.

This is the crossroads: Are we with the establishment, or against it? There is no safe middle ground.

Orthomolecular Medicine: Always Anti-Establishment

From Linus Pauling onward, OM has challenged the entrenched medical order:

• Nutrition over drugs: Correcting micronutrient deficiencies as a primary therapy.
• Root causes over symptom suppression: Looking upstream at diet, toxins, and oxidative stress.
• Skepticism of Big Pharma dominance: Documenting, decade after decade, how safe, effective vitamin therapies were ignored while marginally effective drugs were aggressively marketed.

Orthomolecular medicine has always been anti-establishment. What is different today is that for the first time, a political movement exists that is openly challenging the same establishment forces that suppressed OM.

The MAHA Moment

The MAGA/MAHA movement (Make America Healthy Again) is far more than an election slogan. It is the first large-scale political force to:

• Expose the capture of public health agencies by pharmaceutical interests.
• Question the dogma of one-size-fits-all medicine.
• Support medical freedom and patient choice.
• Call for a return to natural health principles, including nutrition, food quality, and environmental health.

For decades, OM fought alone. Now, there is a movement with leadership, momentum, and public support willing to challenge the same entrenched powers. This is not the time to hesitate. It is the time to stand firm.

Why Some in OM Resist

We must acknowledge why some OM professionals remain wary:

1. Fear of discredit: Association with controversial figures may attract criticism.
2. Scientific standards: OM is grounded in biochemistry, while political rhetoric can be careless.
3. Caution from experience: Many past reforms were promised but never delivered.

But hesitation comes at a cost. The establishment has no intention of reforming itself. Waiting for the "perfect" messenger is another way of doing nothing.

No Middle Ground

The truth is simple:

• You are either with the establishment that protects Big Pharma at all costs, suppresses nutrition, and blocks medical freedom...
• Or you are against it.

Orthomolecular medicine cannot pretend to be neutral. Neutrality has meant marginalization for 60 years.

MAHA may not be perfect. No political movement ever is. But it is the only force today with the courage to confront entrenched interests head-on. And it will not succeed without the science and credibility that OM brings.

Standing Firm with MAHA

OM should not shrink from this historical moment. We must:

• Provide the science: decades of biochemical evidence on vitamins C, D, niacin, magnesium, omega-3s, and more.
• Demonstrate clinical outcomes: thousands of patients whose health improved when pharmaceuticals failed.
• Educate the public: translating nutritional biochemistry into accessible health freedom knowledge.
• Support reform leaders: bringing orthomolecular evidence into the policy debate so reforms are guided by data, not slogans.

MAHA needs OM's foundation. OM needs MAHA's platform. Together, true health reform is possible.

A Call to the OM Community

This is not about partisan loyalty. It is about recognizing a historical opportunity.

For decades, OM was dismissed because we lacked political allies. Today, we finally have them. Some will say, "But I don't like the personality." To them we answer: reform is never led by perfect figures-it is led by those willing to confront entrenched power.

If we miss this moment, we may wait another 50 years.

Conclusion

Orthomolecular medicine was born anti-establishment. Today, the MAHA movement is the only serious anti-establishment force with the strength to challenge the pharmaceutical-industrial complex and reform public health.

We face a choice. Either stand with the establishment that has suppressed OM for six decades, or stand with the movement that finally opens the door for change.

OM must stand firm. This is our time.

About the Author

Richard Z. Cheng, M.D., Ph.D. - Editor-in-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

Dr. Cheng is a U.S.-trained and board-certified physician practicing in the USA and China. He specializes in integrative and orthomolecular medicine with clinical expertise in low-carb nutrition, high-dose vitamin therapy, anti-aging, and functional medicine. Dr. Cheng also serves internationally as a medical educator, health consultant, and advocate for root-cause, nutrition-based healthcare reform.

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Editorial Review Board:

Jennifer L. Aliano, M.S., L.Ac., C.C.N. (USA)
Albert G. B. Amoa, MB.Ch.B, Ph.D. (Ghana)
Seth Ayettey, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D. (Ghana)
Ilyès Baghli, M.D. (Algeria)
Greg Beattie, Author (Australia)
Barry Breger, M.D. (Canada)
Ian Brighthope, MBBS, FACNEM (Australia)
Gilbert Henri Crussol, D.M.D. (Spain)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Ian Dettman, Ph.D. (Australia)
Susan R. Downs, M.D., M.P.H. (USA)
Ron Ehrlich, B.D.S. (Australia)
Hugo Galindo, M.D. (Colombia)
Gary S. Goldman, Ph.D. (USA)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Claus Hancke, MD, FACAM (Denmark)
Patrick Holford, BSc (United Kingdom)
Ron Hunninghake, M.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Dwight Kalita, Ph.D. (USA)
Felix I. D. Konotey-Ahulu, M.D., FRCP (Ghana)
Peter H. Lauda, M.D. (Austria)
Fabrice Leu, N.D., (Switzerland)
Alan Lien, Ph.D. (Taiwan)
Homer Lim, M.D. (Philippines)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Pedro Gonzalez Lombana, M.D., Ph.D. (Colombia)
Diana MacKay (Gifford-Jones), M.P.P. (Canada)
Victor A. Marcial-Vega, M.D. (Puerto Rico)
Juan Manuel Martinez, M.D. (Colombia)
Mignonne Mary, M.D. (USA)
Dr.Aarti Midha M.D., ABAARM (India)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Sarah Myhill, MB, BS (United Kingdom)
Tahar Naili, M.D. (Algeria)
Zhiwei Ning, M.D., Ph.D. (China)
Zhiyong Peng, M.D. (China)
Pawel Pludowski, M.D. (Poland)
Isabella Akyinbah Quakyi, Ph.D. (Ghana)
Selvam Rengasamy, MBBS, FRCOG (Malaysia)
Jeffrey A. Ruterbusch, D.O. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Thomas N. Seyfried, Ph.D. (USA)
Han Ping Shi, M.D., Ph.D. (China)
T.E. Gabriel Stewart, M.B.B.CH. (Ireland)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Dr. Sunil Wimalawansa, M.D., Ph.D. (Sri Lanka)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Founding & Former Editor
Richard Cheng, M.D., Ph.D. (USA), Editor-In-Chief
Associate Editor: Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Editor, Japanese Edition: Atsuo Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D. (Japan)
Editor, Chinese Edition: Richard Cheng, M.D., Ph.D. (USA)
Editor, Norwegian Edition: Dag Viljen Poleszynski, Ph.D. (Norway)
Editor, Arabic Edition: Moustafa Kamel, R.Ph, P.G.C.M (Egypt)
Editor, Korean Edition: Hyoungjoo Shin, M.D. (South Korea)
Editor, Spanish Edition: Sonia Rita Rial, PhD (Argentina)
Editor, German Edition: Bernhard Welker, M.D. (Germany)
Associate Editor, Arabic Edition: Ayman Kamel, DVM, MBA (Egypt)
Associate Editor, German Edition: Gerhard Dachtler, M.Eng. (Germany)
Assistant Editor: Michael Passwater (USA)
Contributing Editor: Thomas E. Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Contributing Editor: Damien Downing, M.B.B.S., M.R.S.B. (United Kingdom)
Contributing Editor: W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Contributing Editor: Michael J. Gonzalez, N.M.D., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Technology Editor: Michael S. Stewart, B.Sc.C.S. (USA)
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