Vitamology Plus Endocrinology

Equals the long sought Basic Science of Therapeutics

The medical profession has long recognized the fact that there has been no logical or scientific basis on which to study either the causes or treatment of chronic disease.

Prof. Sollman, of the Council of Pharmacy of the American Medical Association, wrote in 1908, “A generation ago therapeutics was an art, promising to develop into a science. At present it cannot be classed as an art, nor as a science; it can only be classed as a confusion.”

Charles E. de M. Sajous wrote in 1909, “Skoda’s dictum of several years’ standing ‘that we can diagnose disease, describe it, and get a grasp of it, but we dare not expect by any means to cure it’, has drifted along on the ripples of time, until hardly two years ago the president of a prominent British society, Dr. A. H. Brampton, found it opportune to declare that ‘if any daring member has introduced a subject bearing on medical treatment, it has been with an apologetic air and humble mein, well knowing that if his remarks had any reference to the utility of drugs in the treatment of disease they would be subjected to goodhumored banter, and received by those sitting in the seat of the scornful with amused incredulity.'”

Sajous introduced Endocrinology as a means of putting the treatment of disease on a more scientific plane. He further says, “When, twenty years ago, I was brought face to face with the mass of heterogeneous material we term the “Medical Sciences”, and with the yearly crop of contradictory theories upon each disease, mode of treatment, etc., I soon realized that some gigantic flaw alone could account for so great a confusion.”

In the attempt to find a rational basis for therapeutical science, Sajous spent his life analyzing the physiology and pathology of the endocrine organs, as set forth in his monumental treatise, The Internal Secretions and the Principles of Medicine.

But, tragically enough, Sajous’ previous contact with the “medical” science had so colored his judgment that he sought to bring back to functional efficiency the failing endocrine organ that his studies demonstrated was the cause of a particular disease by the stimulative action of drugs–materials foreign to the body.

We now know that the failing endocrine organ was at fault because of STARVATION. We know that the endocrines are only able to perform their necessary functions when a supply of vitamins is available to them.

The atrophy or hypertrophy of the endocrine organs as a result of vitamin deficiency is one of the outstanding consequences noted in animal experiments with vitamin deficient foods. It has been overlooked that these are Primary consequences, and that the balance of the pathological conditions to be seen are chiefly Secondary matters that are present because of the endocrine defections.

A ductless gland that is subjected to vitamin starvation will either die or swell up. In diabetes, the cells of the Islets of Langerhans die. In toxic goiter, the thyroid swells, and secretes a morbid active principle. Restoration of the vitamin principles in the case of toxic goiter in almost all cases will restore a normal function, because the parenchymatous tissue is not gone. But in the case of the diabetic, the lost cells are gone forever. Restoring the vitamins necessary will help, because it permits a normal function of those remaining cells, but the situation is precarious, because of the loss of essential tissue.

Lymphoid tissue in particular swells as a result of vitamin deficiency. The lymph gland enlargement that results from infection is an indication of local vitamin deficiency, due to the destruction of leucocytes.

Vitamins are essential to the production of both red and white blood cells. Laboratory reports often show a 50 per cent increase of erythrocytes in two weeks, after the administration of “Catalyn” is begun.

The need for the different vitamins in different individuals varies very materially. That is why it is advisable to supply all the vitamins where any deficiency is suspected. Persons with a damaged endocrine, or a degenerated heart, often require heavy supplies to maintain a fair condition of health. The presence of a focal or chronic infection will also necessitate a heavy intake, but with the probability that the condition will then be overcome.

We can here quote again our best authority, Dr. Quigley:

“A certain amount of Vitamin B has come to be associated in the organism with a certain amount of Vitamin A. A certain amount of Vitamin C undoubtedly functions best in the presence of certain amounts of the other vitamins. Like the products of the glands of internal secretion, there is an inter-relationship of action among vitamins which as yet is not clearly understood.” (Notes on Vitamins and Diets, Page 121.)

Physiological chemists are faced with the biggest job they have been confronted with yet, in tracing the network of processes of metabolism and regulation involved in the assimilation of vitamins. They have not gotten very far up to the present even in the simpler job of explaining what occurs in the assimilation of carbohydrates, the simplest of food materials.

But now that we know what the human body needs, and what the indications are when there is a deficiency, we can wait with more equanimity for an explanation. We can get the benefits to be derived from the use of “Catalyn” without knowing exactly what takes place other than the end result, just as we can enjoy the use of the energy in a chocolate bar without knowing the why or the wherefore.