SuperNutrition was founded in 1977 by Patrick Mooney, his son, Michael Mooney, and Sandra Barros, to evaluate and disseminate information about the new breakthroughs in nutritional biochemistry and their effects on health.
Through the then-new developments in technology and biochemistry, orthomolecular doctors (medical doctors who also had training and a special interest in human nutritional biochemistry) had discovered two important facts that would change not only medical practice but the potential for higher levels of health and well being for people everywhere.
RDA's Cover Only The Nutritional Needs Of A Few People
The first discovery was that different dosage levels of nutrients affected health in different ways. In 1943, this discovery resulted in establishment of "recommended daily allowances" (RDA's) for vitamins and essential minerals. RDA's were based on calculations of dosages that would keep almost everyone from experiencing the then-known major nutrient deficiency diseases (like scurvy, pellegra, and rickets). There was not enough scientific knowledge about nutrition then to design the RDA's for optimal health. The RDA's did not take into account many factors which we now know affect the need for nutrients, such as:
heavier people and people living and working in different types of stress, such as:
- smog and pollution
- attacks by germs
- overwork
- busy lifestyles
- stress at home
- stress at work
- environmental toxins
- depressed immune system
- living with a disease
Most Of Us Have Vitamin Dependencies In Our Genes
Compounding this issue was the second discovery, that not only did people's vitamin and mineral needs vary with weight and lifestyle circumstance, but also with individual genetics.
These varying genetic needs found in everyone, were caused by full or partial blockages in the cell's chemical reactions. These are called Inborn Errors of Metabolism.
Termed "vitamin dependencies", these genetic blockages in cellular chemistry often require higher than the "previously-thought-of-as-normal" RDA potencies of vitamins and/or minerals to overcome the blockages and maintain cellular chemistry closer to optimal. These vitamin dependencies vary from person to person.
For example, as far back as 1952, Dr. Abram Hoffer discovered that about two-thirds of people with schizophrenia that he evaluated began to show improvement with 2000 mg to 3000 mg of supplemental niacin daily (which is 100 to 150 times the RDA). Below those levels, there was minimal noticeable improvement.
Hoffer A; Walker M, "Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition" Keats Publishing, New Canaan, 1995, pp. 30-1;
The beneficial effects of niacin are thus termed dose-dependent, meaning that for those people studied, a dose of 2000 mg to 3000 mg is needed to elicit the benefits of relief from schizophrenia, and that lower doses are not effective in eliciting that benefit.
In fact, more than 30 years ago, orthomolecular doctors discovered that many people, in fact, almost all of us, because of faulty genetic variations (Inborn Errors of Metabolism), can need up to fifty or even hundreds of times more of the various vitamins (cofactors) than the RDA's in order to function normally and even healthfully.
Originally, these newly-discovered, more-effective levels of vitamins were termed megavitamin amounts. But more correctly, these additional vitamin needs became termed "vitamin dependencies"; meaning that, to maintain best health, most people needed higher potencies of some vitamins than was previously thought average for their weight and size.
References
Rosenberg LE, "Inherited aminoacidopathies demonstrating vitamin dependency" New England Journal of Medicine 1969 Jul 17;281(3)"145-53
Editorial comment, "Vitamin dependency syndromes" Medical Journal of Australia 1972 Jan 22;1(4):147-85
Hillman RE, "Megavitamin responsive aminoacidopathies" Pediatric Clinics of North America 1976 Aug;23(3);557-67
Rosenberg LE, "Use of cofactors in inborn errors of metabolism" Current Concepts In Nutrition 1979;8:55-64
Fleisher LD; Gaull GE, "Enzyme manipulation by specific megavitamin therapy" Birth Defects Original Article Services, Volume XVI, 1980;16(1)239-67
Cardi E; Sinottici Q, "Inborn Errors of amino acid metabolism treatable with vitamins" Acta Vitamins and Enzymes 1980;2(3-4):124-9
Bartlett K, "Vitamin-responsive inborn errors of metabolism" Advances in Clinical Chemistry 1983;23:141-98
Elsas LJ, McCormick DB, "Genetic defects in vitamin utilization", Vitamins and Hormones 1986;43:103-44
These higher genetic needs extend to minerals as well, though our genetic needs for individual minerals don't vary as much as for vitamins. And the difference may be in the amount of a nutrient the body can absorb. For example, Dr. Robert Heaney's research team at Creighton University has discovered that some people need three times as much calcium intake as other people to absorb the calcium they need for healthy bones. He calls them "low-absorbers" and says the only way to find out whether you are a low-absorber or a high-absorber is to be tested.
Heaney RP et al, Factors associated with calcium absorption efficiency in pre-and perimenopausal women American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000 Aug;72(2)"466-471
The First Orthomolecular Vitamin Formulas Were Used In Hospitals
Two of the first orthomolecular doctors, Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Humphrey Osmond, were psychiatrists, and, in the 1950's, they observed that higher potencies of vitamins in the newly discovered, more effective ratios, changed the lives of schizophrenics and senile people dramatically. They observed that with megadoses of niacin, approximately two-thirds of schizophrenic patients were able to maintain life more normally and stay out of hospitals for longer periods. Further, many of their patients with senile dementia regained much of their mental clarity. This was approximately twice the expected rate of improvement for schizophrenics and the first time there had been any noticeable improvement shown in senile dementia.
Hoffer A; Walker M, "Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition" Keats Publishing, New Canaan, 1995, pp. 30-1;
The 1977 Senate Hearing On Killer Diseases
The word of these high rates of improvement spread through the medical community. The American Psychiatric Association had already commended Drs. Hoffer and Osmond on their earlier work in this area and the New York Times had printed a glowing account of their results. Soon other medical doctors who also understood human nutritional biochemistry were using the newly discovered principles of orthomolecular vitamin-balancing with their patients and observing vastly improved health in addition to significant reductions in diseases. The effects were so impressive that Senator George McGovern led a special "Senate Hearing on Killer Diseases" in 1977 to evaluate the effects of this new approach in fighting some of our worst killer diseases.
Orthomolecular Doctors Point To Whole, Natural Foods As Primary
By then, the small band of orthomolecular doctors had strongly re-affirmed the basic nutrition tenet that the best basic sources of nutrients were wide varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables as close to raw and uncooked as possible. They recognized that this diet supplies the body with not only the already-discovered nutrients but also the full spectrum of the as-yet-to-be-discovered nutrients in rich whole food. (These are now known as phyto-nutrients).
The results of the "1977 Senate Hearing of Killer Diseases" were new U.S. Government recommendations for more fresh fruits and vegetables and less red meat in our diets.
Nobel Prize Winning Chemist, Linus Pauling, Joins The Movement
From a small band of a half dozen biochemist-doctors, the Orthomolecular ranks began growing as the word spread. In the 1960's, Dr. Linus Pauling, a Nobel-Prize winner in Chemistry, came to the same conclusion about people's widely varying vitamin needs and with the same band of biochemist-doctors led by Dr. Abram Hoffer, he formed the first Orthomolecular medical society. In fact, Dr. Pauling coined the term "orthomolecular", using the Greek root word, ortho, meaning "correct", with the Latin word, molecula meaning "molecule" combining together, to mean: using the correct molecule in the correct amount and ratio to rebalance body chemistry at the cellular level.
Note: The first meaning of "orthomolecular" was applied to mental diseases, but as more and different types of doctors joined the orthomolecular ranks, they applied these highly efficient orthomolecular principles to the whole body.
During this time, the concept of orthomolecular medicine broadened into one of orthomolecular nutrition as people began discovering that they didn't have to be sick to use orthomolecular principles and that dramatically new and higher levels of health, energy and well being were available through this new orthomolecular approach to personal health.
Today, there are many thousands of orthomolecular medical doctors and other orthomolecular health care practitioners using the principles discovered almost 50 years ago (although they may not even know the term orthomolecular or where the principles they are practicing originally came from). And as athletes and athletic trainers enhanced their high-tech training with the higher biochemically-balanced vitamin potencies and lifestyle techniques developed by the orthomolecular doctor-biochemists, the endurance, strength and speed of athletes reached new heights and more and more world records began to be broken and the new elite breed of athlete was born.
We Discover The Orthomolecular Doctors - And Join Them
We at SuperNutrition, discovered the work of orthomolecular doctors in 1976, and upon experiencing the great improvement in our own personal health, energy, strength and well being, especially dramatic improvements in memory, decided to help bring this information to the public. At that time, there were only about four hundred medical doctors using orthomolecular principles, and the word had not yet gotten out to the general public. So, we started a non-profit company to bring word of these wonderful discoveries directly to the public.
At that time, there was no public funding for a company disseminating information about vitamin dependencies or orthomolecular vitamins and lifestyle, and we had few resources ourselves. So Dr. Abram Hoffer, the psychiatrist-biochemist who began the orthomolecular movement in 1952, recommended that, to pay for the expenses of disseminating orthomolecular information, we sell the orthomolecular multivitamin formulas that Patrick Mooney, a chemist, had developed for his family.
High-Potency Biochemically-Balanced Multi-Vitamins To The Public For The First Time
In 1978, SuperNutrition brought orthomolecular multivitamin formulations to the public for the first time. At the time, almost all multivitamins were formulated in RDA amounts of vitamins and minerals. The few exceptions were called "high-potency-balanced" multivitamins. "High-potency-balanced multivitamins" then meant having equal potencies of all the vitamins and some of the minerals (usually a 5 mg or a 10 mg "balance"). These multivitamins did not take into account what we all know today& .that the human body needs different potencies of each vitamin and mineral, and that those needs can vary widely from one person to the next. "Balanced" correctly today means putting in the different balances needed for each vitamin and for each person, not 5 or 10 mg of every nutrient.
No Artificial Excipients, Fillers Or Binders, Hypoallergenic
At that time, there were over 100 artificial excipients, fillers and binders (with very long, unpronounceable names) that were standardly used in drugs, drug store vitamins and throughout the supplement manufacturing industry, and there were few vitamin formulas available to the general public that were hypoallergenic. Patrick departed from the manufacturing norms of the day and true to orthomolecular principles of using only ingredients natural and normal to the human body and that would not cause damage to the body or the cells of the body, he was one of the first to gather an array of natural nutrients that would substitute for the artificial excipients, binders and fillers. Further, he used only non-allergenic nutrients, which made SuperNutrition one of the first non-prescription multivitamins to be hypoallergenic.
Other Companies Begin Using Orthomolecular Balances And Potencies
Our orthomolecularly-based multivitamins sold well. It was the first time that people had ever felt the effects of balanced high-potency nutrition. Because these formulations were far more effective than the multivitamins of the day, repeat sales were very high and interest in this new type of multivitamin grew throughout the health and natural foods industry. After two years, in 1980, at one of the first health food industry trade shows, held in Anaheim, there were three other companies using the orthomolecular balance in their multivitamins. And as the word of these super-effective potencies and balances continued to spread, more companies began using orthomolecular potencies and balances. Two years later, at the 1982 trade show in Anaheim, there were fifteen other companies using orthomolecular balances in their multivitamins. Today, many companies in the health and natural food industry use some variation of the orthomolecular balance in their multivitamins.
A Full Family Of Orthomolecular Multi-Vitamins
Our original orthomolecular multi-vitamin, the Opti-Energy Pack, is still the best selling daily multivitamin pack in the world. We now have a full family of orthomolecular multivitamins for men, women and children.
We Pioneered High-Potency Antioxidants
We pioneered the use of high-potency antioxidants in our orthomolecular multivitamin formulas when only four nutrients were commonly recognized as antioxidants: vitamins A, C & E and selenium.
Vitamin A is no longer considered a direct antioxidant, but new extraction techniques have since made beta-carotene available to fill the role vitamin A was thought to have. And selenium is now known to be an essential part of the important antioxidant, glutathione.
But we went further and included in the Opti-Energy Pack, S.O.D. and catalase, two of the body's most common and most important of the antioxidants.
Since then, many dozens of antioxidants have been discovered in fresh fruits and vegetables, and today, one of our most nutritionally powerful formulations is a special, high-potency broad-spectrum antioxidant-phyto-antioxidant formula, developed to be added as an antioxidant booster to any multivitamin.
Patrick Mooney, co-founder and still our formulator, is also President of SuperNutrition. A chemist, he has lectured about orthomolecular medicine and nutrition to medical and scientific societies as well as authoring "The SuperNutrition Handbook."
Kathy Mooney, his daughter, joined SuperNutrition in 1979, earned her MBA in 1986, and today is Chief Operating Officer. Kathy defines the three most important aspects of her job as "our products, our customers, and the people who make up SuperNutrition". She believes that the health and well being of the company's employees and representatives are vital components to the successful delivery of our high quality products to customers who depend on them to maintain their best health. "We are all essential parts of customer service, which is, after all, our primary business."
Michael Mooney, co-founder with Patrick Mooney and Sandra Barros, is National Educator and Scientific Editor. He has been nutrition columnist for Hardgainer and Muscle Media magazines and co-authored Built To Survive, a complimentary medicine survival and wellness manual for people who are HIV positive. Michael publishes a web site www.medibolics.com where he evaluates and discusses integrative medicine concerns for people with HIV. He is nutritional advisor to several medical and non-profit groups and has appeared on many radio and television health talk shows.
Located in San Francisco for 24 years, we recently moved across the San Francisco Bay to Oakland California. We're a highly ethical, old-line family-run vitamin company in the health and natural food industry. We specialize in orthomolecular daily multivitamin formulas and our products are available at Health and Natural Food Stores across the country. Click here to locate one near you.
