Download a PDF of the Fall/Winter 2009 Research Newsletter
The "News Focus" section of the September 25th, 2009, issue of the journal Science featured an article on the use of micronutrient supplements to attenuate violence in prisons by inmates. The article cited Linus Pauling's seminal paper, "Orthomolecular Psychiatry," published in Science in 1968 that discussed "the treatment of mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind."
Dr. Bernard Gesch recently initiated a randomized, double-blind clinical trial in a violent prison in Scotland to determine if daily supplementation with vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids will affect violent behavior. The trial is designed as a follow-up to an earlier study by Dr. Gesch in England that found prisoners who received supplemental micronutrients exhibited less violent behavior than non-supplemented prisoners. B vitamins, vitamin C, essential minerals and fatty acids, and other micronutrients affect brain function in many ways, including neuronal activity, synthesis of neurotransmitters, and, possibly, by reducing heavy metal burden. Many diets, including those in institutions, do not provide adequate amounts of important micronutrients, which may lead to anti-social behavior. If the putative value of micronutrient supplements can be confirmed, more institutions—not only prisons—worldwide may adopt this nutritional strategy to decrease violent behavior.
The biennial meeting of the Oxygen Club of California on Oxidants and Antioxidants in Biology: Translational Redox Science, co-sponsored by the Linus Pauling Institute, will be held on March 17-20, 2010, in Santa Barbara, California. The meeting will feature keynote lectures by Johannes von Lintig (the Norman Krinsky Memorial Lecture) and Nobel Prize winners Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier, as well as scientific sessions on:
Forty-one scientists
are scheduled to
give presentations.
Additionally,
scientific posters
will be presented,
and both young
and established
investigators will be
recognized and honored
with awards, including the
Oxygen Club of California Science
Prize, the Science and Humanity Award,
and the Young Investigator Awards. For more
information, please visit the Oxygen Club of California Web site.
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