Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame
Inducted 2007“Bernard Rimland calls drugs ‘toximolecular medicines,’ meaning involving toxic molecules instead of the “correct” molecules of orthomolecular medicine. I agree with his choice of words.”
-Linus Pauling, Ph.D.
In the early 1960s, Bernard Rimland, PhD, was the man who made the then-revolutionary discovery that autism is a biological disorder. He outlined the evidence in his 1964 book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior. Based on reports from parents of autistic children, Rimland investigated high-dose vitamin B6 therapy. While other authorities in the autism field considered the idea that a vitamin could correct a brain disorder to be preposterous, to date, 22 studies (including 13 double-blind studies) show that vitamin B6, typically combined with magnesium, benefits a large percentage of autistic children.
When Dr. Rimland learned that most childhood vaccines contained thimerosal-a preservative that is nearly 50% mercury, a powerful neurotoxin- he realized that the escalating numbers of vaccines given to children could be the culprit behind skyrocketing rates of autism. The medical establishment, not surprisingly, expressed great antagonism toward this theory. To overcome such resistance, Rimland created the Autism Society of America, the Autism Research Institute, and the Defeat Autism Now! (DAN) project, which grew from a small first meeting into a worldwide movement.He also served on the JOM Board for many years.
Writes Woody R. McGinnis, MD: “Any mechanistic hypothesis for autism should accommodate the successful application of high-dose vitamin B6 pioneered by Bernard Rimland.” Excerpted in part from http://www.autismwebsite.com
