Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame
Inducted 2020Bo H. Jonsson was born and grew up in Uppsala, Sweden. There were no other physicians in his family. He first studied medicine at Lund University and later moved to Stockholm and continued at Karolinska Institutet where he graduated as an MD. His professor during the course in psychiatry was Lennart Wetterberg who published a paper on kryptopyrrole in Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry in 1972. During the 1990s Jonsson participated in stress research and eventually wrote his dissertation on the psychophysiology of functional dyspepsia.
That vitamins and other nutrients can affect health was something Jonsson read about in the early 1970s, but nothing of this was taught in medical school. Having worked as a physician for forty years, mostly as psychiatrist, Jonsson found it fruitful to combine all kinds of knowledge in the work with patients. Instead of just considering symptoms and medication he wanted to integrate evolutionary and holistic dimensions, comprising genetics, somatic health, psychosocial and cultural factors, lifestyle including diet, supplements, physical activity, sleep, stress management, toxins and other environmental aspects.
Most of the time Jonsson has worked clinically with patients, but he is still affiliated with the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet. He is President of the Swedish Society for Orthomolecular Medicine which, with Karin Munsterhjelm and other colleagues, he founded in 2008. Together with Andrew W Saul, PhD, in 2012 he published The Vitamin Cure for Depression: How to Prevent and Treat Depression Using Nutrition and Vitamin Supplementation (which is also translated to Spanish). Jonsson has presented at numerous conferences including at the Annual International Orthomolecular Medicine Today Conference. His latest scientific paper in 2018 showed a full response from niacin in a patient with bipolar disorder.
For his pioneering work in Orthomolecular Medicine and Psychiatry in Sweden, Bo Jonsson was inducted into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame on Friday, September 25, 2020.
