Abram Hoffer

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Abram Hoffer (born November 11, 1917 in Saskatchewan ; † May 27, 2009 ) was a Canadian chemist and psychiatrist . Among other things, he researched the effects of LSD and niacin on schizophrenia .

Hoffer's theories on megavitamin therapy for the treatment of mental illness are not accepted by the majority of the medical community.

Life

The first years and training

Hoffer was born on a farm in 1917 in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, the last of four children and son of Israel Hoffer .

He graduated from high school in a rural school, received his PhD from the University of Minnesota, and received his PhD from the University of Toronto.

He and his wife, Rose, had three children, Bill, John and Miriam. His wife Rose died in August 2001.

Scientific career

Hoffer began working for the Saskatchewan government on July 1, 1950 to organize a psychiatric research department. Here he met Dr. Humphry Osmond from England . He assumed that the body of schizophrenic patients contained a chemical with the psychological properties of mescaline, which must be chemically related to adrenaline.

Hoffer and Osmond developed the so-called adrenochrome hypothesis in 1951, which states that adrenaline has been oxidized to adrenochrome and that this causes schizophrenia. They also demonstrated that adrenochrome is a hallucinogen and how it can be made and studied. It was later able to be detected in the body and is now seriously considered as an element of many degenerative diseases of the brain.

Hoffer deduced from this biochemical theory that high doses of vitamin B-3 and vitamin C could be therapeutic in schizophrenia patients.

From 1955 he researched the effect of niacin on the human cholesterol level and after various studies came to the conclusion that niacin has a positive effect on the cholesterol levels in both healthy subjects and those suffering from hypercholesterolemia .

In the 1960s he postulated that he had found the so-called “ mauve factor” in the urine of schizophrenia patients. Since he saw a connection between the factor and various psychiatric illnesses, he treated such patients with high doses of vitamins. However, a number of studies refuted these hypotheses. Nevertheless, Hoffer continued to adhere to his theses and founded the "Journal of Schizophrenia" in 1967, which was later renamed the "Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine".

Fonts (selection)

  • Abram Hoffer, Humphry Osmond: Chemical Basis of Clinical Psychiatry . Springfield IL 1960
  • Abram Hoffer: Niacin therapy in psychiatry (American lecture series) . Springfield IL 1962
  • Abram Hoffer: How to Live With Schizophrenia . 2nd revised ed. Citadel Press, 1992 [1966, 1978]
  • Abram Hoffer: New Hope for Alcoholics . University Books, 1966
  • Abram Hoffer, Humphry Osmond, TE Weckowicz: The Hallucinogens . Academic Press, 1967
  • Abram Hoffer, Humphry Osmond, H Kelm: Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test . Behavior Science Press, Tuscaloosa AL 1975
  • Abram Hoffer, L Pauling: Healing Cancer: Complementary Vitamin & Drug Treatments . CCNM Press, 2004
  • Abram Hoffer, A Saul: Orthomolecular Medicine For Everyone . Basic Health Publications, 2008.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Dyck , 2008, p. 26 .
  2. ↑ orthomolecular.org
  3. ↑ orthomolecular.org
  4. ↑ orthomolecular.org
  5. ↑ orthomolecular.org
  6. ↑ orthomolecular.org
  7. ↑ PMID 14350806
  8. ↑ PMID 13509726
  9. ↑ PMID 13572876
  10. ^ A b Stuart L Jones, Bruce Campbell, Tanya Hart: Laboratory tests commonly used in complementary and alternative medicine: a review of the evidence . In: Annals of Clinical Biochemistry: International Journal of Laboratory Medicine . tape 56 , no. 3 , February 27, 2019, p. 310-325 , doi : 10.1177 / 0004563218824622 .


personal data
SURNAME Hoffer, Abram
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian chemist and psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Saskatchewan
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 2009