HENRY SCHROEDER, MD – A MINERAL SCIENCE PIONEER

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

© July 2013, L.D. Wilson Consultants, Inc.

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

One of the most brilliant scientists of the twentieth century was Henry A. Schroeder, MD (1906-1976?). He is an important forerunner of nutritional balancing science, as he contributed knowledge and research about minerals that is used in this science today. Among his contributions to the work of Dr. Paul Eck and myself are:

1. The central role of the minerals in nutrition. Dr. Schroeder wrote “the trace elements are more important in nutrition than the minerals, in the sense that they cannot be synthesized by living matter, as is the case with the vitamins. Thus they are the basic spark plugs in the chemistry of life, on which the exchanges of energy in the combustion of foods, and the building of living tissue depend.” – preface, The Trace Elements And Man

2. The concept of mineral replacement by other minerals that “look like” the correct mineral in terms of its outer electron shell. This I sometimes refer to as the concept of preferred minerals. It is a key concept in nutritional balancing science. The basic idea is that if one is deficient in a vital trace mineral, the body will try to replace that mineral with another that does not work as well, but will activate or catalyze certain enzymes to a degree, in order to keep the body functioning. These are termed less preferred minerals. For example, metalo-enzymes that should contain zinc can often work to some degree with cadmium, copper, or even mercury in them, instead of zinc.

Nutritional balancing science seeks to replace the less preferred mineral with a more preferred mineral to improve the functioning of millions of enzymes, and therefore to improve overall health. At one level, this is the essence of nutritional balancing science.

3. Henry Schroeder was one of the first scientists to assemble all the knowledge of his day into a coherent science of minerals. For this, we owe him a great gratitude.

ABOUT HENRY SCHROEDER, MD – A SOMEWHAT HUMOROUS ACCOUNT FROM WWW.NOTA DOC.ORG

Dr. Schroeder was a graduate of Columbia and Yale, and long time professor at Dartmouth. He also operated a trace mineral research laboratory in Brattleboro, Vermont. Dr. Schroeder is the reason we have the low sodium diet and current drug protocols for hypertension -- though his later research noted important corrections that have never been heeded.

Dr. Henry Alfred Schroeder, M.D., Ph.D., graduate of Columbia and Yale, and professor at Dartmouth medical school wrote more than 30 years ago that “the typical American diet, with about 60 per cent of its calories from refined sugar, refined flour, and fat … was apparently designed not only to provide as little chromium as feasible, but to cause depletion of body stores of chromium.”

Dr. Schroeder compared tissue levels of chromium in teenagers and those 40 years of age in Americans to those of three other cultures that did not follow after Westernized dietary choices in Mideast, southeast Asian, and African communities. He discovered very little change in the non-American cultures but dramatic decreases in Americans. Almost 25 per cent of Americans had no detectable levels of chromium at all by the age of 40! That was more than 30 years ago and things have not gotten any better – if anything things are worse.

"New" news? Low levels of the mineral chromium in the body are associated with increased heart attacks according to a new study in the current American Journal of Epidemiology.

There was much other information provided by the study researchers about chromium including:

· Chromium deficiency leads to blood sugar problems

· Chromium levels decline almost 10 per cent per decade of life

· Chromium is important for carbohydrate and fat metabolism

Further study by the research team on U.S. adult chromium intake noted that for "a substantial proportion of subjects" dietary levels "may be well below" amounts considered adequate.

Monkeying around. Five years ago chromium intake was discovered to be substantially less than had been determined more than 30 years prior had. The Institute of Monkeysedicine (Institute of Medicine or IOM) took a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" approach on this matter.

The Institute of Madnessedicine decided to dramatically reduce recommended dietary intake of chromium rather than sound a warning about its serious decline in U.S. diets.

The IOM is the primary advisor paid attention to by the U.S. government so their recommendation was accepted, published and promoted.

That makes doubly frightening these current findings that chromium intake may be well below those new guidelines.

From monkeys to ostriches. The connection of heart problems to low levels of chromium was reported as largely unknown in the current "news" story. That is only because of the "head in the sand" approach by mainstream science researchers.

More than 30 years ago the case for chromium deficiency and heart disease was substantially developed by noted research scholar Dr. Henry Alfred Schroeder. The background of Dr. Schroeder included receiving the highest award from the American Heart Association.

All the current findings (and more) were detailed by Dr. Schroeder more than 30 years ago. The extensive research of Dr. Schroeder on chromium and heart disease has been largely ignored ever since that time.

Bird brains? The current researchers still have their heads at least half in the sand as they cautioned against chromium supplementation until "considerably more evidence"is provided "as well as to show the long-term safety of chromium supplementation in humans."

The excitement generated by chromium research more than 30 years ago brought about safety studies for chromium intake at that time. Chromium was tested up to 10,000 micrograms daily with no adverse effects. That was such a ridiculously high amount that no further testing was done to determine a harmful level. Admittedly, that was before the advent of chromium picolinate in the marketplace which has been noted as potentially harmful at much lower levels than that.

Trying to make a monkey out of you. The attitude of mainstream science researchers with regard to nutrients is commonly one of "don't try this at home -- leave it to the professionals". This is for two reasons.

First, they want plenty of money over a long haul to research i.e. job security. The second is related to the first. If you start taking responsibility for your own health and find that nutrition works then there will be no more millions for research i.e. job security again.

Finally for now …

A very important item to note is that chromium supplements are dramatically more effective when in a whole food form that is grown rather than synthesized. Manmade forms are dramatically less effective.”

- By NotADoc at 07/27/2005

Books by Henry Schroeder include The Trace Elements And Man, 1973, (his main book), Pollution, Profits and Progress, 1971, and The Poisons Around Us: The Unseen Dangers In Our Air, Water, Cookware And Food, And Their Leading Role In Sickness And Death (1994). He also wrote four other books. In addition, he authored or co-authored over 100 scientific journal articles about heart disease, chromium, cadmium and other mineral-related topics.

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