Life, Death, and the Vitamin Quest

Imagine a time when people were getting sick and dying, sometimes large groups of people at the same time, and living in the same area. Although symptoms were similar in each case, the mysterious illnesses defied conventional cures. Nobody could pinpoint the problem. Maybe it was something in the environment, or an unknown virus or bacteria. Doctors tried various remedies, some typical, some bizarre. Still, the victims suffered in misery, or even died a horrific death.

Imagine the astonishment when people began to discover that something as simple as… lemons or cod liver oil in the diet seemed to cure these horrible diseases! Why a lemon? Why were specific foods needed to fix the problem?

Welcome to the world of vitamin discovery, where mysterious illnesses were eventually cured by groundbreaking scientific advancements. Just a few hundred years ago, nobody foresaw that tiny amounts of specific chemical substances could transform human health. Nobody knew that without specific invisible molecules (much too small to be seen with the unaided human eye) the body would get sick and die. Missing molecules were, in fact, the cause of unimaginable suffering. Scientists began to reach a new level of understanding of the relationship between diet and nutrition.

Once these substances which we now call vitamins started to become known, the path to acceptance and scientific consensus remained challenging. People, as we are so often inclined to do, clung to mistaken beliefs.

Fast forward a hundred years, and the era of vitamin discovery is far from over. The field of Bible/science research now intersects with the field of vitamin discovery. And the path forward for these newly discovered vital molecules (the anti-aging vitamins) has proven, so far, to be just as difficult. This new discovery has been greeted with suspicion, subjected to ridicule, and in general met with resistance.

Here at Aardsma Research and Publishing we have been talking about two newly discovered vitamins since 2017. The stories shared on today’s episode help set the stage for next month’s podcast, when we plan to share some stories of our own. This summer re-established some communications with the United States FDA, which we also plan to share on November’s episode.

Join Jennifer and I as we traverse the arduous path of vitamin discovery, one which is lined with remarkable stories and the quest for answers to life-and-death questions.

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