Page 52 - Spring2015

It wasnt until Adolf Windaus (1876-1959) to work on the bock Units or Oslo Rat Units defined as “the

1980 that the substance of cholesterol and the anti-rachitic total amount of vitamin D which will produce
factor. Windaus and Hess worked together to a narrow line of calcium deposits in the rachitic
sequence of test over thirty different plant substances before metaphysis of the distal ends of the radii and
steps leading they finally isolated ergosterol, a fungal steroid ulnae of standard rachitic rats in a period of ten
to the from ergot which when irradiated was effective days.” Steenbock Units were declared to equal
in curing rickets. They named this substance 3.2 IUs (international units). To add to the confu-
production of vitamin D . It was purified in 1931 by Windaus sion, also in existence were U.S.P. (United States
37
2
cholcalciferol and his team who also established its structure Pharmacopeia) units, ADMA units (American
in the skin was in 1936. For this work he was awarded the Nobel Drug Manufacturers Association), and others. 45
After their discovery, vitamins D and D
Prize in chemistry. In 1937 Windaus and Beck
3
2
described isolated 7-dehydrocholesterol (7 DHC), which were considered equivalent in vitamin potency, a
by Michael when irradiated became vitamin D , present in confusion that continues today and is propagated
3
46
Holick, PhD, animals, human skin, and animal-source foods, by Dr. Holick. Many recent papers discuss
and synthesized it in 1935. Windaus went on to the biochemical difference. But already early
47
one of the establish the formula for cholesterol, its relation- papers discussed the fact that more and more
current ship to bile acids, and other functions. 39,41 viosterol (ergosterol) was needed to cure rickets,
It wasn’t until 1980 that the sequence of steps and that high amounts cause vitamin D hyper-
vitamin D leading to the production of cholecalciferol in the vitaminosis. Dr. Weston Price, throughout his
48
experts. skin was described by Michael F. Holick, PhD, book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
one of the current vitamin D experts. criticized the overuse of viosterol and considered
42
it dangerous as it led to calcification of the soft
HARRY STEENBOCK AND VITAMIN D tissues. 49
Harry Steenbock (1886-1967) was one of
the first students of E.V. McCollum (see page 51) JOSEPH GOLDBERGER: VITAMIN B
3
at the University of Wisconsin; he later became AND THE PUZZLE OF PELLAGRA
professor of biochemistry at the same university. Pellagra, from the Italian word meaning
He demonstrated in 1924 that irradiation by “rough skin,” a deficiency disease of vitamin B 3
ultraviolet light increased the vitamin D con- (niacin), was widespread during the American
tent of food, especially milk, and that it cured Civil War and in the southern states of the U.S.
rickets in rats. Quaker Oats offered him one in the nineteenth century. It was very common
million dollars for his patent on his technique among inmates of lunatic asylums and prisons.
1
but Steenbock gave the rights to the Wisconsin In 1912 around thirty thousand cases were
Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which reported in South Carolina with a 40 percent
he founded with other alumni. WARF then sold mortality rate. Pellagra commissions were set
the patent to Quaker Oats and also licensed the up by Congress and private individuals, but
technology for pharmaceutical companies for the these authorities denied that pellagra could be
patented medical application called “Viosterol,” caused by malnutrition. The official cause was
which eventually almost completely replaced cod deemed either syphilis, sun exposure, corn toxin,
liver oil as a treatment for rickets. 43 or a disease imported by immigrants. In 1914
According to the Vitamin D Council, “in the Surgeon General appointed Dr. Goldberger
1943 the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (1874-1929), an officer in the Public Health Ser-
stripped Steenbock of his patent, labeling Pro- vice and a “seasoned epidemiologist,” himself an
fessor Steenbock’s work a ̔discovery̕ and not immigrant son from the East Coast, to investigate
an invention. By that time, Steenbock’s patent pellagra and determine its cause.
had already delivered 7.5 million dollars to the Dr. Goldberger immediately noted that staffs
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. That in institutions where pellagra was rampant were
is equal to about one hundred million dollars in not affected by the disease. The inmates and
2012.” 44 the poor ate diets largely restricted to fatback,
Early on, vitamin D was measured in Steen- cornmeal, sweet potatoes and molasses. But other
50 Wise Traditions SPRING 2015 Wise Traditions

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