A Global Perspective on Orthomolecular Medicine with Dr. Richard Z. Cheng

Riordan Clinic [00:00:15]:
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Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:00:56]:
Okay, well, welcome.

Riordan Clinic [00:00:57]:
Our mission functional and integrated.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:01:01]:
My great privilege today to introduce one

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:01:04]:
of our newest board members, Dr. Richard Cheng. And Dr. Cheng is an Orthomolecular Doctor from China who has both an office here in the United States and in China. So may I call you Richard? I’m.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:01:20]:
Oh, Richard. Yes, sir. Yeah.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:01:21]:
Richard, welcome to the Riordan Clinic Board of Directors. We’re so glad to have you aboard.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:01:30]:
So thank you so much, Ron. It’s a great honor.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:01:32]:
Yeah. So tell us, I know probably, you know, you’re. You’re a conventional MD, but how did you get interested in orthomolecular medicine?

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:01:45]:
All right, that’s a great, great question. Yes, I. I have been in the medicine medical field for actually exactly 50 years. I went into medicine. Yeah. 1976. Now it’s 2026.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:01:59]:
Wow.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:02:00]:
But anyway, so I was trained as a conventional internist, and I went, you know, I came to the United States 40 years ago. Yes. I have been more living longer, more years in the United States than in China. And so I finished my PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, and then I went on to redo the medicine residency, and I ended up doing a fellowship in cancer. So my PhD was in cancer in carcinogenesis, and I did a fellowship at the NCI NIH studying lymphoma in particular. So cancer is not new to me. And so about 30 years ago, interesting story. When I was. This was, I think, 32 years ago exactly, I stumbled upon a book about Linus Pauling’s vitamin C. It’s a little book. Unfortunately, I can’t find the book anymore, but the name, the title of the book really intrigued me. Basically, it was something like, the secret FDA didn’t want you to know about. It’s human curiosity. I said, oh, I want to know what it gives me. So that’s about vitamin C. I mean, all I remember was convincing enough. I said it was, vitamin C is good. So I went out. I remember clearly to Walmart. That was 1992. I bought vitamin C at that time, vitamin C I remember what you can find was only 500 milligram tablets. Unlike today you have much, at least 1000, but at that time 500. So I started taking it. But it wasn’t until probably about 20 some years ago when I started finally over my use, my prime time entering the middle age and I. That was after I, after I left on the NCI nih I felt like I was over the peak. I was a bit down, you know, when I was climbing in academic training everything was exciting, you know. But after that, oh well, that’s only so much one can do. But anyway, so I started you know, interesting anti aging, you know, because I’m getting old and my belly was getting bigger and everything else, you know, in the West.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:04:20]:
Yeah.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:04:20]:
So that’s where actually I think I first I met Tom. Tom Levy, he was my mentor. He guided me into orthomolecular medicine. He’s great. So that’s where I studied more and I read quite a few books of Tom’s and I even translated several of his into Chinese. So I learned a lot of. He led me into medical medicine. From there I further expanded particularly you know, in the last 20 years I first, you know, came into lifestyle medicine and dietary medicine, you know, weight loss. Because 30 years ago when I was in DC, the NIH in the Bethesda, Maryland and I was moonlighting, I started moonlighting there in the weight loss clinics and I found that, you know, it was boring before, you know, it was, you know, I was interested in high tech, you know, all these DNA, you know, biotech and everything. Cancer, weight loss, boring. Right. But then I got into the clinic and I found that practically the clinical medicine in the real world mostly is about weight loss, diabetes, you know, and that’s foundation, that’s practically with everybody. So, so that’s when I was exposed to diet. And so diet is not new to me. And after basically about 20 some years ago I started looking at the, you know, private, I mean anti aging. So I get to know more and more about, about also medical medicine. And later on I discovered, you know, about the. Tom Seyfried’s cancer as metabolic disease. Which really clicked with me because you know, cancer had, you know, I spent decades on cancer. And then you know, Also at the A4M I studied anti aging medicine, functional medicine. And over the past maybe 15 years or so I began to basically I see all these, you know, I have to say also medical medicine is the at least one of the actually proper, I think it’s the, it’s the parental medicine branch to, to functional medicine, to all the other medical, you know, new CAM medicine schools. In, in my view, you know, it’s the longest, but orthomolecular medicine seems to be. The scientists and physicians in the field to me are more academic and less business oriented and therefore it seems to be lesser known than functional medicine and the others. But the more I learn about it, the more academic, the more scientific it is. Yeah.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:07:10]:
So conventional medicine is basically toxic molecular. It’s basically using substances to basically change physiology, but by selectively poisoning cells, blocking certain functions. And I think that has its value, obviously, but in the long run it can result in a weakening of the immune response, a weakening of the, of the body. And it’s an orthomolecular. The idea is to use doses that are needed to overcome the malfunctioning of certain organs or certain processes within the body. And so Dr. Riordan, that was basically what it was. We started as the center for the improvement of human functioning, but that was accomplished by raising the doses of the B vitamins, vitamin C antioxidants, amino acids, whatever it is. We would use a higher dose in order to overcome the disease process. Is that a pretty good definition for.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:08:19]:
Yes, absolutely. Basically I learned from you, from Tom, all these vitamin C pioneers, orthomolecular pioneers, in summary to me is orthomolecular means first of all, high dose, like you, you know, eloquently said. Number two. Actually also very importantly to me is synergistic. You know, you know, we like vitamin C, these vitamins, nutrients. We just mentioned about vitamin D as well. They work together, you know, so we shouldn’t focus on one, that’s the second one. So certainly very importantly. And that also explains why orthomolecular has been more kind of, I mean, less known, more antagonized or attacked by the, the interest groups is because in orthomolecular medicine we are saying vitamins and nutrients are therapeutic, they are not simply supplementary.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:09:13]:
Right, right.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:09:13]:
And that’s a huge difference. That is a very big difference between orthomolecular and other like functional medicine or any other type of medical school medicine.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:09:23]:
Also I like the new term integrative medicine because there’s no reason for us to be against conventional medicine. I think if, like I tell people, if I’m in a car wreck, don’t bring me to Riordan Clinic. You know, I want to go to where we can do acute care and, and, and toxic molecular works faster. If you, if you’re Having a, some kind of an infection. You want the antibiotic. Okay, antibiotic. It’s going to fight the infection. But, but with vitamin C and with other orthomolecular nutrients, you can boost the immune system so they, there’s no reason why they can’t be used in a complementary fashion.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:10:02]:
You’re absolutely right. You know, when you have an acute heart attack or you know, an acute car accident. Well, you know, conventional western medicine was built on acute care. And the problem is when it comes to prevention and chronic disease management, it falls short. So that’s the problem. But one other thing, you know, like I mentioned. Yes. You know, antibiotics do work. However, don’t forget, actually during the COVID we’ve used high doses of, you know, integrative ortho molecular protocols. I have literally saved quite a few people from ICU.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:10:40]:
Yes, yes, exactly.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:10:41]:
Also, molecular medicine is as powerful and in my view, better. More powerful than antibiotics for acute infections. Yeah, we have quite a few adoptive medications. Yeah, yeah.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:10:53]:
I think what happens is doctors tend to dichotomize this thing, illness and wellness. Well, yeah, you don’t want illness, you want wellness. But when you’re ill, you need, you need help, you need treatment. And you can use orthomolecular when you’re ill, but it’s slower. It’s much slower. It’s like fertilizing the ground as opposed to putting some kind of an antifungal agent in to prevent fungal things. That’s all good too. But ultimately wellness, I think is the foundation. If you have good wellness, your need for illness.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:11:28]:
But here I want to mention to our audience actually one very critical message. Unfortunately, I feel we haven’t been, or at least I have not been able to get across to the people. Is that the beauty. I think that’s a defining moment for the beauty of also medical medicine is the non specificity of high dose orthomolecular therapies for acute infections. I want to highlight the non specificity is because everybody, all my life we’ve been looking for specific treatments for diseases. Right. Remember, Right, Yeah. However, since COVID 19, we didn’t know what virus it was. And by the time we agree we need to research, we need to find out what the disease is, what the invading or you know, agent it is. And we develop specific treatments. However, it takes time. As I repeatedly mentioned, we all have done so during the COVID It takes time. So here we have vitamin C. I don’t really care whether it’s bacteria, virus, fungal. When we Use high dose vitamin C along with other like vitamin D, zinc, all the other things. You know what? They are effective, yes. They can minimize, they can reduce, they can even cure these invading microorganisms. So that’s the beauty of non specificity because again to our audience you never know. During COVID I mentioned that now it’s COVID 19. Next time we’re COVID 25. I use that term because it will come again. Monkeypox and this and that. Using the orthomolecular medicine. Whatever it is, even if you don’t know what it is, you know, just use it. You will thank us later.

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Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:14:19]:
Yeah, we were really happy when Dr. Levy suggested that you come onto the board because we’re trying to maintain the Riordan Clinic as a research center because research is what speaks to most people. I mean you can talk to them about theoretically why high dose vitamin C makes sense, but if they can see a study that shows that it really did improve outcomes. There was a study in the University of Iowa recently on stage 4 pancreatic cancer where they basically did the same treatment for everyone, but on half the group, they gave them high dose intravenous vitamin C and that group survived twice as long or more with fewer side effects. And so that kind of science really speaks to people and it’s not. And that’s a good example of integrative medicine where you’re using the best of both worlds to get a better outcome for those people.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:15:15]:
Yeah, absolutely Ron. Actually to that and I want to add a little bit more in all of you. Both you and I, we are clinicians. Our aim is to save the patients, to heal the, you know, so in my View. Anything that is safe, first of all, has to be safe. You know, how do we know? I mean, you know, the literature studies, the medical studies. So anything that is safe and that is effective or may be effective, we don’t necessarily need, you know, RCTs to prove it’s effective. If it’s in theory, that makes sense and it’s safe, patients are willing to use it, we can try. So what I call it, the triple principle intervention model, is that if it’s something is safe and effective, may be effective and it’s available, affordable, we can use it, you know. Yeah, so, so that’s how, you know, that’s my approach to, to clinical medicine and to that. And amazingly, we’ve been able to help and improve and even reverse quite a few very difficult diseases. I’m getting so excited about.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:16:20]:
So orthomolecular medicine is really the medicine of, in the sense that you can go out and you, you can buy these supplements. And of course there’s concerns, you know, if people are self treating, but on the other hand, if it’s done in a way that makes sense and is used in conjunction with conventional thinking, I think it’s a great way for people to, to empower themselves to take better care of themselves. They’re using knowledge, they’re using, they’re using molecules that are, that are safe and effective and relatively much less expensive than some of the new medicines that are coming out. So there’s a lot of advantages along that line.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:17:02]:
Yes, absolutely. You know, very importantly, people should, you know, start taking these. Also medical medicine for prevention and healthy lifestyle, including diet, exercise and everything else, keep healthy. Therefore they can, you know, they don’t have to develop these diseases. You know, by the time it’s broken, it’s much more difficult to him to fix. You know, prevention is always better.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:17:27]:
So there’s a trend here in the United States for more and more people to be looking at what they can do for themselves to stay healthy. Is that.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:17:34]:
Yes.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:17:34]:
Is that happening in China as well? Do you see that?

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:17:36]:
I think it’s global, yes. You know, frankly, we see, you know, after the COVID we see a global shift through paying more attention to health care. And you know, I primarily I, you know, travel between China and US but I see that in Europe as well.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:17:55]:
So what about on the other side of this coin is the fact that it seems like the world is getting more toxic. I mean, the, the environmental toxins, the food quality is going down, there’s more toxic foods, we have microplastics, we have glyphosate? Yeah. How do you feel like ortho. How will orthomolecular medicine help us deal with that question?

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:18:16]:
That’s a great question actually. You know, I always cite one study from, I think it was on Lancet in publishing 2022 or 2023 just a few years ago, showing. This is scary. I think I showed that slide last year in the, in our cancer care reimagined, you know, you know, the young onset or early onset cancer, basically people, patients under age 50. The cancer rate over the past 30 years increased by 80%. Unbelievable. 80%. Globally, the death rate went up by 30%. So definitely we are dealing with way more toxins. And the toxins are everywhere. In our water, in our food, in our clothing, in air, everywhere daily chemicals. So that’s why we need more integrative. We really have to look at the toxins level. And another study was also during the last four or five years showing that toxin exposure is now the number one. Also on global, the Lasset and I think it’s global public, planetary public health or something. Anyway, it’s global studies showing toxin exposure is the number one cause of all cause of mortality. You know, I used to think, you know, nutrition, micronutrient deficiency is number one. But it is more, well, makes sense because toxins, you know, most people know about antioxidants. Well, antioxidants, they are anti, you know, they are antioxidants. So toxins mostly are oxidants. Therefore when you have overload of toxic, I mean toxins and oxidants, naturally it increases the demand of antioxidants.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:20:08]:
Yeah.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:20:09]:
Okay. So I mean I discussed with Tom Levy for a few times actually the first study I know of using vitamin C to reverse or to improve, you know, atherosclerosis, basically coronary artery heart disease was in 1954 by Dr. Willis. And first we know he used 500 milligram vitamin C three times a day. And we’re talking about it. I don’t think that can happen again anymore. Today is because we have way more, way more oxidants and that requires a lot more antioxidants, particularly vitamin C. So to answer your question in a simplicity way is we need more antioxidants, not less.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:20:53]:
So orthomolecular medicine is really the medicine of the people. I mean, because you don’t need a prescription to go out and get supplements. Obviously there are doctors that sometimes are concerned about too much supplementation. But what I found is that’s only because supplements and nutrition is not taught in the medical school. I don’t know about China, but when I went through medical school we only had like three hours of training on nutrition. And so when doctors don’t know that much about seems like a foreign thing. And it seems like, gee, could this be dangerous? But the beauty of orthomolecular is that it’s extremely safe overall.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:21:36]:
Yes, absolutely. Ron, I think that’s a great point. We need to mention to everybody at the overall, globally, in any country, anywhere, the great, much greater tendency is for the general public we are much, much nutrient deficient and insufficient in these vitamins and nutrients. And it does a disservice to the public to over emphasize the toxicity of vitamins and nutrients. Yeah, okay. Of course. Was that said, you know, we do need to mention that certain vitamins, nutrients, when you overdo it, you can cause some issues, but that’s much less issue. Like in also medical news service, we always mentioned that. You know Andrew, Sao, in the past, you know, we’ve done, I think they, he used to do like once a year. We have never had a case of vitamin or micronutrient toxicity cause the death in our registry. That’s the great part. So I want to mention because in English, in Chinese, I see that always this difficult, I say no, actually for anybody out there, you are much more likely to be insufficient and deficient in micronutrients than getting toxic effects from it. Yeah.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:23:01]:
Well, Richard, I just want to thank you for joining our board. You know, we, I know Dr. Riordan, when he started the center for the Improvement of Human Functioning, he saw it as a global endeavor. And I know that in my, my acquaintance, my being on the, on the board and also being a doctor here, I’ve visited maybe 20 countries talking about orthomolecular medicine, going to conferences, presenting at conferences. And I know you too represent that global influence of orthomolecular medicine and what the Riordan Clinic stands for. So we are thrilled to have you on our board and we’re looking forward to many years of expansion of knowledge and being able to get this message out to the general public to empower them to take better care of themselves using orthomolecular medicine.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:23:55]:
Yes, yes, thank you very much, actually. Yes. And the Riordan Clinic is such a prestigious institution with 50 years experience in high dose vitamin C research, clinical research and education. I’m so honored to be on the board and also I’m so honored to serve as the chief editor in chief. Also medical medicine. Yes, I do. I’m still based in the United States, although I found myself visiting spending more and more time in Shanghai with my parents. They’re in their 90s, you know. And also I do find that the also medical medicine is catching is quite trendy now in in China. More and more people are interested and so I found myself getting busier and busier here too.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:24:39]:
Yeah, very good. Well Richard, welcome aboard and thank you so much for your service and for your experience and your influence enthusiasm. Nothing good happens without enthusiasm.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:24:50]:
Thank you so much. Yes, with awesome always medicine. Let’s all hope we can live a healthier, happier and hopefully longer life.

Ron Hunninghake, MD [00:24:59]:
Amen. Very good. Thank you Richard.

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD [00:25:01]:
Thank you.

Riordan Clinic [00:25:04]:
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