BERI BERI GOOD

Have been researching on this certain Dutch physician who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1929 at the age of 81 - Dr. Christiaan Eijkman. He is the dude who - while attempting to determine the cause of Beriberi - eventually discovered vitamins.

Prior to his discovery, Louis Pasteur's and Robert Koch's Germ Theory was the dominant train of thought then. Almost all physicians and scientists worldwide believed that all diseases are caused by certain types of bacterium or germs. The same goes with Beriberi.

Like all scientists and physicians before him, Eijkman also tried to isolate the cause of Beriberi. He examined blood samples, body fluids and etc; but all were futile. It was also Eijkman who, after numberous frustrating attempts to isolate the bacteria that supposedly causes Beriberi but repeatedly failed to do so, thought out of the box.

By a stroke of luck, he discovered that something in rice brans helps to prevent Beriberi. He confirmed his findings by carrying out experiments using chickens. Almost at will, he was able to easily inflict Beriberi on whichever chickens he wishes - simply by controlling their diet: brown unpolished rice (i.e. rice with husk) verses white polished rice. (Isn't it amazing? The power of something which appears so seemingly trivial? I guess this underlines one of the basic, foundational principles: whatever that goes in, comes out. What goes in determines what comes out. Input relates to output.)

He concluded and postulated that rather than germs, could it be that there is something missing which is essential to the proper functioning of the human body? Rather than being parasitic, could Beriberi be caused as a result of a deficiency of this essential "substance"?

This idea was something "new" and "novel" back then. Unfortunately, his findings were met with skepticm and controversy; and all other scientists/physicians scoffed at his suggestion. The Germ Theory was just too dominant back in the old days. In addition, it did very well in explaining the cause of many diseases. The thought of Beriberi not caused by germ/bacteria was something out of the world, or so it seemed.



Anyway, I find this Eijkman guy pretty amazing.

For one, he thought out of the box. Unlike other physicians, when the primary idea doesn't work, Eijkman sourced for an alternative one. He was open-minded. Relentless. Persistent.

Secondly, despite the norm belief of Germ Theory, Eijkman's mind was flexible. He was not rigid. In a way, to put it in today's context, he believed that "one size doesn't fit all". He was flexible in his approach and mindset.

Thirdly, he stood by what he believed. A thousand and one physicians/scientists mistakenly believed in the wrong thing, but Eijkman - in the face of an army of opposition - dared to go against it. Despite the ridicule when he presented his findings, he did not doubt himself and his work. He knows what is good, and while so many more prominent physicians or scientists worldwide around him say otherwise, he still stood by it. No one supported him, but yet he still trusted his foresight and guts. He saw deeper than what logic tells him. He saw, he knew, he defended, he believed, he invested, and he waited. And what he believed in yielded fruits.



Finally, after years and years of failure in finding the cause of Beriberi, Eijkman's theory finally got accepted. More intensive researches and experiments were carried out by others, and his findings appeared to be heading in the right direction. It was then accepted that Beriberi is not caused by germs/bacteria, but due to something missing in the diet - and this essential substance was coined "vital amine". A chemist later shortened it to "vitamins".

And Eijkman? His theory triumphed in the end. One year before his death in 1930, he got his Nobel prize. 36 donkey years after he first made his discovery.