Sobriety's Secret Step

Two doctors of Orthomolecular Medicine believed they were having some success in treating alcoholics who could not remain sober by giving them a vitamin treatment. Their studies with schizophrenics as well as those that were alcoholics not responding to traditional therapeutic methods intrigued Bill Wilson. Bill Wilson believed they had discovered the “exact nature” of the allergy Dr. Silkworh had talked about. He maintained that Silkworth, when he referred to an “allergy of the body,” knew the condition was not strictly an allergy. Dr. Silkworh simply used the word in search of a new one. Bill successfully treated himself as well as 20 out of 30 recovered alcoholics with vitamin B-3, or niacin, of which he and they suffered chronic anxiety and depression. His Communications to A.A.'s Physicians in 1967 and 1968 were unanimously declined and denied access within A.A. circles by the very same people Bill appointed to make decisions; Frank Amos, Willard Richardson and LeRoy Chipman.