For around 30 years, the Burgerstein Foundation has been concerned with the properties, functions and effects of micronutrients, i.e. vitamins, trace elements and minerals. The Foundation informs consumers and educates professionals about the latest scientific findings in the world of micronutrients.
The foundation in 1987
In the year of the death of Dr. Lothar Burgerstein, pioneer and co-founder of Antistress AG - Burgerstein Vitamins, his son Uli P. Burgerstein establishes the "International Foundation for the Promotion of Orthomolecular Medicine", today known as the "Burgerstein Foundation - Micronutrients for Health".
Purpose of the Burgerstein Foundation
The aim of the foundation is to promote knowledge about the properties and effects of micronutrients or orthomolecular medicine and thus to make the benefits of micronutrients for prevention as well as for therapy accessible to the widest possible audience.
Training and information for professionals
Professionals play an important role in educating people about micronutrients. As early as 1997, the 8-day diploma course on the versatile use of micronutrients in practice was launched. Today, around 100 specialists, mainly from pharmacies and drugstores as well as therapists, are trained annually on this so-called OM cycle. Evening training courses and refresher courses are also held on a regular basis.
In 2007, the foundation organized a congress for physicians for the first time, which has since established itself as a fixed component of continuing medical education. Since 2016, congresses for nutritionists have also been held.
A selection of the latest scientific study findings has been summarized and discussed twice a year in our newsletter since 2001.
The importance of orthomolecular medicine
"Orthomolecular medicine is the maintenance of health and the treatment of disease through changes in the concentration of substances that occur naturally in the human body and are necessary for health."
(Quote: Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner)
The definition of orthomolecular medicine can be found here.
Micronutrients are therefore not only necessary to cover the daily nutritional requirements. Rather, vitamins, minerals and trace elements often offer a well-tolerated option for the treatment or therapeutic accompaniment of various clinical pictures. This is also shown by the still growing, good data situation, on the basis of which micronutrients are increasingly used in everyday clinical practice.
Micronutrient knowledge for consumers
So that consumers can also learn more about the uses and properties of vitamins, minerals and the like, the foundation also publishes themed brochures for end consumers. In addition, on this website, which serves as an information platform, a blog is now also available, on which various interesting topics and applications are recorded. Click here to go to the blog.
In all the Foundation's publications and training courses, we are also increasingly reporting on secondary plant compounds, probiotics and other high-quality active ingredients. It is our concern to also inform about these valuable bioactive substances, as they can and partly even should be combined well with micronutrients.