Why Hasn't Germanium Been Heard Of Before Now?
Many individuals outside the nutritional and clinical research fields may never have heard of Germanium before, except perhaps as the material that transistors used to be made of. I had not heard of the therapeutic effects of this trace element until I began to delve into the literature that has accumulated over the last decade. I have been puzzled by the fact that information about this substance had not been more generally available before the present time. A combination of factors, including the following, are probably responsible:
- Researchers in the various clinics, companies and laboratories have been pre-occupied in their research, developing their product or testing of the substance. Much of this research has been performed in Japan, where organic Germanium has been more widely available and familiar to the public. Their research results were, however, published in the scientific literature, which is in the public domain;
- Individuals doing corporate research for propriety purposes maintain a fairly high degree of confidentiality in their research;
- There is usually a lag time before information in the scientific journals gets "translated" into the more general literature. It is simply a matter of time before a certain "critical mass" of information accumulates to enable people to put together the various pieces of individual research.
The "pieces" of the Germanium puzzle started to come together at the First International Conference on Germanium, organized by Sanum-Kehlbeck and held at Hanover, West Germany in October 1984, which brought together researchers from Japan, Europe and the US to discuss the various aspects of organic Germanium. Since then, North American nutritionists have formed the Germanium Institute of North America (GINA) to disseminate information and further clinical research with organic Germanium (48,50).
This international cooperation of scientists, clinicians and nutritionists in the field of organic Germanium research has had a synergistic effect in furthering clinical researh and disseminating information to the public about the health-enhancing effects of this substance (32-34,46,49).
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