Role of Nutraceuticals in Health and disease prevention: A review

Abstract

The term nutraceutical was originally defined by Dr. Stephen L. De Felice, founder and chairman of the Foundation of Innovation Medicine (FIM), Crawford, New Jersey. About 2000 years ago, Hippocrates correctly emphasized "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food". Nutraceuticals are medicinal foods that play a role in maintaining well being, enhancing health, modulating immunity and thereby preventing as well as treating specific diseases. Thus the field of nutraceutical can be envisioned as one of the missing blocks in the health benefit of an individual. Probiotics are ingested for their purported positive advantages in the digestive tract and/or systemic area like the liver, brain, vagina or blood stream. Antioxidants are very essential in the treatment of almost all diseases because most chronic diseases carry with them a great pact of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is accelerated by the ageing process along with lack of dietary antioxidants. Flavonoids have anti-cancerous properties by acting as antioxidants. Phytochemicals have specific actions and can be used variously for e.g. as antioxidants and have a positive effect on health. Recently, much attention has been given to phytochemicals that possess cancer preventive properties. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been shown to decrease the production of inflammatory eicosanoids, cytokines and reactive oxygen species, possess immunomodulatory effects and attenuate inflammatory diseases. With the evolution of "Smart Nutraceuticals", a Futuristic "Physician's Desk Reference" would contain information on individual genetic profiles to be matched with specific nutritional interventions as well. This would be a vast improvement over current nutritional recommendations which being too generalized are reported to benefit only 60% of population.

Cordycepin for Health and Wellbeing: A Potent Bioactive Metabolite of an Entomopathogenic Medicinal Fungus Cordyceps with Its Nutraceutical and Therapeutic Potential

“…Moreover, in broad terms nutraceuticals can be summarized as bioactive components which play a vital role in human beings by maintaining their normal physiological functions and well-being [10,54]. Notably, nutraceuticals have been designed in such a way, that it could be useful for the betterment and maintenance of human health without causing any harm due to their natural occurrence [55,56]. Nutraceuticals of plant, animal origin or live microorganisms offer great opportunities for food scientists and food industries to produce novel foods or food components for the future needs of human beings to stay healthy [57,58].…”

Are Nutraceuticals Beneficial in Chronic Kidney Disease?

“…Nutraceuticals have recently attracted great interest due to their potential favorable physiological effects on the human body and their safety. The first definition of "nutraceuticals" was formed in 1989 by Dr Stephen L. De Felice, a founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovations in Medicine [20,21]. According to the definition, nutraceuticals are any natural non-toxic food products, extracts, or food derivatives containing bioactive chemical substances, such as herbs, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and enzymes with scientifically proven beneficial properties in the field of disease prevention and treatment [22,23].…”

A Novel Approach towards Nutraceuticals and Biomedical Applications

“…Many natural food sources such as fruits, dairy products, vegetables meat of chicken contain all the essential nutrients of our diet. Due to this these nutrients are used for the treatment and prevention of many diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, different types of cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and osteoarthritis [20].These nutrients contain many minerals, antioxidants, fat and water soluble vitamins which are taken from our diet and are beneficial for many of our health problems. More consumption of vitamin E in our diet can be used for the cure of Parkinson's disease.…”