Springer Pharma-Nutrition: An Overview: 12 (AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series, 12)

Natural products and functional/medical foods are now widely acknowledged as having an effect on the microbiome of the intestine, which in turn influences the outcome of certain disease. This book reviews the impact and effects of natural products and functional/medical foods (nutritional programming) on disease management, specifically focusing on diseases related to 1) Inflammation and Immunity, 2) Cancer, COPD and Cachexia, 3) Allergy and 4) Brain Neuro/Immune. Hippocrates said "let medicine be thy food and food be thy medicine". While most of us are familiar with Hippocrates famous words, we admit that in recent times, the disciplines of pharma and nutrition have evolved separately. Today, with the ever growing burden of diseases in modern society, we see a convergence of the two in relation to specific disease prevention and treatment. This re-discovered common ground between the complementary values of pharma and nutrition can be conceptualized in the term pharma-nutrition. Various chapters in the book review the aspects of molecular characteristics of food ingredients towards clinical effectiveness and relevance. From the Back Cover This volume examines the effects of natural products and functional/medical foods (nutritional programming) on disease management. It specifically focuses on diseases related to inflammation and immunity, cancer and cachexia, allergies, and brain and neuro/immune. As both pharmacologists and nutritionists are recognizing that the one disease/one target/one drug (or nutrient) concept will be less successful than in the past, this book aims to stress the importance of a multi-target approach versus a single-target approach. It also presents aspects of molecular characteristics of food ingredients toward clinical effectiveness and relevance.   The interest in food in health and disease has exploded in the past few years, and publications on the microbiome can be found in all major scientific journals and newspapers. A new concept uses functional foods hand in hand with standard pharmacological therapies, which can be conceptualized in the term “pharma-nutrition.” With the complementary values of pharma and nutrition, scientists might be able to overcome the increased incidence worldwide of complex multi-factorial disorders, chronic and degenerative diseases in particular. About the Author Dr. G. Folkerts started his career in the Rudolf Magnus Institute for Pharmacology at the Utrecht University. He did his thesis on viral infections and asthma and is appointed as full professor (Chair COPD and In Vivo Pharmacology) in the division of Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Sciences. He spent some time at the University of Edmonton (Canada), the Wellcome Research Institute in Beckenham (UK) and Janssen Research Foundation in Beerse (Belgium). He has successfully guided a great number of research projects concerning inflammatory diseases. These activities have resulted in more than 160 scientific publications in well-respected international journals. He is a full-time professor at the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He is also an associated editor of The European Journal of Pharmacology and is CEO of the contract research company Curax BV. Dr. Johan Garssen studied medicine and biology at the Free University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He specialized in immunology and pharmacology. He completed his PhD thesis at the University of Utrecht on the role of T cells in respiratory allergy, an immunopharmacological approach. This PhD program was partly performed at Yale University, New Haven, USA. After a postdoc period, he became senior scientist at the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands. There he coached many research projects, both preclinical as well as clinical research, in the field of immunomodulation induced by a.o. nutritional ingredients, drugs and environmenta