This Hippocratean wisdom is probably a reflection of The Ayurvedic Axiom embodied in ancient texts, and validated over thousands of years in India and elsewhere, underlining the importance of a regular intake of health-giving food to avoid disease.
A couple of case studies from published nutraceutical research illustrate the growing importance of specific nutritional substances in preventing and managing different health problems. Heightening awareness of these trends, may be the reason why worldwide industry sources predict that nutraceuticals (also known as 'Functional Foods') may overtake pharmaceutical drug sales by the year 2015.
CoQ10
Coenzyme Q10 is a natural nutrient, which is richly present in fish, meat, wheat germ, spinach, peanuts, and whole grains etc., CoQ10 aids mitochondria and is a catalyst in the creation of ATP, the basic energy fuel on which all bodily cells run, especially the hard working myocardium - the special muscle of the heart which beats 72 times a minute throughout the life of man.
Discovered in 1957, CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant too, also made in the body itself with amino acid tyrosine, together with a number of vitamins & minerals. Hundreds of clinical trials have established the critical importance of CoQ10 in helping resolve Heart disease, ARMD, Cancer, Parkinson's and even AIDS, and in many other degenerative diseases as well.
The Japanese have perfected the technology for making pure CoQ10 in large quantities which enables the adjuvant nutraceutical management of these patients in large numbers.
The theory of oxidative damage to the eyes as possible etiology of ARMD, Cataract, Glaucoma etc is gaining ground in the world's journals .The natural antioxidants the body makes -- like glutathione peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase etc., form the eye's primary defense system. With aging and consequently reduced nutrition, this natural protective system begins to fail ; early and sustained supplementation by these antioxidant nutrients can repair and even reverse the damage to a great extent, by reinforcing the body's antioxidant defenses.
Alpha-lipoic Acid
According to Lester Packer, of UC Berkeley, one of the Giants in the field of antioxidant mechanisms, Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is the single most important naturally available antioxidant, which, together with Vitamin-C, is perhaps the best way to raise cellular levels of Glutathione he master antioxidant in human biochemistry.
ALA plays an important role in activating the antioxidant network in the human system, recycling and extending the metabolic life spans of Vitamins- E, C, CoQ10 and sustaining cellular Glutathione levels.
Based on numerous clinical trials, ALA is now widely recommended for the prevention and management of numerous difficult problems - for eg. Peripheral neuropathy, a common complication of diabetes.
ALA is again a natural nutritional substance which occurs in large quantities in beef, rice-bran, peas, dark green leafy vegetables and so on.
Nutraceutical benefits
- Probiotics - live bacteria (as in yoghurt) called probiotics, have been shown to resolve a number of gastro-intestinal problems like diarrhoea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, food allergies, and restore antibiotic-damaged gut ecology.
- Herbo-nutraceuticals - like Saw palmetto extracts, are amongst the most widely used remedies for maintaining healthy prostate function … Valerian root extracts, have been used for hundreds of years, as a reliable remedy for restlessness and insomnia - even now widely prescribed in Europe … St.John's Wort extracts, prescribed by German Physicians, to the extent of 25 times in Deutschmarks value, compared to Prozac, the most popular Western drug for depression.
Why are doctors, including Specialists unaware of the value of Nutraceuticals in preventing and managing, (as adjuvants to first-line allopathic drugs) the innumerable health problems of 21st century ?
This is a general complaint of literate patients all over the Western world (especially USA & India too), from where our doctors take their lessons in medicine. The notable exceptions in this regard are Japan, Germany, and China (TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine is alive and well), where doctors continue to blend traditional nutraceutical wisdom with newer advances in Modern Medicine.
There is a general lack of awareness on the part of Practitioners of Modern Medicine, regarding the role of Functional foods, Herbo-nutraceuticals, Probiotics etc., inspite of all the evidence gathering in the world's leading medical journals.
Making health claims for drugs or nutraceuticals is an expensive business for pharma companies. The conduct of elaborate double-blind / cross-over / placebo-controlled studies and integrating the conclusions of these studies into the prescribing reflexes of Physicians in practice, through CME programmes, is even more expensive - exponentially so.
In 1990, Americans spent 37.7 billion USD on prescription drugs, which went up to 78.9 billion USD in 1997, growing at 17% p.a., even beyond the rates of inflation .. to the delight of Pharma companies. Similar pictures of the growth of drug usage prevail in other countries like India as well.
Doctors want to know if you have elevated your cholesterol, or become diabetic, or developed hypertension - but spend very little time in trying to help the patient realize the lifestyle reasons why they have developed these problems and what they can do to prevent these problems.
Most so-called "preventive" medicine programmes simply attempt to detect disease earlier - as with GTTs, mammograms, PSA tests, etc.
Physicians are disease-oriented They look for disease and they are pharmaceutically trained to treat diseases with drugs
As a result of the discovery and use of antibiotics, in their war against infections, Physicians have acquired the reflex of attacking disease.
The same aggressive attacking attitude has also crept into the treatment of chronic degenerative diseases, which require a different mindset, based on a different doctor-patient relationship, which can result in disease-preventing nutrition long before deficiency symptoms set in … Perhaps this would have been feasible in an earlier era, where there used to exist a closer relationship between the family physician and his patients.
The concept of healthy eating / preventive nutrition exists only in theory, since even in USA "less than 6% of graduating physicians receive any formal training in nutrition" (From 'Doctors need more nutrition training' - Am. J Clin Nutr. 68, 1998)
In 1950, the USA ranked 7th amongst the top 21 nations, with regard to life expectancy, spending far more money on drugs and health care than any other country in the world. After 40 yrs, in 1990, USA was ranked 18th in the world with regard to the same parameter, due to the onslaught of chronic degenerative diseases like CHD, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, strokes etc. (Am J Clin Nutr, 55 ; 1992).
Properly prescribed and administered medications are responsible for more than 100,000 deaths and 2 million hospital admissions in the USA, each year; in this most advanced country, serious drug reactions are the 4th leading cause of death (JAMA, 274 : 1995 ; 29-34).
However with patients themselves taking more responsibility for their well-being, and the medical profession becoming more aware of the role of specific nutritional factors, in preventing disease, nutraceuticals / functional foods will hopefully take their rightful place in preserving / restoring human health in the coming decades.
- (The writer is a pharma industry expert)