Nutraceuticals: A paradigm of proactive medicine.

Abstract

Nutraceuticals define a new category which shades the frontier between drugs and food. As per its definition, a nutraceutical is "a food or part of a food that provides benefits health in addition to its nutritional content". Active substances either way extracted from plants (phytocomplexes) or of animal origin, when extracted, concentrated and administered in a suitable pharmaceutical form, can create a very promising toolbox useful to prevent and/or support the therapy of some pathologic conditions given their proven clinical efficacy. It is worldwide recognized that diet and lifestyle are essential to promote and maintain well-being and nice-being condition, other than help to prevent diseases possible onset. Both non-correct dietary habits and lifestyle can in fact determine pathological conditions. The metabolic syndrome, a worldwide epidemic threat, can be named an outstanding example. This syndrome is characterized by a cascade of cardio metabolic risk factors which include obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Prevention is the key strategy for an effective proactive medicine, in which efforts are addressed to prevention and, consequently, to lower the risk connected to some lifestyle related diseases reducing, at the same time, any National Health Systems cost needed to guarantee the proper therapeutic approach based on pharmaceuticals. Nutraceuticals use in prevention is a proactive reverse approach tool to pre-clinical health conditions. They can be effectively used, by including in the daily diet, in an area which shades in the range "beyond the diet, before drugs", since they combine both nutritional and beneficial healthy properties of food extracts with the healing properties of natural active compounds.