Nutriceuticals in health and disease prevention.

Available evidence suggests that we can not dismiss the potential value of nutriceuticals in disease and inhibition of atherosclerosis. Epidemiologic data suggest that antioxidant supplementation may be associated with a reduced risk of clinical events from atherosclerosis; howere, interventional trials only support a role for vitamin E in this regard. Many studies suggest that a link between fruit and vegetables in diet or the amounts of plasma antioxidant vitamins (ascorbic acid, tocopherols and carotenoids) and risk of death from cancer or coronary heart disease. The usefulness of antioxidant for prevention of cardiovascular disease is yet to be proven. However, studies offer important insights that together with the development of methods to identify individuals most likely to benefit, provide hope to clinicians seeking to use antioxidant vitamins with safety and efficacy for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Only continued investigation into the mechanism (s) of action of candidate agents will determine whether they hold promise as a therapeutic intervention and only then, they can be recommended routinely to the patients. Thus, nutriceuticals are becoming more widely accepted as an adjunct to conventional therapies.