Personalized nutrition and drug-nutrient interactions

Abstract

Nutrition is the cornerstone of health. This chapter explores the relationship between dietary factors and the development of modern concepts in controlling and preventing chronic health issues such as tumors, diabetes, and obesity. While recent advances in molecular biology enhanced our understanding of the root causes of such diseases, future implementation of personalized-nutrition and medicine could generate dietary recommendations and interventions that will achieve optimum health standards and provide maximum disease prevention and control. The conventional pharmacokinetics approach completely ignores environmental (such as intestinal microbial flora) or lifestyle factors (such as dietary choices) that influence many physiological parameters. These factors in fact are essential in dictating the bioavailability, metabolism, and degradation, hence the efficacy of most of the modern drugs. The alternative approach offered by modern nutrigenomics and pharmacogenomics, accounts for such variables in order to intervene in more predictable fashion with better prognosis outcomes.