Alternative medicine or food as drug is new topic ,
•tra•ceu•ti•cal (nū-trū-sū’ti-kal), A chemical substance or group of substances that for legal purposes is defined as a nutrient but that is in fact marketed and used for the prevention or treatment of disease.
[nutr-ient + pharm-aceutical] Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, botanicals (herbal medicines), and certain components or derivatives of animal foods (organ and glandular tissues) were classified as dietary supplements by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. This federal law exempts these drug entities from the safety and efficacy requirements and regulations that manufacturers and marketers of prescription and over-the-counter drugs must observe (for example, preclinical animal studies, premarketing controlled clinical trials, postmarketing surveillance). A product label may make health claims provided that it also bears a disclaimer stating that the product is not sold for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or cure of any disease.
For many nutraceuticals, little or no experimental information is available as to efficacy, side-effects, and drug interactions. Because these medicines cannot be patented, pharmaceutical manufacturers have little incentive to c conduct research on their properties, beneficial or harmful. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must show that a nutraceutical is unsafe before it can be removed from the market. But because federal legislation provides no mechanism for the observation or mandatory reporting of adverse events such as hypersensitivity, hepatic or renal toxicity, suppression of bone marrow, fetal harm, or drug interactions, nutraceuticals are largely secure from federal ban.
No federal agency maintains oversight or control of the potency or purity of herbal products. Random studies suggest that these products vary widely in potency (sometimes containing none at all of the labeled ingredient) and may often be adulterated with other agents or contaminated with pesticides. Surveys show that 10-30% of the U.S. population use herbal remedies at least occasionally, but that more than 50% of these fail to disclose such use during routine medical history-taking (for example, before surgery).
More than 50% of amateur and professional athletes and bodybuilders use stimulants, protein supplements, and hormones. Among the more popular herbals are echinacea, garlic, ginkgo, ginseng, kava, St. John’s wort, and valerian. Widely used agents not derived from botanical sources include androstenedione, creatinine, DHEA, glucosamine, melatonin, pregnenolone, minerals (for example, chromium, manganese, zinc), and vitamins. Virtually all these have significant potential for adverse side-effects or harmful interaction with other drugs.
Therfore we use food as alternative medicine,is it working?
Tareq,
Nutraceutical treatment is part of the wide-range categories of alternative medicine. Alternative medicine encompasses any of a range of medical therapies that are not regarded as orthodox by the medical profession, such as herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture.
Food as drug therapy is using a diet plan to combat a chronic disease such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. There are different recommended diets for specific chronic diseases. For example, the DASH diet is recommended for hypertension; however, severe hypertension is usually treated with both blood pressure lowering drugs, DASH diet, and an exercise prescription by a medical team including a dietitian. The American Diabetes Association has a diet plan for persons with diabetes. Prevention of chronic disease encompasses a healthy diet plan that works with the person's state of health and medical conditions. For example an older adult with oral and digestive issues would follow a different meal preparation plan than a young adult free of medical conditions, but with a body weight outside of the healthy range (under or over).
Nutraceutical treatment are the use of food products. Nutraceutical product is a food or fortified food product that not only supplements the diet but also assists in treating or preventing disease.
In general, foods are nutrients. Foods supply the body with what it needs, and if more than needed is provided, there usually is no harm. With foods, deficiency is usually the issue, especially for micronutrients.
In general, drugs are designed to intentionally interfere with the normal operation of the body. Diseases are "drugable" if there is a way to inhibit something, or if there is a way to fool a receptor to activate something which wouldn't otherwise be activated. With drugs, it can be difficult to get the dosage right, because too much inhibition or too much activation of the desired pathway (or the "side effect" inhibition or activation of another pathway) is toxic.
David, many nutraceuticals are food products. Since they are not the whole food, they can be lacking compounds that work synergistically for the body to absorb and properly use micronutrients. So there is a distinction between food and nutraceuticals.
Recently, most people have resorted to herbal medicine as an alternative treatment for drugs and drugs to treat many diseases after they lost the credibility of doctors and medicine to treat their diseases where medicine has become a trade at present with depletion of money and loss of time and effort with lack of access to satisfactory results and many hear deaths During the course of the operations, the treatment of medication has become the attention and orientation of alternative medicine (weeds). The herbal has proven its ability to treat some diseases and to reach healing. As for the use of food supplements as an alternative, some people do not respond to their bodies or may interfere with other substances. Exhale the body, and may benefit some people and do not benefit others
Dear Ftima,thankyou very much ,for your answer ,but herbs still need more research , lthough herbal medicine is used mostly for treating mild to moderate illnesses and participants were aware of its limits, the combination of self-medication, non-expert consultation and missing risk awareness of herbal medicine is potentially harmful. This is particularly relevant for elderly users as, even though they appeared to be more aware of health-related issues, they generally use more medicine compared to younger ones. In light of our finding that dissatisfaction with conventional medicine was the most important reason for a preferred use of herbal medicine, government bodies, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies need to be aware of this problem and should aim to establish a certain level of awareness among users ,therefore we need more time to re-establish the basic of herbs use.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry
- Pharmacology
- Medical Pharmacology
- Clinical Pharmacology