Purpose: The purpose of this book is to provide healthcare professionals with a scientific evaluation of the literature to help them advise consumers on the use of nutraceuticals. This is a valuable, up-to-date resource for healthcare professionals faced with the growing popularity of nutraceuticals among consumers. The book provides a very detailed review of published data to support or disprove the use of complementary medicine.
Audience: This resource is excellent for healthcare professionals especially pharmacists, nutritionists, and physicians who are frequently relied on by consumers for recommendations regarding the use of nutraceuticals. The author appears to have a vast knowledge and understanding of the subject and has published several other publications on the topic.
Features: The book reviews the clinical literature for each nutraceutical by providing summaries of each study. The author writes a brief overview of the pathophysiology and epidemiology of the disease state at the start of each chapter. The proposed mechanism of action for each nutraceutical is described. An overall synopsis and author's recommendation ends each chapter. The book is scientific and would only be useful to healthcare professionals used to reading and evaluating scientific data. A few chapters seem to be missing a conclusion or author's recommendation.
Assessment:This is a great reference for healthcare professionals seeking detailed information regarding the efficacy of nutraceuticals for the prevention or treatment of disease states. The book is easy to comprehend because it organizes the information based on disease state rather than chemical entity. The updated version is needed because it provides the most recent published literature and includes information on products that are growing in popularity.