Diet and Human Immune Function

It is now widely appreciated that nutrition contributes significantly to the optimal working of the immune system and hence to personal health. In Diet and Human Immune Function, leading international researchers and clinicians comprehensively detail what is known about the ability of diet to enhance human immune function in health, disease, and under various conditions of stress. The authors offer state-of-the-art critical appraisals of the influences on the human immune system of several important vitamins (vitamins A, C, and E, as well as carotenoids, such as b-carotene) and minerals (iron, selenium, and zinc), both singly and in combination. The authors also examine how nutrition modulates immune function in such disease states as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, HIV infection, and cancer. Immune responses to three forms of stress-vigorous exercise, military conditions, and air pollution (in relation to allergic asthma)-are discussed in depth in unique chapters not found in any other texts. Probiotics and long-chain fatty acids are also examined for their immunomodulatory effects. A much-needed overview of the nutritional consequences of drug-disease interactions provides recommendations for potential nutritional interventions that could increase drug efficacy and/or reduce adverse side effects. "Conclusions" and "Take Home Messages" at the end of each chapter give physicians clearly stated clinical instructions about special diets and dietary components for immune-related disease states.

Authoritative and highly practical, Diet and Human Immune Function provides a critical survey of the most up-to-date clinical studies of nutritional effects on immune responses for disease prevention and therapy, documenting for practicing physicians, nutritionists, immunologists, and educated consumers the enormous potential of diet to modulate immune function beneficially.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Marion C. Cohen, PhD(University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-NJMS)
Description:This book focuses primarily on the nutrients that must be provided to the human body to maintain a properly functioning immune system. Chapters also cover nutritional factors that may -- or may not -- affect specific diseases as well as environmental stressors. This volume is part of a series of books on nutrition and health.
Purpose:The book was written for physicians as well as other health professionals, dieticians, and researchers. Its stated goal is to be a reference providing information on how diet influences immune function in health and disease, and under various conditions of stress, and to identify potential means of enhancing immune function by diet. There are few books available exploring this topic; this book has met the editors' objectives.
Audience:The editors state that the audience includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, immunologists, nutritionists, dieticians, and academics, including advanced undergraduate, graduate, and para-health professional, medical students, and researchers. To this could be added individuals interested in alternative and complementary medicine if they do not fit the previous categories.
Features:The first of the book's five sections gives an overview of the immune system and how immune responses are measured, and includes chapters on the influence of diet on immune function in infections as well as in newborns and the aged. Sections two and three discuss the roles of specific vitamins and minerals in the immune response. Section four focuses on the interaction of nutrition with some selected diseases. Section five provides information on nutritional influences on immune function under three forms of stress and includes a chapter on the nutritional consequences of drug/disease interactions. Three appendixes include a list of abbreviations, a glossary, and a list of related books and websites. Each chapter ends with conclusions and take-home messages. The latter summarize the information presented in bullet form.
Assessment:While there is a lot of information about the necessity of eating properly for good health, it's hard to find a lot of data that has been generated in a scientifically rigorous fashion describing the influence of different dietary components on the immune system. This information has been well assembled in this book. It provides a good starting point for anyone who needs to delve into the role of diet in the immune response.