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.