The role of nutraceuticals

One of the most pressing challenges in the current century is reduction of the impact of chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancers, and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Chronic diseases are responsible for at least three out of four deaths in Western countries. In 2005, the World Health Organization predicted that mortality from chronic disease would increase by 17% over the following decade. Adequate preventive measures for chronic diseases would lower the cost of public healthcare; they would be beneficial from a socioeconomic perspective as well, because most of these diseases-some of which are strongly debilitating-affect subjects who are still in the productive years of their life (Daar et al., 2007).