TWU faculty member explores nutraceuticals in new book

October 6, 2021 – DENTON – Texas Woman’s Professor Emeritus Chandan Prasad, PhD, from the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, explores different nutraceuticals that may aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in his new book, COVID-19 and Nutraceuticals, A Guidebook (Bohr Publishers & New Century Health Publishers, Late October 2021).

The book, in which Prasad and Güler Öztürk, PhD, serve as editors, is a compilation of reviews of data on different nutraceuticals, or products used as alternatives to pharmaceuticals, that may be of relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include probiotics, melatonin, plant bioactives, lipoic acid, curcumin, selenium, zinc, magnesium and boron, among others.

The rapid rise in COVID-19 infection to a pandemic stage in the face of lack of few choices for treatment and prevention has created a need for new research. During the 1918 Spanish Flu, there was no vaccine to protect against the infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections associated with influenza infections, so control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions including isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly. These same measures have been used for the COVID-19 pandemic today, but Prasad believes more can be done.

“Nutraceuticals and functional foods have gained popularity in disease prevention for many reasons, including their perceived safety,” he said. “Also, in the last two to three decades, there have been well-designed and controlled basic and clinical investigations that have steadily added credence to nutraceuticals for disease prevention.”

Prasad’s new book is part of the Lifestyle and Health Promotion book series, through which he serves as editor. He also is the founding editor of Nutritional Neuroscience, editor-in-chief of Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research and series editor for Nutrition, Brain, and Behavior.