A Comprehensive Guide to Nutritional Medicine

by Luke R. Bucci, PhD, CCN, CNS

, 2nd ed., eEdited byor: Ingrid Kohlstadt, MD, MPH, FACN, FACPM

CC Press

©2012; hardcover; 910 pp.

Advancing Medicine with Food and Nutrients is the second edition of Food and Nutrients in Disease Management, and reflects the gains made in knowledge and acceptance of nutritional interventions between editions. This book adds prevention advice for each chapter in addition to succinct condition background and treatment advice for both diet (food) and nutritional-supplementation therapies. Conditions run the full gamut of disease syndromes and are divided into systems for easy searching. Forty-four chapters allow for the more common problems to be covered.

This book focuses on modern, integrative medicine approaches to diagnosis and treatment of health conditions. There is virtually no drug therapeutic information; instead, it is pointed out when drugs interfere with nutritional treatments or contribute to syndromes. Make no mistake – this book deals with nutritional medicine. As such, authors of each chapter are noted integrative medicine practitioners. This is not an academic review book, but a true guidebook with how-to medical advice. By necessity a book of this comprehensive scope is not super-detailed with intricate treatment advice, but it does give practical information easily incorporated into medical or other health-care practices.

Of special interest are chapters devoted to hidden scourges such as gluten intolerance, periodontal disease, and mercury fillings that contribute to ill health and prevent success with typical therapies for known diseases. Simply utilizing the advice of these chapters will make a notable difference in patient outcomes from any practice.

Authors are acknowledged experts in their fields and are icons of integrative and preventive medicine, as befits the experience, passion, and interests of the editor. Thus, the advice dispensed is founded on clinical success, and also supported by peer-reviewed literature citations. Affiliations range from big-name medical schools such as Johns Hopkins to private-practice clinics, a combination rarely seen in other compilations of nutritional therapies.

The tone is complementary in many ways, and is not critical of other manners of medical practice. This approach allows integration of nutritional therapeutics into any practice and any other treatment modality.

Bottom line: Advancing Medicine with Food and Nutrients is a succinct, comprehensive, practical guidebook for using successful, evidence-based, real-life diet and nutritional interventions to assist in ameliorating deleterious health conditions. Any practitioner would benefit from the advice in this gift of knowledge.