Insight into Dietary Supplements in Neurological Disorders
摘要
Neurological disorders are a global health challenge with increasing prevalence, causing neural degeneration and cognitive impairment, majorly impacting the quality of life. Disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis contribute to the major patient count with neurological impairment, increasing the burden on the healthcare system. There is an urgent demand for alternative treatment options, with conventional treatment modalities focusing only on suppressing the symptoms with no significant effect on prevention and protection against neurological disorders. Recent studies indicated the potential of dietary supplements in mitigating and managing these neurological disorders with beneficial pharmacological properties like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties to target toxic pathologies like oxidative stress, inflammation and neurodegeneration effectively. This chapter focuses on the comprehensive role of dietary supplements in the management of neurological disorders, emphasizing key components like dietary antioxidants, vitamins, probiotics and healthy fatty acids. These ingredients in dietary supplements have been reported to improve neural health, reduce oxidative stress, check free radical generation and mitigate neuroinflammation. Natural antioxidants like polyphenols and vitamins (C and E) present in green tea, citrus fruits and berries play a crucial role in the management of oxidative stress, which contributes to the onset of various neurological disorders. Other vitamins like vitamin B6, B9 and B12 greatly improve cognitive functions and brain health. Probiotics are also important in the management of neurological disorders, given the impact of gut microbiota on neurological health. Omega-3 fatty acids are also known to improve neuronal health, significantly reducing the neuroinflammation in patients. Therefore, this chapter discusses the role of dietary supplements in the management of neurological disorders, along with various challenges and limitations to be considered in the path of developing a treatment regimen against neurological diseases.