Review: The Role of Diet in Disease-curing
摘要： 文章主要探讨了饮食在疾病治疗中的作用，包括提供营养支持、辅助治疗某些疾病以及作为主要疗法。文章还介绍了一些特定的饮食模式和营养成分对疾病的影响。
Hong Kong Baptist University
TCSC2101 Food Revolution and Lifestyle
Term Essay
Diet as a form of medicine for disease-curing could be dietary interventions or nutritional management that aim to make therapeutic approaches to prevent, manage, or treat diseases. As a macroscopic influence, diet could serve as a method of nutrient management and play an indispensable role as a guarantee for disease treatment (Feinberget al., 2017). In most situations, diet could contribute to part of disease management (Roberts & Barnard, 2005); while for certain digestive system diseases, it could also become primary therapy (Riordan et al., 1993. Specific dietary patterns, nutrient compositions, and food exclusions may significantly impact disease development and curing. Therefore, we cannot simply say whether diet could be considered as a kind of medicine for disease-curing or not. This paper will review some of the applications of dietary under the medical topic.
As the basic function, diet is tightly connected with nutritional support, which is essential for the body's healing processes, and for patients. For instance, after surgery or injury, increased protein intake is often recommended to aid in tissue repair. For hospitalized patients who need to deal with long-term illness, a balanced diet provides essential nutrients that support the metabolism and immune system, promote healing, and maintain normal body functions, which are critical during illness Feinberg et al., 2017).
Integrated with conventional medical treatments, dietary could be used in various areas. For individuals who have health conditions that need nutrition avoidance or supplementation, dietary changes can be a key part of managing symptoms and maintaining health. For example, high blood pressure populations are recommended to have a low-sodium diet because it can decrease blood volume and finally, the pressure exerted against artery walls. Furthermore, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension ("DASH") was introduced by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (USA), which indicated that a diet with a high intake of fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, and reduced intake of red meat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates. They claim that DASH dietary can contribute to a reduction in blood pressure as single-drug therapy does (Roberts & Barnard, 2005).
For type-2 diabetes populations, dietary could also contribute to the management of decrease: their diet emphasizes the function of enhancing insulin sensitivity. DASH dietary, which was mentioned before, and Mediterranean Diet ("Med-Diet") were highly used in this case (Medina-Remón et al., 2018). They all emphasized the role of taking fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and limited intake of red meat and sweets or high-fat dairy and refined cereals.
For some certain diseases, dieting could be a primary therapy. Inflammatory Bowel Disease ("IBD") is characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract led by an abnormal immune response, mainly including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (Levine et al., 2018). These diets contain digestion-friendly nutrition formulas which are supposed to provide essential supplies, in order to reduce digestive burden and simplify the digestive environment (Riordan et al., 1993).
Although the role of diet in disease mitigation is complex and cannot be generalized, these applications effectively demonstrate that tailored dietary strategies can serve as a critical component of holistic patient care, complementing conventional medical treatments and, in some cases, operating as standalone therapies. Future studies could continue to explore the intricate relationship between diet and disease, with an emphasis on personalized nutrition, to optimize health outcomes in clinical practice.