Personalized Care: Prevention of Lifestyle Diseases

Personalized care, which includes personalized medicine, personalized nutrition, and even personalized exercise, is a useful and a more effective method for the treatment and control of lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The relationship between nutrients, diet and gene expression (commonly called as nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics) and precision or personalized medicine have received considerable attention of researchers, clinicians, drug developers, practitioners of traditional system of medicine, and regulatory agencies over the years. Many, if not all, of the common human debilitating conditions including cancer, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are related directly or indirectly to an individual's nutritional status and its genetic make up. Understanding the interplay between diet and genes may help provide direction upon which personalized therapy can be used for the treatment and management of these catastrophic life-threatening conditions, including strategies for their prevention. In this era of human healthcare where the diagnosis of the disease and treatment of the patient are perceived to be patient-tailored, due to the differences in the genetic make-up of individuals and their lifestyle, personalized human healthcare could be the most effective method for the treatment and prevention of debilitating diseases with a high morbidity and mortality. This chapter provides an insight into the potential of individualized care in life-threatening complications.