Polyphenols in Human Health and Disease

Ronald R. Watson, Ph.D., attended the University of Idaho but graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in chemistry in 1966. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Michigan State University in 1971. His postdoctoral schooling in nutrition and microbiology was completed at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he gained 2 years of postdoctoral research experience in immunology and nutrition. From 1973 to 1974 Dr. Watson was assistant professor of immunology and performed research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He was assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Indiana University Medical School from 1974 to 1978 and associate professor at Purdue University in the Department of Food and Nutrition from 1978 to 1982. In 1982 Dr. Watson joined the faculty at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the School of Medicine. He is currently professor of health promotion sciences in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. Dr. Watson is a member of several national and international nutrition, immunology, cancer, and alcoholism research societies. Among his patents he has one on a dietary supplement; passion fruit peel extract with more pending. He continues to do research in animals and in clinical trials on dietary supplements and health including studies using omega-3 fatty acids in heart disease prevention and therapy. For 30 years he was funded by Wallace Research Foundation to study dietary supplements in health promotion. Dr. Watson has edited more than 110 books on nutrition, dietary supplements and over-the-counter agents, and drugs of abuse as scientific reference books. He has published more than 500 research and review articles. Professor Victor R. Preedy, PhD DSc CBiol FIBiol FRCPath FRIPH FRSH FRSPH is currently a Professor in the Department of Dietetics, King's College London and Honorary Professor in Clinical Biochemistry, King's College Hospital and Director of the Genomics Centre, Kings College London. He directs studies regarding nutrition, and clinical biochemistry. Professor Preedy graduated in 1974 from the University of Aston with a Combined Honours Degree in Biology and Physiology with Pharmacology. He gained his PhD in 1981, in the field of Nutrition and Metabolism, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. Between 1988 until 1999 he was associated with the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at King's College Hospital. He was a Reader in Clinical Biochemistry between 1992 and 2002. In 1992, he received his Membership of the Royal College of Pathologists, based on his published works and in 1993 he gained a DSc degree for his outstanding contribution to protein metabolism. At the time, he was one of the university's youngest recipients of this distinguished award. Professor Preedy was elected as a Fellow to the Royal College of Pathologists in 2000. Since then he has been elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health (2004), The Royal Institute of Public Health (2004) and The Royal Society of Public Health (2009). Professor Preedy has published over 550 articles, which includes over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts based on original research and 90 reviews as well as 35 books or volumes.

Polyphenols in Human Health and Disease documents antioxidant actions of polyphenols in protection of cells and cell organelles, critical for understanding their health-promoting actions to help the dietary supplement industry. The book begins by describing the fundamentals of absorption, metabolism and bioavailability of polyphenols, as well as the effect of microbes on polyphenol structure and function and toxicity. It then examines the role of polyphenols in the treatment of chronic disease, including vascular and cardiac health, obesity and diabetes therapy, cancer treatment and prevention, and more.

Part I: Biomodification of polyphenols and mechanisms of action Overview of polyphenols and health research Absorption, metabolism and bioavailability of polyphenols Effect of microbes on polyphenol structure and function Polyphenol actions as enzyme modulators in health Oxidation and antioxidant activity of polyphenols Toxicities and identification of polyphenols