Marine bioactives: pharmacological properties and potential applications against inflammatory diseases.

Inflammation is a hot topic in medical research, because it plays a key role in inflammatory diseases: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of arthritis, diabetes, heart diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, allergies, asthma, even cancer and many others. Over the past few decades, it was realized that the process of inflammation is virtually the same in different disorders, and a better understanding of inflammation may lead to better treatments for numerous diseases. Inflammation is the activation of the immune system in response to infection, irritation, or injury, with an influx of white blood cells, redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved.

Fucoxantin: a treasure from the sea.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.3 billion people will be overweight and 700 million obese in 2015. The reasons for this disastrous trend are attributed to the global tendency toward the reduced magnitude of exercise and physical activity and the increased dietary intake of fats, sugars and calories with reduced amount of vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin C and E consumption and coronary heart disease in men.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a major source of mortality and morbidity in general population. Oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein (LDL) represent the most important determinant factor in the development and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Oxidative damage and the production of free radicals (FRs) in the endothelium are some of the main factors involved in the pathogenesis of the atherosclerotic process which causes CVD.