Academic clinicians, clinical scientists, well-known practitioners of alternative medicine, and authors of popular works on the subject summarize the facts about complementary cardiovascular medicines so that physicians can confidently and knowledgeably advise their patients. The authors comprehensively explain the background for each important alternative therapy, its rationale, the evidence supporting its use, its possible interaction with standard medicines, and, where possible, what is known about its safety and efficacy. The therapies for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) range from the more commonly encountered herbs, vitamins, supplements, and dietary fats and oils, to such less familiar techniques as acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, chelation therapy, meditation, aroma therapies, prayer, and energy therapies. Also included is a value-added CD-ROM that provides an eBook version of the work that can be viewed either on a personal computer or synchronized to a PDA.

Foodborne Diseases, Third Edition, covers the ever-changing complex issues that have emerged in the food industry over the past decade. This exceptional volume continues to offer broad coverage that provides a foundation for a practical understanding of diseases and to help researchers and scientists manage foodborne illnesses and prevent and control outbreaks. It explains recent scientific and industry developments to improve awareness, education, and communication surrounding foodborne disease and food safety. Foodborne Diseases, Third Edition, is a comprehensive update with strong new topics of concern from the past decade. Topics include bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral foodborne diseases (including disease mechanism and genetics where appropriate), chemical toxicants (including natural intoxicants and bio-toxins), risk-based control measures, and virulence factors of microbial pathogens that cause disease, as well as epigenetics and foodborne pathogens. Other new topics include nanotechnology, bioterrorism and the use of foodborne pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, and more.

As one of the biological factors that most powerfully impacted history, infectious diseases continue to be a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. At least two major factors are making infectious diseases assume more important roles than ever before. One of these is the increasing ability of certain microorganisms, normally limited to other species, to cross or jump across the species barrier and become human pathogens. The second factor -- our increasing and unprecedented global mobility which has made traveling between any two remote locations on the planet possible in less than 24 hours. As a result, a local outbreak anywhere in the world becomes a global concern. A significant challenge that is shared by most (if not all) infectious diseases is our insufficient understanding of the dynamic host-pathogen interaction. In particular, one of the gaps in visualizing our interaction with microorganisms stems from the fact that historically, pathogen transmission in populations was assumed to be homogeneous, with infected individuals having approximately equal opportunities to infect secondary contacts. However, in what became known as "the 20/80 rule", an increasing number of studies and observations point towards a small number of individuals (20%) that are responsible for most (80%) transmission events in a population. This minority of individuals who infect a disproportionately large number of secondary contacts has become known as "super-spreaders". The phenomenon of super-spreading lies at the core of understanding the biology of microorganisms and their ability to cause outbreaks, and is instrumental for developing and implementing preventive and therapeutic strategies. This book proposes to examine super-spreading in infectious diseases. Super-spreading dates back as far as Typhoid Mary, the first documented example, and it was documented for most microorganisms, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Plasmodium and Schistosoma species, HIV, hepatitis C, influenza virus, Ebola virus, rhinoviruses, Escherichia coli, West Nile virus, and the SARS coronavirus. A thought-provoking find from the SARS pandemic was that in the absence of super-spreading events, most infected individuals caused very few (if any) secondary contacts, but a low number of super-spreaders fueled the global outbreak. Super-spreading was described in human, animal, and plant hosts, and it exists at the level of the individual as well as at that of the species. One of the common denominators of super-spreading events is that they are virtually always identified only retroactively, as part of epidemiologic investigations. There is, however, a great interest and an acute need in being able to prospectively predict super-spreading, as this would considerably improve the opportunities to prevent, control, and limit outbreaks. A fundamentally important and far-reaching topic in infectious diseases, the study of super-spreading holds key implications for managing epidemics and pandemics, and promises to fill an important gap in microbiology, medicine, public health, agriculture, animal sciences, and biodefense.

Academic clinicians, clinical scientists, well-known practitioners of alternative medicine, and authors of popular works on the subject summarize the facts about complementary cardiovascular medicines so that physicians can confidently and knowledgeably advise their patients. The authors comprehensively explain the background for each important alternative therapy, its rationale, the evidence supporting its use, its possible interaction with standard medicines, and, where possible, what is known about its safety and efficacy. The therapies for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) range from the more commonly encountered herbs, vitamins, supplements, and dietary fats and oils, to such less familiar techniques as acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, chelation therapy, meditation, aroma therapies, prayer, and energy therapies.