[Pharmaconutrition: pharmacological approach to nutrition therapy].

Reviewing the literature of nutrition therapy one can conclude that during the last decade the pharmacological action of several nutrients has been demonstrated. However, research activity is still at the beginning and it could be verified in a restricted number of nutrients only that in which conditions (illnesses), dose and duration we can expect therapeutic effect in addition to nutrition. The examples of glutamine, arginine, taurine, leucine, ω-3 fatty acids, however, support the possibility that complex reactions and treatment results observed in certain patients are not purely due to nutritional support but the consequence of additional pharmacological action as well. Evaluation of results of therapeutic intervention is especially difficult because in the everyday practice physicians try to use several therapeutic modalities that can be beneficial for the patient. Therefore, retrospective separation of beneficial components of the therapeutic agents is almost impossible. Only well designed, randomized and multicentric studies can verify specific therapeutic action of certain ingredients ie. nutrients.