Foreword

As a practicing physician, I found this third edition to be very up-to-date, interesting and useful. It would be an excellent text book for the second semester in the standard twosemester course taught at most pharmacy schools. I was especially impressed with the first chapter on predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory (P4) medicine. It epitomizes the fusion of traditional and western medicine. That is, mathematics, the foundation of reductionist thinking, is used to quantify huge datasets from patients, while physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers develop the analytical tools needed to generate the data. All of this can be linked through the internet and used in mobile healthcare applications. Also, the book concepts and metabolic processes for which there was limited knowledge or was completely unknown when I was a medical student. The information presented provides undergraduate, medical and pharmacy students with useful information about the indications for and applications of modern medicinal chemistry. It will also prepare currently licensed physicians prepare for Board certification and recertification. Many of the old questions may have new answers. I also found the book to be very helpful in describing medicines that I currently prescribe to patients and new drugs that are being developed. On frequent occasions, a patient will ask, “Why aren’t doctors doing more to find cures for common diseases”. The information in this book provides useful answers. I am also frequently asked questions about nutrition, dietary supplements and environmental toxins. The information about these subjects was written in clear, simple language that most people can understand. For example, I am frequently asked if it is beneficial to take the popular supplement, açaí, to help lose weight. Not being from Brazil, I didn’t know anything about it. This book talks about how açaí is 50% fat, as triglycerides. It is an excellent source of calories and antioxidants for undernourished natives and highly competitive athletes who need more calories. Taking açaí will actually make you gain weight. So, the book is very readable and has a multi-disciplinary approach. It teaches the kind of things that I would like to see medical and pharmacy students learn and could even be useful to lay people.