Abstract
The improvement of the social and economic conditions of society has eliminated the threat of death from the majority of infectious diseases. However, the rapid progress of civilization has created new possibilities for the appearance of factors with adverse effects for the health of society. This has led to increased morbidity from certain diseases, the presence of which had not been observed several centuries ago. Chronic noncommunicable diseases (e.g., cancers, cardio-vascular disorders, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases) result from an inappropriate relationship between people and their environment. The common characteristic for all chronic diseases is a “new” form of inflammation, very often called metaflammation, which is considered as a subclinical, permanent inflammation. As a result, metabolic cascade, including cellular oxidative stress, atherosclerotic process, and insulin resistance, occurs, which slowly generates significant deterioration in the organism. Polyphenols are the major group of non-nutrients, considering their diversity, food occurrence, and biological properties. The current review aims to present a wide spectrum of literature data, including the molecular mechanism of their activity and experimental model used, and summarize the recent findings on the multitude of physiological effects of dietary polyphenols towards the prevention of several chronic diseases. However, despite several studies, the estimation of their dietary intake is troublesome and inconclusive, which will be also discussed.
Highlights
The rapid progress of humanity observed starting from the Industrial Revolution and especially after World War II has led to an increase in the length and quality of life
The background of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is rather complicated, in contrast to infectious diseases which are always connected with germs
The common characteristic for all chronic diseases is a “new” form of inflammation, which from the beginning of the 1990s has been called metaflammation [5]. This term is used to describe a form of low-grade, chronic, and systemic inflammation, originally associated with obesity
Summary
The rapid progress of humanity observed starting from the Industrial Revolution and especially after World War II has led to an increase in the length and quality of life. Rapid development of medical and pharmaceutical sciences has led to an improvement in diagnosis and the introduction of new drugs (e.g., vaccination or antibiotics). Together with the improvement of the social and economic conditions of society, this has eliminated the threat of death from the majority of infectious diseases [1,2]. The rapid progress of civilization has created new possibilities for the appearance of factors with adverse effects for the health of society. The Western diet, with its high saturated fat and sugar intake, physical inactivity, insufficient sleep, strong psychological stress, low sun exposure, environmental pollution, and smoking or alcohol abuse, are some of the most important factors which have been discussed during the last 20 years in numerous papers and reports, leading to the description of the many so-called “diseases of civilization” [1,3,4]
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