Nutrition, a Primary Prevention of Communicable Disease?

This article is a reminder that, in addition to the classic hygienic anti-epidemic measures, communicable (infectious) and non-communicable (chronic) diseases can possibly be prevented by purposefully focusing on nutritional programs.In ancient times, nor antibiotics, the only way to prevent and treat diseases was to adjust the patient’s diet.Many times over the years, nutritional health promotion has proven itself to be effective even though, as typical of the history of medicine, it has sometimes been forgotten. Even Hippocrates (460-337 BC) was aware of the importance of nutrition for health as he stated: “If you know nothing about a person’s diet, how can you understand his illness?”The authors have tried to point out the importance of nutrition, which always contains antigens that directly induce immunological memory, in both specific (adaptive) immunity and as recently demonstrated, non-specific immunity, within our largest organ of immunity, the Intestinal Lymphoid Tissue (GALT).In essence, in addition to its nutritional value, food intake could also be considered as an ongoing form of “vaccination”.