The new millennium is all set to be the epoch of what nutrition medicine researcher and practitioner Richard N Firshein, author of Reversing Asthma, contributing editor of Natural Living Today, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine etc., calls the nutraceutical revolution. His unmistakable postulate: you won't reach for your medicine chest at the familiar trickle of a sniffle, in the near future. You will instead reach for high-tech nutrients that can heal your body - naturally. To draw a brace of 'standards.' You'll take, or administer, echinacea at the onset of a cold attack, or what may be formulated as that much-enduring-shoot-and-scoot-axiom - a commonplace malady. You'll also take Vitamin-B, and 'play' Dean Ornish in an expository capacity: i.e., 'inverting' coronary artery disease.

A nutraceutical, as Firshein explains, is a nutrient that is applied pharmaceutically. More than a precursor of the proximate surge in medicine, Firshein's remarkable protocol is now being evaluated ever more perceptibly in both conventional medical treatment and alternative healing practices. Not just a part of what the character of medicine would be beyond 2000, but a new pennant, Firshein's essential guide to widely applicable nutrients, The Nutraceutical Revolution [Published on December 1, 1999], demystifies a dazzling 'twenty-piece' orchestra, composed by the good doctor himself. That's not all. It examines the biochemical changes Firshein's array of nutrients flash at the cellular level - the safest and most versatile nutraceuticals used to treat a broad range of maladies - from aging, asthma, cancer, depression, heart disease, immune anomalies and obesity to PMS and stress.

Firshein's engaging work is, in more ways than one, the most comprehensive vade-mecum on twenty most frequently prescribed nutrients - they are 'medicines' Firshein himself turns to most often in his practice. They are also the most adaptable. What's more, they are astronomically safe and offer the most promising, tangible benefits. Not only that. They have evolved on a truly scientific pedestal, broadbased on one of medical science's most wholesome dimensions: the study of precepts followed by percepts. Of accountability, appraisal, and conventionality that are rigidly assessed on measurable parameters.

The book also takes stock of the most common ailments and complaints Firshein observes in his patients - from fatigue and stress to high cholesterol and nasal problems. It explains his refined methodology without jargon - simply and sensibly. Of how he consults a gist of supplements such as vitamins, herbs, minerals, amino acids, and phytochemicals, to treat a variety of problems - chronic or otherwise. Its high-point: an exploration that explains everything you need to know about the nutraceutical element - specifically tailored to your needs. As a combined reward, Firshein's work also incorporates a final chapter that points the 'signpost' of the future, delineating five near-at-hand nutrients that are exhibiting encouraging breakthroughs in early research and analysis.

The greatest of inventions, or discoveries, are most often illustrative tenets of accidents. Firshein's nutraceutical revolution is no exception. Firshein, like Magellan with his compass, discovered the power of nutraceuticals for himself - after nearly dying from a very severe asthma attack. He restored himself to complete health through a selection of nutritional supplements. From then on, it has been, for him, a voyage of espial, transformation and potent new insights. He has learned as much as possible about his discovery at the cutting-edge of nutritional medicine, including other ways in which it may be utilized. The rest is history: Firshein has not used nutraceuticals to just change his patients' lives, but he has used them to turn the face of healthful living just as well.

The Nutraceutical Revolution is about a healthy way to eating and living-not a magic potion. It is about making nutraceuticals work synergistically, by an assemblage of nutritional programs that heal. It is an analysis of ancient wisdom transformed by the wondrous capabilities of science - a back-to-the-future kind of Power Medicine.

Call them super-smart nutrients, or what you may, nutraceuticals seem to know just where to act in the body-to bring back that sense of balance in your entire being.

It is, in its classy distingue, a high-pat, high-tap book.