Roles of functional foods and nutraceuticals in neuroprotection in-depth mechanism with clinical exploration

Lately, many researchers have shown an immense interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals as they are widely used for promoting health status especially for the prevention and treatment of various neurological diseases (NDDs). This chapter focuses only on popular nutraceuticals/functional foods against various NDDs, including Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD), and dementia with special reference to clinical trials. A preliminary review of literature indicated that nutraceuticals/functional foods such as curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), coenzyme Q10, and ?-3 fatty acids (DHA/EPA/ALA) showed a better neuroprotective activity against various NDDs in human setting (clinical trial). Hence, this contribution will emphasize only those popular nutraceuticals/functional foods with proposed mechanisms (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, mitotoxicity, and enhanced neurotransmitters) and recommendations. This contribution might help readers to choose a better nutraceuticals/functional food (best alternative) to combat various NDDs along with standard neuroprotective agents by following a modified healthy lifestyle pattern.