A new study indicates that nutritional supplements not only provide health benefits but significantly reduce health care costs because they help prevent illnesses that require medical treatment. The study, conducted by the research firm Frost & Sullivan and issued by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), analyzed the cost-benefit ratio for 8 regimens of supplement use, such as for diabetes, osteoporosis, age-related eye disease, and coronary heart disease. The results suggest that supplements taken at “preventive intake levels” by patients who are at high risk for these illnesses could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Smithsonian research scholars Alain Touwaide, PhD, and Emanuela Appetiti have spent the past two decades on a scientific quest that appears to be lifted straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. The treasures they seek don’t put them in the path of rolling boulders, but do offer critical insight into the lost knowledge of ancient Mediterranean medicine. The pair, through their Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, conducts groundbreaking research bridging past and present, restoring the broken lineage of ancient Mediterranean medical traditions to modern medical practice.