"Modern" medicine and pharmacology require an effective medical drug with clear structure, clear target and pathway for a specific disease. This seams very scientific but usually has unavoidable side effects. For example, the chemical therapy to cancer can totally damage the immunological ability of the patient leading to death early than non-treatment. On the other hand, natural antioxidant drugs not only can cure the disease but also can enhance the immunological ability of the patient leading to healthier though they may not have clear structures, clear targets and pathways for a specific disease. For the degenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), natural antioxidant drugs also have better effects than "modern" medical drugs. Because the pathogenesis of these diseases is complex with many targets and pathways, it is difficult for the modern medicine with a single target and single pathway to cure these diseases but it is suitable for natural antioxidant drugs with multiple components, functions, targets and pathways. These effects are more evidence when the clinic trial is for long term treatment. The author reviews the studies on the protecting effects of natural antioxidants on neurons against neurodegenerative diseases, especially summarized the results about protective effect of green tea polyphenols on neurons against apoptosis of cellular and animal PD models, and of genestien and nicotine on neurons against A(3-induced apoptosis of hippocampal neu-ronal and transgenic mouse AD models.
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