Introduction
This book highlights various cardiovascular diseases affecting humans. It takes into account how the genetic component of the body interacts with environmental cues to influence the functioning and integrity of the cardiovascular system. In this review, outstanding factors were highlighted and criticisms were made regarding some aspects of the book.
Review
This text was organized into 10 chapters, with each chapter having different combinations of contribution authors. The first chapter discussed atherosclerosis as a cardiovascular disease broadly. The questions as to “when, where, how and why” atherosclerosis occurs, were raised and addressed. In addressing atherosclerosis, the authors left no stone unturned when discussing its pathogenesis as well as disease progression. The involvement of mechanosensors, immunomodulatory responses, as well as biochemical drive toward atherosclerotic plaque formation were discussed in-depth. In addition, the global epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases was extensively discussed. Knowing that migration could impact heavily on susceptibility to ischemic heart disease, was an opener. Intriguingly, when highlighting how different food sources and groups could increase or alleviate the risk of cardiovascular diseases onset and progression, we appreciated the fact that the authors did not out rightly condemn or recommend certain food groups. Considering that lots of controversies surround foods, and as a rule, portion size and control is generally recommended, rather than total abstinence.
We got drawn to the statement in chapter 2, stating that the underlying pathology of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis. In our opinion, it could have been better worded that, atherosclerosis is the major underlying pathology of cardiovascular disease. In writing, the norm is to first write the full terminology with the abbreviation bracketed, before proceeding to use the abbreviated term in text in the write-up. Toward the ending chapter, knowing that gene-environment interactions could be complimentary and agonistic as well was helpful. Also, elucidated was how genes interact with themselves.
The striking thing about this book was that, despite the fact that it was written by different authors, they adopted similar framework and flow when addressing different aspects of cardiovascular diseases. The genetic influence, therapeutic options as well as clinical implications of the discussed disease were elucidated.
This book is highly recommended for a wider audience, as well as to researchers particularly involved to cardiovascular research and teaching.
Statements
Author contributions
CO and EA both read the book and together drew out criticism and generally summarized the book. CO did the initial typing, while EA did the proof reading and final editing.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Summary
Keywords
cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases–epidemiology, ecophysiology, genetics, coronary artery disease
Citation
Okolo CA and Asamudo EU (2018) Book Review: Cardiovascular Diseases: Genetic Susceptibility, Environmental Factors, and Their Interaction. Front. Physiol. 9:1570. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01570
Received
31 July 2018
Accepted
19 October 2018
Published
06 November 2018
Volume
9 - 2018
Edited by
Antonio Colantuoni, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Reviewed by
Pasquale Pagliaro, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy; Dominga Lapi, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Italy
Updates
Copyright
© 2018 Okolo and Asamudo.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Chidinma Adanna Okolo chidinma.okolo@postgrad.otago.ac.nz
This article was submitted to Vascular Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology
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