A Wagenmakers, Birmingham, UK:
Portland Press, 2006, £21.95.
New ISBN 9781855781597
The exercise physiology field often suffers from a scientific
reputation that it is inferior to reductionism; the likely
misperception is the belief that exercise physiologists study only
sports events. However, the book shows that a portion of exercise
physiology is solid science. Any scientist interested in bench to
bedside, translational medicine, molecules to patients, or
integrative physiology will find no better example of these
interdisciplinary efforts than the content about exercise in this
book. Indeed, I have purchased a copy for my lab.
Some of the latest, in-depth knowledge of the physiological,
biochemical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms by which exercise
improves health is presented. The subject matter of the book is
timely given that the web sites of the American Heart Association
and the American Diabetes Association now list physical inactivity
as risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes,
respectively, and that the terms “epidemic” and “pandemic” are used
to describe the diseases. The back cover claims that each essay
provides clear mechanistic insights into the multitude of enzymes,
signaling pathways, tissues, and bodily functions that benefit from
relatively modest increases in daily physical activity. The 14
essays in the book match the claims. I found those essays that I
read very up-to-date. The depth and breath of the information
presented is great and the reader will be challenged by the
remarkable amount of molecular, cellular, physiological, and health
benefits integrated by exercise. Essays average 11 pages in length
so the reader can select an essay and be done in short order if
their discipline is less broad than exercise, which covers all organ
systems (although not all are covered in the book).
An example of the style of each essay is illustrated by the titles
of subtopics in the first essay (“Signalling mechanisms in skeletal
muscle, role in substrate selection and muscle adaptation”). The
essay begins with an introductory background paragraph on the
sources of energy supplying the 100-fold increase in ATP usage in
exercising muscle and indicating that some of the molecules in the
metabolic pathways form the basis for metabolic adaptations to
exercise. Within the first essay, exercise is divided into the
subtopics of: integration of metabolism, signaling pathways,
calcium-dependent signaling, AMP-activated protein kinase, MAPKs,
PKB/Akt, and adrenergic signaling. Remaining chapters follow a
similar subtopic format.
Each essay is co-authored by a team of 44 co-authors from different
institutions. They represent a cross-section of international
experts with complimentary expertise in human physiology,
biochemistry, and molecular biology. The editor of the book, Anton
J.M. Wagenmakers, is a Professor of Exercise Biochemistry at the
University of Birmingham, UK. His main scientific interests are the
therapeutic effect of exercise and lifestyle changes on metabolism
and cardiovascular physiology in chronic diseases.
Some of the essays can be grouped into themes. The various themes
are the exercise/physical inactivity mechanisms that operate in
skeletal muscle (Chapters 1-4 for endurance, i.e., aerobic,
activities and Chapters 5-6 for resistance, i.e., strength,
training); the metabolic interaction between muscle, liver, and
adipose tissue (Chapter 7); the effects of cytokines and
inflammation (Chapter 8); the mechanisms that exist in the
endothelium of the vascular wall (Chapters 9-12); polymorphisms
predisposing individuals to chronic diseases vary adaptive responses
to physical activity (Chapter 13); and Chapter 14 which integrates
the metabolic effects in skeletal muscle and vasculature to produce
health in physically active individuals. The bullet’s summaries at
the end of each essay are excellent, allowing selection of essays of
interest. The 14 essays are the exercise topics of: signaling
mechanisms in muscle adaptation, mitochondrial biogenesis,
mechanisms of muscle insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism,
resistance exercise and the control of muscle mass, resistance
training and insulin sensitivity in the elderly, fatty acid
metabolism, anti-inflammatory actions, vascular nitric oxide,
capillary blood flow, vascular function in obese Zucker rats,
microvascular dysfunction, physical activity interactions with
genes, and integration of the metabolic and cardiovascular during
exercise.
The editor indicates that the book is primarily for final-year
undergraduate students and postdoctorates and their teachers in
biological and medical sciences, which I concur especially for those
whose future plans are a career in exercise research. I agree with
the editor’s recommendation that any professional who is researching
exercise mechanisms would benefit from this book. I do not think, as
recommended by the editor, that many medical doctors, health
professionals, dieticians, and policymakers in public health would
use this book because the depth of science, although they would
greatly benefit from the book’s knowledge. To me, the book is a
source of comprehensive essays on the topics presented and will
serve as a reference source for research and teaching. In sum then,
I strongly recommend this book to those using exercise in their
research, whether their primary discipline is exercise or they are
using exercise as a tool for the first time (many first using
exercise are unacquainted with the sophistication of exercise
concepts and thus make major errors in the interpretation of their
sophisticated gene manipulation experiments). The book provides a
wealth of mechanisms to teachers of advanced courses in exercise,
and to physiology and biochemistry faculty using exercise as
examples of metabolism in their lectures.
Frank Booth
University of Missouri |
|
Wilfrid Jänig, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2006, 610 pp., illus., index, $170.00.
ISBN: 0-521-84518-1
Ten years have elapsed since William Blessing published his treatise on The
Brainstem and Bodily Homeostasis (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1997).
Wilfrid Jänig’s new book is a worthy successor to Blessing’s volume.
Although Jänig deals in most detail with the organization and control of
peripheral autonomic circuits, the coordination of autonomic, respiratory
and somatomotor control systems leading to adaptive responses of the
organism to changes in the environment is also a major theme. The coverage
is encyclopedic in scope, yet the style of presentation is such so that the
book can be used as a source for courses at both introductory and advanced
graduate levels. Students new to the subject will appreciate the copious
number of informative schematics, summary tables and lists of conclusions
used to emphasize major themes. The notes placed at the end of each chapter
serve as an excellent guide to further study by advanced graduate students
and investigators with special interests in the subject matter. The
reference section is extensive and, for the most part, up to date.
In the 11 chapters comprising the text, Jänig demonstrates a deep
familiarity with such far ranging subjects as the neurochemical and
functional characteristics of different groups of peripheral autonomic
neurons, synaptic and neuroeffector transmission in autonomic circuits, and
the control and coordination of autonomic, respiratory and somatomotor
functions by spinal, brainstem and forebrain circuits. There are also
excellent chapters on visceral afferent nerves and the enteric nervous
system.
The major themes presented in the text appear in the following order. First,
peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic neurons are targeting specific.
Those with different targets can be distinguished from each other on the
basis of their ongoing discharge patterns, responses to activation of
particular sets of visceral and somatic afferent nerves, and the profile of
putative peptide and non-peptide transmitters contained intracellularly.
Second, for the most part, the ongoing activity of preganglionic neurons is
determined by their central inputs. Since the discharge patterns of groups
of peripheral autonomic neurons with different targets can be dramatically
different (rhythmic versus nonrhythmic, cardiac-and/or respiratory-related
or not), it follows that target specific peripheral autonomic pathways are
connected to distinct sets of central circuits which under some
circumstances act independently of each other. Third, the elements
comprising spinal sympathetic reflex arcs serve as the building blocks for
stereotypical and highly differentiated patterns of spinal sympathetic
outflow that are used to support particular behavioral states. Jänig
considers these patterns to be hard-wired (preprogrammed) into spinal
circuits and selectively engaged by activation of their point-to-point
connections with peripheral afferent and supraspinal inputs. Fourth,
coordination and integration of the autonomic, respiratory and somatomotor
components of behaviors such as “fight or flight” is accomplished by
forebrain-induced engagement of preprogrammed, hired-wired connections among
the brainstem circuits controlling these functions.
If the book has a weakness, it is the didactic mode of presentation coupled
with the strong opinions rendered by the author. On certain important
topics, Jänig pays little attention to views expressed by others that differ
from his own. Such subjects include the origin and mechanisms responsible
for resting sympathetic nerve discharge, the role of rhythmic activity
generated in the brainstem in coordinating the discharges of sympathetic
nerves with different targets, and the multifunctional capabilities of
systems of dynamically coupled brainstem oscillators leading to the
formulation of highly differentiated patterns of spinal sympathetic best
suited to one or another behavioral state. Despite this criticism, my
overall view of Jänig’s book is highly favorable. I am confident that the
detailed and introspective presentation provided will stand as an important
reference source for years to come.
Gerard L. Gebber
Michigan State University |
