Reviewer: Samuel Lucas Brashears, MD (East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine)
Description: This book, part of the Contemporary Cardiology series, focuses on nutritional and dietary approaches to preventing and treating cardiovascular disease. It contains many informative and helpful illustrations demonstrating different processes, tables summarizing chapter information, and figures depicting a breakdown of the results of different studies with regard to efficacy and relative risk.
Purpose: This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the role and impact of various diets and supplements on cardiovascular health, including the DASH diet, Mediterranean diet, carbohydrate restriction/nutritional ketosis, fasting, and plant-based oils. Additionally, it provides detailed overviews to help address the dietary components of diabetes, arrhythmias, triglyceridemia, pro-inflammatory diseases, and heart failure. The book also highlights the role of the microbiome in cardiovascular disease and identifies optimal dietary approaches for patients with metabolic syndrome. Generally speaking, the book is meant to be used as a guide and reference for providers to help implement the above changes in their patients who have or are at risk of having cardiovascular disease.
Audience: The intended audience of this book includes cardiologists, internists, family physicians, physicians in training, dietitians, and midlevel providers. The chapter authors are national thought leaders in their respective fields.
Features: The book has 17 chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the role of dietary nutrition, vitamins, nutrients, and supplements in cardiovascular health. Chapter 2 focuses on the impact of nutrition on biomarkers of cardiovascular health. Chapter 3 is an overview of current information on the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Chapter 4 assesses the impact of dietary sodium and the DASH diet on cardiovascular health. Chapter 5 explores carbohydrate restriction and nutritional ketosis, whereas chapter 6 looks at plant-based diets with regard to prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Chapter 7 assesses the role of plant-based oils in cardiovascular disease and chapter 8 looks at prevention and treatment of obesity through the eyes of cardiac risk mitigation, specifically the dietary and pharmacologic approaches. Chapter 9 evaluates the role of fasting for cardiovascular health and chapter 10 applies that to metabolic syndrome with the goal of preventing the progression into diabetes and reducing cardiovascular disease risk. Chapter 11 details the optimal diet for diabetes with regard to glycemic control, A1C reduction, and cardiovascular risk. Chapter 12 explores the dietary and lifestyle cardiometabolic risk reduction strategies for those with pro-inflammatory diseases. Chapters 13 and 14 focus on dietary approaches to lowering LDL-C and triglycerides. Chapter 15 outlines the role of the microbiome in cardiovascular disease. Chapters 16 and 17 address the nutritional and dietary approaches to prevention and treatment of heart failure and arrhythmias, respectively. Overall, the book does a great job outlining the above, though some of the research is dated and should be identified as such in the chapter where applicable. The index is helpful, albeit somewhat limited in scope. The tables summarizing chapter content are great for a quick reference and the color illustrations, while admittedly a bit limited in number, would be helpful for explaining pathophysiology, diet, etc. to patients. There are no significant gaps in topic coverage, and while the overall topic can be a bit repetitive in the book, that is due to the overlap regarding management of different diseases that increase cardiovascular risk and is not a criticism of the text itself. The authors and contributors still manage to give each chapter a separate and distinct identity despite the significant overlap described above.
Assessment: This book is of excellent quality and is a valuable resource for any providers with an emphasis on primary or secondary prevention, including cardiologists, internists, family physicians, physicians in training, and midlevel providers.
