Fractal physiology and chaos in medicine (Q2919558)

Biology is an excellent source of mathematical ideas. This book takes the opposite route, i.e. it applies fractals and nonlinear dynamics to medicine. This requires that the author is fluent in both topics, which is rare. This book consists of five chapters. The first challenges the ideas of linearity and homeostasis in medicine. Fractals are introduced in Chapter two. They are used to understand the lung. It is argued that fractal structure is more tolerant to errors. Power law (fractal) relations have been observed in allometry relations (relations between size and physiological functions). Some statistical and dynamical aspects of fractals are mentioned. In Chapter three nonlinear dynamics is introduced. Constructing the attractor from the bio-data is explained. Some false alarms are pointed out, which is quite relevant since there is abuse of using fractals just by fitting the log-log data by straight lines. In Chapter four fractal stochastic dynamics is presented. The important phenomena of heart rate variability, breath rate variability and stride rate variability are studied. In Chapter five chaotic dynamics are applied to epidemics, neurons, the heart and the brain (e.g. epilepsy). It is interesting to realize that , in some cases, chaos is a sign of a healthy state. Chapter six gives a brief introduction to complex networks. This book is an excellent introduction to nonlinear dynamics and fractals in medicine yet it does not mention the concept of adaptive network. Also the relevant reference [\textit{G. Thamrin} et al., ``Fractals for physicians'', Pediatr. Respir. Rev. 11, No. 2, 123--131 (2010; \url{doi:10.1016/j.prrv.2010.02.001})] is missing. This reviewer believes that the author deserves several victory laps for this book.