Book excerpt: Published in 1991: This book explores the possibilities of protecting the heart against stress and ischemia through adaptation to intermittent hypoxia or to mild, nondamaging stress exposure. These possibilities are based on studies that show an increase in the potency and efficiency of stress-limiting systems when subjected to repeated stress actions, adaptation to high altitude hypoxia, or adaptation to increased physical loads. Any stress reaction is coupled with an activation of central and local stress-limiting systems, such as GABA-ergic, opioidergic, and serotonergic systems in the brain, as well as antioxidants, prostaglandins, and adenosine in executory organs. The book also presents the use of metabolites of stress-limiting systems rather than adaptation as a means to prevent cardiac arrythmias. It also discusses genetically determined deficiencies of stress-limiting systems and their role in the etiology of stress-induced diseases. Cardiologists and researchers studying stress and its effect on cardiovascular systems will find this book extremely useful.