Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition
by Robert M. Sapolsky
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Book Reviews of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition
Book Review: Entertaining, Educational and Important
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll spoil the ending right at the start. Zebras don't get ulcers because
a) when they're stressed (like by a lion), they run like hell, and
b) when they're not in danger, they don't worry about the next lion. They relax.
But it's still worth reading this book. It's full of fascinating stories and offbeat humor. It's filled with a spirit of compassion for all people and animals who deal with too much stress. And it gives the best explanation I've ever read of how prolonged, chronic stress affects our bodies and minds. I wish I had read it before writing my first book, The Art of Getting Well.
Sapolsky explains that stress is not the enemy. Without the stress response, none of us would be alive. But when it goes on too long, and when we aren't able to relieve stress by physical action, it raises our blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, tends to make us fat, damage our memories and derange our immune systems.
Unlike most pop science writers, Sapolsky acknowledges the social and economic causes of stress. He doesn't just say, "Relax!" But he does point to some ways people can cope with stressful environments. Since most of our stresses don't involve hungry lions, we often have a choice in how we interpret threats and how we respond. We can, to a certain extent, use our minds and bodies to reduce the effect of environmental stressors.
Stress contributes greatly to Type 2 Diabetes; some would say stress causes it. I talk about this a lot in my upcoming books, "The Politics of Diabetes" and "Diabetes as a Turning Point." Stress is not evenly distributed through our society. Money protects you from stress, as does education, social support, love, and self-confidence. While we can't always do much about the money, my book does explain how we can use the power of other people and positive emotions to manage both stress and diabetes. I will be quoting extensive from Sapolsky's work and am very grateful to him for writing about Zebras and Ulcers. I strongly encourage you to read this book.
David Spero RN, author of The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness (Hunter House 2002)
Nurse at davidsperoRN dot com
Book Review: Sit back. Let yourself be entertained and informed.
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine yourself at your favorite watering hole in an African savannah. You spot a lion. Your body hops up. Your stress response shifts into high gear. And all just as it was designed to do. Now imagine yourself sitting in front of a new mortgage, worrying about if your boss likes you, or if you look too fat, or your hair is just not falling the way it did after its fresh new cut. Your body hops up, and your stress response shifts into high gear. Only difference, no lion. And this lionless stress, day after day after day will take its toll. Depression, ulcers, heart disease, colitis, irritable bowl syndrome, and more.
Sapolsky's hard-hitting and entertaining book will inform you exactly why too much stress will make you sick. He lives half of his life in a neuroendocrine lab in Stanford, the other half camped out with stressed out baboons in Africa. He draws both on personal experience and solid research to lead you through a detailed understanding of how stress affects our bodies as well as our psyches. You'll get no mantras, no workbook exercises, and no easy step-by-step guides to follow. Nor does he fool around with feel good proclamations. What you will get is a lot of scientifically based facts based on solid research.
Sapolsky is a scientist, and comes to the subject with a scientist's critical eyes. He is also a brilliant and entertaining writer, who knows how to give his message a personal touch. You'll sit through page after page feeling as though he's talking just to you. (Did you know that Type A personality was first discovered by an upholsterer? Or that graves used to be robbed by medical schools to provide it with fresh bodies, and how this is connected to why SIDS was erroneously thought to be caused by abnormally large thyroids?) His scathing attack on Bernie "all-you-need-is-love" Siegel's "Love, Medicine and Miracles" in itself is worth the price of admission. Sapolsky is to stress science, neuroendocrinology and primatology what Springsteen is to rock-n-roll. If you ever get a chance to hear him lecture, camp out to buy your tickets well ahead of time.
Book Review: Neuroscience on stress for all of us!
Summary: 5 Stars
If I got to make a list of people on this planet I'd like to meet, Robert Sapolsky would be one of them. This guy is brilliant, hysterical, accessible, and informative in thousands of different ways. His writing can be extremely technical, explaining the details of hormones and neuroscience on every page --- but then goes on to give vivid, delightful illustrations of how those "invisible" forces in our bodies show up in the real world. In us. And in baboons. Other animals. And zebras (hence, the title.)
The purpose is to illustrate why we, as individuals, and a Western society, experience stress, and how it manifests as sickness in so many ways. Real sickness, with short term results and long term diseases. In our bodies, not "in our minds", not something we should just "get over". His words and proof is validating scientifically, and a call to action. Our behavior, and the structure of our society, is making us sick. It's not humane to do what we do to ourselves. And we can change this.
I'd like to see this book as mandatory reading for every policy-maker in health and human services. But I certainly wouldn't stop there. Managers, top to bottom, need it to understand the pressures on their employees and organizations. Scientists who work with people, or whose work affects people. Anyone who causes, or experiences, stress. Hmmm....does that leave anyone out?
Okay, not everyone will want to read this book, because it's pretty technical, not designed for an uneducated reader. But the lessons in it are for everyone. I understand Sapolsky is regarded as one of the top neuroscientists in the world, and that's no surprise. What I'm grateful for is that he shares his knowledge in something other than a scientific journal, and it's an amazing read. It will be on my reference shelf permanently, but unlike the others which I use for "reference" --- I will also read it often just because it's a great read. Imagine that.
Book Review: Wonderfully informative
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderfully informative book, and Sapolsky, a practicing scientist, is an extremely capable writer, with an fine sense of humor, and a humble, endearing personality. Yet I was not totally satisfied. Sapolsky attempts a lot, going into the physiology of the various stress responses, as well as their consequences for health, and even briefly writes about implications for self help. Frequently, the findings recounted are not without controversy or ambiguity, and Sapolsky is careful to point out the possible limitations or problems with the studies on which they are based (although he does take the "metabolic syndrome" for granted; the concept is endorsed by the American Heart Association, but viewed with skepticism by the American Diabetes Association). Sapolsky has a special gift for summarizing the necessary scientific background to understand his book, in whatever detail is required.
The source of my dissatisfaction is that while I found all the material understandable, I don't think I retained enough. Now when a book has this much content, one reading is not going to do it. Still, it would have helped if Sapolsky devoted more effort to summarization of his own material (a bit ironic in view of his talents for summarization). He is careful to remind the reader of earlier, relevant material when embarking on a new discussion, but this is not sufficient. Also, it might have helped if Sapolsky relegated to Appendices some of the material on the studies themselves, particularly the less important or less convincing studies. I guess what I am saying is that when a book has this much content, some ideas used in good textbooks are worth borrowing.
Book Review: A lively scientific report on stress
Summary: 5 Stars
Your body is a sophisticated machine. If it were an automobile, it would be a top-of-the-line, luxury-class vehicle with all of the latest options. There's just one problem: Your body was designed for the savannas of Africa, not the streets and sidewalks of some urban metropolis. This is a major issue due to one of your body's great fail-safe systems: the stress-response mechanism, also called the "fight-or-flight syndrome." This mechanism provides your body with its best chance to get away safely from sudden peril, such as when a lion attacks you. It immediately floods your muscles with robust energy. Thus strengthened, you are far more able to evade the hungry predator. Unfortunately, this same stress-response also kicks in during psychological stress. In much of modern city life (even without stalking lions), such stress is often chronic, making your stress-response mechanism work dangerously overtime, and putting your body at risk of numerous stress-related disorders and diseases. Robert M. Sapolsky, a leading neuroendocrinologist, explains it all in this lively and entertaining, yet highly informative book. He writes with delightful, ironic verve and dry, irrepressible wit. He details how chronic stress can undermine your health, and explains what you can do about it, even in the urban jungle. getAbstract feels calmer just suggesting that anyone experiencing stress could benefit from reading this book.