Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition

my take: (style influenced by the breathlessly wondrous Sapolsky)

Yes, it's all about the zebras, their lack of affinity for ulcers.

Yes, the book is a truly amazing (amusing, exhausting) chronicle of social- / neuro- biology, what we have learned / surmised / imagined about the nervous system, its basic anatomy / physiology and the way stress affects it (as well as the rest of the body, social group, culture, world) both short and long term (talk about consequences!); the related manipulative / corrective strategies of pharma, physicians, general and psycho-neurologists, clinical psychologists, arm-chair psychologists, alpha-baboons (executives), sociologists, artists, partners, healers, rumor-mongers, and general purveyors of social capital; the sociology, changing views, solutions. Genetics: questions of cause / effect, relationships, heritability, the future re medicine / sociology / profits to made, heading off disasters of exuberant approach. Principles ("Homeostasis is about tinkering with this valve or that gizmo. Allostasis is about the brain coordinating body-wide changes, often including changes in behavior"). How all this resonates, from/through microscopic to footed-creatures, with a special fixation on humans. All that. Important, wonderful and often course-correcting stuff. (Source, myth, questions of how and why things get mangled.) Politics, geopolitics, (Biopolitics?) .... the idea (quaint, being that of one mid 19 C physician Rudolph Virchow) that "Medicine is social science, and politics nothing but medicine on a large scale... Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor." The factors / considerations about how poverty might affect all this, and the important (spun, remembered, neglected) corollaries of how attitude, social and personal, might (rich, poor) be surprisingly / cynically relative.

All this. Delivered with humor and humility, questions ever begetting questions. ("Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it.")

Sapolsky really is one of my heroes.

But what I really learned from this book is exactly (especially the last paragraph) what I need to learn and apply. To ME. From his conclusion:

+++++++++
Sometimes, coping with stress consists of blowing down walls. But sometimes it consists of being a blade of grass, buffeted and bent by the wind but still standing when the wind is long gone. Stress is not everywhere. Every twinge of dysfunction in our bodies is not a manifestation of stress-related disease. It is true that the real world is full of bad things that we can finesse away by altering our outlook and psychological makeup, but it is also full of awful things that cannot be eliminated by a change in attitude, no matter how heroically, fervently, complexly, or ritualistically we may wish. Once we are actually sick with the illness, the fantasy of which keeps us anxiously awake at two in the morning, the things that will save us have little to do with the content of this book. Once we have that cardiac arrest, once a tumor has metastasized, once our brain has been badly deprived of oxygen, little about our psychological outlook is likely to help. We have entered the realm where someone else--a highly trained physician--must use the most high-tech of appropriate medical interventions.

These caveats must be emphasized repeatedly in teaching what cures to seek and what attributions to make when confronted with many diseases. But amid this caution, there remains a whole realm of health and disease that is sensitive to the quality of our minds--our thoughts and emotions and behaviors. And sometimes whether or not we become sick with the diseases that frighten us at two in the morning will reflect this realm of the mind. It is here that we must turn from the physicians and their ability to clean up the mess afterward and recognize our own capacity to prevent some of these problems beforehand in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives.

Perhaps I'm beginning to sound like your grandmother, advising you to be happy and not to worry so much. This advice may sound platitudinous, trivial, or both. But change the way even a rat perceives its world, and you dramatically alter the likelihood of its getting a disease. These ideas are no mere truisms. They are powerful, potentially liberating forces to be harnessed. As a physiologist who has studied stress for many years, I clearly see that the physiology of the system is often no more decisive than the psychology. We return to the catalogue at the beginning of the first chapter, the things we all find stressful--traffic jams, money worries, overwork, the anxieties of relationships. Few of them are "real" in the sense that that zebra or that lion would understand. In our privileged lives, we are uniquely smart enough to have invented these stressors and uniquely foolish enough to have let them, too often, dominate our lives. Surely we have the potential to be uniquely wise enough to banish their stressful hold.

+++++++++

It's the wisdom of Sophocles: Bend, not break.

This is a great book which explains the causes of stress in western civilization--both physiologically and psychologically.
Comparing human civilized life with animal behavior on the savannah, Sapolsky makes the point that zebras need to run like the dickens to avoid being caught by lions, causing them to produce "glucocorticoids" like mad, but then, if the zebras do, in fact, get away, they can relax.
Not so with humans, who are under continual stress and have trouble "unwinding." Excess "glucocorticoids" lead to all sorts of diseases, which Sapolsky explains in great detail.
A biologist and neurologist at Standard University, he can get quite technical, but thanks to the relevant examples he uses and his great sense of humor, this is one science book that is made palpable to lay readers.

I was not really interested in stress, but I have so enjoyed Sapolsky's other books (and also his teaching company course on the biological basis of behavior), I bought this book for enjoyment. And he has got me fascinated by stress. But more than that, by the time you have finished this book you will also understand a lot more about the human condition, how we work, and where we came from. If you do do not have a biology background (I don't) you may need to read it more than once to remember most of it. But it is so entertaining and full of fun, this is no hardship. This book is a wonderful example of why science is so much more fun than woo.

I am a PhD student and mental health therapist. I purchased this book to help on my dissertation involving the topic of stress. I didn't dream I would fall in love with this book! Since reading it, I have been encouraging not only my family and friends but also my therapy clients to read this book. It's educational, interesting, and oddly entertaining!
Stress is something that surrounds us, all of us. How our bodies and minds manage stress, as well as the types of stress, are all unique to the individual. This book really lends way to the science of stress, why we feel it, how it's felt, what happens within the body, and the health risks of stress. I would give this a 10 star review.... such great content!

I read other books by Dr. Sapolsky and loved them all. This particular book, while it does require a bit higher understanding of biology and chemistry (heeeelloooo GOOGLE!!), it still makes for fascinating read. Dr. Sapolsky is a scientist who is writing in a language understandable to read, making science funny and exciting, mysterious and beautiful. In this book you will learn and marvel at complex mechanism that is human body, and how mind/body connections are directly related. It might be a personal preference, depending where you find your guidance, but I find this type of approach best working for me - cold, harsh science. After I had read this book, I have put my gears into "nirvana" mode, and became more conscious about how much stress I allow myself to experience. Might be the case of "SERENITY NOW!!!" - insanity later... but I would still highly recommend this book to anyone fascinated by science, studying, or just interested in chemistry and biology, or on a quest to learn more about how far have we come in understanding our own bodies and mechanisms behind the molecules that form human being.

I needed this book for a class I was taking. I wasn't sure I would be interested in really reading it, just using it for class. But I found that I really got into it and the pages flew by.

Offers a wealth of information about the physiology of stress, why the stress response evolved, how chronic stress is related to disease, and some ways to avoid or reduce stress. In some cases a subjective sense of control and predictability correlate with lower stress, as do regular exercise, social support and a sense of optimism or hope for the future.

Although there is a lot of technical discussion, the author writes with earthy humor. There are no miracle remedies for stress, and the book is highly critical of popular claims that love, willpower or religion can cure serious disease. But understanding how stress affects our bodies is a first step in minimizing its damage.

One of my favorite quotes: "...the absence of touch is seemingly one of the most marked developmental stressors that we can suffer." (p. 109). Sue Gerhardt's "Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain" is another good book on that topic.

"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" is seven years old, but what it says is remarkably consistent with Prof. Michael Craig Miller's recent seminar on stress "The Race to Grace" at Harvard's Center for Mind-Body Medicine (available online).

Finally, the book offers fascinating news about the new science of "successful aging." Although most people's health and abilities decline with advancing age, some people don't decline as much and in a few cases memory even improves with age. A long book but highly recommended!

Entertaining, amusing, filled with solid science and goes into my permanent library. Everything you need to know about how the body and psyche handle stress.
This book is helpful, informative and interesting. Like Jared Diamond, makes you want to learn
and understand more. Relevant for everyone.
[[ASIN:0805073698 Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition]]

Ok book.

Great read. Picked it up after watching the Stanford lectures by the author on YT, and was not disappointed