Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition Paperback – September 15, 2004

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.

This book is about stress. I bought it and read it because I am a stressful guy. I wanted to know if stress was in fact that powerful representative in the congress of our bodies and therefore a moderator of our lives. After reading "Why zebras..." I know it is and I know also that it has to do with sicknesses and different states of mind. It has to do with everything involved with our perceptions, either internal or external. To let you know about all that stuff and its intermingled and complex wire clutter, Professor Sapolsky gives a comprehensive account distributed on eighteen chapters and a big corpus of notes. Everyone of them relates the stress with pain, memory, aging and death, cancer, and so on. In some cases there is a clear relationship while in some others the link is not so clear: the author is always there to let you know the difference. A caveat: this is not a self help book and I didn't buy it by mistake. I knew it was a serious work at the very extreme of a life dedicated to study this phenomenon with rats, baboons, several monkeys, and ourselves of course.To finish, the last two chapters were very impressive to me. To jump from the individual to the society in chapter seventeen and then go back in chapter eighteen to our daily experience was an extraordinary closure to a superb work. As a moral I would say that not everything is good news here but this is how it works... What can we do? The rest is noise (not silence).

Influence of and elevation in glucocorticoids can effect your overall stress levels and can effect multiple functions and in multiple areas both physical and mentally. Stress is everywhere.

Stress can take its toll on the human body. This isn’t a new idea- most everyone agrees that prolonged exposure to stressful situations can have negative impacts on overall health and well- being. Just how, exactly, does stress affect our bodies and is there a way to reduce its harm? These are subjects tackled in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.This book combines social science with traditional science to explain how stress impacts our lives. The book serves up a healthy dose of science as it explains the different body chemicals that are released in response to a stressful event. It explains what these different hormones do and offers up studies and evidence that show what can happen if stress isn’t brought under control.The title of this book is one that gets your attention and convinces many to read. It’s a metaphor that continues to pop up throughout the reading. It effectively drives home many of the books key points, using a zebra being pursued by a lion as its basis. The book serves up a healthy dose of humor, too, which helps keep things interesting and keeps your attention.As I read this book, I started thinking more than usual about my own levels of stress and whether I have been negatively affected by stress to a noticeable degree. I feel like I have stress under control, at least better than I used to. I don’t overreact to things like I once did and it’s a good thing I don’t. After reading this book and discovering what stress can do to you, I was tempted to quit my job, sell my urban home, and move to a secluded part of the country.Stress is detrimental and it is something we all need less of in our lives. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers is a highly useful book for understanding the science behind the stress and all the harm that stress can inflict. It’s a well- written book that explains the science with a dash of humor to keep it entertaining enough that you want to continue reading. I learned quite a bit and it has piqued my interest to continue pursuing more knowledge about stress and its impact on our bodies.