I'm so frustrated by wading through this sea of mud that my review will be bullet points.

* 35% longer than it should have been

* desperately needs editing for clarity

* conversational tone muddies the concepts and slows the flow

* topically gallops in a dozen directions

* the scientific support is at turns glossed over or excessively technical without purpose

I could go on, but I'll spare you. It reads as if it wasn't written, but dictated, by someone who loves the sound of his own voice -- Gilderoy Lockhart teaching a sophomore psych seminar. There is good science, but you have to wade through a hip-deep bog of verbiage and mentally restructure the book as you read it.

First off, Sapolsky is a delightful writer. For a rather depressing book on all the scientifically understood harmful effects of stress, this book is often laugh out loud funny. But beyond that, Sapolsky is brilliant. He makes complex topics seem simple, but doesn't simplify to the point of losing the complexity. Quite a feat. If you are ever curious about examining what stress really is, and what effect it has on your body, this book is a must-read (especially useful I think for yoga teachers).

Another book from Robert Sapolsky, it talks about stress (the stimulating and the chronic one), and you won’t believe the extent of damage caused by the chronic stress, from cardiovascular diseases to diabetes , depressions, hypertension , mental illnesses etc. . this book should be your guide to understand stress and manage it.

Fascinating info! Not only is Sapolsky a renowned scholar, he's a wonderful story teller. Even his explanations of complicated physiological cascades are easy to follow. The book is about the stress response, in animals and in humans, and the basic take-home lesson is that stress is a double edged sword. This is not a self-help book (do this and feel better), but a book to clarify something that we all experience (stress) and discuss how it affects us, and what the science says might help or harm, maybe, in particular circumstances. The book is worth it for Chapter 17 alone, in which Sapolsky examines the devastating effects of poverty, especially the perception of poverty in the midst of plenty, and its multi-generational biological effects.

I'm absolutely in love with Robert sapolsky style of writing.

Though I passively delayed reading this for several years, in part because I was already pretty familiar with the stress literature, I’m glad I finally did read the book. It was more interesting, involved, and nuanced than I expected. I learned some things, and more than that enjoyed the comprehensive and entertaining review of what is and isn’t known in the field and how we might apply a few things practically. I’ll likely return to it someday.

I'm a major stresser.

I stress over big things, over little things, over all things. Because I'm a stresser, I'm all too often a stressor (i.e. a person or thing that causes stress) for the people around me.

It sucks, really. I don't like stressing, something that all those who are constantly telling me to "calm down," "chill out," "relax!" just don't seem to get.

It's not like I can just flip a switch here.

If only!

It worries me, because of course, along with stressing, I'm also anxious. Yes, anxiety is a constant companion. I worry all the time that I don't have enough time, so I spend all my time worrying.

Time, money, people ... these are the main things that cause me stress and anxiety, but they certainly aren't the only ones.

I worry because I stress. Mainly because, if I get so stressed going to the grocery story (and I very much do), how will I handle something truly monumental? Like, say, the death of a loved one, or bad health news? (I have, for now, been incredibly fortunate to not to have had to deal with either.)

My stress sometimes starts off over small things, not emailing a friend who emailed me a month ago, say, forgetting to pick up toothpaste, and then spirals into greater stresses, what I call "tomorrow stresses" (though my stress is happening very much in the present moment).

I don't have health insurance, so what if something happens to me and I need to go the doctor? What if I can't pay my rent? What if I am forced forced to work in an office again? (god forbid!)

I very much have tried/am trying to get my anxiety/stress under control. No, I won't take anxiety medication. I flat out refuse to even consider the prospect of anti-depressants or the like (I'm not really depressed anyway ... I don't think). I've always viewed pills as the worst sort of coping mechanism (well, aside from harder drugs like alcohol or heroin, that is). Always having to constantly up the dosage to maintain the same feeling of ... numbness. No thanks.

No disrespect intended to anyone who takes prescription meds, by the way. Whatever you need to get you through the day. I just know that it's not something I can envision for myself ...

So I've tried other things.

I've downloaded a meditation app and one of these days — tomorrow, let's say, as I do every day — I will actually start it. I bought and read this book, which I otherwise wouldn't have done.

It's a very good book. I liked it a lot and I'm glad I read it. Boiling down stress to various chemical elements, leading to an over abundance of glucocorticoids, leading to umm, bad things, helps ... I think. It takes the emotional component out of it, makes it feel more mechanical, like a broken chain on a bicycle that can, maybe, be fixed.

Some might complain that of the 18 chapters that make up "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers," only the final one, "Managing Stress," actually tells you how to, uh, manage stress. But those 17 former chapters are equally as important.

For one thing, they give you a better idea of the effects of stressing out (spoiler: they're not good), which was, yes, stressful to learn about. But for another, the cumulative effect of all the various stressors, of learning the hows and the whys of it all, is oddly comforting.

Many would likely consider a book about stress a particularly timely read, in light of, well, the times. Which is a funny thing, because I've found — pathologically? — that I'm possibly less stressed now than I was before. In some way, it again goes back to the idea of time, of missing out on life, on things. Misery does love company, and the fact that so many people are, sadly, miserable at the current moment — isolated in their homes, unable to attend any sort of gatherings or events as they've all been canceled — comforts me as I know that 1. I'm not alone and 2. I'm not missing out on anything.

Yes, maybe I'm a villain ripped straight from a comic book. At least credit me for my honesty.

And that's the one aspect I wish Robert Sapolsky — who I feel I'd very much like as a person — had covered, albeit my edition (the third, released in 2004) may have been slightly too old for that, Millennial that I am.

Which is whether there is any truth to the idea that anxiety and stress may be not just individual, but generational as well. You often hear, or at least I do, that Millennials are more prone to stress, more anxious, than their generational predecessors. There are, of course, many very reasonable explanations for this.

Student debt. Gross inequality. Global warming. Helicopter parenting. Stricter moral upbringings. Growing up in the age of global terrorism. General disenchantment with modern politics. Untempered capitalism. Doubts as to whether one can truly make a difference, etc etc etc, ad infinitum.

Because when I talk to my Millennial counterparts, I don't feel unique in my anxiety, in my stress over how to survive, how to make a living, in 2020. Nobody seems to have the answers, and the general advice from our elders seems to be "don't worry so much" when indeed there seems to be so much to worry about.

It's an anxiety stemming not from a fear of nonexistence, of our mortality, but of existence itself, of reconciling with the fact that a human existence bears no more meaning than an animal one, because we are, after all, just animals.

We struggle to reconcile with this fact, to cope with the reality that there is no meaning to any of it.

The only answer, then, is to make our own meaning. To find it in books, in relationships, in writing, in forms of expression that will outlast ourselves.

You may even find it here.

To summarize: Adrenaline is a DEATH drug. It's designed to keep you alive for the next 15 seconds, or to ease your death. As such, it's necessarily thriftless. If you can survive to the 16th second only by losing a limb, it's worthwhile to sacrifice the limb. Otherwise, it's wasteful and disabling.

Zebras don't get ulcers because they (mostly) only release stress hormones 'in the event of an actual emergency'. Humans deliberately evoke stress on an everyday basis, and the reckless decisions the body makes under the influence of stress hormones, too often, results in the loss of limbs, supression of the immune system, etc.

Recommendation: don't pull the fire alarm unless there's a real fire.

I may be a bit biased. I really like Robert Sapolsky. I've taken his human biology course online, and he's very kind when you email him. The book is a thorough examination of stress in the contemporary context, and there's a tonne of scientific jargon in some parts of the book. You can, however, get through it but I recommend you spend a bit of extra time and effort to actually understand what he's trying to convey. In general, Stress is bad for you. Like really bad, and do whatever you can in your current environment to get rid of it.

While the book was published in the early 2000s,

I still found it to have a crazy amount of information following how the body responds to stress, what chemicals are released, and what systems are affected. The author also made a great effort to not make it feel text-booky, at some points I did have to pause, but in a general sense the author did a good job of explaining complex systems to a non science reader.

At some points I found the writing uninteresting and at others I was intensely fascinated with new learning.

Overall if you have any interest in how the body works, this is a rather solid choice. Especially when talking about something everyone can relate to.

Suprantu knyga jau tapo klasika - ypatingai išsami ir detali. Kai pamatysite kokio storio lietuviškas leidimas neišsigąskite, nes trečdalis puslapių yra išnašos :) Labai išsamus ir detalus tyrimas apie streso priežastis ir jo įtaką sveikatai - ypatingai užkabinantis pirmas trečdalis, po to knygos viduryje nukeliauja į ypatingai gilius mokslinius cheminius dalykus ir tik pabaiga baigiasi patarimais. Būtent patarimų skiltis gražina į bendrą paveikslą, jog ypatingų streso valdymo priemonių nėra - visiems žinomi jau bendri dalykai.

Selections from the Filmography of James O. Incandenza.

“It could be your glucocorticoids.” - Year of the Ectopic Heartbeat Dubstep Frequency Crowd Dispersal Device (?) Sex Panther Entertainment Unlimited/X-Ray and Infrared Photography by Marvin McGroin’s Medicinal Anthrax Soft Shell Tacos Incorporated, Amarillo, TX. The Ultimate Warrior (John Brian “Jim” Hellwig), Robert Sapolsky (Bill Sapolsky), Jennifer (Jen), Jim (Jim Cornette). George “The Animal” Steele (The Animal Himself). Lucious Malfoy (Jason Isaacs). Listed by some archivists as completed the following year, Y.T.-S.D.B. UNRELEASED

Film begins silent. A naked man (George “The Animal” Steele) is sitting in a nondescript room, stress eating Toblerones. Weeping. His body visibility wracked with anguish as tributaries of warm nougat and honey stochastically traverse the lumpy topology of his hirsute torso. Twisting and bifurcating. His chest and stomach tattooed with a network of lines the color of Swiss mocha, all converging inexorably on the tenebrous vortex of his navel, where their flavors may be lost forever, beyond the event horizon, or else re-congealed into a perfect orb of Toblerone, sans almonds, and shot into another dimension. Adjacent, a dog-eared copy of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers and several disemboweled turnbuckles. Robert Sapolsky (Bill Sapolsky) breaks the silence with susurrus of a glucocorticoidical nature, causing the tremulous bulk of the seated figured (George “The Animal” Steele) to quake with continued sobs.

"Primates are super smart and organized just enough to devote their free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each other out. But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick."

Scene transitions to ringside view with J. (Yours truly) and Jim (Jim Cornette) commentating on the arrival of the main event; The Ultimate Warrior (John Brian “Jim” Hellwig) vs. Robert Sapolsky (Bill Sapolsky). In a flourish of flash bang pyrotechnics, The Ultimate Warrior (James Brian “Jim” Hellwig) emerges from backstage like a shaved mule with rainbow plumages fastened and KISS makeup applied. A creature built for carnage. Canines bared in atavistic rage. Nostrils flared to pump Cretaceous levels of oxygen into his swollen musculature.

“Here he comes, Jen.”

“Implacable. Like a force of nature, Jim.”

“A goddamn man mountain, Jen.”

“A veritable mountain of man, Jim.

“Right you are, Jen.

“A being like unto all that was glorious about the era of hair metal, processed and packed into a latex baggie like a summer sausage, Jim.

“Would you just look at that sausage, Jen.”

“An ultra thin condom glistening with obscene amounts of spermicide and stuffed to bursting with walnuts, Jim.”

“Get a load of the vascularity, I mean, would you just look at that, Jen.”

“It’s almost sickening, Jim.”

“I’m a little sick, Jen.”

“I may throw up right here. Watch me, Jim.”

“So help me, if you go, then I go, Jen.”

“I’m more frightened than sick, Jim.”

“I’ll piss myself. You know I’ll do it, Jen.”

“Not again. Stay strong, Jim.”

“I’m clenching, Jen.”

“I’m sympathetically clenching, Jim.”

“Hnnnnnnnnnng.”

“Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng”

The Ultimate Warrior (James Brian “Jim” Hellwig), while striding down the walkway, is flagged by an uppity fan. Lucious Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) resplendent in anti-muggle apparel, is heard to sneer: “Your mother has chronically elevated glucocorticoids.”

“He’s got him by the robes, Jim.”

“By the balls too, Jen.”

“I can confirm that a massive hand is firmly on the hog, Jim.”

“Just look at those hands, Jen.”

“There he goes, Jim!”

“Good God! Would you just look at that parabola, Jen!”

“Like a comet of white hair trailing popcorn and Chardonnay, Jim”

In the center of the ring Robert Sapolsky (Robert Maurice Sapolsky, the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and by courtesy, Neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, research associate at the National Museums of Kenya.) Takes up a mic and continues:

"The stress response is incredibly ancient evolutionarily. Fish, birds and reptiles secrete the same stress hormones we do, yet their metabolism doesn't get messed up the way it does in people and other primates. Just look at the dichotomy between what your body does during real stress—for example, something is intent on eating you and you're running for your life—versus what your body does when you're turning on the same stress response for months on end for purely psychosocial reasons. You mobilize energy in your thigh muscles, you increase your blood pressure and you turn off everything that's not essential to surviving, such as digestion, growth and reproduction. You think more clearly, and certain aspects of learning and memory are enhanced. All of that is spectacularly adapted if you're dealing with an acute physical stressor—a real one."

The Ultimate Warrior (John Brian “Jim” Hellwig) grabs hold of the ropes and shakes them violently.

“Would you just look at that intensity, Jen.”

“It’s as if he’s grabbed hold of a live wire, Jim.”

“Strong current flowing through that man, Jen.”

“A mesmerizing vibrational frequency of fixed amplitude is emerging, Jim”

“It’s enough to deter a slop-hound from mounting a gut-wagon, Jen.”

“Well said. Any further attempts to waller in viscera will be met with extreme electrification, Jim.

“Electrification, Jen.”

“He’s got the mic, Jim!”

“I came here for one reason — to attack and keep coming. Not to ask but just to give, not to want but just to sing, sing the power of the Warrior, because this freak of nature right here is just beginning to swell, and when I get big enough, brother, there ain’t gonna be room for anybody else but me and all the Warriors floating through the veins.”

"If you turn on the stress response chronically for purely psychological reasons,” Sapolsky admonishes. “You increase your risk of adult onset diabetes and high blood pressure. If you're chronically shutting down the digestive system, there's a bunch of gastrointestinal disorders you're more at risk for as well."

“I WAS SENT IN A CAPSULE FROM A PLACE NOT FROM HERE AND I CAME HERE FOR ONE REASON: TO ATTACK AND KEEP COMIN'. NOT TO ASK, BUT JUST TO GIVE. NOT TO WANT, BUT JUST TO SEND!”

"Furthermore,” Sapolsky counters. “If you're chronically stressed, all sorts of aspects of brain function are impaired, including, at an extreme, making it harder for some neurons to survive neurological insults. Also, neurons in the parts of the brain relating to learning, memory and judgment don't function as well under stress. That particular piece is what my lab has spent the last 20 years on." The Warrior, seeming terrible confused, opens the floor. "If you plan to get stressed like a normal mammal, you had better turn on the stress response or else you're dead. But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, like a Westernized human, then you are more at risk for heart disease and some of the other leading causes of death in Westernized life." The Warrior, having it up to here with relentless mumbo jumbo, explodes, drawing himself up and towering over the diminutive smarty pants, pectorals dancing in rhythmic electrochemical spasms.

LODGED IN MY SKULL ... WAS A PIECE OF THE CRYSTAL OF YOUR KINGDOM! YOUR MADNESS! THEY SAID, "BUT WARRIOR, IT'S LODGED INSIDE YOUR SKULL," AND I SAID, "SEW IT IN! LEAVE IT WHERE IT LAYS!"

"We are capable of social supports that no other primate can even dream of," Sapolsky says. "For example, I might say, 'This job, where I'm a lowly mailroom clerk, really doesn't matter. What really matters is that I'm the captain of my softball team or deacon of my church'—that sort of thing. It's not just somebody sitting here, grooming you with their own hands. We can actually feel comfort from the discovery that somebody on the other side of the planet is going through the same experience we are and feel, I'm not alone. We can even take comfort reading about a fictional character, and there's no primate out there that can feel better in life just by listening to Beethoven. So the range of supports that we're capable of is extraordinary."

“I look up to the gods, and when you fall below the skeletons of the Warriors past, the power of the Warriors will become the eight wonder of the woooorrrrrldddd!!! Normal people, the people that walk the streets every day, we cannot understand. The family that I live for only breathes the air that smells of combat. With or without the face-paint I am the Ultimate Warrioooooorrrr!!! How must I prepare, you must ask yourself. Should I jump off the tallest building in the world? Should I lay on the lawn and let them run over me with lawn-mowers? Should I go to Africa and let them trample me with raging elephants? In my final meeting with the gods from the heavens above, they spoke to me and hit me with the power of the Ultimate Warrior. They told me: action stage left, action stage right. There is no place to run, all the fuses in the exit signs have burnt out. Aaaaarrgghhh, you can feel it dude. You can feel it! Full of the juice that carries the spaceship as far as it wants to go! Because when the moon is blood red the heavens have opened up from above and the Warriors have spoken. You’ve got the power to make the skies rumble and the earth shake. In the sheets of the wind, then I will survive. Load the spaceship with the rocket fuel, load it with the Warriors. With the command of my voice I raise the level of the Warriors to one that can’t be reproduced. Dig your claws into my organs, scratch into my tendons, bury your anchors into my bones, for the power of the Warrior will always prevaaaaaiiiiiilllll. By now all the little Warriors know that the power of the Ultimate Warrior is something that you want to feel, that you want to taste. It’s something that when you turn on that TV screen or when you buy a ticket to the Arenas you know that’ it’s going to be exciting and it might even be a little bit frightening. Now you must deal with the creation of all the un-pleasantries of the entire universe as I feel the injection from the gods above. I only know that the Ultimate Warrior is totally out of controoooooooolllll. Come on in where nightmares are the best part of my daaaaaaaayyyyyy. I live for anger and frustration. Combat is where I will be.”

“I’m peeing, Jen.”

“Me too, Jim.”