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288 reviews for:
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping
Robert M. Sapolsky
4.05 AVERAGE
288 reviews for:
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping
Robert M. Sapolsky
4.05 AVERAGE
I only read 25% of it so far and I learnt that I’m prone to cancer and some of my brain cells died due to glucocorticoid usage. This book is my worst nightmare already. This is a book I can only suggest to the people who doesn’t have auto-immune diseases and/or who have nerves to handle it.
“Genes are rarely about inevitability, especially when it comes to humans, the brain, or behavior. They're about vulnerability, propensities, tendencies.”
Very thorough and informative book, but a bit hard to get through. Read like a research paper that's assigned in a college class; however, Sapolsky has the ability to explain very complex subjects in a way people without a background can understand. Although this book was written to explain the stress response, I wish more time was taken to explain how to manage it ourselves, instead of just one chapter at the end.
Very thorough and informative book, but a bit hard to get through. Read like a research paper that's assigned in a college class; however, Sapolsky has the ability to explain very complex subjects in a way people without a background can understand. Although this book was written to explain the stress response, I wish more time was taken to explain how to manage it ourselves, instead of just one chapter at the end.
This book has a ridiculous amount of information. I personally do not think I needed to read all of it and found my eyes glazing over at certain points.
The author spends 22 chapters beating us to death with hundreds of studies about how and why stress is bad for us. He focuses strongly on the chemistry and physiology of stress in animals and humans. He then spends 1 chapter on things we can do about it. Basically: don't be born poor, don't have a bad marriage, exercise and be religious. There. Now you don't have to read the book.
I wanted to like this book, and I thought I would like this book. But, it was a drag. I got about halfway through and couldn't bring myself to continue listening. The discussed studies were interesting, but the book as a whole wasn't. Sapolsky's attempts at humor didn't click with me. If you were to read this book, I'd recommend getting the book over the audiobook. I think I would've liked this book better if I could have read a couple pages here and there, rather than listening to the audiobook drone on.
challenging
slow-paced
I thought the book was interesting, and the subject matter was well explained. The practical stress management solutions offered at the end were also helpful. Something about the way the author wrote, however, was hard for me to connect with. Otherwise, I liked it.
It seems like an odd thing to want to know. Why don’t zebras get ulcers? Is there something magical about zebras like unicorns that protect them from ulcers? As it turns out, it’s more than just zebras that don’t get ulcers: most of the animal kingdom doesn’t get them. The reason why they don’t is a combination of factors; the most critical, to the book’s point of view, is stress.
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Click here to read the full review
Amazingly lucid neurobiology expressed in really comfortable and at times, outright funny, prose. I liked how the book details various aspects of stress, anxiety, depression, childhood and the neurological effects altered/wreaked by stress. I also learned a lot of other passive things from the book, such as transferring implicit memory to explicit memory can have serious consequences (i.e. you get worse when you try to focus on every detail of an action you have been performing effortlessly), cuddling in infancy is important, stress experienced by mothers can be transmitted to their infants (in various ways) and not all of the methods to cope with stress are cut and dry. For example, if a stressor appears really intimidating and nothing can be done but to experience it, it helps to have an external locus of control. An internal locus of control helps to resolve minor stressors. I was also surprised by how the book shows that even if we make healthcare access equal across all socioeconomic strata, there would still be a gradient of worsening mental health/stress biased towards the lower strata. It appears that these factors of declining health can be attributed to many other reasons besides access to healthcare.
Just go read it and thank him later!
Loved the book so much :)
Loved the book so much :)