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A review by megatsunami
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky
5.0
Everyone should read this book! A highly readable (and very funny) exploration of how stress affects human health. The book is a little long (as it covers a lot of ground) but it reads quickly, and the science descriptions were extremely lucid and easy to follow. I appreciated that the author repeated frequently that the mind-body connection can never be reduced to either "It's all genes" or "It's all in your mind", and refused to buy into either extreme. I felt he had a very sane approach to this.
I wanted more from the last chapter (which dealt with "How do you decrease stress?") and kind of wished that suggestions had been integrated into the end of each topic chapter. I felt the recommendations didn't include enough in the way of somatic or mind-body interventions - e.g., yoga, working with the felt sense, using visualization/ imagery, etc. He didn't even address whether any of those things have been shown to be helpful with stress. For me, it's important to know: once stress has affected your health, are there mind-body interventions that will help to improve your health or at least maintain it?
I wasn't 100% sure if the science is fully accurate/ up to date. There have been several editions of this book; the latest is from 2004, so there has certainly been more research done since then.
I wanted more from the last chapter (which dealt with "How do you decrease stress?") and kind of wished that suggestions had been integrated into the end of each topic chapter. I felt the recommendations didn't include enough in the way of somatic or mind-body interventions - e.g., yoga, working with the felt sense, using visualization/ imagery, etc. He didn't even address whether any of those things have been shown to be helpful with stress. For me, it's important to know: once stress has affected your health, are there mind-body interventions that will help to improve your health or at least maintain it?
I wasn't 100% sure if the science is fully accurate/ up to date. There have been several editions of this book; the latest is from 2004, so there has certainly been more research done since then.