Robert M. Sapolsky
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers
An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases,
and Coping
W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, 1998
ISBN 0-7167-3210-6
Monika says:
Everybody is talking about stress these days, but who really knows how
our body copes with stress, or rather which ancient biological mechanisms
control our reactions? Why isn’t a zebra traumatized after being hunted
and attacked by a lion on the African savannah while civilized modern man
reacts to situations nowhere near as dangerous with violent physical and
psychological symptoms?
Biologist Robert M. Sapolsky explains in his entertaining popular
science book why human beings are not really made to enjoy our
much-praised blessings of civilization. Ten thousand years of sedentary
life apparently weren’t enough for man to adapt to the change in living
circumstances which is why our reactions to stress are still the same as
those of our ancient ancestors in Africa who were faced with problems very
different from those a worker at an assembly line or a manager of a
multinational corporation has to solve. The examples the author uses to
illustrate his explanations are taken from everybody’s daily life and
therefore clear and understandable even for non-experts. The narrative is
seasoned with dry humor and enhanced with cartoons by Gary Larson.
The effects of stress on our daily lives are manifold and go beyond the
notorious ulcers mentioned in the title. You learn something about the
connection between stress and cardio-vascular disease, about the influence
continuous stress has on our memory, why our nervous system still empties
our bladder when we are terrified and much more. The author also disposes
of some very persistent myths that won’t go away. The book offers a very
entertaining explanation for our reactions to certain situations because
– to say it with the words of William F. Allman, another scientist who
wrote an interesting book on human evolution – after all we live in the
Stone Age Present. |
Any comments? Write us:
Monika Hübner
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