In chapter one, the incomparable Robert Sapolsky introduces us to the main themes of this book. In essence this is a story about the ways in which our bodies, which are designed to handle acute stressors, end up wearing themselves out through the overuse of our stress response. A variety of physiological and psychological diseases will be studied, with the book concluding with uplifting advice about how best to combat the negative impact of stress on our health.
In a nutshell this book is about the fact that we can turn on the physical stress response with our thoughts, which means that a system designed to be used now and then ends up being potentially overused when those inevitable hard times come along.
We open the story with the contrast between the then and now. Back then, say at the turn of the century, the popular ways to die were pneumonia, TB, the flu, and childbirth. These days, while you are welcome to die of those, you are more likely to wear out your body. The CDC notes the following as the top ten causes of death in the US:
As he puts it: "Essentially, we humans live well enough and long enough, and are smart enough, to generate all sorts of stressful events purely in our heads."(4-5)
These events, in turn, wear out our bodies. This in contrast to animals who tend to use their stress responses for acute physical crises, sometimes for chronic physical challenges, but not so much for psychological and social disruptions. (That said, there are other species that do that, including the beloved baboons that he studies and writes about in A Primate's Memoir.)
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
"When we sit around and worry about stressful things, we turn on the same physiological responses but they are potentially a disaster when turned on chronically."
Origins:
Hans Selye is one of the grandfathers of stress science. After running tests of an ovarian extract on rats, while using a placebo for the control group, he discovered at the end that the tested rats had ulcers, enlarged adrenal glands, and shrunken immune tissues. But so did the control group! From this he surmised that the handling and daily injections had created a stress response that led to the end effects. To test this he tried exposing rates to extreme temps (hot and cold) as well as surgical procedures and forced exercise. All the stressed rats exhibited the same results to a greater or lesser degree. From this he formulated two ideas:
1. The body has a similar set of responses to stress.
2. If it goes on long enough it can make you sick.
To understand the context, it's worth contrasting homeostasis and allostasis. Homeostasis is a reductionist type concept suggesting that there is a single correct level for any measure in your body and mechanisms to maintain that level. Allostasis is all about the right level for the right situation, for example blood pressure when reading compared to blood pressure when climbing stairs, and that multiple systems work simultaneously to balance all of it out.
The confusing element here is that the same response is induced by different triggers. At first glance it seems like the nature of the stressor should impact the change - if hot sweat if cold shiver - instead of the stress response being a one size fits all thing. And this is good logic but it's not the case. What the stress response is about is preparing you physically to enter the world of "fight or flight" by mobilizing energy resources to combat the problem while shelving long term interests - digestion, growth, cell repair, reproduction, immunity (sort of...) - in favor of immediate muscular and mental energy spikes. It does this through rapid mobilization of energy from storage sites within the body and inhibition of further storage. Glucose, proteins (amino acids - the body's BCAA's), and fats pour out from liver, muscles, and fat cells and are diverted to the areas they are needed. Heart rate and respiration increase to quickly transport oxygen and fuels.
The downside is that long term activation of the stress response negatively impacts your health. After all, if your body is not investing sufficient time and energy to recovery, then sufficient recovery will not happen. Live this way long enough and you put yourself at risk for one of those chronic disease deaths. Stress itself does not cause the disease; it simply makes one more vulnerable.
How this happens - and how to avoid it - is the topic of this book...
In a nutshell this book is about the fact that we can turn on the physical stress response with our thoughts, which means that a system designed to be used now and then ends up being potentially overused when those inevitable hard times come along.
We open the story with the contrast between the then and now. Back then, say at the turn of the century, the popular ways to die were pneumonia, TB, the flu, and childbirth. These days, while you are welcome to die of those, you are more likely to wear out your body. The CDC notes the following as the top ten causes of death in the US:
- Heart disease: 611,105
- Cancer: 584,881
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 149,205
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 130,557
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,978
- Alzheimer's disease: 84,767
- Diabetes: 75,578
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,979
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 47,112
- Intentional self-harm (suicide): 41,149
As he puts it: "Essentially, we humans live well enough and long enough, and are smart enough, to generate all sorts of stressful events purely in our heads."(4-5)
These events, in turn, wear out our bodies. This in contrast to animals who tend to use their stress responses for acute physical crises, sometimes for chronic physical challenges, but not so much for psychological and social disruptions. (That said, there are other species that do that, including the beloved baboons that he studies and writes about in A Primate's Memoir.)
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
"When we sit around and worry about stressful things, we turn on the same physiological responses but they are potentially a disaster when turned on chronically."
Origins:
Hans Selye is one of the grandfathers of stress science. After running tests of an ovarian extract on rats, while using a placebo for the control group, he discovered at the end that the tested rats had ulcers, enlarged adrenal glands, and shrunken immune tissues. But so did the control group! From this he surmised that the handling and daily injections had created a stress response that led to the end effects. To test this he tried exposing rates to extreme temps (hot and cold) as well as surgical procedures and forced exercise. All the stressed rats exhibited the same results to a greater or lesser degree. From this he formulated two ideas:
1. The body has a similar set of responses to stress.
2. If it goes on long enough it can make you sick.
To understand the context, it's worth contrasting homeostasis and allostasis. Homeostasis is a reductionist type concept suggesting that there is a single correct level for any measure in your body and mechanisms to maintain that level. Allostasis is all about the right level for the right situation, for example blood pressure when reading compared to blood pressure when climbing stairs, and that multiple systems work simultaneously to balance all of it out.
The confusing element here is that the same response is induced by different triggers. At first glance it seems like the nature of the stressor should impact the change - if hot sweat if cold shiver - instead of the stress response being a one size fits all thing. And this is good logic but it's not the case. What the stress response is about is preparing you physically to enter the world of "fight or flight" by mobilizing energy resources to combat the problem while shelving long term interests - digestion, growth, cell repair, reproduction, immunity (sort of...) - in favor of immediate muscular and mental energy spikes. It does this through rapid mobilization of energy from storage sites within the body and inhibition of further storage. Glucose, proteins (amino acids - the body's BCAA's), and fats pour out from liver, muscles, and fat cells and are diverted to the areas they are needed. Heart rate and respiration increase to quickly transport oxygen and fuels.
The downside is that long term activation of the stress response negatively impacts your health. After all, if your body is not investing sufficient time and energy to recovery, then sufficient recovery will not happen. Live this way long enough and you put yourself at risk for one of those chronic disease deaths. Stress itself does not cause the disease; it simply makes one more vulnerable.
How this happens - and how to avoid it - is the topic of this book...
