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Name: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Rating: 4.5 (129 reviews)
Author: Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky

The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping

4.5 (129 Bewertungen)

25 Min.

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Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
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What’s in it for me? Understand how stress works and what you can do to tackle it.

Stress – in many ways, it’s a symbol of our times. Books and articles promise to help us tackle it, either by developing more efficient routines to avoid it, or by practicing mindfulness or meditation to cope with it. But what exactly is stress and how does it affect our bodies, minds and societies?

Unlike, say, zebras on the African savannah, humans can feel and create stress with the help of our evolved and complex brains. This makes humans susceptible to all kinds of stressors, such as problems envisioned in the future, that other mammals do not experience. This stress is not only bad in itself, but it also has effects on our cardiovascular system, insulin production, reproduction and, in the end, our overall health.

To explain all these processes, these blinks go on an in-depth exploration of how exactly they work and what we can do to tackle stress.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

the role of stress in making depression a leading cause of medical disability by 2020;
why poor people are more likely to suffer from stress-related diseases; and
how stress can lead to diabetes.

Stress originates as a response to acute physical crises, but humans stress over imaginary things, too.

It’s two in the morning and you can’t sleep, despite the fact that you have to deliver a career-defining presentation tomorrow morning. You’re just too stressed out! Situations like this one are central to the human experience. But why do we feel stress at all?

Looking at the rest of the animal kingdom, we find that stress responses are activated by physical danger and risk. Imagine being a zebra on the savannah: the most stressful thing you could experience is fleeing the jaws of a lion while half your leg is ripped open. Or, if you’re the lion, the stress would come from chasing a zebra while close to starvation.

Both these situations, while different, are crises that need to be dealt with immediately to ensure survival.

Some animals also deal with chronic physical stress. Imagine, for example, having to walk dozens of miles every day in order to find food or water.

For humans, however, the biggest source of stress is often psychological – stress that we simply conjure up in our own heads.

Consider situations like traffic jams, upcoming deadlines, not finding a parking spot or tense arguments with family or loved ones. None of these situations require extraordinary physical activity, as they’re rarely settled with fistfights or narrow escapes.

Nonetheless, they generate stress in our minds.

Humans also get stressed out about things that might happen in the future. For example, people worry about their mortgage, upcoming job interviews, their retirement funds – you name it.

This makes sense when we have an opportunity to mobilize a plan to deal with these stressors, but it’s pointless when we’re unable to affect the situation that causes our worrying.

So, from an evolutionary perspective, sustained psychological stress is a very recent phenomenon.

Our brain’s autonomic nervous system manages the way we respond to and recover from stress.

Remember the last time someone scared you silly by jumping out from behind a door? In that moment, you were suddenly wide awake, focused and felt every fiber in your body. But what exactly causes us to feel that way?

This reaction is caused by the autonomic nervous system, which ensures that our bodies function without our conscious control. It automatically directs all our involuntary actions, such as blushing, breathing, getting goosebumps or having orgasms.

When under stress, the body prioritizes short-term, high-cost actions over long-term projects.

Imagine an exciting vacation is just days away, but you have a stressful few days at work and you get sick. Bummer! As it turns out, this rain on your parade is characteristic of how the human body handles stress. But to figure out how, we’ll need a lesson in biology.

For all mammals, stress is about maximizing the energy that muscles have available to them.

Stress speeds up your blood flow, making you more likely to develop arterial and heart diseases.

If you’ve ever turned on the water in your garden without holding onto the hose, then you probably noticed how stiff the hose gets as the water flows through at high speed. When stressed, something similar happens inside your body that can be quite dangerous over time.

When you’re under stress, the muscles around the walls of your veins tighten, pushing the blood through at a higher speed. Once the blood reaches the heart, it slams into the walls of the heart, which, like a rubber band, snaps back, causing the heart rate to increase.

The stress of transferring energy in the body can increase the risk of diabetes, which can lead to other illnesses.

In the previous blink, we talked about the vital role that the cardiovascular system plays in distributing much-needed energy to your muscles during times of stress. But where does that energy come from?

After a meal, you have more nutrients in your body than you need at that moment. So, the body breaks down the food into its smallest components – amino acids, glucose and fatty acids – which are then stored in various places, like your liver and fat cells.

Stress produces changes in the brain that resemble depression and make recovery from trauma more difficult.

Most people know someone who suffers from depression. In fact, studies estimate that somewhere between five and 20 percent of all people will suffer through a major depression at one point or another. But what effect does depression have on the body?

Depression, the loss of an ability to feel pleasure accompanied by incapacitating grief and guilt, is a profoundly destructive condition that can have huge consequences for an individual's life. Indeed, studies project that depression will be the second-leading cause of medical disability globally by 2020.

Our intricate reproductive system is easily affected by stress, leading to problems for both men and women.

If you know anything about marketing, then you know that “sex sells.” Unfortunately, with all the media coverage, half-truths and titillating stories about how great it can be, sex is one of our greatest sources of stress, and is itself profoundly influenced by stress.

For men, stress leads to premature ejaculation and difficulty achieving an erection. The process of getting an erection is managed by the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, which, as you recall, is responsible for slowing the body down. One has to be calm and relaxed to get an erection – that is, the opposite of stressed.

Stress is unavoidable, so understanding and balancing your stress response systems is key.

So far you’ve seen some of the many negative consequences of stress. But as you’ll soon discover, these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Over time, scientific perspectives on how the body manages stress have changed. Scientists once believed that the body functions according to the homeostatic principle, which asserts that problems in the body can be corrected with a single local adjustment.

Taking responsibility for the things you can control and providing social support have a strong stress-reducing effect.

What do you do when you’re feeling stressed? Do you try to grab the problem by the horns yourself, or turn to a friend for help? As you’ll see, both of these strategies work just fine.

Taking responsibility for stressful situations can bring relief as you regain a bit of control over your life.

Your place in society affects stress levels and has a great impact on resistance to illness and mortality rates.

Up to this point, we’ve mentioned numerous examples of isolated incidents that contribute to stress, like fleeing predators or pre-test anxiety. But some stressors, like poverty, go beyond isolated incidents and can cause chronic stress.

In fact, being poor is associated with many physical and mental stressors. Poor people often work jobs with high physical demands and low job security, leaving them with little control over their work situation and high levels of stress.

Income inequality promotes lack of trust and social cohesion, which translates into worse health for both the wealthy and the poor.

The last blink demonstrated how poor socioeconomic status can have a negative impact on our health. But what socioeconomic factors can contribute to creating a healthier society?

For one, communities with high social capital enjoy higher equity and better health. Similar to financial capital, social capital refers to the resources you can draw upon in times of trouble, like having friendly neighbors who can babysit for you when you need to work overtime. In communities with high social capital, people are less socially isolated.

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Worum geht es in Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers?

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994) vividly explains the biology behind stress and its impact on our lives, functioning as an effective way to deal with immediate problems, while also posing serious health risks in the long run. The author also offers plenty of practical tips on how to keep stress under control.

Bestes Zitat aus Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

If there is a tornado bearing down on your house, this isnt the day to repaint the garage.

—Robert M. Sapolsky

Wer Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers lesen sollte

Anyone who feels stressed
People interested in the ways society impacts our stress levels
Anyone curious about how the mind and the body are interconnected

Über den Autor

Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, a leading stress researcher and a regular contributor to the magazines Discover and The Sciences. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, and is the author of A Primate’s Memoir and The Trouble With Testosterone.

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