<p>Who is the author of When the Body Says No?</p>

<p>The author of When the Body Says No is Gabor Maté.</p>

Health & Nutrition

When the Body Says No Book Summary - When the Body Says No Book explained in key points

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When the Body Says No summary

Name: When the Body Says No
Rating: 4.6 (674 reviews)
Author: Gabor Maté

Gabor Maté

The Cost of Hidden Stress

4.6 (674 ratings)

26 mins

Brief summary

When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté explores the link between stress and disease,
examining how early emotional experiences impact the body's immune system and ultimately lead to illness.

Topics

Mental Health The Body Trauma & Healing Diseases & Illnesses Stress Reduction Self-Care Healthy Living

Table of Contents

When the Body Says No
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Understand why stress is so detrimental to your health.

What would you do if a friend called to tell you she was in excruciating pain that left her unable to walk? Would you call her weak and tell her to just shrug it off? Or would you insist that she go to the hospital – and perhaps even take her there yourself?

Most likely, you’d take the latter approach. But what if the tables were turned, and you were the one experiencing that same severe pain?

Many of us like to maintain that we’re strong, even indestructible. We convince ourselves that we can handle any amount of physical or emotional pain, either by repressing it, ignoring it, or fussing over other people’s problems instead.

But this approach simply doesn’t work. It endangers our health, and it masks our inner weaknesses. By denying our problems, we avoid addressing them. Our bodies repeatedly tell us no, yet we refuse to listen – until it’s too late. It’s high time we confronted the underlying causes of our illnesses and took back control of our health.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how trauma can warp your “gut feelings;”
why people with ALS are so nice; and
the reason it’s good to think negatively sometimes.

The field of psychoneuroimmunology studies the connections between physical and mental health.

One of the most common health conditions in the world is heart disease. What do you think the condition is caused by?

You’re probably thinking it’s some combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. And it’s true that these do contribute to heart disease. But the greatest risk factor of all – more than any of the others combined – is actually job strain. What’s more, work-related stress is a major contributor to elevated blood pressure and cholesterol.

For years, the prevailing theory in medicine has been one of mind-body dualism. This theory states that the mind’s inner workings have nothing to do with the rest of the body. Dualism pushes doctors to study the two separately, to proclaim that our bodies function in isolation from their environments. But it ignores the deep and proven connection between body and mind.

The key message here is: The field of psychoneuroimmunology studies the connections between physical and mental health.

Despite dualism’s prevalence, there’s compelling evidence that it doesn’t tell the whole story. That’s where a new field of medicine comes in – psychoneuroimmunology, which studies the processes through which emotions affect physiology.

Countless studies show how our daily experiences and stresses impact our immune systems. One, for instance, found that medical students’ immune systems were suppressed under the pressure of looming final exams. Additionally, the loneliest of these students suffered the greatest negative impact on their immune defenses.

How can this happen? Well, it all starts with emotional stimuli. Emotions are electrical, chemical, and hormonal discharges from the human nervous system. These influence, and are influenced by, the functioning of our major organs and immune defenses. Stress, in particular, works to disarm our immune systems. This is bound to have major effects – and it can even cause chronic illness.

One of the author’s patients, Mary, provides a good example. Mary has scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that causes her skin, esophagus, heart, lungs, and other tissues to stiffen.

One day, in an appointment with the author, Mary revealed her life history of extreme emotional repression. She had been abused as a child, and had constantly had to protect her sisters from their foster parents. In youth and in adulthood, she rarely considered her own feelings, compulsively taking responsibility for others instead, even as her scleroderma worsened. Mary’s repeated emotional repression could have disarmed her body’s immune defenses, making her vulnerable to the ravages of scleroderma.

Stress is a response to a perceived threat that affects every body system.

Think for a second about the things that stress you out the most. Whatever stressors come to mind, they’re likely to be quite different from those of other people.

This is because an essential component of experiencing stress is the particular processing system that interprets any given stressor. We all have the same basic processing system – that is, the brain and nervous system. But the definition of a stressor depends greatly on the person assigning meaning to it. Losing a job, for instance, would probably be much more stressful to a person living paycheck-to-paycheck than a high-level executive with a large cushion of savings.

Stress confuses the body, causing it to attack itself.

Rachel is a young woman who grew up in constant conflict with her older brother, whom she perceived to be her father’s favorite.

As a child, Rachel was the quintessential well-behaved little girl. As an adult, she worked hard to keep up this image. One year, on Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year celebration – she was at her mother’s home, helping to prepare dinner for her family.

Environmental factors and destructive coping styles contribute to the onset of disease.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would actively choose helplessness in the face of a crisis. But, in fact, learned helplessness is a common coping style.

Learned helplessness leads people toward inaction. Even when given the opportunity to do so, they don’t extricate themselves from stressful situations. Those could be anything from a dysfunctional relationship to a stifling, monotonous job. Sadly, this unhealthy coping mechanism inevitably leads to increased levels of stress over time.

Traumatic events can warp people’s perception of physiological pain.

Has anyone ever told you to “go with your gut?” It’s common advice – and quite sound. That’s because your brain and your intestines, or gut, are in constant communication.

The brain relays data to the gut from sensory organs like the skin, eyes, and ears. But first, the brain’s emotional centers interpret that data. Then, the physiological events in the gut reinforce the brain’s interpretation. This leads to the “gut feelings” we’re consciously aware of.

Certain illnesses are associated with particular personality types.

In 1998, at the ninth International ALS Symposium, two neurologists presented a paper called “Why Are Patients with ALS So Nice?” In it, one of the authors made an interesting claim about the technologists who conduct tests to determine whether patients have ALS, a disease that attacks the nerve cells controlling muscle movement. The technologists often accompanied their results with comments like “This patient cannot have ALS, he’s not nice enough.” Strangely, these predictions almost always turned out to be correct.

Now, niceness doesn’t seem like a particularly scientific measure. Nevertheless, the study noted that niceness is considered to be a major component of the “ALS personality.”

Humans learn how to interact with the world early on in life.

The human brain is uniquely designed. Upon exiting the mother’s womb, a newborn baby possesses a brain that is small and immature. But that brain grows rapidly. In fact, about 90 percent of brain development occurs after birth. In the first few months alone, our brains form millions of new connections.

So it’s not difficult to believe that, as babies, our environment greatly shapes our understanding of the world. We inherit some amount of genetic potential, but in order for that potential to be realized, it must be nourished. Human brain development requires the nurturing emotional interactions that stimulate nerve cells and teach us how to operate in the world.

To overcome stress, embrace the power of negative thinking.

When discussing the effects of emotions, stress, personality, and relationships on illness, you can easily start to feel like you’re being blamed for your health conditions – or like you’re blaming others.

However, this is far from the case. Instead, examining the root causes of your illness can help you take responsibility for yourself and your actions. The more you can learn about yourself, the less you’ll be a passive victim of your illness. And the more you take control, the greater your chances of finally overcoming that illness.

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What is When the Body Says No about?

When the Body Says No (2003) probes the hidden connections between mental health and physical illness. Modern medical science often tries to reassure us that our minds and bodies are totally separate – when, in reality, they’re deeply interconnected. Mental stresses often play out in the body as physiological diseases, disorders, and chronic conditions that endanger our health and well-being.

When the Body Says No Review

When the Body Says No (2003) delves into the intricate connection between our emotional state and our physical health. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It offers a compelling exploration of the relationship between repressed emotions and chronic diseases, presenting a fresh perspective on the mind-body connection.
With real-life case studies and extensive scientific research, it provides readers with a deep understanding of the impact our emotions have on our well-being.
Gabor Maté's insightful analysis and compassionate storytelling make this book not just informative, but also a thought-provoking and engaging read.

Who should read When the Body Says No?

People who have chronic health conditions or who know others who have them
The eternally stressed
Those interested in the connections between mind and body

About the Author

Gabor Maté is a physician with twenty years of experience in family medicine and palliative care. He is the cocreator of a psychotherapeutic approach known as compassionate inquiry, which is used to explore a patient’s unconscious behavioral drives. His book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, on the underlying causes of addiction, won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize in 2009.

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