The End of Stress as We Know It

This is an outstanding work on a most topical issue. Dr. McEwen, of Rockefeller University in New York City, has the gift of communication, articulating the work of neuroscience and behavior to all, particularly accessible to the public. This kind of work serves the public, an extremely important audience, very well. It led me to invite him to speak at the upcoming symposium of The Foundation for Human Potential (FHP), Mental Health and the Brain:Implications for Lifelong Lifelong Learning, Nov. 15-16, 2007, in Chicago., which will include presentations by many outstanding scientists and others with like communication abilities. I recommend it to all and have bought it for everyone I know! [...]

Bruce McEwen, a brain researcher, combines the big picture, stresses of life in our society, with a very thorough background of supporting research. The book explains how stress normally sets off adrenaline first, and afterwards, cortisol. These are healthy reactions, but later, when they don't know when to shut off, they become detrimental. This book is both informative to the layman, and also college text book material. For this reason, it has earned its way into my stack of books that I plan to reread at least once again.

This is a very thorough and easy to understand book on the effects of chronic stress on every major body system, memory, mood, etc. It presents many of the same concepts as Dr. Sapolsky's excellent book, "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." However, this resource is aimed more at laypeople. Dr. Sapolosky's book is very dense for most people without a background in biology, however, he has an excellent sense of humor and goes more in-depth than Bruce McEwen. In short, if you didn't like taking science in school, you will probably get more out of the "The End of Stress As We Know It." I also found that Bruce McEwen took more time and space to explain essential physiological concepts such as allostasis. This a key concept and Sapolosky seems to take the reader's understanding of this basic concept more for granted. Overall, this book is well-organized and does a good job explaining the "fight or flight" response, the role of the endocrine system in stress and the impact of chronic stress. It does not, however, have much to say about how to overcome chronic stress that most people already don't know. For this, I would turn to other sources such as "Full Catastrophe Living." Although this book does not address how to combat stress in great detail, I think it provides essential context for anyone trying to change their lifestyle. In fact, I think it should be required reading for anyone who works in a high stress environment. If you want to read another good book on the societal and psychological factors that lead to being chronically stressed, then check out "American Mania" which was written by a UCLA psychiatrist and is complimentary to this book in some very good ways. If you read "American Mania" and this book, it will probably change your attitude toward the damaging effects of stress forever!

For any person who is under stress and who wants real data to support the theory that stress really does impair your performance, make you feel bad, and make you downright stupid, this book could be the influential force that sets you on a journey to turn your life around. For as long as you are breathing, you are experiencing some level of stress. Knowing about the stress hormones constantly circulating through your body and bathing your brain, the naturally-occurring chemical balance that generates the sensation that stress really does make you stupid, can make the difference between a life lived on the edge or a life lived in that peak performance zone that we all desire.As a psychologist,I have traversed diverse terrain. Whether I was working street corners with juvenile offenders, providing peak performance mental training for elite athletes, or consulting in manufacturing plants or Fortune 500 corner offices, stress has always been a constant force in my clients' lives. No matter what the setting--moguled ski slope, Courtroom, or Boardroom, slippery pool deck or muddy sports field--my hard-driving clients have sought strategies to learn to thrive even under the most stress-full conditions. Usually that entailed making strategic changes. To enlist their hearts and minds in order to get their legs moving in the right health-promoting directions, most of them responded to persuasive information. But few had the time to read through lengthy full-blown research reports (though, rest assured, some did). Dr. McEwen's research on how we respond to stress and the debilitating effects of chronic excess stress is state-of-the-art and compelling. However, you have to really love neuropsych to plow through the original pieces (I have, as a self-proclaimed nerd, and I really did love them.) Now Dr. McEwen has distilled compelling research into a book format that provides a quick read for those who want you to show them the data if they are going to consider shifting from the fast-pace-high-stress lane where time rarely allows for a perusal of the research surveyed in this book. A useful book, it is a fast sprint for the fast-paced stressed-out person who will benefit the most from just such a read. And it is a great first step to move you to take some health-promoting stress-reducing actions to keep you at the front of the pack and in it for the long run.

This book is cutting edge. It catches up with what the scientific research has found for two decades -- that the origins of stress are not primarily external. It is largely psychological and the good news is that we can avoid the chronic and life threatening health problems caused by the long term activation of the stress mechanism by fostering our own mental health in simple ways. And the first step is to consider the possibility that stress is not the result of what people or events do to us, but is primarily due to our own thoughts, feelings and attitudes about people and events. This book is not based on one man's opinion, but rather on scientific findings. And the evidence is that we can shift our stress provoking attitudes fundamentally through strong social support, which simply means deepening of our connection with one another in meaningful ways, supporting one another in making a mindful shift out of stress. This book sees the stressed-out condition most of us experience as a wake-up call to evolve our consciousness by first taking responsibility for the stress in our lives and next having the courage to join with others in exploring ways of shifting it. It seems, as a culture, we need a 12-step program like AA but devoted to the crisis of stress.