The End of Stress As We Know It | 
|  | | | Title: | The End of Stress As We Know It | | Author: | Bruce McEwen | | Publisher: | Joseph Henry Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 16 October, 2002 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0309091217 / 9780309091213 | | List Price: | $19.95 | | You Save: | $4.99 | | Amazon Price: | $14.96 | |
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Product Description
(Joseph Henry Press) Rockefeller Univ., New York City, NY. Consumer text presents research on the relationship between brain function and stress function and describes stress as a natural, necessary function. Also shows how stress can bring on illnesses, such as asthma, diabetes, ulcers and increase susceptibility. Softcover.
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Customer Reviews:
• Excellent 20 March, 2008
The author doesn't dumb down the facts and science, making this a great book for those who want more than a "pop medicine" understanding of the inner workings of stress. Fascinating, cutting edge information.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A15QD4E232QDET
• End Of Stress As We Know It 11 November, 2006
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.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AFFX6OCEPDBT
• A Dry Read 19 April, 2005
Through his research, Bruce McEwen has made great contributions to our understanding of stress and health. His work has inspired a lot of progress on the social causes of illness. I will use some of his material to explain the connection between stress and diabetes in my new book, "Diabetes as a Turning Point."
Unfortunately, I did not find "The End of Stress as We Know It" to be as valuable as the research that inspired it. It's pretty dryly scientific, a lot of "studies show this," and "studies show that," without many examples or stories to illustrate his points. He says we can do a lot to prevent stress-related illness, but mainly repeats "low-fat diet, exercise, and social support" as his advice. These may be useful suggestions, but people would need a lot more specifics to be able to use them effectively in our toxic environment. Those are the kind of suggestions they'll get from my book.
The main new point here is the terms Dr. McEwen coined to replace the word stress. He talks instead about "allostasis" to mean our bodies' natural stress response, and "allostatic load" to mean the problems that arise when the response gets overloaded. Some social scientists have started using these terms, because the term "stress" does mean a lot of different things. But this new terminology, IMO, does not require a whole book to explain it.
I'm grateful to Dr. McEwen for his important research. His book is worthwhile, but there's nothing here that isn't done better in Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
David Spero RN, author of The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness (Hunter House 2002).
Nurse at davidsperoRN dot com
- Reviewed by customer ID: A23W31OBJK3U60
• Very User Friendly Book On The Impact Of Chronic Stress! 07 November, 2006
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!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1J93EGDYK0IWA
• The End Of Stress As We Know It By Bruce Mcewen 09 March, 2007
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!
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- Reviewed by customer ID: A33I0RXPA57Y0B
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