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| View Larger Image | The End of Stress As We Know It
by Bruce McEwen
| | List Price: | $19.95 | | Price: | $13.57 | | You Save: | $6.38 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 196064 | | Studio: | Joseph Henry Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 262 | | Publication Date: | October 16, 2002 | | Publisher: | Joseph Henry Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
There's a whole new way to think about stress. Sure, some stress is inevitable, but being "stressed out" isn't. In fact, we can learn to rechannel the powerful stress activators in our lives to make us even more effective. Hamlet spoke of "suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." These days we simply use the word "stress" to describe that feeling. And if you ask 10 random people if they feel stressed, chances are that at least 9 will reply with a resounding, "Yes!" Indeed, the very way we use the word implies that we are its victims-as in, "I'm under so much stress" or "I'm completely stressed out." There's now a better way to look at this picture, a way to move from victim to victor. The first step is to look to the science behind it all because in the science lies a whole new message about stress. Science allows us to understand what the stress response is and why our bodies react the way they do. Like all living creatures, we're mapped to respond instinctually in certain ways, and generally for good reasons. We know, for example, that in times of emergency, we effortlessly shift into a different biological mode. Based on our perception of the crisis, our brains initiate the "stress response" or the "flight-or-fight reaction." Our attention becomes keenly focused. Our heart and lungs accelerate to ready us for action. Our glands mobilize extra energy resources and summon the immune system to battle stations. This whole process is Nature's way of empowering us to respond swiftly, sometimes dramatically, to sudden events, while remaining mentally alert and physically prepared to meet a challenge. But what if the crisis situation does not present us with a foe to be fought? Or if fleeing is not the answer? Too often in modern times, the situations that bring on the stress response require neither the fight nor flight response for which our bodies are genetically programmed. The stress response is nevertheless likely to |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 8 reviews)
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Excellent 
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.
March 20, 2008 | |
The End of Stress As We Know It by Bruce McEwen 
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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March 09, 2007 | |
End of Stress As We Know it
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.
November 11, 2006 | |
Very user friendly book on the impact of chronic stress!
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!
November 07, 2006 | |
A Dry Read 
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
April 19, 2005 | |
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