Stress and Your Body (CD)

by Robert M. Sapolsky

24 video lectures, and Course Guidebook.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, Health, Audiobook, Biology, Self Help

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Robert Morris Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is currently a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

Reviews

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Sapolsky is a researcher in the field of neuroendocrinology. His lectures are fascinating, without a doubt. What I like most of all, is the wonderful way he manages to engage the listener. Some parts of the lecture seem almost interactive, and help the listener to really think about the subject in a way that helps the non-expert to achieve a gut understanding of the subject.

The most important question is "Why do we experience stress? Isn't stress harmful to us? Shouldn't evolution have removed it from our behavior?" Sapolsky answers this question beautifully. Stress served humans (and other animals) very well in the past. Our modern living environment, though, can make it seem superfluous.

The only thing about the lectures that bother me a bit, is that sometimes Sapolsky has an intonation issue. Often he ends his sentences, statements of fact, more like questions as he raises the pitch of his voice. However, this is just a nit. Sapolsky is a very engaging speaker, and he knows how to keep the audience's attention, asking for more!

[Daniel Aguilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this man. It's not just that the delivered materials are absolutely amazing but also, and maybe even more importantly, the way Sapolsky presents them. In each lecture (there are 24 of them in this audio/video book) he sets the background with an intriguing question, an anecdote or a joke, and then proceeds to develop the subject including coherent theory (usually providing different points of view or even opposed ones), references to scientific evidence and many humorous comments that transcend the main topic and gets you thinking about its implications in other spheres of life. You will find here lots of biology, physiology, psychology, ethology... but also ethics, sociology and self-help (although of an interestingly twisted kind).

[Ashley (Ash) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Love Sapolsky’s style. That marshmallow test, ugh. But this was recorded before its undoing. So Sapolsky remains amazeballs. Still worth listening/reading!

[Kayson Fakhar · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: brilliant.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling stressed and depressed? Yeah, well, don't listen to this, it will just make you feel worse. I can sum it up for you in just two words, "stress sucks." There is a lot of science here, much of which I have heard from other sources.

What I was hoping for was not all of the bio-mechanics or neuroscience of stress, but some insight into how to mitigate the effects. There are 24 chapters/lectures here and only one of them offers any advice, more as an afterthought than a serious attempt to help. Of that advice the only thing I remember is that exercise is good for stress relief, but only if it's exercise you like. Forget forcing yourself to go to the gym, if it's not fun it will just make your stress worse. Oh, and that old stand-by, meditation? Nope, won't help you unless you love it.

Now, if only I could get back the hours I wasted listening to this and spend it reading a book I enjoyed or playing Skyrim, that would be a better use of my time and might actually do something to reduce my stress.

[Jackballoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent audio book told with pleasant humor.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sapolsky lists all manner of health factors that are worsened by stress, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression. Stress that we often create with our thoughts, sending adrenaline and cortisol into the body.

The damage and legacy of stress begins as a fetus and so it goes on. Fixed and determined. So much of the hormonal response is stimulated by the autonomic nervous system. No wonder Sapolsky would go on to write a book on the absence of free will.

So what are the tips to help mitigate our stress response? Obviously good sleep, good health, meditation, spiritual beliefs, exercise etc. It is important to have outlets, when electrocuted rats had a displacement activity (even biting their cage mate) this would keep their ulcers at bay. Knowing when a negative stimulus is going to occur and what it will entail also allows the organism to prepare to cope.

The above example is one of many barbaric experiments that we carry out for own utility. Stressing many animals in order to potentially benefit our single species. More mutually beneficial is grooming and finding comfort in a social and supportive interaction. Good, long lasting marriages are protective.

Also ditch your hostile type-A personality and be hopeful but not unrealistically so. Uncertainty is a key stressor. Control is empowering and less stressful than the feeling of having no agency. Moderate stress (as opposed to chronic stress) can produce dopamine and aid your narrative goals of having a life that positively progresses. Your socioeconomic status is an important indicator for stress. Also you must avoid clinical depression, be an extrovert and be respected. Simple eh?

“Then there are humans. We activate the stress-response if being chased by a predator. But, critically, we can activate that same response if we merely think we’re about to be knocked out of balance—we have an anticipatory stress-response. If it is justified, that is a great thing. But if there is no actual physical stressor impending, and we do that regularly, we have entered the realm of anxiety, neurosis, hostility, and paranoia. Zebras do not worry about global warming, but we do. We activate the identical stress-response as do zebras and lions, but we can do so because of chronic psychological stress. And if that occurs often enough, our disease risk increases, because that is not what the stress-response evolved for.

In other words, we humans are smart enough to make ourselves sick with thoughts, emotions, and memories—and we Westernized humans live long enough for the consequences to eventually haunt us big-time.”

[Aditya Y. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. Robert Sapolsky knows his stuff, is clearly passionate, and does a great job explaining things simply. This is less of a self-help book, more just explaining how different parts of your body are affected by stress. I learned more about diabetes from this audiobook than through a course I had taken on diabetes. He is also so funny and charming. Highly recommended.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audiobook includes a series of lectures on stress and its effects on your body. A large percentage of the material went right over my head, but it was still interesting and informative - what I could catch! :-)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mostly listen to Sapolsky for the jokes, but I also learn a lot from him.

[Salty · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much information packed into these lectures, but they are presented in such an easy to follow format that it doesn't seem overwhelming at all. The presenter inserts a bit of humor into his lectures and this helps to break up the data and make it easier to listen and learn. Did I retain everything? No. But these were enjoyable enough that I will be revisiting these lectures again to absorb more of the finer details.

[Colin Jarrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost 4 stars, but I am not medically inclined enough to appreciate some of the detail but rather found it tiresome. Overall, though, this book dives into many interesting causes and effects of stress and some chapters were fascinating. Recommended for anyone curious about the multifaceted role stress plays in modern society who will not be put off by some medical detail (and it is sometimes obvious when there will be a few minutes of it, so a cleverer listener than I could skip some parts).

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of information on how stress affects the body but rather basic and repetitive.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple straight forward introduction to body systems and how stress effects them. The lecturer is fantastic and engaging.

[Troy Blackford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much of this is a recap in lecture-form of the material presented in the revised 'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers,' but that's okay because this is dense, complex material and if you claim to have memorized it all after reading it once, then I have doubts you are telling the truth. You get the bonus of Dr. Sapolsky's wit coming through even more clearly, plus many new developments and additional pieces of information. A fantastic journey through the links running through endocrinology, psychology, physiology, and beyond.

[Hendrik Strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish, there were even more Sapolsky courses around. His teaching style is just lovely.
If you want to have all the details mapped out in detail about the stress response, his book Why Zebras don't get Ulcers might be even better but as a course this will carry you quite far. Some mechanisms are only mentioned once, but many are mentioned which in itself makes this a very valuable ressource.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sapolsky is a Stanford professor and "genius grant" recipient with an incredibly clear writing and speaking style. I was especially interested in the parts about studies related to the Dutch hunger winter and other studies related to repressive personalities.

[Tyler Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible lecture. I learned so much about the basics of how the human body functions.

[Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loads of fun.

[Malcolm Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Basically an overview of my stress physiology lectures but with a lot more behavioural neuroscience and ofc using some inevitably Sapolskyian anecdotes and case studies which were in-line with those that made me write about him in my personal statement. He’s also just really funny.

Maybe the most interesting of these case histories is of J. M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan), who experienced psychosocial stress dwarfism / achondroplasia following the traumatic death of his brother. The way his mother would mistakingly recognise Barrie as his brother only to say, “oh, it’s only you,” when realising her mistake is VERY telling when you consider what Barrie’s stories are all about: extremely damaged young boys. This combined trauma changed how his genes were expressed and induced psychosocial stress dwarfism / achondroplasia. The fact that phenomenological experiences can modify your DNA, ultimately altering your gene expression (an area of epigenetics) is still, for me, the coolest part about neuroscience and biology at large.

The idea that your grandmother could have experienced trauma while carrying your mother in her womb (who also possesses the eggs with the DNA that made half of you) and that this trauma is simultaneously felt by your grandmother, your mother, and potentially even you, at the exact same time is just mind blowing and terrifying in its potential implications for how human history unfolded.

Other cool fun facts:

General Patton, upon reaching the river Rhine, waded into the waters and very dramatically urinated in it to mark his territory. Sounds about Patton.

Sapolsky actually met HM (the guy who had a hippocampus removed to cure his life-threatening seizures), resulting in him having severe deficits in explicit memory but retaining implicit memory (meaning: he couldn’t tell you who was President that year, and that if you trained him to do a manual skill with his hands he’d forget the FACT that he’d learned it BUT if you gave him the same problem later down the line, while he wouldn’t remember having seen the problem before, he’d blaze through faster than he did last time because he retained his implicit memory).

The post-partum period is the period where a human is most likely to develop major depression.

The origin of the ‘Type A personality’ leading to increased risk of cardiovascular disease being identified by a furniture upholsterer who did contract work for a cardiology clinic and who noticed that the clinic accrued more damage to the furniture in its waiting room in a fortnight than other businesses would in years. This cardiology clinic belonging to none other than Meyer Friedman, who was one of the physicians who initially brought this to the attention of the world (but only after speaking to a psychologist 5 years after the upholsterer pointed it out to him).

To determine whether socioeconomic status influences health, or whether it’s the other way around, researches did studies on nuns in convents (the perfect control setting for such a study) and found that the socioeconomic status of the nun when they entered the convent was a predictor of their future health outcomes. Nuns who entered with a higher socioeconomic status had better outcomes than those nuns who entered with a lower socioeconomic status. Even cooler, it’s not just objective socioeconomic status that predicts health outcomes, it’s also SUBJECTIVE socioeconomic status, i.e., how high on the socioeconomic ladder you PERCEIVE yourself to be. Meaning, people in societies where income inequality is high can have poorer health outcomes than people in societies where income inequality isn’t so severe - even if the people in the first group have higher incomes than the people in the second. So if you earn £80K but are surrounded by multimillionaires, your health outcomes are statistically more likely to be worse than someone earning £30K but who is surrounded by people of similar wealth and status. Likewise, if person A goes from earning £30K to £100K, their future health outcomes move in the positive direction, but if person B goes from £500K to £100K, their outcomes move in the negative direction - even though persons A and B make the same.

When chronic pain patients can self-medicate, rather than taking too much medication or even overdosing, they take less pain meds (overdosing was avoided in the studies by having the opioids released by a patient-controlled pump where a ceiling was enforced to prevent overdoses - rather than a bottomless supply of fentanyl). This has to do with the dynamics of perceived levels of control and autonomy. This one really surprised me. I had figured that, no matter what, opioids are gonna supersede any level of control, but apparently not. Sapolsky’s theory is that the fear the chronic pain patient feels about not getting another dose is what drives them to over-medicate in the first place. (Not going into the larger situation-dependent positives and negatives of control vs. lack of control)

- future Malscum should find other examples for his book group

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of these lectures and I have to say the voice of the lecturer was excellent. He was very clear in his pronunciation. His delivery was thought provoking and engaging. I like how he would give you the history of a theory but tell you when they got things wrong as well. He is very good at taking complicated topics and discussing them in a clear and understandable way.

In some of the later lectures he reference case studies. However, with one or two acceptions he doesn't acknowledge the cruelty of these experiences. Some were performed on animals mostly mice/rats, monkeys and others on children. While I don't expect him to reference this after every study a brief acknowledge at the start of the lectuers would be respectful. Personally I feel that some of studies could use trigger warns as they could be triggering for people who have gone through similar circumstances. But thats just my opinion. 

I found it funny how he says assess to universal health can't be factor (lecture 22). As the same or similar issues occur in countries with universal health care.  I assume he means free or subsided health care by this. I live in the UK so have assess to the NHS. And while there isn't the same financial cost as other countries, getting an appointment is a nightmare. When you do get one chance are you'll have to take time off work to attend it. You will A. Have to make that time up B. Have to find someone to cover you C. Not be granted the time off. This obviously presents barriers to lower earners particularly if they are disabled, parents or carers. It definitely results in people within these systems putting off or not seeking treatment. Access to universal health care doesn't necessarily equal easy assess to it. Employers have a lot to answer for on this front. Still an interesting lecture though.

[Mohammad Yousef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by one of the most influential scientists of our generation, Robert Sapolsky never disappoint to break down hard deep science into easy-to-understand language and again, to speak the facts in an unbiased way.
I enjoid reading this book a lot even though I was familiar with most of its content (as I've read previous work for him and watched many of his lectures) but still, this book can be a wonderful introduction to the most fundamental part of our lives, that is stress.
he argues that stress is -from an evolutionary standpoint- a crucial element of animals' survival but humans use it inefficiently to make theirlives worse. Stress can generate a total physical response for the animal to flee a predator thus it provides the needs to survive in response to dangerous situations but humans on the other hand, can activate the same physical response by only imagining the situation, thus preparing us for some events that may not happen. Here we see how our psychological states interact with our evolutionary system of fight-and-flight and if we keep this images in our heads for long time we are left with chronic stress and health problems from stress, he explain them all and eventually provide some solutions like spirituality.
he once said:
primates are more smart and productive than other species that they are left out with some spare time and they use it to be stress out each others!
we need to acknowledge psychological stress as an mistake from evolution and beware of its consequences.

[Sebastian Langan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved everything I've read and heard so far from Sapolsky, from "Behave" to his Stanford Neuroscience lectures (I still have to read some of his less known works). He has the amazing ability, so needed within the scientific community these days, to break down complex concepts with layman's language so they can be digested and appreciated. He is, in the best sense possible, a scientific communicator as well as a scientist. I hope to see more and more figures like him and Richard Feynman share the joys of their fields with the general public to inspire and enlighten them.
Now, on the topic of this book (I've gotten off-topic): it's a great little collection of lectures on the neurobiology and psychology of stress. The broad range of topics extends from the origins of short-term stress in the body, to the effects of long-term stress on our metabolism and risk for disease, and even the effects of socioeconomic status on stress. Each lecture is around three to five pages in length and contains Sapolsky's typical charm, sarcasm, and humor.

If you are at all interested in the topic of stress, do enjoy.

[Firsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't rule out that I'd relisten some lectures (chapters) from this especially obviously "L09 Stress and male reproduction", as it was quite interesting. It didn't cover as much as "Biology and Human Behavior" which is my favorite from him. But the lecture format stayed, and his voice really adds to the experience. Sapolsky without Sapolsky is the "Behave" book which is rather dry. So this includes his humour and has a great momentum, funny examples and solid science.

I'm not saying I can recite much, but how stress affects sleep and vice versa is always fascinating, ever since I've listend to that Matt Walker book. I now aha everything when another book mentions the same things. You are bound to find lectures that resonate with you, and some that are meh, depending on your interests. But boy is it depressing. At an earlier age I used to think depression was just being sad and not a real disorder or thing like a disease, but this book alleviated all doubt.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sapolsky presents the facts in a classroom setting - May not be the thing for everyone, but damn if his voice isn't calming and comforting.

If you were ever curious about what stress is doing to you, this is the book for you. Sapolsky shows readers how stress can effect your health, impacts your ability to develop cancer, effects your memory. Maybe I am focused on his calming voice in the panic that his discourse can bring. He is sometimes aware of how his knowledge can incite riot in a western society that is so driven and running constantly - a world where stress is celebrated and encouraged.

This is my first Sapolsky read and I'll be sure to check out Zebras and his other works for more of his spin and less of the politically correct classroom knowledge.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent entry in the Great Courses catalogue. I enjoy Dr. Sapolsky; he has a dry wit that is easy to miss, and his approach is reader-friendly and accessible. This course focuses, not surprisingly, on the physical effects of stress. The first several lectures look at different body systems (cardiopulmonary, immune, endocrine, etc). He examines the effects of stress on mental health, too, with a particular focus on depression. While much of the information is grim, the final lecture offers hope and advice for reducing stress. This is an important course for anyone who lives in the modern world.

[Aletha Dunston · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I wish I could retain everything I learned in this book, but I highly recommend it.

The difference between depression and anxiety - Depression is a disease where people don’t deal very well with circumstances that you could control or learned helplessness. Anxiety is perceiving stressors that may or may not be there and trying to mobilize 14 different responses at once that are mutually contradictory and cannot recognize safety signals or when it’s over.
“the common head cold of psychiatric disease”

Exercise – you need 30 minutes for cardiovascular health, but it is even more effective if you find something you like and are doing voluntarily

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This course blew me away. The depth and breadth, but still in layman’s interest, was incredible. I learned so much and came away with a confident knowledge of this subject. He added much more to what I already knew. Sapolsky is also interesting to listen to and his humor injected a lively note. I truly appreciated that. I’d love to see him do a follow up adding energy medicine into the mix. There’s so much more science being made available to add to an intellectual course such as this. Loved it. 5 Stars. Highly recommend. More for adults.

[Aman Goyal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to anyone who is even mildly interested in Human Anatomy as it works with first world problems of stress. The narrator is really excellent and simplifies all systems within human body, such as immune, reproductive, growth etc, as it responds to stress. It was really reassuring for me to see how the science supports( and sometimes refutes) all the anecdotal knowledge out there about stress and human body.
I would rate this course are one of my top 3 from the Great Courses series.

[Horia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be very easy to follow and digest. Useful throughout. All lectures follow the same clear and solid pattern.
-- describe the topic at hand,
-- share easy to understand examples,
-- share a few eloquent and relevant experiments.
-- explain how stress is affecting that given topic using the experiments, examples and basis explained earlier.

And of course, mention glucocorticoids at least 50 times per lecture. And baboons or zebras at least 30 times per lecture :)

Overall a funny and educational experience.