Monday, November 7, 2016

Journaling Questions - Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Why do you think Sapolsky chose the title: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers?



I believe Sapolsky chose the title "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" because he is looking at throughout the book how some reactions in our bodies to stress are things that are left over from our evolution. They make complete sense for a mammal like a zebra but for us a humans they don't function as well anymore. Are stresses as humans are chronic and mental without an immediate physical threat l while the stresses of most animals are short term acute physical crises,


"For animals like zebras the most upsetting things in life are acute physical crises. You are that zebra, a lion has just leapt out and ripped your stomach open, you've managed to get away, and now you have to spend the next hour evading the lion as it continues to stalk you. Or, perhaps just as stressfully, you are the lion, half-starved, and you had better be able to sprint across the savanna at top speed and grab something to eat or you won't survive. These are extremely stressful events, and they demand immediate physiological adaptations if you are going to live. Your body's responses are brilliantly adapted for handling this sort of emergency." p. 4


"This is the critical point of this book: if you are that zebra running for your life, or that lion sprinting for your meal, your bodies physiological response mechanisms are superbly adapted for dealing ith short-term physical emergencies. For the vast majority of beasts on this planet, stress is about a short-term crisis, after which it's either over with or you're over with. When we sit around an worry anout stressful things, we turn on the same physiological responses - but they are potentially a disaster when provoked chronically. A large body of evidence suggests that stress-related disease emerges predominantly, out of the fact that we so often activate a physiological system that has evolved from responding to acute physical emergencies but we turn it on for months on end, worrying about mortgages, relationships and promotions." p.6


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