"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers"

(The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping)
-by robert m. sapolsky
1994, 1998, 2004
The thing that first strikes you is that this is the most boring book sapolsky has written.
Not that the writing is boring - it's delivered with robert's customary warmth and wit. But the subject matter feels of interest only to an academic, or someone crippled by stress.
Of course, "crippled by stress" is a far more universal phrase than most of us realize.
But then you get to chapter 17, and boom! Social relevance bursting all over the place, as sapolsky gets into western stress (which is increasingly global stress). In a nutshell, the greater the income inequality, the greater the crime and violence. The more inequality, the lower the voting rates, and the worse health/mortality rates. That last factor is a gradient - the lower you go on the socioeconomic scale, the more sickness and early death. But stress is rarely simple, as there is considerable variability at both the individual and societal level. Feeling poor is worse than being poor, and factors can cancel out. The Soviet Union had high income equality but also high stress, because personal freedoms were curtailed. In the business world it's not those at the bottom who suffer most, it's the middle management cocktail of high responsibility with low control. But some generalities are rock solid - the poor are more likely to make unhealthy living choices.
The book addresses coping strategies, depression, addiction, successful aging, and the crucial role that childhood plays in determining one's stress profile. Sapolsky, a neurobiologist and primatologist, deconstructs stress on the physiological level - what happens when brain/body functions are overstimulated or understimulated. His foundational premise is that humyn stress is unique in the animal kingdom, as our stress centers on the abstract (the future, or measuring ourselves against people we've never met). Our physiologies haven't had time to adapt to agricultural/industrial life. Ergo, humyns may not be the most stressed creatures on the planet (like certain individuals we all know, humyns as a species give more stress than we receive), but we're the only animals giving ourselves ulcers.
Thank you, robert. Another wonderful offering.