Not My Zebra

Feb 26, 2007 by Naomi.

Would it make a difference if zebras did get ulcers? I wondered that when I first heard of Robert M. Sapolski’s book entitled “WHY ZEBRAS DON’T GET ULCERS.” The short term stress of a zebra frantically racing to escape a lion is compared to the stress we humans often impose upon our bodies. Why zebras? The book cover shows zebras circling in the manner of the Matisse painting of the dancers.

A zebra study once interested me when I worked on an Earthwatch team in Kenya assisting biologists on Lake Naivasha.

Still I ask, why zebras? Here I combined my experiences with Sapolski’s admission that he spends summers studying baboons in Kenya. In the shadow of Mount Kenya the number of Grevy zebras appears to be decreasing at an alarming rate. Therefore those animals became the object of studies by enterprising scientists who also wished to spend months in tropical Africa observing, testing, and tabulating the life style of a vanishing breed. And from those studies, behold! comes the fact that zebras do not have ulcers. Zoo keepers assured Sapolski that the greatest stress a zebra undergoes is being transported to the zoo. Sapolski had proof that zebras don’t get ulcers.

OK, the point is that when a zebra stresses itself to outrun the lion the zebra goes off (providing it did outrun the lion) and its heartbeat returns to normal. The problem is solved. Stress is relieved. But humans don’t have the sense to outrun their problems so their stress is continuous and causes all manor of heart, kidney, or stomach distress that turns over time into disease.

More importantly, Sapolski makes reading and understanding science fun. Don’t you believe me? Why else would he mention Jeopardy, O. J. Simpson, The Far Side, bungee jumping, and the Polar Bear Club? Even cartoons! Science is exciting and Sapolski wants to convey that excitement by making the subject interesting and accessible even to those who would rather be caught dead than think they suffered from glucocorticoid excess or circulating catecholamines.

Just the title made me consider my life style. Me, under stress? I grit my teeth, hold my breath, get mad at politicians, and long to strangle “great” salespeople. And on top of that I withhold exercise, water, music and laughter from my every day life. Is it any wonder that I developed a debilitating case of ulcers? Sapolski injects humor to point out in chapters on heart, lung, and other unseen body parts how complicated is this body we take for granted. You must read it to believe it.

WHY ZEBRAS DON’T GET ULCERS

An updated guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping

Robert M. Sapolski

ISBN 0-7167-3210-6

W.H. Freeman and Company, 1998

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