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"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: Stress and Health" by Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Beckman Institute at Illinois

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  • Recommended by 5 people, in Hacker News, across 6 different months.
  • Presented by Dr. Robert Sapolsky, neuroscientist and biologist, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

1.1M views9 years ago5 recommendations

Brain and nervesHow the body worksStressPhysiology

Robert Sapolsky explains how the human stress response evolved for short-term emergencies but causes chronic health problems when activated long-term.

Science writer, biologist, neuroscientist, and stress expert Dr. Robert Sapolsky presents the inaugural Fenton-Rhodes Lecture on Proactve Wellness. Sapolsky states that our bodies' stress response evolved to help us get out of short-term physical emergencies - if a lion is chasing you, you run. But such reactions, he points out, compromise long-term physical health in favor of immediate self-preservation. Unfortunately, when confronted with purely psychological stressors, such as troubleshooting the fax machine, modern humans turn on the same stress response. "If you turn it on for too long," notes Sapolsky, "you get sick." Sapolsky regards this sobering news with characteristic good humor, finding hope in "our own capacity to prevent some of these problems... in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives." This lecture was recorded on September 22, 2016 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts' Colwell Playhouse as part of the Pygmalion TechFest

Why it's here

5 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as an entertaining and informative lecture on how chronic stress impacts physical health and disease.

mattdeboardin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Practical Facts about the Human Brain”

…e with my lay understanding of the physical phenomenon of empathy. That's the only one that I don't believe models our physiology in a useful way. The rest match up with some of the stuff I've read/watched. Watch some videos by Robert Sapolsky on YouTube. He's a neurostuff prof at Stanford. Good presentations. There's "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" link to this video Also an actual academic lecture on the Limbic System which contextualizes & clarifies some of the other assertions in the OP blog post. link There are more but hopefully YouTube's algorithm helps you out there. The Stanford lecture series is very interesting though Sapolsky doesn't deliver all the lectures. edit: The only plausible, good…
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panteliskin Hacker News • Recommends

On “I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time”

…st showed up recently. 1 Some guy camping an exploring an island that used to be a federal prison - link 2 A documentary about homeless people racing carts - link 3 Fantastic funk music (and I don't even listen to funk!) - link 4 Fantastic old school theatrical hard rock from Japan - link 5 Sapolsky's must-see lecture on stress - link to this video (which I got recommended and was watching this morning in the background while I worked) Just a random sample from stuff that popped up in the recent past. All the above captured my curiosity 100%. Maybe it's a personality thing, maybe I am eager to just discover novel stuff, that the quality level might not be the highest but the novel fac…
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Karstographerin Hacker News • Recommends

On “You're not lacking creativity, you're overwhelmed”

I'm sure it's been said many times, but John Cleese did provide a memorable talk on it 1 and particularly touched on the relation to stress. And if anyone feels like they have troubles with stress/anxiety, Robert Sapolsky provides some great insight into how and why it affects health overall 2. I'm not sure if Sapolsky's material will help reduce stress, but it was pretty entertaining along the way. Two great speeches that it would be a shame to lose. Now, what was that about keeping up with digital clutter? 1 link 2 link to this video
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thenerdheadin Hacker News • Recommends

Sapolsky has been at this for many years. Here's a great talk on one of his older books. link to this video Especially with regards to his commentary on Selye's theories/lab work with rats. Makes sense if you've read a good number of books on stress (i.e. Stress of Life, Sapolsky's work, etc)
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EdwardCoffinin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died”

A perhaps easier to understand explanation of this is this part of a Robert Sapolsky talk on stress, prepositioned to the bit where he talks about the interaction of stress with the bacteria 1. The summary is that the body is good at repairing the damage the bacteria do, unless the person is under constant stress which inhibits the repair work. 1 link to this video
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EdwardCoffinin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations”

He's also given many talks which are on youtube on the topic, one of which is his talk of the same name at the Beckman institute 1. It's a little under 90 minutes and is enormously entertaining as well as being informative. 1 link to this video
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Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcerson WikipediaMentions

Linked from the Wikipedia article "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" (WikiProject Physiology).
Read the article