Toxic Stress: How Stress Is Making Us Ill and What We Can Do About It

by Lawson R. Wulsin

Our stress response system is magnificent - it operates beneath our awareness, like an orchestra of organs playing a hidden symphony. When we are healthy, the orchestra plays effortlessly, but what happens when our bodies face chronic stress, and the music slips out of tune? The alarming rise of stress-related conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and depression, show the price we're paying for our high-pressure living, while global warming, pandemics and technology have brought new kinds of stress into all our lives. But what can we do about it? Explore the fascinating mysteries of our hidden stress response system with Dr. Wulsin, who uses his decades of experience to show how toxic stress impacts our bodies; he gives us the expert advice and tools needed to prevent toxic stress from taking over. Chapter by chapter, learn to help your body and mind recover from toxic stress.

Genres: Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2024

About the author

Lawson Reed Wulsin is a professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where he has taught for the past 35 years in his subspecialty areas of psychosomatic medicine and primary care psychiatry.

Reviews

[Lily Heron · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is an example of victim blaming on pg.172 of the ARC edition; a woman should be free to drink alcohol with her work colleagues without having to account for the likelihood that one of them will rape her on the way home. Rapists are to blame for their choice to rape, not their victims. Rape is about power and dominance on the part of the rapist, not poor decision making on the part of the victim. If this error is corrected prior to publication, I would be more than willing to change my rating and update my review. As it stands, it is misinformation that contributes to rape myths and is detrimental to survivors.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides The Body Keeps The Score, this is the other book I will be recommending to people from now on. It offers a comprehensive overview on stress and the related and long-term impacts on the body.

Yes we all already know stress is bad for the body, we all know stress can lead to heart attacks. But knowing how and when this process starts, and how to reverse/stop it is why this book is so important.

[Maree Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty boring.
Turns out my asthma inhaler is an immunosuppressant which makes me sick more but also I will die without it. Mildly inconvenient. Come quickly jesus.

“One common example of stress hormones disrupting the immune system can be seen in the use of immunosuppressants to treat asthma, brain injury, or cancer. Our most common immunosuppressant is cortisone, a steroid medication form of cortisol.
For short periods this drug can be helpful in reducing the immune response, and cortisone does that. A person with a knee injury may get a cortisone shot in the knee to reduce the swelling and pain. If cortisol levels remain elevated by chronic stress or medication use, they will inhibit the formation of T cell lymphocytes in the bone marrow and other tissues. Cortisol also facilitates the storage of existing lymphocytes, taking them out of circulation.
Cortisol also inhibits the release of cytokines, the molecules that attack toxins. So on many levels the immune system is hobbled by prolonged exposure to high levels of cortisol, one of the hallmarks of chronic stress.”
Pg 147

[Katy Lomby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really excited me in the good sense and made me very happy.
Lawson's background as a psychiatrist and very imbued on evidence made it credible and the best part of all of it was that he offers solutions, real solutions, proved, and very doable for all of us and our families for dealing with the stress.
Thank you Dr. Lawson for this very needed book about the stress epidemic in our lives!