When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection

By Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté

Book Overview

An international bestseller translated into fifteen languages, When the Body Says No promotes learning and healing, providing transformative insights into how disease can be the body's way of saying no to what the mind cannot or will not acknowledge. With great compassion and erudition, Dr Gabor Mat eacute; demystifies medical science and, as he did in Scattered Minds, invites us all to be our own health advocates.

Through the lens of moving personal stories, medical doctor and best-selling author Dr. Gabor Mat shows how emotion and psychological stress play a powerful role in the onset of chronic illness, cancer, and many other serious illnesses.

Drawing on scientific research and the author's decades of experience as a practicing physician, this book provides answers to important questions about the effect of the mind-body link on illness and health and the role that chronic stress and one's individual emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases.

Explore the role of the mind-body link in conditions and diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, IBS, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune conditions, and more
The book draws on years of medical research and the author's own clinical experience as a family physician
Complete with The Seven A's of Healing - Once you're ready to acknowledge underlying stress, Dr. Mate guides you forward with principles of healing, management, and the prevention of illness from hidden stress
Discover dozens of enlightening case studies and personal stories, including familiar names such as Lou Gehrig (ALS), Betty Ford (breast cancer), Ronald Reagan (Alzheimer's), Gilda Radner (ovarian cancer), and Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer)
An impressive contribution to research on the physiological connection between life's chronic stress cycles, anxiety, and emotions and the body systems governing nerves, immune apparatus, and hormones

"This is a most important book, both for patient and physician. It could save your life." - Peter Levine, PhD, best selling author of In an Unspoken Voice

"Gabor Mat , M.D., skillfully blends recent advances in biomedicine with the personal stories of his patients to provide empowering insights into how deeply developmental experiences shape our health, behavior, attitudes, and relationships. A must read." ― Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., author of The Biology of Belief

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470923350
• ISBN13: 9780470923351
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

This is one of the best books on saving your life from disease I've ever read! I buy these as gifts

Gabor is a great writer I couldn't put it down. I suggest reading the last chapter first!

The Best Book I've Seen on Mindbody Causes of Illness

Life and society put an endless series of demands and requests on us. If we can't or won't say "no" to some of them, our bodies may say no for us, by getting sick or even dying. This is not a new idea. Many healers have taught it, and many books, including my own "Art of Getting Well" have described it. But Gabor Mate explains it better than anyone, with powerful scientific evidence and moving stories to back it up. This Vancouver physician and health writer gives us the latest research on how emotions, thoughts, the nervous system, immune system and hormones work together to create health or illness. He interviewed more than 100 patients with various conditions, and he shows how always giving in to others and denying our own wants and needs makes us vulnerable to a wide variety of illness. If you or someone you love is living with an autoimmune disease, an inflammatory condition, or cancer, you may find this book powerful and healing. If you are a health professional looking for better ways to help people with these "incurable" illnesses, you may find it here. If you just want to know more about body and mind and how they work, if you want to be entertained and moved, this book is for you. I wouldn't necessarily say buy it INSTEAD of Art of Getting Well, but they're complementary, and they're both great reading. At times, I felt that Dr. Mate must have read my diary. The stories he tells of people with multiple sclerosis, ALS and other autoimmune diseases all sounded familiar. I'm pretty sure that my own inability to say no - to be open about my own fears and desires - contributed to my MS, although there were many other causes. Gabor Mate sees the big picture-the combination of genes, physical and social environment, stresses and behaviors that lead to health problems. He doesn't blame us for not standing up for ourselves. He understands and explains the family dynamics and social forces that make it hard to say "No," even when our lives depend on it. He says, "Personality does not cause disease. Stress does. If we speak of a disease-prone personality, it is only in the sense that certain traits - in particular, the repression of anger - increase the amount of stress." He knows, for example, that many of us feel guilty when we say no to others' demands, and he wants us get over it. He says, "For many people, guilt is a signal that they have chosen to do something for themselves. If you face a choice between feeling guilt and feeling resentful, choose the guilt every time. Resentment is soul suicide." I had read a lot on PNI, or psychoneuroimmunology, the science of mindbody medicine. But I never understood exactly how these organs and cells all communicated and worked together until I read When The Body Says No. Mate has a gift for explaining difficult concepts in simple language. You will learn a lot, even if you don't completely buy the central idea. A couple of criticisms - I wish he had written more about eco

Thought Provoking

I hope anyone who wants to explore how the mind can adversely effect the body will find time to read this book. I would have wished for more discussion and illumination on the subject of healing - however, what there is, is good. Many times I found myself pausing and reflecting on new and different ways of seeing and approaching life.There are many salient points worth re-reading. The authour discusses the physiology of stress, and explores psychological areas, such as assigning "blame." Often the reader is asked to consider the child that proceeds the adult. When all is considered: a thought provoking, disturbing, and illuminating work.

Bravo! An aspect of healing that is grossly overlooked.

When the body says no is one of the most enlightening books I have read on the subject of living with cronic illness.After re-reading this book a few times, I find myself looking at my own life very differently in a very positive and hopeful way.Gabore makes some otherwise very complicated issues very readable for everyone.If anyone suffers from any type of cronic illness or pain, this is definitely a must read.Thank You Gabore.

Life changing book

Amazingly written...a fabulous understanding of human emotions!