| VICTORIA
TIMES COLONIST
April
13 , 2003
Review
by May Brown
The
role of stress in physical illness is a complicated and
controversial subject, and one on which Vancouver physician
Dr. Gabor Maté offers some interesting views in his
book When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress
(Knopf Canada, 300 pages, $36.95).
After years as a family physician, palliative care specialist
and psychotherapist, Maté is currently staff physician
at a facility for street people in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside.
He is also the author of Scattered Minds, a book
about attention deficit disorder, and has just co-authored
a book on parenting with Vancouver developmental psychologist
Dr. Gordon Neufeld.
n When the Body Says No, Maté draws on the
stories of patients he has seen over the years, as well
as some high profile figures such as baseball player Lou
Gehrig.
Their illnesses range from asthma, rheumatoid arthritic
and lupus to cancer and ALS, and by sharing details of their
personal Iives, Maté aims to show how stress and
repressed emotion (particularly anger) impact the body's
ability to combat physical illness.
The subject is so complex, and generates so many questions,
that even writing a review of the book is difficult to do
in a limited space.
The average reader may have some difficulty with the medical
explanations, although Maté does a credible job,
but more absorbing are the patients' stories, which illustrate
Maté's theories in a human, compassionate way.
Similarly, his list of The Seven A's of Healing, from acceptance
to affirmation, provide an easy-to-follow guideline at the
end of the book.
The index offers not only page numbers but also, in many
cases, definitions and descriptions.
So does Maté effectively make his point?
Do we come away from this book believing that causes illness,
and do we leave equipped with what it takes to prevent or
cope with disease?
The book is well presented, compelling and provides food
for thought, but, as anyone with chronic illness knows,
there are no easy answers.
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