by Amanda C. Jones, PBB Grants Officer
What does that have to do with the spit in the freezer? (Why is there spit in the freezer?)
”Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers? What’s that?”
“It’s one of my favorite books.”
”Oh, what’s the story about?”
“Um, actually, it’s non-fiction. It’s a book about stress, the physiology of stress. This guy, Robert Sapolsky, a prof out at Stanford who has done a lot of work with baboons and studies people, explains how stress and stress-related hormones impact our health…hippocampus…dwarfism…chronic stress,” I babble on more than most people want to hear, “you know. It’s really interesting.”
“Yeah, I know all about stress…”
This is a paraphrased version of a conversation I just had with my dad. It’s about a book, the cover of which shows zebras holding hooves and dancing in a circle. It’s a great, fun-to-read book. It’s a book that I sent my brother when he asked what cortisol is and why, as part of my work in graduate school, I had hundreds of vials full of spit in a freezer. (The amount of cortisol that is circulating in someone’s system can be determined by measuring cortisol in saliva. I stored samples by freezing them.)
