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OTTAWA CITIZEN | CALGARY HERALD | JANUARY MAGAZINE | CANADIAN PRESS
BC BUSINESS MAGAZINE | VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST

From the OTTAWA CITIZEN
New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig was known as the Iron Horse because he refused to pull himself from the lineup regardless of injury or illness. In the 1930s, Gehrig set a record for consecutive games played -- 2,130 -- that would stand for six decades.

When his hands were X-rayed it was found that every one of his fingers had been broken, some more than once. He had sustained 17 fractures. Someone once described Gehrig "grinning crazily as a macabre dancer in a gruelling marathon."

While Gehrig was known for his refusal to quit, years later, he also became known as the most famous person to be felled by ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative, muscle-wasting disease. ALS became known as "Lou Gehrig's disease."

According to Vancouver physician and bestselling author Dr. Gabor Maté, those who develop Lou Gehrig's disease share more in common with its namesake than just the illness. ALS patients the world over are frequently described as the "nicest people you could ever meet," says Maté. Read the rest of this review...

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From the CALGARY HERALD
Author and physician Gabor Mate is no stranger to controversy. Three years ago, his book Scattered Minds -- which focuses on the origins of attention deficit disorder -- rocked Canada's mainstream medical community.

His controversial claim was that a child's emotional environment has as much to do with the disorder as his or her physiology. He asserted that western society is stressed and as a result children are not developing normally.

This week, Gabor's latest book, When the Body Says No, was released. And, like its predecessor, it is bound to provoke a response or two. Basically, Mate says doctors need to take more time to talk to their patients. Five- and 10-minute appointments just don't cut it. Read the rest of this review...

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From JANUARY MAGAZINE
Dr. Gabor Maté has lived several lives in one. He's most decidedly a risk-taker: the bestselling author of a controversial book on attention-deficit disorder called Scattered Minds, Maté is a political activist known for his (even more controversial) views on the Middle East, and a physician/psychotherapist who gave up his family practice several years ago to work with HIV-positive heroin addicts on the Vancouver's downtown east side. Unflinching in the face of criticism, this is a man who will not keep silent about his multiple passions.

In his latest book, When the Body Says No, he goes out on a medical limb with his passionately-argued thesis that certain types of chronic disease can be triggered by stress. And not the garden variety stress we usually think of (the job, the kids, the mortgage), but internal stress generated by the repression of powerful emotions, particularly anger. Read the rest of this review...

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From CANADIAN PRESS
There's one in every office. A person who picks up the pieces after a water-cooler clash, offers encouragement after a dressing down by the boss or buys drinks when someone else is awarded the promotion.

These people don't have titles and the vital role they play in keeping companies chugging along is barely acknowledged. But if Peter Frost could print them business cards he would use the super-heroish title: Toxic handlers.

"These people, they could be managers, human resource personnel, co-workers, are being sent into battle with a plastic fork for a weapon," says Frost, author of Toxic Emotions At Work and a commerce professor at the University of British Columbia.

He argues they aren't given to tools to deal with the emotions they are cushioning, which he says are contagious and harmful to their health.

The attack of the mind on the body and the connection between brains and hearts is the subject of another book just released by Gabor Maté. The charismatic doctor has written for the Globe and Mail, headed palliative care unit at Vancouver General hospital and works with addicts on the skid row Downtown Eastside. Read the rest of this review...

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From BC BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Some days stress is like the air we breathe; it’s everywhere and in everything. In its extreme form it may show up as road rage, air rage, supermarket rage – all newly minted terms for uncontrolled outbursts of anger. Whether you call it stress, fear or anxiety, that feeling of some sort of impending trouble is a common fixture in most people in most workplaces. Someone at home, someone at the office, always wanting something from you on top of all the other things you’ve already agreed to do. Can you do it all, can you do it all well? Isn’t there anybody else out there who can handle this stuff? you wonder. Does it always have to come back to you?

Then you get a grip and figure you’re tough, you can handle it. You’re a survivor. You don’t wimp out in the face of a little pressure. Besides, you have an image to protect; show any weakness and the rest of the dogs in the pack will come for you. Kiss that promotion goodbye. So damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Fine, but what are you going to do about that heartburn you seem to be getting lately, or the diarrhea, or the inexplicable pain in your stomach? Or how about those mood swings, up one minute, in the pits the next? What’s that stuff all about? Read the rest of this review...

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From the VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST
"I never get angry," a Woody Allen character says in one of his movies. "I grow a tumour instead."

Vancouver author and physician Dr. Gabor Maté uses this quote in his book When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress as an encapsulation of his message that stress plays a role in illness.

"There is no mind-body separation," says Maté. "Anything that happens in any aspect of our being, whether it's body or mind, will affect all the other parts.

"Therefore it's not surprising that we have now found scientifically that all these connections exist. What is more amazing is that we ever thought that they didn't. Now that we know, there is less excuse for western medicine's practice of this militant separation of the two."Read the rest of this review...

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