Customer Reviews

The SuperStress Solution

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This book is purported to be "a groundbreaking...revolutionary...whole life guide to help you repair the effects of stress". All the material here is basic and widely available elsewhere. You can easily access all of this material, and I mean all, on the internet or in books from 10 years ago on. Before spending $20 (with shipping) consider leafing through the book in a bookstore or just get it from the library. It seems that the notion of not just stress, but "Superstress" is the 'hook' here, but the solutions are the same as for regular stress, and Dr. Lee offers up nothing new. Self care-- an important topic.

You should start before any crisis in your life occurs, because once you're in the midst of it, it's impossible to begin meditating, eating well, exercising, etc. It has some value to get you started, but she points you to no further resources (e.g., HeartMath's program is never mentioned, for one, or any other complementary practices like EFT).

For a taste of this "revolutionary" approach, watch the video of Dr. Lee above on this site. That's about the level at which this book is aimed (sleep, exercise, avoid alcohol, etc.), and if this is new information to you, then perhaps check out the book.

If you're new to complementary therapies this book may be helpful. If you're at all further along in experience, interest or knowledge, you will already know this stuff, but perhaps it may give you a program to follow, and that is a good thing.

We are overwhelmed, we are exhausted, we have insomnia, we have huge appetites for food but none for sex. We experience substance abuse, headaches, anxiety. The author maintains that our modern world has put us in a "menacing form of stress that closely resembles post-traumatic stress disorder" such as what has been observed in war veterans. She calls this "superstress" and gives us a "super solution" through this book.

The book is divided into 3 parts, and each part has a brief summary at the beginning. Real life case studies are sprinkled throughout the book to make it more interesting and see how people can heal, change, and relax. (One woman couldn't even go an hour without checking her Blackberry 5 or 6 times--even at night, checking her email.)

The first part of the book explains what stress is and how it affects your body. There are various kinds of stress, with environmental, work, relationship, social and spiritual sources. Four hallmarks of stress are listed: It is compounded; you can't get a handle on it anymore; life has lost its luster; and "anxious is the new normal."Friends, family, day-to-day hassles and job duties are factors that tip us into superstress. And as the author states, "Our parents and certainly our grandparents probably wouldn't recognize what we call parenting as anything they'd ever done--that's how all-encompassing the job has become." This section also discusses the hormones of stress, the physical results, and gives case studies. We are also given an in-depth test of 9 pages to access our stress level.

Part II provides us with a smorgasbord of stress busters. The "pathways to peace" chapter gives us several mindfulness activities such as meditation, the "relaxation response," focused breathing, affirmations, as well as the less conventional aromatherapy. If you want to hire someone to help you relax, there is also acupuncture, massage and reflexology.

There is an entire chapter devoted to food, which I was happy to find since I believe nutrition plays a huge part in physical and mental well being. In this chapter you will discover superfoods as well as "good mood foods" to enjoy, and "bad mood foods" to avoid. There is also a chapter on sleep and exercise, as well as one on the importance of optimism appropriately called "Mind over Superstress." There is also a chapter on the importance of social connection in which the author laments on how we have become a "nation of loners." (The typical American adult spends 12 minutes talking to his/her spouse, yet nine hours a day involved in some form of media!) The section ends with a chapter on the importance of a spiritual life or finding meaning in your life.

Part III lays out a 4-week superstress solution plan which includes some nutrition, supplements, journaling, calming activities, and more. The final chapter defines 5 stress profiles and additional refined advice accordingly. The following appendices appear at the end: menus for 14 days and a detox diet.
This is a great book for educating us on stress and proper, practical, doable solutions to it. No matter how much you may think you know about stress, you will nonetheless find some interesting tidbits, such as how cortisol peaks at 9 AM, causing most heart attacks to occur between 6 AM and noon; potato chips dehydrate the brain; kids given more attention are less stressful as adults; men produce 52% more serotonin than women; 38% of depressed adults are deficient in folate; and much more!

As someone who has endured many kinds of stressful events (earthquakes, tornadoes, fire, flood, hurricane, IRS audits, and other natural disasters), I feel qualified to review a book on stress. I've also written a course on this topic so I come at it as a published expert.

My insights into handling stress made quantum leaps when I began studying Chinese martial arts in the early 1980s. Dr. Lee is of Chinese decent (third generation Chinese American). Thus, I was not surprised to find myself nodding yes, yes, yes as she explained one concept and then another. Much of what she says is outside of the mainstream discussions of this topic. And that's really too bad, because she's right on target.

I was born with an immune deficiency that persists to this day, yet have not been sick since 1971. I credit this mostly to my dietary choices. Dr. Lee makes dietary recommendations that are very close to what I would recommend. Even Dr. Lee's Famous Salad Dressing is nearly identical to my own dressing recipe (I don't add honey, and I use balsamic vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar).

One thing she doesn't mention is where to get your green tea. I get mine from an ethnic Chinese grocery. I think it is an important quality consideration. For one thing, the tea bags don't have staples. I'm guessing Dr. Lee doesn't buy her green tea from the local chain grocery, so isn't aware that many brands of green tea aren't up to the standards she probably takes for granted.

Why are our diets so similar? It isn't because her information is widely known and practiced (it isn't). The similarities are there because we have arrived at solutions that work, though by different paths taken to get there.

The similarities go beyond diet. They go to the core philosophy: health care. At the time I'm writing this review, there's a national debate about "health care" yet nobody's talking about actual health care. They are talking about medical care. These aren't at all the same thing.

Medical care means cut, burn, or poison to treat the disease. And sometimes, that's necessary. But usually it's preventable. In all cases, it's expensive and in many cases astronomically so.

Over 90% of recurrent medical care would be prevented if continued treatment were contingent upon implementation of health care. For example, to get continued treatment for prostate cancer men would be required to reduce body fat to under 8% (easily achievable at any age) via a supervised portion control program. Or they would be denied the continued treatment, because their own behavior is defeating the purpose of the treatment anyhow. This may sound harsh at first, but if you reflect upon all of the facts, you can't help but conclude it's the most humane way to proceed. It's also the least expensive.

But instead of healing people, we subsidize sickness-inducing behavior and then complain that it costs too much to treat the sickness. This is like throwing rocks at your windows and then complaining about the replacement costs. The current "health care debate" is about deciding who will control the repair process instead of reducing the number of rocks thrown--maybe it would be nice to bring some competent adults into the "debate."

Medical care costs are ten times higher than they would be if we had a 'treat the person" approach rather than a "treat the disease" approach. Personal misery, of course, is also ten times higher than it needs to be.

Dr. Lee's approach to solving stress-related illness goes to the underlying problems, treating the person to solve the disease rather than treating only the disease and leaving the person unhealthy. This is one of the stark differences between "conventional medicine" (treat the disease) and "holistic medicine" (treat the person).

My own "mainstream" physician is an old-timer who tells patients things they don't like to hear and who insists on practicing health care rather than just medical care. When I went to him earlier this year with a nasty thumb infection (a tick had burrowed into my thumb, yuck), I just wanted him to lance it and give me antibiotics. I thought that was all he could do, and I was wrong. He used a combination of medicine and health care, impressing the heck out of me.

Dr. Lee is of this same caliber. While many overworked doctors will just prescribe a drug and hope you get over whatever is causing you to stress out, it's not a real solution. The drug reduces (or shifts) the symptoms, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Part of the solution involves proper diet, which is something most Americans describe as "nutty." People who observe my food choices often ask, "Are you health nut?," to which I reply "No, I'm just not a disease nut." What goes into the typical American shopping cart is appalling. No wonder people get sick.

Why anyone would drink "osteoporosis in a can" (soda) or eat "colon cancer in the dough" (bread with hydrogenated oil in it) I have no idea. Engaging in such practices defies logic, especially when you consider that these behaviors also promote obesity. If Americans dropped just these two behaviors, our national "health care crisis" would end because two big drivers of disease would be gone. Yet, it's the rare shopping cart that doesn't contain BOTH of these toxins.

Dr. Lee's diet recommendations provide sane alternatives.

Of course, the book isn't just about diet. I expound on that because it's the easiest part of the total solution to implement and it provides fast results. Dr. Lee provides what I consider a complete solution, though others may disagree. I've read other books on stress and think most of what is said is off target or suggest things that just aren't practical. This book doesn't have those shortcomings.

So, what's inside it?

She writes a nice introduction that lays out the basic concepts. It also explains her perspective on how we arrived at the current super stress as normal situation.

Part One consists of the first two chapters. Chapter One, Super Stress in Your Body and on Your Mind, discusses the symptoms and sources of chronic stress. Chapter Two provides a way to assess your level and type of stress. It provides four questionnaires that aid in this purpose. I think just going through the questionnaires can be helpful because issues that you might not think of are right there.

In Part Two, six chapters delve into the tools for stress reduction. I mentioned food (Chapter 4), earlier. Chapter 5 is titled "Rest and Motion." These are the two "physical" chapters; the others are about mental and social tools. These other four areas are typically under-rated and under-utilized. Conventional medicine doesn't address them at all.

On a related note, talk therapy, which treats the person, has been supplanted by "prescription therapy," which treats the disease. This sorry state of affairs is driven by Medicare requirements and yet we're supposed to believe that expanding government involvement into medical care is going to help.

Part Three consists of the last two chapters, and is all about taking your own personal stress solution from thought to reality. Chapter Nine provides a four-week program that will produce results for anyone suffering from chronic stress. Chapter Ten provides a sustainable strategy for stress-proofing, but that strategy is modified into four variations. Which variation you use depends on the stress types you identified in Chapter Two.

As with anything else that actually works, this program requires personal commitment and discipline. You have to replace old habits with new ones, and that takes time. Occasionally, it means being frustrated because the old behaviors took over. But if you stick with it, you'll find the results you were seeking.

In the hectic world we live in today, we could all learn how to de-stress. This book with tell you how to:

* Nourish your body with nutrient-rich foods,herbs, and supplements that repair stress damage
* Detox your system and jump-start your body's healing with an easy-to-follow eating plan
* Sleep well again by following simple steps to protect and promote the rest your body needs
* Move to simple, low-impact exercises that can be done in five-minute to one-hour increments
* Retrain your mind so you can access a sense of peace and calm even in your most stressed-out moments

The SuperStress Solution will do more than help you beat back the overload that is making you sick; it will restore physical harmony and balance. More than a program that makes you feel better, it is a program that will make you truly well.

The first part of the book explains where our stress comes from and how your body reacts. Stress comes from so many different places, some that most of us would never even think of. We think of stress coming from our family, work, driving in traffic, waiting in a slow check out line etc. But it also comes from the environment etc. and some of us even add stress to ourselves, without realizing it. At the end of Part 1 there are four questionnaire: Your Superstress Type, The Physical Toll Stress Takes, Your Personal Resilience To Superstress and Recent Stressful Events. I learned a lot about myself when thinking about some of the questions and now I can work on changing those things to be less stressed. You can take a shorter version of these questionnaires HERE.

The second part gives you the tools you need to overcome these stresses through breathing, meditation, affirmations, aromatherapy, massage etc. It also has a section on Foods That Heal and Rest & Motion. I practice deep breathing, meditation and aromatherapy. I've also been thinking about going for a massage, but don't know if I ever will or not. I learned the most from
The Foods That Heal section, and can't wait to try some of them.

The third part has a 4 week plan. They are Building Calm Into Your Life, Detoxifying Mind Body & Spirit-and Surroundings, Restoring & Rebuilding, and Nurturing Community and the Spirit.

There is also a 14 day menu and detox diet. I like that the author not only explains what foods you should be eating but also what vitamins you need for certain symptoms and the dosage.

I enjoyed reading this book, I found it to be very informative and will add it to my fitness/health favorites.

It has been a year since I first read this book and I am still using The Super Stress Solution's information, guidance, and techniques and recommending it to my students. Here is a book that gives us a feast of strategies to soothe the stress of modern, daily life and helps us choose among them to fit our personality. Author Roberta Lee, MD emphasizes playing to and believing in your strengths, which is extremely helpful and self-empowering when life changes are needed. Super Stress Solution shows us how we can use nutrition, supplements, relaxation techniques, mind-body connectivity, and the healing bonds of community to help us soar over the pitfalls of our jam-packed lives. There are so many great things about The Super Stress Solution that it is hard to know where to start. The book is encyclopedic in medical knowledge (both traditional and integrative), yet the writing style makes the information remarkably easy for the lay person to understand (and enjoy!). Dr. Lee's voice is compassionate and determined to help you help yourself. The anecdotal stories she tells are inspiring. I loved that many of Dr. Lee's solutions to stress are natural ones. Unlike so many self-help books this one is not a 'fad'. I found this book to be timeless in its wisdom, its advice, its results.
Shelley Berc, Director
The Creativity Workshop

_The SuperStress Solution_ is super-packed with information for understanding, reducing, and navigating the (doesn't-have-to-be)-constant stress that overwhelms so many of us today. Taking a holistic and integrative approach, Dr. Lee illustrates the toll that stress can take on the mind, body, and spirit, and then she provides a customizable plan that addresses each of these realms. She shares her eye-opening and insight-provoking questionnaires to see the personal toll stress has taken on your life and also to identify your primary stress type: 1) Burned Out, Exhausted, Numb, Depressed; (2) Agitated, Overwhelmed by Life; (3) Emotionally Sensitive; (4) Driven, Controlling; (5) Explosive, Can't Slow Down. After the first part of the book aids in the understanding of the origins and consequences of stress on the body whole, the second part of the book offers a breadth of tools for change. Whether your super-stressed or just sorta-stressed, _The SuperStress Solution_ is a valuable resource for calming, detoxifying, restoring, and nurturing your life---now, who couldn't benefit from that?

This book was purchased for a friend who feels that she is always stressed. As of this date and speaking with her she feels that she is obtaining some very useful information.

I ORDERED THIS BOOK HOPING TO GET SOME NEW INFORMATION ON DE-STRESSING OR MANAGING EVERY DAY STRESS. THE BOOK PROVIDED SOME VERY VALUABLE INFORMATION AND A FEW QUICK FIXES THAT ANYONE COULD APPLY IMMEDIATELY. IN A NUT SHELL, DR. LEE SUGGEST SOME LIFESTYLE CHANGES TO MANAGE YOUR STRESS....

I ORDERED THIS BOOK HOPING TO GET SOME NEW INFORMATION ON DE-STRESSING OR MANAGING EVERY DAY STRESS. THE BOOK PROVIDED SOME VERY VALUABLE INFORMATION AND A FEW QUICK FIXES THAT ANYONE COULD APPLY IMMEDIATELY. IN A NUT SHELL, DR. LEE SUGGEST SOME LIFESTYLE CHANGES TO MANAGE YOUR STRESS....

Everyone has some stress in their life and some Super stress. So this is a book that you should give to yourself and others as a gift. It's quick to read and I really enjoyed the writing style. Dr. Lee takes medical terms and conditions and explains them in an easy to understand fashion. She combines that with humor, stories of real people whom we can all relate to and practical advice. It's the only book that I know of that combines tips for diet, exercise, mind and other holistic ways to think about stress. It ends with a 4 week diet and lifestyle program that is easy to do.