Ori Hofmekler - The 7 Principles of Stress: Extend Life, Stay Fit, and Ward Off Fat

Copyright 2017 by Ori Hofmekler. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by

North Atlantic Books

Berkeley, California

Cover design by Rob Johnson

Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

The 7 Principles of Stress: Extend Life, Stay Fit, and Ward Off Fat is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hofmekler, Ori, 1952- author.

Title: The 7 principles of stress : extend life, stay fit, and ward off fatwhat you didnt know about how stress can reboot your mind, energy, and sex life / Ori Hofmekler.

Other titles: Seven principles of stress

Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017019413 (print) | LCCN 2017022172 (ebook) | ISBN 9781623171827 | ISBN 9781623171810 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Stress management. | Stress (Psychology) | Nutrition. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Healthy Living. | HEALTH & FITNESS / Reference.

Classification: LCC RA785 (ebook) | LCC RA785 .H644 2017 (print) | DDC 613.2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017019413

North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We partner with FSC-certified printers using soy-based inks and print on recycled paper whenever possible.

Id like to thank my wife, Natasha, who encouraged me to write this book and tolerated my stressed routine and not-so-normal behavior all throughout. Id also like to acknowledge my old friend Nimrod Geter, for his courage to confront a worst-case scenario and beat the odds. I want to thank Dr. Matt Kaeberlein for his generous support and inspiration; Professor Michal Swartzman for arranging my Stress-Activated Food seminar at the New York Medical College; Glinis Delid for her unconditional faith in our cause; my assistant, Sheala L. Kelly, for her relentless support; Karen McCorkle for her incredible help; and all the Warrior Diet followers around the world who have been dedicated to putting these seemingly crazy concepts in practice and making this vision a reality.

I also want to acknowledge here my other family members: our seventeen-year-old cat, Weeone, who still plays like a kitten and couldnt care less about getting old; our dogs, Lola, Lucky, and Lucy, who are living proof that pit bulls can be more friendly and affectionate than humans; and lastly, our new family member, Leo, the Frenchie hunk that got hooked on our big girl, Lucy, a mastiffpit bull mix, with whom he plays the lets chase each other game in our backyard. Apparently when there is true love, size is not an issue.

Yes, animals are here to remind us that unconditional love and innocence do exist in this world after all. Id like to dedicate this book to all human beings who havent lost their humane instinct to protect nonhuman souls and fight for the rights of every species to enjoy living on this planet as nature intended.

By Matt Kaeberlein

The world is facing an aging epidemic, with a growing population of people suffering from age-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and dementia. In his latest book, The 7 Principles of Stress, Ori Hofmekler takes a wide-ranging and comprehensive look at how our technological advances have unwittingly contributed to this dilemma and discusses strategies to crack the code of stress and return to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Hofmekler is a visionary who is, in many ways, ahead of his time. He brings his own unique vision for how to achieve optimal health and longevity through understanding the principles of biological stress. Based on a mix of hard data and intuition gained from years of studying nutrition, he extends current scientific research in insightful and unexpected directions. Notable among these is his concept of stress-activated food (SAF), where he posits that our bodies have evolved to respond in a powerful way to natural foods rich in stress-activated molecules. This idea fits with a large body of scientific literature showing that stress-activated molecules and plant extracts can have profound health benefits, even extending so far as to slow the biological aging process itself.

The key concept here is hormesis. This is a biological principle that has been recognized for many decades. Put simply, the idea is that a little bit of stress, applied the right way, can cause a biological system to adapt and become resistant to a variety of different stressful conditions. One consequence of stress resistance induced by hormesis is slower aging, and a corresponding delay in the chronic diseases and disabilities that go along with aging. Hofmekler interprets this concept in the context of the world as humans experience it today, and rightly concludes that in many ways we live in a world of antihormesis. We have too much food and too little exposure to all of the environmental stresses that humanity evolved to deal with. Instead, the kinds of stress we do experience are generally maladaptive, or as Hofmekler refers to them, antihormetic.

The 7 Principles of Stress is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read that combines cutting-edge geroscience with common sense (and uncommon) advice, with dashes of humor, empathy, and even sex therapy thrown in for good measure. Serious and important topics such as life-threatening eating disorders are also addressed. This book will give readers the tools they need to navigate the dietary and lifestyle pitfalls that pervade our fast-food, climate-controlled world.

To be sure, not everything in this book is guaranteed to work for every reader. You may not always agree with Hofmeklers conclusions, and as a scientist, I cant help but apply skepticism to some of his assertions; but so much of what this book says fits with what we do know, so it would be foolish not to consider each nugget of information and insight buried within. From beginning to end, this book had me thinking in new ways about topics I thought I understood. No matter whether you are an expert nutritionist, a fitness aficionado, or one of the millions of people struggling with the myriad choices and abundant misinformation out there, The 7 Principles of Stress will give you the tools you need to crack the code of stress and give yourself the best chance at a healthier, happier, and longer life.

Matt Kaeberlein, PhD, is a professor of pathology, adjunct professor of genome science, and director at the Healthy Aging and Research Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle