About “The Joy of Stress”:

The Joy of Stress was written originally over three decades ago, and has proven to have lasting and universal appeal.  The concept was started as an information piece for specific questions asked by my patients.  In the course of a busy practice of family medicine and emergency care, I was asked by my patients to simplify the complicated steps to deal with their particular problems.   I heard myself repeating  verbal lists  for management of obesity, high blood pressure, low back pain etc.  However, verbal “core dumps” are very poorly retained (or, worse yet, misremembered), and I would inevitably have to repeat them at intervals.  Initially, I thought I should write these down, and started handing out printed action-items for some of the more common conditions.  Strress was the most common basis for most medical visits, so that was the starting point.  To this was quickly added obesity, high  blood pressure, elevated levels of blood sugar or cholesterol, and pain management.  As I catalogued each new subject brought up by the next patient, the pamphlet idea soon grew to a book. 

The manuscript for the book was turned down by all publishers, as I was an unknown young doctor in the countryside north of Toronto.    I had never written professionally, and knew nothing of editing, illustrating, marketing, and printing.  However, I did know that stress is not always bad, and indeed is a needed ingredient to success.   Mortgaging everything to self-publish, it was indeed a great joy to see the book enter the Canadian Best-Sellers list, rising to number one for over three months. 

The American Edition was then picked up by a real publisher, and translations were done in dozens of countries.  Some of these are shown below.

Since then, I have travelled the world as a professional speaker, yet always remained in active practice.  My millennial patients suggested blogs, which now form the basis of “Stressipedia“.  Along the way, I also rewrote the entire book;  “The Joy of Stress”, now available on Amazon in print or as an e-book.