Cardiologist Robert S. Eliot identifies "hot reactors"--apparently healthy people who overreact to such common occurrences as losing a tennis game or missing a train. If you are a "hot reactor," you may be responding to stress with an all-out physical effort that is taking a heavy toll on your health . . . without your even being aware of it.

Based on more than twenty years of research with thousands of patients, Is it Worth Dying For? takes stress management out of pop psychology and...