The Telomere Effect

A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer
by Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D. and Elissa Epel, Ph.D. | Grand Central Publishing © 2017 · 416 pages

Elizabeth Blackburn won the Nobel Prize for her discovery of telemorase—“the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage.” Elissa Epel is one of the world’s leading health psychology researchers. Together, they have created a great book that walks us through the best of what we know about telomeres, why they’re so important and what we can do to Optimize them. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about telomeres, THIS is the book to read. Big Ideas we explore include why telomeres are the secret sauce to aging well, the fact that your cells are listening to your thoughts (#1 tip? Shift from a threat response to a challenge response!), how to mind your telomeres (move from negative thinking to resilient thinking), how to eat, move, sleep your way to happy telomeres, and a challenging question: What will YOUR cellular legacy be?


Which is right? Nature or nurture? Genes or environment? Actually, both are critical, and it’s the interaction between the two that matters most.
Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.

“By cultivating your telomeres, you can optimize your chances of living a life that is not just longer but better. That is, in fact, why we’ve written this book. In the course of our work on telomeres we’ve seen … too many men and women whose telomeres are wearing down too fast, who enter the diseasespan when they should still feel vibrant. There is abundant high-quality research, published in prestigious scientific journals and backed by the best labs and universities, that can guide you toward avoiding this fate. We could wait for those studies to trickle down through the media and make their way into magazines and onto health websites, but that process can take many years and is piecemeal, and, sadly, information often gets distorted along the way. We want to share what we know now—and we don’t want more people or their families to suffer the consequences of unnecessary premature cellular aging.

When we lose people to poor health, we lose a precious resource. Poor health often saps your mental and physical ability to live as you wish. When people in their thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond are healthier, they will enjoy themselves more and will share their gifts. They can more easily use their time in meaningful ways—to nurture and educate the next generation, to support other people, solve social problems, develop as artists, make scientific or technological discoveries, travel and share their experiences, grow businesses, or serve as wise leaders. As you read this book, you are going to learn a lot more about how to keep your cells healthy. We hope you’re going to enjoy hearing how easy it is to extend your healthspan. And we hope you’re going to enjoy asking yourself the question: How am I going to use all those wonderful years of good health? Follow a bit of the advice in this book, and chances are that you’ll have plenty of time, energy, and vitality to come up with an answer.”

~ Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D. and Elissa Epel, Ph.D. from The Telomere Effect

Elizabeth Blackburn won the Nobel Prize for her discovery of telemorase—“the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage.”

Elissa Epel is one of the world’s leading health psychology researchers.

Together, they have created a great book that walks us through the best of what we know about telomeres, why they’re so important and what we can do to Optimize them.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about telomeres, THIS is the book to read. (Get a copy here.)

It’s PACKED with wisdom and provides an incredibly thorough, rigorous look at what we KNOW works. I’m excited to share some of my favorite Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

(First, a quick pronunciation lesson: Telomere is pronounced “tee-lo-mere” not “tell-o-mere.” While telomerase is pronounced “tell-OMM-er-ase.”)

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About the authors

Authors

Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.

Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics
Authors

Elissa Epel, Ph.D.

Professor, Psychiatry UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences