It’s so much better to prevent disease than it is to treat it…..

The subtitle of this book sounds like something you might hear on an infomercial for a vitamin supplement but make no mistake this book is jam packed with serious science. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn is a molecular biologist, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for her discovery of telomeres and telomerase. Dr. Elissa Epel is an academic health psychologist and one of the world's experts on stress, obesity, and aging. 

These authors do a wonderful job of making complex science fun, easy to understand, and instantly applicable. Telomere’s are like the plastic end caps on your shoelaces that keep them from unraveling. We are born with these long end caps on our DNA that tend to shorten over the course of our lives as part of aging. When they get short enough to allow the DNA to unravel cancer and inflammatory inspired diseases result.

There is a relatively simple blood test that researchers like Dr. Epel use to measure the length of telomers and the things in life that shorten or lengthen them. Chronic unmanaged threat stress, eating red meat or processed foods, smoking, poor sleep habits, and pessimism are just some of the things that shorten your telomeres, accelerate your aging, and increase the likelihood of disease.

On the other hand getting at least seven hours of good sleep each night, walking 10,000 steps or more a day, practicing any kind of mindfulness, eating spinach and raspberries (any kind of fruit or vegetable), spending time in nature, and optimism all lengthen your telomeres, slow your aging process, and decrease the chance you’ll get disease. 

Our son Ax recently celebrated his 9th birthday. And I’ve set the intention to celebrate his 50th with him. I’m 61 today. You can do the math while I’m actively working on lengthening my telomers. Let me know if you want an invitation for the party. I’ve already booked a band.