What it's about
The book explores the aging process and how lifestyle changes related to telomeres may increase longevity.
It argues that sleep, exercise, diet, and certain chemicals affect telomeres, while stress, negative thoughts, and relationships can harm them.
Written in plain English by an AI model from the publisher's description; every sentence matches a passage of it.
The publisher's description
This New York Times bestselling book—coauthored by a Nobel Prize Winner and a health psychologist—explores the aging process and how specific lifestyle changes related to telomeres can increase longevity.
Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel’s research shows that the length and health of one’s telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. We can make changes to our daily habits to protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free).
The Telomere Effect reveals how Blackburn and Epel’s findings, together with research from colleagues around the world, cumulatively show that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them.
Drawing from this scientific body of knowledge, they share lists of foods and suggest amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. And they describe how we can improve our health spans at the community level, with neighborhoods characterized by trust, green spaces, and safe streets.
The Telomere Effect will make you reassess how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. It is the first book to explain how we age at a cellular level and how we can make simple changes to keep our chromosomes and cells healthy, allowing us to stay disease-free longer and live more vital and meaningful lives.
Topics it covers, and how far the research has got
- 4Exercise: stage 4, widely recommended
Topics named in the book's description. A stage describes the research on the topic, not the book's claims about it.
Goals it covers
Reviews
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