Groundbreaking book by the Nobel Prize Winner who discovered telomeres, telomerase, and their role in the ageing process, and the psychologist who researched specific lifestyle habits to protect them and slow down disease and lengthen life. Have you wondered why some 60-year olds look and feel like 40-year-olds and why some 40-year-olds look and feel like 60-year-olds? While many factors contribute to ageing and illness, Nobel Prize-winning Doctor Elizabeth Blackburn discovered biological markers, called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our DNA. Dr. Blackburn discovered that the length and health of one's telomeres provides a biological basis for the long hypothesised mind-body connection. But perhaps more importantly, along with leading health Psychologist, Dr. Elissa Epel, discovered that there are things we can do to improve and lengthen our telomeres to keep us vital and disease-free. This book will help people increase the reader's lifespan and health-span (the number of years during this time that they remain healthy and active), including information on how sleep, exercise, and diet profoundly affect our telomeres, and how chronic stress can eat away at our telomeres. Included are lists of which foods are healthy for our telomeres; how ageing begins in utero: mothers who are highly stressed during pregnancy have children with shorter telomeres, and how thinking you are young and vital helps keep you that way!

Author Biography

Dr Elizabeth Blackburn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for her discovery of telomeres and their role in the ageing process. She has previously been named in TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People. Dr Elissa Epel is a leading health psychologist who has conducted pioneering research uncovering the psychobiological mechanisms related to how stress ages us and compromises our health-from emotional eating to unhealthy storage of abdominal fat to telomere shortening.