The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer Paperback – January 11, 2018

Review of The Telomere Effect by Elizabeth Blackburn [molecular biologist] and Elissa Epel [health psychologist] reviewed by Jerry WoolpyRemember that your chromosomes are a linear array of genes half from your father and half from your mother. And that your eggs or sperm contain half of your chromosomes including a mix of what you received from each of your parents. All your chromosomes are present in all your cells because just before your cells divide the chromosomes duplicate to give one of each to each of the resulting daughter cells. The duplication is managed in part by the ends of the chromosomes called telomeres. These ends vary in length and they shorten with each duplication. The shorter they are, the more likely there will be errors in duplication leading to deficient or dead daughter cells. Until recently telomere shortening was thought to be a simple measure of the aging process. Using the latest findings and applying them to the study of various animals and especially humans, Blackburn and Epel have elucidated the complexity of telomere shortening including individual variations and factors that affect the rates of shortening. What is most remarkable, they have found ways to maintain telomere length and even ways to lengthen telomeres.Since chromosomes are passed from parents to offspring it shouldn’t be surprising that parents with shorter telomers pass shorter telomers to their children and so confer the hazards or advantages of telomer length between generations. Hardships like abusive parenting, neglect, and trauma in childhood are highly correlated with telomer shortening, disease, and reduced longevity. To a lesser extent among adults, abuse, trauma, loneliness, violence, and prolonged stress shorten telomeres.OK so far. Now we have an index of longevity, but there is no precise lock between experience and telomere length. It is a long range and individually variable measure. Temperaments vary as do our sensitivities to experience. What is mind-blowing about these findings is that diet, exercise, meditation, relaxation, breathing, even the safety of the neighborhood you live in all contribute to the maintenance of telomere length, as do compassion, charity, sociality, and helping others. The book is a confirmation of what modern health studies are recommending. So, all the more reason to avoid sugar, do yoga or other exercise regularly, spend time in green parks, on lakes, and in forests, maintain reasonable body weight but do not yoyo your weight with periodic dieting. If you are curious about telomers or need incentives for clean living, you might want to read this amazing book..

The Telomere Effect is a fascinating blend of cutting-age science and lifestyle coach. The science deals with the amazing world of telomeres, tiny areas at the tips of our chromosomes that determine how fast our cells age and die. But telomeres aren't some kind of immutable pre-coded devices that, once activated, can't be altered to slow the aging process. We can improve and maintain the health of our telomeres, and maximize what the authors describe as our "healthspans," the number of years of healthy living we can enjoy.While we were each dealt a particular genetic hand at birth, there are still ways we can enhance and prolong our healthspans. Some we already know about, such as diet and exercise. And it's not too late to start. The book demonstrates how changes in eating and physical activity can slow down or even reverse the aging trajectory. The authors include lots of examples and tips to help make these changes.Of equal, if not more importance, is the psychological component--the management of stress. The authors make a compelling case that telomere health can be greatly affected by relaxation, meditation, and other stress reduction techniques, truly a mind over matter phenomenon.Written simply and eloquently in language that even a liberal art major can comprehend, this is the most "understandable" science book I've ever read. It's also very empowering, because we are convincingly shown how our active choices can promote a longer and healthier life, rather than passive acquiescence in the aging process.

Before this book, I have read 11 other books about telomeres, and actually, I got a bit disappointed when now reading the book, as here I learned nothing new, which I had expected as one of the writers have received a Nobel prize for her telomere researches and discoveries.In the book, we nearly only are going in details by looking on the many research results which mostly tells us what from the outside react on either longer or shorter telomeres, or more or less telomerase. And as the outside here meant, if we either are living as rich or poor, have a good or bad childhood, and what we are eating, stress and so on.To me, mostly the book is doing a mission by showing how important a healthy and happy childhood will be by, as thereby determining how long our telomeres will be, and there for how long we are going to live.I must say that I more like the book written by Elaine Chin, MD.: “Lifeline. Unlock the Secrets of Your Telomeres for a Longer, Healthier Life”, as we there are getting more drawings, and on many of these drawing comparing persons’ technical age and actual age. This done by in the coordinate system respectively on the y-axle putting in the length of the telomeres, and then on the x-axle putting in the age.Then we have the statistically standard graph line for the length of the telomeres opposite to the age, and then over the year, age, for the actual person putting in a point for the top of his, or hears, telomere. And thereby easily comparing the person’s actual life and technical life. And for some person we then are seeing differences on more than 10 ears, either in increase or decrease between the actual and the technical life.And then under the graph in small boxes showing the scores for: food, alcohol, sleep, smoking, and exercise, and besides the total lifetime score. So, in this book nearly all of the same content as in the book written by Blackburn & Epel, are put together on drawings/graphs.And as I wrote, in the book that I’m missing more science about telomeres, as for example parallel to where we in the book written by Theodore C. Goldsmith: “The Evolution of Aging” among other read about how different animals telomeres, lifespan, actually are, and speculating about why. As for example a small bird whose telomeres newer are gets shorter; one has been found to be 52 years old. Or reading about a variant of the rats, living on East Africa, having an average lifespan on 28 years! Or the octopus, which have a lifespan with no connection to the telomere.Actually, in the animal would we are having many strange variants in how long or shortly animals are living; one I have read about, still living, and being around 1,500 years. Or Darwin’s tortoise which first died at the age of 176.