Source: Brian Johnson
Watch this super informative video in which Brian Johnson summarizes his 5 favorite Big Ideas from “The Telomere Effect” by Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D. and Elissa Epel, Ph.D..
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 researcher. 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?
Here are Brian’s 5 Big Ideas from the book:
- Dynamic Aging – Our aging process is dynamic. Both nature and nurture play a role. Your lifestyle choices play a huge role in your aging.
- Telomeres – The length of your telomeres is super important determining factor in your overall aging and lifespan, and that length is significantly influenced by your lifestyle choices. Aging happens at the cellular level. Your cells have chromosomes that are replicating themselves, and those chromosomes are protected by your telomeres. Telomeres are like the end-caps on shoelaces, and they help protect the chromosomes as they replicate. As your telomeres get shorter and fray, the ability of your chromosomes to continue replicating properly is hindered. This leads to disease, and eventually death.
- Challenge vs Threat. Your cells are listening to your thoughts. Every single thought you have, your cells are listening to them and respond accordingly. Be mindful of the ratio of your negative to positive thoughts. Want to have far more positive thoughts. How you respond to stress is a key factor. See difficulties as challenges rather than threats. Practice turning threats into challenges. When feeling stressed, reframe by saying “I’m exclted…” Also, it helps to have a “Bring it on!” attitude when confronted with challenges.
- Thoughts = Micro-toxins. A wandering mind is not so good. Much better to have a focused mind (do uni-tasking instead of multi-tasking). Meditation and mindfulness are also helpful.
- Eat, move, sleep. Reduce/eliminate sugar (which is a toxic substance). Exercise – three 45-minute sessions per week. Get adequate sleep, according to your needs.
