I recently completed The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel. You may wondering what’s a telomere? The word telomere comes from the Greek language and it literally means “end part” – picture the aglet at the end of your shoelaces to get an idea of a telomere.  A telomere is the protective structure at the ends of our chromosomes. Telomeres get shorter as we age, but the rate of their shortening is influenced by a numbers of factors, some of which we can control.

You can reduce the shortening of your telomeres through consistent exercise, a healthy diet, good sleep habits and reducing the stress in your life. The authors provide diagnostic questions to assess your lifestyle practices along with practical lifestyle recommendations to reduce the rate of your telomere shortening.

If you’ve ever 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, then the length of their telomeres may be the reason. The authors emphasize the deleterious effects of stress and show the beneficial effects of meditation at reducing chronic stress. The book has a website with helpful resources along with an excellent summary they call the telomere manifesto:

Your cellular health is reflected in the wellbeing of your mind, body, and community. Here are the elements of telomere maintenance that we believe to be the most crucial for a healthier world:

Mind Your Telomeres
Evaluate sources of persistent, intense stress. What can you change?
Transform a threat to a challenge appraisal.
Become more self-compassionate and compassionate to others.
Take up a restorative activity.
Practice thought awareness and mindful attention. Awareness opens doors to wellbeing.

Maintain Your Telomeres
Be active.
Develop a sleep ritual for more restorative and longer sleep.
Eat mindfully to reduce overeating and ride out cravings.
Choose telomere-healthy foods—whole foods, omega-3s, skip the bacon.

Connect Your Telomeres
Make room for connection: Disconnect from screens for part of the day.
Cultivate a few good, close relationships.
Provide children quality attention and the right amount of “good stress.”
Cultivate your neighborhood social capital. Help strangers.
Seek green. Spend time in nature.
Mindful attention to other people allows connections to bloom. Attention is your gift to give.

Create Telomere Health in Your Community and the World
Improve prenatal care.
Protect children from violence and other traumas that damage telomeres.
Reduce inequality.
Clean up local and global toxins.
Improve food policies so that everyone has access to fresh, healthy, affordable food.

The future health of our society is being shaped right now, and we can measure part of that future in telomere base pairs.

Healthy living results in a number of benefits. The Psalmist made this observation,

The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, (Psalm 92:12-14)

RickAssociate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

Follow me on twitter:  rickhiggins5