PNTV: The Telomere Effect by Elizabeth Blackburn & Elissa Epel

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Today we have another great book, the Telomere Effect by Elizabeth Blackburn and Alyssa Epel. The Telomere Effects subtitle a revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier and longer. Elizabeth Blackburn won a Nobel Prize for her discovery of telomerase, which is an enzyme that replenishes telomeres. So the first thing we have in this episode is the proper pronunciation of telomeres. I always thought it was telomeres. They tell us it is telomeres. Again, Elizabeth Blackburn discovered telomerase, which again is that enzyme that replenishes our telomeres. And Elissa Epel is a colleague of hers at ucsf. She is a leading health psychologist. The two of them have done a ton of research to demonstrate the importance of telomeres. We'll talk about what they are in a moment. And the fact that we can make simple lifestyle changes to affect our telomeres and therefore our dynamic aging process, our cellular health is, etc. As always, fantastic book. If you're looking for the book on telomeres, this one's it. We have a bunch of big ideas in the Philosopher's note. Five of them we're going to discuss now. The first one is dynamic aging. Dynamic aging. So the first point they make in the book is the fact that our aging process is dynamic. There's an interplay between nature and nurture. They say, is it nature or is it nurture? Well, yes, both play a role. Obviously. We have genes and we have our environment. They quote one of the leading researchers in obesity research who says that the genes, your genes load the gun, right? So you can have a predisposition to certain challenges, right? The gun will be loaded, but it's your environment, your lifestyle choices that will pull the trigger on that genetic expression. So there's a dynamic interplay here. Aging process is dynamic. And they say that these days the disease span is coming earlier and earlier and earlier. We want to push out the health span longer and longer and live younger and healthier for a longer period of time and push that disease span way out onto the edges. And one of the ways we do that is, is by taking care of our telomeres. And they say that ultimately aging is cellular aging. You want to know why you age a little faster than you may like. It goes down to the cellular level, trillions of cells in your body. We need to take care of those guys. If we want to age gracefully. Now, those guys, your cells, each have chromosomes which are replicating themselves, and, and those are protected by telomeres. So telomeres, they say, are kind of like the end caps on your shoelaces. You know how you have shoelaces? You got those little end caps, the plastic little caps at the end. Those are called aglets. And they say that telomeres are kind of like that. They're right on the end of your chromosomes, right? And they help protect the chromosomes as they replicate. Now, if you don't have strong and long telomeres, those end caps, those shoelace aglets, then what happens? Your shoelaces fray, in the case of the aglet metaphor. And your chromosomes have similar deficiencies and inabilities to effectively replicate, which leads to a disease span setting in sooner than we'd all like, right? Another metaphor they use is the idea of American football, right? So you've got a quarterback who's protected by linemen. So the quarterback in this case is the chromosomes with their DNA that needs to be protected. And your telomeres are your linemen. You want them nice and strong to protect the quarterback in the process of doing what the quarterback needs to do, right? The chromosomes doing what they need to do. So aglets, linemen, your telomeres are important. They are protecting your cellular processes. Super important. And again, the point here with the book is your lifestyle choices make a difference. And the length of your telomeres is a very important variable in your overall aging and health span process. And that length can be influenced significantly by your lifestyle choices. Which leads us to the practical application and leads us to part two of the book. That's kind of part one of the book. Part two of the book is literally called your cells are listening to your thoughts. So part one, all that stuff, part two is named. Your cells are listening to your thoughts. Every single thought you have, your cells listening to them and responding to them specifically in this relationship with your telomeres. And we don't need to get freaked out. No one's perfect. Of course we're going to have a ratio of negative and positive thoughts, but we want to be more mindful about that ratio and take care of moving it in the positive direction. We'll talk about couple of ways to do that. The number one tip that they have, based on their research with people undergoing a stressful situation is how you respond to the stress. We've talked about this a number of times, but when a stressful event happens in our lives and we all have them, this Isn't about removing stress or challenges or, quote, problems from our lives. It's about changing the way we respond to those challenges and to those stressors. If you have a threat response, you kind of curl up and you get nervous and you're afraid you're going to fail, right? That has a very different physiological response, which we've talked about in the Upside of Stress in a number of other places. Then if you say, this is a challenge, this isn't a threat to my well being, this is a challenge for me to step up and do my best and do what I'm here to do. Challenge response, threat response. Athletes who have a challenge response perform better than those who do not. They talk about some research on that. They talk about Jim Afromo, who we featured in the champion's Mind. He had an athlete come to him saying, my heart races before I go out and compete. Can you make it stop? And apparently Afromo laughed and said, really? You want me to make your heart stop? No, we don't want to do that. We want to recognize that all of that energy that's elicited when we feel stress is a good thing. We just need to shift our perspective and see that this is giving you dynamic energy because to meet your challenges. And we want to practice turning those threats into challenges. Now. They offer a number of different ways to do that, which we've talked about again in different contexts. My favorite, I have two favorites, actually. We'll start with I'm excited. This is what Kelly McGonigal talks about in the Upside of Stress. They reference the same research where people are brought into a lab given a stressful experience. Right. Half the group was told to try to calm themselves. The other group was told to say to themselves, I'm excited. They needed to give an impromptu speech in front of a panel of judges, which freaks out pretty much everybody. Right? So half the group, try to calm yourself down, right? I'm calm. I'm calm. I'm calm. The other group just say, I'm excited. This group way outperformed this group and they simply use that energy, which is neutral, Right? You can interpret it one way or the other. When you say I'm excited, a simple little affirmation like that, I'm excited. Then you take that energy and you use it positively and it directs it toward that challenge response. This is one of my favorite phrases. I'm excited. I wish I was taught this when I was very, very young because I used to be freaked out by everything and I thought something was wrong with Me, Nothing's wrong with me, right? I'm just excited. I want to do well. I'm excited is a great mantra to use when you feel the butterflies going. Another phrase they use is bring it on. They say that people with a challenge response have a bring it on attitude. And it's funny because my coach, Phil Stutz wrote a book called the Tools that I talk about often as well. Tool number one is to reverse your desire. It's basically to get good with dealing with pain and with fear. It's to move from threat to challenge response. Right? Anyway, I read this little passage out from our note out loud and from the book out loud to Phil in one of our coaching sessions. We laughed about it. Bring it on is what you want to say when you feel the stress of challenges. Bring it on. Then you have a powerful attitude and your telomeres like that. That's the moral of that story versus when you kind of curl up in a ball of oh, I feel threatened. That's a good way to wear down your telomeres. Research sets. Again, that's their number one tip. When we think about the fact that your cells are listening to your thoughts, they also say that negative thoughts are like microtoxins. And again, we're all going to have a certain level of negative talk. We're wired, we're evolved to notice the negative more than the positive. It is what it is. But again, we want to get that ratio right and we want to deal with the anger, the rumination, even a wandering mind. They say that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. You want to focus your mind. They talk about a number of different practices. We know meditation is good for us. We know mindfulness is good for us. They also say that we should focus on unit tasking rather than multitasking. Letting your mind wander. Focus on one thing at a time. And again, this is connected to the health of your telomeres, which again is affected to your cellular health, which is connected to your overall well being and aging process. So unitask, that's our number one tip for that one. Put on your unitask, tard or whatever it is you wear when you do one thing at a time. Quit letting your mind wander. And then our fifth big idea is eating and moving and sleeping. They move from the mind and the things that you can do to get your mind right to your body. What things can you do to get your telomere strong and healthy? By lifestyle choices related to our basic fundamentals. Eating, moving, sleeping. We talk about it all the time. Why don't we put something up here on the board? You want to actualize your potential. They call that create a cellular legacy. They say they challenge us. What will your cellular legacy be? Well, the only way to do that is to have a strong foundation. Eating, moving, sleeping very quickly. Top tips they offer there, eating. Their number one thing is to eliminate, reduce, eliminate sugar. They quote Robert Lustig, who's a colleague of theirs at the University of California, San Francisco, who we're going to talk about in our next episode, his book Fat Chance. One of the leading endocrinologists who makes the point that sugar calories unquestionably affect your metabolism, your well being differently than any other calorie. A calorie is not a calorie. Right. A lot of people think that calories, calories, not sugar, is a toxic substance. We're going to talk about that a lot. We're going to have a little theme on sugar and its toxicity. They make the connection between your consumption of sugar, refined flour, refined foods and the quality of your telomeres. So imagine when you're eating this junk food that you're wearing away the aglets on your shoelaces or you're weakening your offensive line. You're not going to be able to protect your quarterback, you're going to get sacked, you're going to get sick, you're going to look older than you are. One of the tests they have is do you feel and look older than your age? Okay. That's a reflection of your health of telomeres. No, again, lifestyle choices matter. Sugar is the number one tip on eating movement wise. Obviously we all know movement is important. They say something as simple as three 45 minute sessions of exercise a week is huge. They also say endurance sports, you guys are fine to the extent that you don't feel burned out. You need to make sure you're training and recovery as you push yourself. And then sleep. They say 5% of the population can get by on less than 7 hours of sleep. 95% of us cannot. And if you are not getting adequate sleep, then your telomeres are going to feel the effects. Get more sleep. And if you need more than seven, then get more than seven. Sleep is important. And again, fundamentals, this is all a discussion about important things to optimize our well being. But that's not the destination. That's a vehicle such that we can actually do what we're here to do on the planet, right? Optimizing our lives. We can give our gifts to the world. What will your cellular legacy be is the ultimate challenge of the book. Eating, moving, sleeping. Our negative thoughts are microtoxins. Take care of them. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Same with a ruminating mind, an angry mind. Learn to discipline your mind. Also learn to flip the switch between threat and challenge. I'm excited. Bring it on. Practice one of those. The next time you feel nerves or you feel fear or you feel yourself anxiety rising, chant to yourself. I'm excited. We're bringing out whatever resonates with you. Remember our telomeres again. The shoelace aglets, the linemen that are protecting the quarterback right at the end of those chromosomes. Dynamic aging genes are always interplaying with our lifestyle choices and our environment. And the reality is, if you have lost the genetic lottery, as we discussed in Rob Wolf's Wired, he lost the genetic lottery, he says, and I basically lost the genetic lottery and early childhood lottery as well. Okay, that just means we need to play the margins even more closely. The jeans load the gun. Our lifestyle choices, environment pulls the trigger. Let's choose wisely. Let's take care of our telomeres and go out and live our greatest lives. Create a cellular legacy we're proud of. That is a quick look at this great book. Thank you. Elizabeth and Elissa. Hope you enjoyed and have another awesome day. See you. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.