Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-379) and index.

Telomeres : a pathway to living younger -- How prematurely aging cells make you look, feel, and act old -- The power of long telomeres -- Telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres -- Your cells are listening to your thoughts -- Unraveling : how stress gets into your cells -- Mind your telomeres : negative thinking, resilient thinking -- When blue turns to gray : depression and anxiety -- Help your body protect its cells -- Training your telomeres : how much exercise is enough? -- Tired telomeres : from exhaustion to restoration -- Telomeres weigh in : a healthy metabolism -- Food and telomeres : eating for optimal cell health -- Outside in: the social world shapes your telomeres -- The places and faces that support our telomeres -- Pregnancy : cellular aging begins in the womb -- Childhood matters for life : how the early years shape telomeres.

Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. A telomere is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. During chromosome replication, the enzymes that duplicate DNA cannot continue their duplication all the way to the end of a chromosome, so in each duplication the end of the chromosome is shortened. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel's research shows that the length and health of one's telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free). Research shows that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them. Lists of foods and amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 alongside two colleagues for their discovery of telomerase and telomeres' role in the aging process. She is currently president of the Salk Institute. Elissa Epel, PhD, is a health psychologist who studies stress, aging, and obesity.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 was awarded jointly to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase".

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