I am happy to announce there is a new book on telomeres and health called “The Telomere Effect” and it was written by 2009 Nobel Prize Winner, Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elisa Epel, a prominent researcher in the area of psychology and telomeres.

At the time we were pitching my telomere book, the authors were also pitching theirs. Not surprisingly, we cover similar ground. They cover exercise, diet, mindset, and sleep, where the literature is pretty rich.

In my book, I additionally cover discuss breathing and supplements but I also go deeply into the physiology of how each system operates. I hope their book is a huge success and that people will be more inclined to read my own book due out January, 2018.(The first draft is already written and I have not and will not read theirs for fear of being influenced. The publisher, Hay House, was looking for a release date with little competition from sister titles).

When you watch this CBS morning show interview about the new book, two interesting things came up:

Charlie Rose asked “are there things we can take?” and Blackburn said “nothing ready for prime time”. She has been well aware and a critic of telomerase activator TA-65 for theoretical reasons although the entire thrust of their message is to increase telomerase activity naturally. Interestingly, the company which she helped to found that now produces the test, TeloYears, was co-founded by the patent author of TA-65, Cal Harley, who was the Chief Science Officer at Geron.

Secondly, they state that “your telomeres are listening” which is a bit of a non-mechanistic stretch, in my opinion. If you want to understand my theory of the mechanism of lengthening and shortening, then read my book, “Telomere Timebombs: Defusing the Terror of Aging”. I don’t know how telomeres can “listen” so we will take this as figurative language. If you want an alternative theory of telomeres with ears and brains, check out my book.