The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity—A Transformative Guide to Understanding Childhood Trauma and Health

by Nadine Burke Harris

Dr. Blackburn is one of three scientists who received the Nobel Prize for discovering how telomeres, the sequences on the ends of chromosomes, work to protect DNA from the kind of damage that can lead to premature aging and death. Blackburn teamed up with health psychologist Elissa Epel and the two took off on a research tear, exploring how exactly telomeres could be shortened or damaged and, more important, how to stop it. Blackburn and Epel looked at how food, exercise, and even mental focus affected the health of telomeres. But to me, the most interesting part of what they found was that stress had a major impact on the length and health of telomeres, and that in turn had a major impact on the risk of disease.