Look for these new non-fiction titles (part 1):

THE TELOMERE EFFECT (Jan. 3, Grand Central Publishing) is co-written by Elizabeth Blackburn, who in 2009 shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the role of telomeres in aging, and Elissa Epel, a well-regarded health psychologist who studies stress, aging and obesity.  These authors note how they have included lessons from telomere research “in language for the general reader” and proceed to explain that telomeres (tee-lo-meres) are a bit like the plastic coating at the end of shoelaces – designed to protect the end of chromosomes, but wearing away over time.

How to prevent premature aging at the cellular level is a key focus for this book and faculty, parents and grandparents of our students will likely be interested; in fact, the public library copy of THE TELOMERE EFFECT was already checked out.  I am curious to spend more time with this text which discusses fitness regimes, eating for optimal cell health and social impact on our telomeres, including chapters on assessing your stress and mindfulness. They offer a “renewal lab” at the end of each section and encourage regular practice.  More information is also available on the resources page available through their publisher, including suggested resources like this 12 minute memory exercise.