The Mind Gut Conversation Podcast

In this episode of the MGC podcast, I talk to Dr. Elissa Epel, an international expert on stress, well-being, and optimal aging.

Dr. Epel is the co-author of the New York Times best-seller “The Telomere Effect: A revolutionary approach to living younger, longer” with Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, and the author of the new “Stress Prescription,” an independent bookstore best seller.

She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is Vice Chair of Psychology and directs the Aging Metabolism Emotions Center. She studies the environmental, psychological, behavioral, and social factors that impact cellular aging such as telomeres, inflammation, and mitochondria.

Her research interests include how self-care practices such as meditation and positive stress can promote psychological and physiological thriving and is interested in large-scale interventions for communal well-being and health equity.

Here are some of the topics we address in this episode:

1. Why chronic stress is toxic to the body
2. The relationship between chronic stress, telomer shortening and aging
3. The different physiological stages of stress
4. How to become stress resilient
5. What are lifespan, health span and disease span