Although the idea of a mind-body connection used to be thought of as fringe, New Age ju ju, these days scientists are no longer asking if our mind, body and health are connected, but rather, how they are connected.

This episode is an extended interview with Professor Elissa Epel, the Director of the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion Center at University of California San Francisco Medical School. Among many other things, she co-authored a best-selling book called The Telomere Effect, with the Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist, Elizabeth Blackburn.

Elissa's work is at the forefront of an ever-growing evidence-base which supports the notion that taking a whole-person, whole-life approach in medical care may be the key to turning the chronic disease epidemic around.

In this podcast you'll learn:

• The new science of the stress-health connection
• How our thoughts and emotions can get under our skin and impact our cells
• The excellent advice Elissa gave me before I began my experiment to see what would happen to my health and wellbeing if I meditated every day for a year

I hope you enjoy the extended interview with Elissa. It's such a pleasure to be able to share the material that sadly hit the cutting room floor when I made my documentary My Year of Living Mindfully.

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