Chronic Stress Ages You. Here's How To De-Stress for Longevity. | Elissa Epel

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Dan Harris, Health & Fitness, Mindfulness, Dharma, Mental Health, Meditation

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How to reduce negative thoughts, get deep rest, and improve cellular health.

Elissa Epel, Ph.D., is an international expert on stress, well-being, and optimal aging and a best-selling author of The Telomere Effect, and The Stress Prescription. 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.

In this episode we talk about:

What telomeres are
Why chronic stress accelerates our rate of aging – and how to reverse it
How we have way more control over aging than we think
Small, consistent lifestyle changes we can make to promote longer telomeres
The role of existential stress
Meditation retreats as a reset for the nervous system
How even 5-minutes of daily meditation can help
Breathing practices that increase vagal tone
Deep rest, and other states of mind that are crucial for cellular repair and growth
How to counteract the impacts of stress eating
How to reframe stress as a challenge
And much more

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.
0:08.0	Hello, my fellow suffering beings. How are we doing today? This is a fascinating and super practical conversation about how chronic stress can age you prematurely. So that's the bad news. But it's also about how simple lifestyle changes. And here's the good news can help you reduce negative thoughts, get more deep rest,
0:38.8	and improve your cellular health. As my guest today says, your cells are listening to your life.
0:44.9	And if you tweak your life, your cells will respond accordingly.
0:49.1	Alyssa Epple, PhD, is a professor and weist chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California and San Francisco.
0:57.6	She's the author of two books, including the telomere effect and the stress prescription.
1:03.3	I first met Alyssa when we were both over in India at a big meeting with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and I'm very pleased to finally have her on the show.
1:11.9	In this conversation, we talk about what telomeres are.
1:15.2	Very quickly, the basics are there protective caps on your chromosomes that get shorter with age
1:20.4	and stress, which influences your cellular aging and longevity.
1:24.0	So it's important stuff, and she'll say a lot more about it.
1:26.6	We also talk about why
1:27.7	chronic stress accelerates your rate of aging and how to reverse it, how we have way more
1:33.1	control over aging than we might think, small, consistent lifestyle changes that can help you
1:37.8	lengthen your telomeres. We talk about the role of existential stress, meditation retreats as a
1:43.8	reset for your nervous system,
1:45.4	how even five minutes of daily meditation can help, breathing practices that increase what's called
1:50.6	vagal tone, she'll explain what that is, deep rest in other states of mind that are crucial
1:54.9	for cellular repair, how to counteract the impacts of stress eating, how to reframe stress as a challenge, and much more.
2:04.5	I should say this is the first episode in an ambitious month-long series we're doing here on the show called The Reset.
2:11.6	Labor Day, as you probably know, can often function as a sort of mini New Year's.
2:15.5	You know, summer's winding down. It's back to school,
	...

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