Dr. Elissa Epel: Control Stress for Healthy Eating, Metabolism & Aging

In this episode, my guest is Elissa Epel, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the author of a new book entitled The Stress Prescription. We discuss her work showing how stress impacts mood, eating behavior, mental health, physical health, and aging. She explains stress intervention tools using “top-down” techniques (e.g., radical acceptance, mindfulness, reframing), body-based methods (e.g., breathwork) including the Wim Hof Method, exercise, meditation, body scans, and environmental shifts proven to help people cease unhealthy rumination patterns. We discuss how stress can positively impact psychology and sense of purpose, how stress affects cellular aging, how our narratives of stressful events impact our mood and biology, and how to effectively reframe stress. She explains science-based techniques to break stress-induced cycles of craving and overeating and thereby improve insulin sensitivity and metabolic health. Dr. Epel provides a wide range of tools shown to be effective in reducing stress and improving various aspects of our health.

Articles

• The geroscience agenda: Toxic stress, hormetic stress, and the rate of aging (Ageing Research Reviews)
• THE IMPACT OF MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT IN AGING ADULTS: THE BALTIMORE EXPERIENCE CORPS TRIAL (Innovation in Aging)
• Potential role for adult neurogenesis in the encoding of time in new memories (Nature Neuroscience)
• The mindful moms training: development of a mindfulness-based intervention to reduce stress and overeating during pregnancy (BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth)
• Can Meditation Slow Rate of Cellular Aging? Cognitive Stress, Mindfulness, and Telomeres (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)
• A Mitochondrial Health Index Sensitive to Mood and Caregiving Stress30043-X/fulltext) (Biological Psychiatry)
• Embodying Psychological Thriving: Physical Thriving in Response to Stress (Journal of Social Issues)
• Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal00474-8?returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666379122004748%3Fshowall%3Dtrue) (Cell Reports Medicine_)
• Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms (Ageing Research Reviews)
• Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus (Nature Medicine)
• Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes (Alzheimer’s & Dementia)
• Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Distress, Weight Gain, and Glucose Control for Pregnant Low-Income Women: A Quasi-Experimental Trial Using the ORBIT Model (International Journal of Behavioral Medicine)

Books

• The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer
• The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease (The Seven Days Series)