You're ageing faster than you think. Here's how to slow it down.

What if I told you that you could reverse ageing or more accurately slow your biological ageing simply by changing the state that your nervous system spends the most time in? Now, as a Cambridge student and scientist, I was genuinely surprised when I learned this. So let me explain. Inside every single one of your cells is your DNA, and your DNA is packaged into structures called chromosomes. And at the very end of each chromosome are tiny protective caps called telomeres. Think of them like the plastic tips on the end of your shoelaces, like an aglet. Their job is to stop your DNA from fraying over time. Now, every time your cells divide, those telomeres become a little shorter, and that's a completely normal part of biological ageing. But here's what fascinated me. Researchers found that chronic stress can actually accelerate that shortening, meaning your body can begin to biologically age faster. And in one landmark study, mothers caring for chronically ill children significantly shortened telomeres than women of the same age experiencing much less stress. So, naturally, a scientist began asking one important question: which, can we slow this process? One of those scientists was Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, whose groundbreaking work on telomeres earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. And as a woman in science, I love that one of the biggest breakthroughs in our understanding of aging came from her work. So, let me break this down. Dr. Blackburn and her colleagues discovered an enzyme called telomerase, which helps maintain and repair our telomeres. And while scientists are still learning exactly how this research works, research suggests that our internal state, our psychological state, matters incredibly. When we're constantly stressed, our body spends more time in the sympathetic nervous system, which is better known as the fight-or-flight response: the body's physiological impulse to either fight off or flee from threatening situations. So, it prioritizes survival and not repair. And here's the part I find most interesting, which is that meditation, it's not meditation itself that's so powerful, it's actually the state that meditation creates. So, it's the same state that can be reached through slow breathing, journaling, prayer, spending time in nature, practicing gratitude, or simply sitting quietly without any distractions. So here's something you can do today. Take just 10 minutes. Put your phone away. Slow your breathing so that your exhale is essentially longer than you inhale. And simply let your body feel safe. You can't remove stress from your life, but what you can do is train your nervous system to spend more time in recovery. And then over time, that might be one of the most powerful investments you can make in your long-term. So, slow your breathing. Inhale: 3, 2, 1. Hold: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Exhale: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Because you can't train your nervous system to spend time in recovery, then might be one of the most powerful investments you can make in your long-term.