The Healing Power of Gratitude — Bruce Lipton on Telomeres and Longevity

gentlemen gentlemen I want to thank you for attending this funk family farms traditional Thanksgiving dinner Thanksgiving is a very special time of togetherness and a time to express our gratitude and it was interesting because I was just reading in my dear friend Benjamin Franklin's edition of Poor Richard's Almanack he has a whole insight into the nature of gratitude and how it affects our life and I would really love to read this before we serve our Thanksgiving dinner whatever you're waiting for be a peace of mind contentment health it will surely come but only when you are ready to receive it with openness and gratitude of all the characteristics needed for both a happy and morally decent life none surpasses gratitude happiness and health are the just rewards for living and gratitude Wow I remember the first time I read that I doubted that gratitude you give me health and happiness but now I know differently yegor yegor how sweet of you to remember my birthday listen let me blow out the candles make a wish and then we'll have a party later ah yes another year would be wonderful well you know what that whole story that Ben Franklin told us about gratitude and health well it actually works and now scientifically we know why because built into every one of ourselves is the Fountain of Youth what's the Fountain of Youth in the cell well it's something called telomeres telomeres they are special parts of the DNA so when you open up the nucleus of the cell the chromosomes come out in their 46 chromosomes 23 from your mother and 23 from your father but what is a chromosome well what it is is a sleeve of protein wrapped double helix of DNA and the significance about this is the telomeres as you can see in this picture of an X and Y chromosome stained red are the telomeres at the ends of the chromosome they're the ends of the DNA are I say so what is the telomere it's extensions of DNA after the genes meaning it's a part of the DNA that doesn't program anything it's just extended DNA I said why would you have extended DNA at the end and the answer is profoundly simple and that is this if you understand how the DNA's reproduced first there's an enzyme that comes in when it's time to reproduce the DNA and that enzyme is called the helicase remember DNA is the helix and a helicase case means enzyme it's an enzyme that breaks the helix and so as the helicase moves down the DNA it splits it into two separate strands so as illustrated in this picture right here the DNA of just one strand is one we're focusing on and you can see where all the red little marks are in the DNA that's where the gene programs are but at the end of the DNA there are different little marks and this is where the telomere is I say why should we have a telomere at the ends of the DNA strand at the very ends are extensions of DNA but these extensions don't program genes these are just extra pieces of DNA so as you can see in this illustration the red part of the DNA that's where the gene programs are but at the very end the green part on that DNA is the extra extensions called the telomeres and I say so okay so why do we have telomeres well here's the most important reason of all because when the enzyme comes in that copies the DNA called a polymerase it's like a train that lands on the DNA as the tracks and as the polymerase moves down the track it leaves behind it in awake a copy of the DNA that it was writing on so as you train is moving down the DNA strand it creates a duplicate piece of DNA behind it this is how the DNA is reproduced but the serious part is this when the enzyme gets to the end of the strand guess what it cannot copy the piece of the DNA that it's sitting on because the next move that enzyme that little train will fall off the track so why is it important so as you see when the polymerase enzyme lets go of the DNA the new piece of DNA is shorter than the first copy and I say why is it relevant because every time the DNA is copied the last little piece can't be copied so every time it's copied the DNA gets shorter and shorter and shorter and then what will happen is well if you run out of the telomere portion the next time you copy the DNA you're going to cut off piece of the gene and that's when aging disease and depression begin is when the DNA runs out a telomere well at first it was thought the length of the telomere would determine how long you could live because it determined how many times the cell could divide a scientist back in the 1960s by the name of Leonard hayflick did a calculation he said if the telomeres so many units long and you lose a little piece every time the cell divides how many times can the cell divide I say well why is that important because we're specifically talking about the stem cells in our body that divide all the time replacing the worn and broken out cells that die every day so stem cells have to keep dividing and their progeny contribute to the repair but now there's a problem how long can your stem cells last and the simple reason is this when the stem cells run out at that point we start to age very quickly and that's when disease and depression are characteristic so the whole point about this with Leonard hayflick he did a calculation he said ah if you count the number of cell divisions and look in a lifetime of an individual guess what an individual can live about a hundred and twenty years Wow how convenient that's about how long people live so it was believed that our life it was actually determined by the length of these telomeres well something exciting happened a woman scientist came in the picture by the name of Elizabeth Blackburn and what does she see she saw at the ends of the DNA where the telomeres are there is an enzyme called telomerase telomerase is an enzyme that adds extensions to the telomere so if the enzyme is working the teal American get longer and longer I said what would be the consequence of increasing the length of telomere nan sure you can divide the cells on and on and on without running out of the DNA telomere so what are those things that activate that Salameh is what if those things that inhibit the telomerase firstly let's go over the things that actually stopped the enzyme from working these are the things that will cause you to prematurely age and start to express all the characteristics of disease and depression associated with aging and I said well what are those things well firstly poor nutrition poor nutrition will cause the enzyme to cease functioning and aging will occur much faster then it gets into things like childhood abuse and domestic violence and post-traumatic stress disorder I say why is that influenced the enzyme well think about it this way when people are abused or when they're living in a world of violence how much do they really want to live there's a psychological underneath story going on I don't want to be here the violence the stress I don't want to be here that's an unconscious belief but guess what that belief will stop the telomerase enzyme from working and you'll die sooner according to that wish of that belief and there are two very important factors that also will inhibit the enzyme number one is a loss of love or actually not having any self-love and the significance of that is without love life is more a life of isolation and that kind of isolation doesn't really encourage anybody to desire to live longer so when you lose love or you're not having any self-love we will shorten our lifespan and then a most significant influence on the enzyme is not having any purpose just think what that means you wake up in the morning with nothing to do nowhere to go and all of a sudden what is the feedback I don't have any reason to be here well interesting up that belief in the biology of belief is the factor that can shut down the enzyme and this is why for example why many people upon retiring have a very short lifespan after the retirement why they lose their function they lose their purpose in life and the feedback of the nervous system is well I'm not doing anything and therefore unconsciously that individual will cancel the enzyme and have much much shorter life and then the positive things that will enhance your life give you a much healthier longer existence on this planet are things that activate the enzyme a good nutrition and exercise of course increase our health and this will activate the enzyme because it says we're trying to stay healthy and alive happiness and gratitude now that's the big one happiness and gratitude means you love your life so much that you want more so unconsciously you will activate the enzyme to increase and enhance your life this is also associated with a positive outlook because if you have a positive outlook that means you're looking toward a future and again feedback says then we're gonna have to activate the same time to have that future and the last two aspects that enhance the enzyme and give you long life are very important and that is again having that self-love appreciating yourself which means I am enjoying and appreciating my life experience it and when you're in love that of course drives you to stay around even longer and that will activate the enzyme and lastly and most importantly is being in service meaning you have something to do and what the feedback of the system is says I can't and now I have to be here longer I have something to do and so being in service is one of the most important things to extend your telomeres and keep you around an in conclusion the information about telomeres and telomerase is very important because they represent the equivalent of a Fountain of Youth in every cell and between your mind and your cells the biology belief reveals how your consciousness and your thoughts can extend your telomeres by activating telomerase when you appreciate life when you have gratitude and when you're looking for love and happiness on the planet you can extend your life so interesting they are very powerful to change your life and make it one of happiness joy and health for a long long time