Elaine Chin - Lifelines: Unlock the Secrets of Your Telomeres for a Longer, Healthier Life

Books are written to inspire us to better understand our universe and to communicate information that will improve our lives.

I wrote Lifelines because my patients challenged me to share my knowledge of preventive medicine with more people. Ive empowered them to stay healthy and feel youngerevery day. So thank you, my patients, for encouraging me to be a better doctor and to share my learning.

Kenneth Whyte, a distinguished editor, has urged me to write a book for many years. Ive always told him I dont have the necessary skills. I owe this book to him, for nudging me to commit the time to get my words onto paper. And with some help from those who do write for a living, Lifelines has become a personal accomplishment.

My communications specialist, Norah Fountain, taught me how to find my written voice as I began crafting blogs and articles with her support for various magazines and TV health reels. This set the foundation for our partnership to get this book written with Chinisms, as she calls them, embedded throughout.

Without the help of Kelly Jones, this book would not be as grammatically perfect or publisher-friendly as it is. She set the ground rules to make it consistent and accurate. I owe her a great debt of gratitude for so much patience, which I lack, and for such ruthless attention to detail.

And the magic sprinkles and special touches for saying it with flair come from my friend and communications expert, Bob Ramsay. He made sure I put my best foot forward.

With her immense knowledge of the book publishing world, Heather Reisman offered me crucial insights on how to approach the writing of this book. Ive completed Lifelines with a sense that it will add real value to the many other health books on shelves thus far.

The illustrations in Lifelines first appeared in an iBook sold on iTunes, which was designed and produced by Dale Forder. Stopping the Clock from the Inside Out is a wonderful graphical, interactive story about the power of telomeres in extending and improving our quality of life. The opening symbolic piece of artwork was painted by Jean Miller Harding with support from her husband, Kent. All the graphics found here were inspired by this iBook.

All books require a publishing team comprising editors, graphic designers, proofreaders, and a sales and marketing team. The world of publishing is changing, and Im thrilled to be working with the team at Figure 1 Publishing in Vancouver, British Columbia, led by Chris Labont and with editor Michael Schellenberg. Together, in partnership, as author and publisher, we have moved in a direction of artistic and content collaboration and also mutual financial risks and rewards.

Behind the scenes is a great team of people who support me at Executive Health Centre, the medical practice I founded over ten years ago. Without the equal commitment of our support team, this would not have been possible.

The trend for wellness is afoot. Forward-thinking organizations recognize that preventive health is the key to economic stability and quality of life around the world. Im proud to be representing TELUS Corporation as its Chief Wellness Officer. I agree with TELUSs Executive Chairman, Darren Entwistle, who believes that health care transformation is the single most important and biggest social challenge of our lifetime. Joe Natale, President and CEO of TELUS, has said that at the end of our careers we should be able to look back and say weve made an impactful difference in peoples lives. What better way than to teach people how to stay healthy? We are certainly on a mission to accomplish this goal.

Im indebted to the many scientists who have been passionately and relentlessly committed to the scientific research that resulted in the knowledge Im sharing with you in this book. A special note of appreciation goes to Dr. Lennart Olsson, who has kept me scientifically rigorous.

Thank you to Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn for leading the way with her telomere scientists. I was privileged to meet Dr. Blackburn during her 2013 Toronto visit. We shared some wonderful discussions about the importance of telomere biology and its relevance to preventive medicine. Bob Ramsay summed it up so well in his introduction to her lecture: The success Dr. Blackburn enjoys could have a profound effect on the lives of... well, let me be conservative here and say, pretty much everyone on earth.

Many have said that life is a journey full of peaks and valleys. Certainly, I can attest to that. As you will learn in this book, how you manage this journey will determine the quality of your health. Donald Morrison, respected global business leader, adds an important perspective in this book.

Ive reached out many times to my teacher, mentor, and now colleague and friend, Dr. Mary Vachon, for counsel. She has said that when I reach 50 years of age, I will discover wisdom. I certainly believe that this book has been an opportunity for me to share my wisdom with you, my readers.

Our children are always the most truthful. During my moments of frustration in writing, my son, Robert, kept reminding me, You always say to me, keep trying and never give up. Im proud to share this book with him as our accomplishment.

Lifelines is dedicated to all those who aspire to achieve peak health and are peak performers.

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The Foundation of Preventive Care

Ive spent half of my twenty-five-year career as a doctor working with patients to predict if theyll get really sick. I use genetics and measure their biomarkers to assess how their bodies are ticking. I then figure out how they can modify their lifestyles and adjust their diets, supplements, hormones, and medications to reduce their risk of disease.

I practice preventive care. It focuses on preventing you from getting sick rather than treating you after you get sick. It is also called personalized medicine, because when it comes to that ounce of prevention, one size definitely doesnt fit all.

Ten years ago, preventive medicine represented only a tiny part of the health care system, and personalized medicine was pretty much a dream. Today, both are respected, real, and growing in influence. So tomorrow, its very possible we will be able to significantly slow down the ravages of the aging process.

Not everyone is a believer. Some ask me: What evidence do you have that preventive care really works? Can you prove that your recommendations actually prevent disease and help people live longer?

My physician colleagues ask me this, the media asks, and my patients and the public all ask too. My answer? A resounding yes. My supportive proof is the Nobel Prizewinning research into a field that simply didnt exist a generation ago: telomere biology. Over the past twenty-five years, scientists have worked to uncover the incredible predictive ability of telomeres to determine your biological age. Their work was so significant that in 2009 the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly to three scientists, Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak, for discovering how telomeres protect our chromosomes and identifying the importance of the enzyme telomerase in this process.