Brazil's World Cup has been played in the style that so many hoped for once football's showpiece was awarded to the country regarded as the home of the game's free spirits.
The last three weeks have provided a consistent narrative of fast, attacking football and excitement - exactly as the game's rulers would have imagined it when they handed the tournament to Brazil.
Even the line-up for the last eight has a balance that brings pleasure to the purists, as four teams from the Americas are complimented by a quartet from Europe - all of them group winners.
The destiny of this World Cup will be decided in the iconic surroundings of the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday week but all quarter-finalists have the opportunity to show where the balance of power lies between the two continents.
SHARE OF QUARTER-FINALISTS SINCE 1990
WORLD CUP
EUROPEAN TEAMS
AMERICAS TEAMS
1990
6
1
1994
7
1
1998
6
2
2002
4
2
2006
6
2
2010
3
4
2014
4
4
The seven World Cups held here in the Americas have failed to produce a European winner. On the flip side, Brazil are the only nation from the Americas to achieve a win on European soil - when they triumphed 5-2 in the final against hosts Sweden 56 years ago.
So for Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal, France's Didier Deschamps, Germany's Joachim Low and the Belgian Marc Wilmots there is the dual opportunity to make history for their countries and exert European domination.
For the likes of Luiz Felipe Scolari, attempting to win his second World Cup with Brazil, and Argentina's Alejandro Sabella in particular, there is the chance to send Europe home empty-handed once more.
Continental shift: (Clockwise from top left) Joachim Low and Didier Deschamps are seeking a first European win in the Americas; Luiz Felipe Scolari and Alejandro Sabella aim to keep the trophy in South America
At this stage Europe has often dominated. When Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay reached the last eight in South Africa four years ago, it was the first time representation from the Americas had been so strong since the Mexico World Cup in 1970.
So a similar number here represents a continued resurgence and an advance on the dark days of 1990 and 1994 when only one nation from the Americas reached the last eight - although Brazil did what mattered in the United States and claimed the trophy against Italy on penalties.
World Cup 2014: Germany 2-1 Algeria (aet) highlights
It was an era when the great Diego Maradona was critically on the wane for Argentina, even though they advanced to lose a desperately dull final to West Germany at Italia 90 - the South Americans showing they could still usually get one team in at the World Cup's sharp end.
The figures started to stack up a little more attractively with two teams from the Americas at this stage in 1998, 2002 and 2006 - and now we have the face-off here in Brazil.
So do these figures represent a lasting shift in the balance of power back towards the Americas, or are there just geographical forces at work?
Germany coach Low believes tournaments held in South America hold a special appeal for those born there. As he prepared for an all-European quarter-final against France, he said: "The South and Central Americans - Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica - have certainly shown that on their continent they want to show their class.
"They want to show the entire world 'this is where we're playing, this is our continent and we will do whatever is necessary to satisfy our fans and our countries'.
Colombia's James Rodriguez has been a standout player with five goals in the tournament so far
"It was no surprise that these teams performed so well. They are very strong; they are at home on this continent and you can feel that."
The continued influx of South American players into Europe since those struggles in the early 90s has bred familiarity with the style and demands, producing more rounded players and perhaps helping in the World Cup environment. The three superstars of the tournament so far - Brazil's Neymar, Lionel Messi of Argentina and the emerging Colombian James Rodriguez - ply their trades at Barcelona and Monaco respectively.
South America football writer Tim Vickery also believes the continent benefited from a change in the qualification process.
"There can be no doubt that the so-called lesser nations in South America have made dramatic strides since the introduction of the marathon World Cup qualification format in 1996," he said. "Regular competitive games and guaranteed income has allowed them to appoint good coaches and build proper sides.
World Cup 2014: Argentina 1-0 Switzerland (aet) highlights
"The South American nations realised that the forces of globalisation take their players to Europe at an ever-earlier age. The youth sides are where they secure them for the long-term future of the national team - where talented players are identified and given a crash course in their country's footballing identity."
The South, Central and North Americans have also bought into the fast-flowing, high-tempo styles that have been a feature of this World Cup. The African sides such as Nigeria and Algeria have shown the way too.
It would be wrong to suggest defence has become a forgotten art but the most successful teams have embraced the mood of swift, counter-attacking intent.
Algeria's manager, Vahid Halilhodzic, led them out of the group stage for the first time
Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic, whose team created such a fine impression before going out to Germany in extra time in the last 16, believes the demands of the European leagues have also given the Americas an opportunity to make their mark here.
"The debacles of some European teams like Italy, Spain or even England - although for me England was not a surprise - were due to the fact they were a little bit tired," he said. "There was some saturation because their own national leagues were difficult, challenging, with a high number of matches.
"They rested for a few days but it's not enough. There was a lot of physical tiredness but also psychological - a lack of motivation I've seen in some of the European teams. For me, some players who had won a number of things and were not really willing to win here. They didn't want to make more money or really give it their all to win the World Cup."
He believes this particularly applied to the dramatic decline in holders Spain, who were expected by many to fly the flag for Europe once more as they attempted to break through the South American barrier and retain the trophy.
"There was a lack of ambition," he said. "They won absolutely everything in the last decade and I think they were not willing to fight any more."
One element that has always been regarded as having a significant influence is the heat of the Americas, in particular the fierce temperature of two tournaments held in Mexico.
Former England winger Chris Waddle said: "Of course there is an advantage for players who have been brought up in hot climates, but I think with modern sports science and preparation techniques it is not as much of a factor as it was.
"I played in Mexico in 1986 and that was really hard. It was played at altitude and the temperatures were up about 35 to 40 degrees.
"In some ways we were the guinea pigs back then and now, in the modern era, you've got dieticians, sports scientists and all manner of people who give you advice on how to get the most out of your body. I think it is a more level playing field for European teams coming to places like Brazil now."
And on that level playing field in Brazil, a wonderful World Cup has delivered a straight fight for supremacy between Europe and the Americas .
Astonishing. Remarkable. Extraordinary. Insert your own superlative. Nick Kyrgios, aged 19, and ranked 144th, has reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals by stunning world No.1 Rafael Nadal in four sets on centre court in one of the great grand slam upsets.
The first man in a decade to reach the last eight here on debut served out the match to love, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 with a 37th ace in two minutes short of two hours.
Historic win: Nick Kyrgios. Photo: Reuters
He dropped his racquet, acknowledged the players’ box and even danced a little jig. But it was not an hysterical celebration; more, from the Kyrgios perspective, almost an inevitable one.
The Australian is the first player ranked outside the top 100 to beat a world No.1 since 1992, and the first teenager to achieve the feat at a grand slam since Nadal himself beat Roger Federer at Roland Garros in 2005. He is the lowest-ranked player ever to beat Nadal at a major, and the most junior to beat the great Spaniard anywhere since No.690 Joachim Johansson in Stockholm in 2006.
Kyrgios dropped his magnificent serve just once, when he allowed Nadal to level at one-set all, but although he only broke once, too, in the fourth set, it was enough. Two tiebreaks took care of the rest, less than a week after he was spared a second round exit with a successful Hawk-eye challenge of a double-fault called on the fifth of the nine match points he saved against Richard Gasquet.
Knocked out: Rafael Nadal. Photo: Reuters
“I think I was in the zone out there,’’ said Kyrgios, who must somehow back-up on Wednesday against Canadian eighth seed - and another monster server - Milos Raonic. ‘I played some incredible tennis. I was struggling a little bit on return, but I worked my way into it and got that break in the fourth set.’’
The constants were his serving, and incredible self-belief. “You have to believe that you can win the match from the start, and I definitely thought that.’’ Afterwards, he said he was unsure what to do. “Just so many emotions.’’
Having quipped pre-match that he and Nadal shared 14 grand slams between them, if there is to be a 15th this week then it can now only be won by the fearless young man from Canberra. Few who witnessed what Kyrgios brought to his debut match on centre court would have doubted they were watching a potential future champion, but the speed of his arrival has just accelerated, wildly.
Wimbledon upset: Nick Kyrgios walks off with Rafael Nadal. Photo: AP
Game and confidence-wise, Kyrgios has it all. He played a remarkable first set and some extraordinary tennis for much of the next three against one of the sport’s most relentless competitors. The future is so bright as to be almost blinding.
Beforehand, Kyrgios said he would play his game, have fun, go for his shots. All of it eventuated, and then some, as a style of tennis described by former top-tenner Peter McNamara as “Bang, boom-boom-boom,’’ followed exactly that template in the opening few games, starting with a 204kmh ace. Nerves? What nerves?
The former basketballer was belting his serve and crushing his forehand with his trademark easy power, appearing not to have a worry in the world. Incredibly, Nadal almost seemed to have nothing to trouble the teenager, unable to make an impact on the return, winning just three points on the Kyrgios serve for the set, and nor could he wear down his free-hitting opponent from the baseline.
Nick Kyrgios is appearing in his first Wimbledon. Photo: Reuters
Indeed, Kyrgios was the better player early, holding a set point just before a tiebreak he led 4-0 and closed 7-5 with an ace, claiming 43 points to 36, and all 19 points on his untouchable first serve. Could he sustain it? Superman would have struggled. But call this rising superstar what you will.
Somewhat incredulously, John McEnroe declared in the commentary box after Kyrgios had earned a break point for a second consecutive Nadal service game that “he looks like he expects to win this!’’. A game or two later, this: “It’s nice to see a young guy that they talk about being the real deal. You’re asking who are the next guys? You’re looking at one.’’ later: “This crowd is witnessing the birth of a new star.’’
After those first 48 minutes, Nadal immediately scuttled off for a long bathroom break, but his most urgent need was to regroup. It had been an astonishing start from the player still ranked 144th, for Kyrgios might have been playing against a world-beater, but it was the Australian who was playing like one.
Shock exit: Rafael Nadal. Photo: AP
Kyrgios was enjoying himself, skipping along the baseline after one audacious return winner, smiling at his box as he pranced to his chair after consecutive aces, 10 and 11, late in the first set. At 3-4, 0-40 in the second, he played a between-the-legs winner that Tim Henman described as the shot of the year - then raised his arms and grinned, loving it. How hard did you say this centre court grand slam caper was?
The party didn’t end immediately, but, gradually, the other, more celebrated guest, started to make his presence felt. Nadal’s service games were getting quicker, and easier, and Kyrgios’ slightly less emphatic.
The Spaniard finally broke through in the 12th game, as Kyrgios served to try to force a tiebreak. Two unforced backhand errors set the tone, and although the first set point was saved with an audacious ace that kissed the sideline, the second was lost with a netted forehand, and Nadal let rip with a heartfelt ‘’Vamos’’.
He knew how important that set was, because it was hard not to think that, from there, he would probably win it in four sets. Not easily, but, well, probably. Except that Kyrgios defied the logical script yet again, as he had when over-running Gasquet from 0-2 down, and from all those match points down.
The Australian had come too far not to push as far as he could possibly take it, and if he was going down, it would have to be in five. Slightly against the run of play, he saved a set point at 5-6 in the third set with a forehand winner, and then extended a fine tiebreak record that is already 11-6 at this infant stage of his senior career.
His only break of the three hours came for 3-1 in the fourth set, but he did not blink as he coolly served his way into the quarter-finals. Now it is about recovery, although Kyrgios vowed just to enjoy the moment, and the night, before worrying about Raonic on Wednesday.
This was too special, too incredible. Really, any superlative will do.
Can meditation really slow down the effects of age? One Nobel Prize-winner is finding the scientific in the spiritual, writes Jo Marchant.
It’s seven in the morning on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The low sun glints off the waves and the clouds are still golden from the dawn. The view stretches out over thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean. In the distance, white villas of wealthy Los Angeles residents dot the Hollywood hills. Here by the shore, curlews and sandpipers cluster on the damp sand. A few metres back from the water’s edge, a handful of people sit cross-legged: members of a local Buddhist centre about to begin an hour-long silent meditation.
Such spiritual practices may seem a world away from biomedical research, with its focus on molecular processes and repeatable results. Yet just up the coast, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a team led by a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist is charging into territory where few mainstream scientists would dare to tread. Whereas Western biomedicine has traditionally shunned the study of personal experiences and emotions in relation to physical health, these scientists are placing state of mind at the centre of their work. They are engaged in serious studies hinting that meditation might – as Eastern traditions have long claimed – slow ageing and lengthen life.
Can meditation put the brakes on biological erosion within our cells? (Thinkstock)
Elizabeth Blackburn has always been fascinated by how life works. Born in 1948, she grew up by the sea in a remote town in Tasmania, Australia, collecting ants from her garden and jellyfish from the beach. When she began her scientific career, she moved on to dissecting living systems molecule by molecule.
Working with biologist Joe Gall at Yale in the 1970s, Blackburn sequenced the chromosome tips of a single-celled freshwater creature calledTetrahymena (“pond scum”, as she describes it) and discovered a repeating DNA motif that acts as a protective cap. The caps, dubbed telomeres, were subsequently found on human chromosomes too. They shield the ends of our chromosomes each time our cells divide and the DNA is copied, but they wear down with each division. In the 1980s, working with graduate student Carol Greider at the University of California, Berkeley, Blackburn discovered an enzyme called telomerase that can protect and rebuild telomeres. Even so, our telomeres dwindle over time. And when they get too short, our cells start to malfunction and lose their ability to divide – a phenomenon that is now recognised as a key process in ageing. This work ultimately won Blackburn the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
In 2000, she received a visit that changed the course of her research. The caller was Elissa Epel, a postdoc from UCSF’s psychiatry department. Psychiatrists and biochemists don’t usually have much to talk about, but Epel was interested in the damage done to the body by chronic stress, and she had a radical proposal.
Epel, now director of the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion Center at UCSF, has a long-standing interest in how the mind and body relate. Her work, she says, is influenced by the holistic health guru Deepak Chopra, and the pioneering biologist Hans Selye, who first described in the 1930s how stressed rats can become chronically ill. “Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older,” Selye said.
Back in 2000, Epel wanted to find that scar. “I was interested in the idea that if we look deep within cells we might be able to measure the wear and tear of stress and daily life,” she says. After reading about Blackburn’s work on ageing, she wondered if telomeres might fit the bill.
‘Another world’
With some trepidation, she asked Blackburn for help with a study of mothers going through one of the most stressful situations that she could think of – caring for a chronically ill child. Epel’s plan was to ask the women how stressed they felt, then look for a relationship between their state of mind and the state of their telomeres. Collaborators at the University of Utah would measure telomere length, while Blackburn’s team would measure levels of telomerase.
Blackburn’s research until this point had involved elegant, precisely controlled experiments in the lab. Epel’s work, on the other hand, was on real, complicated people living real, complicated lives. “It was another world as far as I was concerned,” says Blackburn. At first, she was doubtful that it would be possible to see any meaningful connection between stress and telomeres. Genes were seen as by far the most important factor determining telomere length, and the idea that it would be possible to measure environmental influences, let alone psychological ones, was highly controversial. But as a mother herself, Blackburn was drawn to the idea of studying the plight of these stressed women. “You can’t help but empathise.”
It took four years before they were finally ready to collect blood samples from 58 women; this was a small pilot study. To give the highest chance of a meaningful result, the women in the two groups – stressed mothers and controls – had to match as closely as possible, with similar ages, lifestyles and backgrounds. Epel recruited her subjects with meticulous care. Still, Blackburn says, she saw the trial as nothing more than a feasibility exercise. Right up until Epel called her and said, “You won’t believe it.”
Eastern religions such as Buddhism have long advocated the health benefits of meditation, but Western medicine has been less welcoming (Getty Images)
The results were crystal clear. The more stressed the mothers said they were, the shorter their telomeres and the lower their levels of telomerase.
The most frazzled women in the study had telomeres that translated into an extra decade or so of ageing compared to those who were least stressed, while their telomerase levels were halved. “I was thrilled,” says Blackburn. She and Epel had connected real lives and experiences to the molecular mechanics inside cells. It was the first indication that feeling stressed doesn’t just damage our health – it literally ages us.
Unexpected discoveries naturally meet scepticism. Blackburn and Epel struggled initially to publish their boundary-crossing paper. “Science [one of the world’s leading scientific journals] couldn’t bounce it back fast enough!” chuckles Blackburn.
Research explosion
When the paper finally was published, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December 2004, it sparked widespread press coverage as well as praise. Robert Sapolsky, a pioneering stress researcher at Stanford University and author of the bestselling Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, described the collaboration as “a leap across a vast interdisciplinary canyon”. Mike Irwin, director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles, says it took a lot of courage for Epel to seek out Blackburn. “And a lot of courage for Liz [Blackburn] to say yes.”
Many telomere researchers were wary at first. They pointed out that the study was small, and questioned the accuracy of the telomere length test used. “This was a risky idea back then, and in some people’s eyes unlikely,” explains Epel. “Everyone is born with very different telomere lengths and to think that we can measure something psychological or behavioural, not genetic, and have that predict the length of our telomeres? This is really not where this field was 10 years ago.”
The paper triggered an explosion of research. Researchers have since linked perceived stress to shorter telomeres in healthy women as well as in Alzheimer’s caregivers, victims of domestic abuse and early-life trauma, and people with major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. “Ten years on, there’s no question in my mind that the environment has some consequence on telomere length,” says Mary Armanios, a clinician and geneticist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who studies telomere disorders.
Telomeres help protect the ends of our chromosomes, but they wear down each time a cell is divided (Science Photo Library)
There is also progress towards a mechanism. Lab studies show that the stress hormone cortisol reduces the activity of telomerase, while oxidative stress and inflammation – the physiological fallout of psychological stress – appear to erode telomeres directly.
This seems to have devastating consequences for our health. Age-related conditions from osteoarthritis, diabetes and obesity to heart disease, Alzheimer’s and stroke have all been linked to short telomeres.
In the decade since Blackburn and Epel’s original study, the idea that stress ages us by eroding our telomeres has also permeated popular culture. In addition to Blackburn’s many scientific accolades, she was named one of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” in 2007, and received a Good Housekeeping achievement award in 2011. A workaholic character played by Cameron Diaz even described the concept in the 2006 Hollywood film The Holiday. “It resonates,” says Blackburn.
But as evidence of the damage caused by dwindling telomeres piles up, she is embarking on a new question: how to protect them.
Reducing stress
“Ten years ago, if you’d told me that I would be seriously thinking about meditation, I would have said one of us is loco,” she told theNew York Timesin 2007. Since her initial study with Epel, the pair have become involved in collaborations with teams around the world – as many as 50 or 60, Blackburn estimates, spinning in “wonderful directions”. Many of these focus on ways to protect telomeres from the effects of stress; trials suggest that exercise, eating healthily and social support all help. But one of the most effective interventions, apparently capable of slowing the erosion of telomeres – and perhaps even lengthening them again – is meditation.
So far the studies are small, but they all tentatively point in the same direction. In one ambitious project, Blackburn and her colleagues sent participants to meditate at the Shambhala mountain retreat in northern Colorado. Those who completed a three-month-long course had 30% higher levels of telomerase than a similar group on a waiting list. A pilot study of dementia caregivers, carried out with UCLA’s Irwin and published in 2013, found that volunteers who did an ancient chanting meditation called Kirtan Kriya, 12 minutes a day for eight weeks, had significantly higher telomerase activity than a control group who listened to relaxing music. And a collaboration with UCSF physician and self-help guru Dean Ornish, also published in 2013, found that men with low-risk prostate cancer who undertook comprehensive lifestyle changes, including meditation, kept their telomerase activity higher than similar men in a control group and had slightly longer telomeres after five years.
Telomerase is an enzyme that helps repair damaged telomeres (Science Photo Library)
Theories differ as to how meditation might boost telomeres and telomerase, but most likely it reduces stress. The practice involves slow, regular breathing, which may relax us physically by calming the fight-or-flight response. It probably has a psychological stress-busting effect too. Being able to step back from negative or stressful thoughts may allow us to realise that these are not necessarily accurate reflections of reality but passing, ephemeral events. It also helps us to appreciate the present instead of continually worrying about the past or planning for the future.
“Being present in your activities and in your interactions is precious, and it’s rare these days with all of the multitasking we do,” says Epel. “I do think that in general we’ve got a society with scattered attention, particularly when people are highly stressed and don’t have the resources to just be present wherever they are.”
Inevitably, when a Nobel Prize-winner starts talking about meditation, it ruffles a few feathers. In general, Blackburn’s methodological approach to the topic has earned a grudging admiration, even among those who have expressed concern about the health claims made for alternative medicine. “She goes about her business in a cautious and systematic fashion,” says Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter, UK, who specialises in testing complementary therapies in rigorous controlled trials. Oncologist James Coyne of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, who is sceptical of this field in general and describes some of the research on positive psychology and health as “morally offensive” and “tooth fairy science”, concedes that some of Blackburn’s data is “promising”.
‘Easy to be led astray’
Others aren’t so impressed. Surgeon-oncologist David Gorski is a well-known critic of alternative medicine and pseudoscience who blogs under the name of Orac – he’s previously described Blackburn’s collaborator Dean Ornish as “one of the four horsemen of the Woo-pocalypse”. Gorski stops short of pronouncing meditation as off-limits for scientific inquiry, but expresses concern that the preliminary results of these studies are being oversold. How can you be sure you’re investigating it rigorously? “It’s really hard to do with these things,” he says. “It is easy to be led astray. Nobel Prize-winners are not infallible.” Blackburn’s own biochemistry community also seems ambivalent about her interest in meditation. Three senior telomere researchers I contacted declined to discuss this aspect of her work, with one explaining that he didn’t want to comment “on such a controversial issue”.
“People are very uncomfortable with the concept of meditation,” notes Blackburn. She attributes this to its unfamiliarity and its association with spiritual and religious practices. “We’re always trying to say it as carefully as we can… always saying, ‘look, it’s preliminary, it’s a pilot’. But people won’t even read those words. They’ll see the newspaper headings and panic.”
Any connotation of religious or paranormal beliefs makes many scientists uneasy, says Chris French, a psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, who studies anomalous experiences including altered states of consciousness. “There are a lot of raised eyebrows, even though I’ve got the word sceptic virtually tattooed across my forehead,” he says. “It smacks of new-age woolly ideas for some people. There’s a kneejerk dismissive response of ‘we all know it’s nonsense, why are you wasting your time?’”
Experiments on rats found that the more stress they suffered, the shorter their lives (Science Photo Library)
The tide is now turning. Helped in part by money from the National Institute of Health (NIH), researchers have developed secularised – or non-religious – practices such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and reported a range of health effects from lowering blood pressure and boosting immune responses to warding off depression. And the past few years have seen a spurt of neuroscience studies showing that even short courses of meditation can forge structural changes in the brain.
Blackburn’s view is that meditation is a fair topic to study, as long as robust methods are used. So when her research first pointed in this direction, she was undaunted by concerns about what such studies might do to her reputation. Instead, she tried it out for herself, on an intensive six-day retreat in Santa Barbara. “I loved it,” she says. She still uses short bursts of meditation, which she says sharpen her mind and help her to avoid a busy, distracted mode. She even began one recent paper with a quote from the Buddha: “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
In September 2006, she attended a conference held at the Menla Mountain Buddhist centre, a remote retreat in New York’s Catskill mountains, at which Western scientists met with Tibetan-trained scholars - including the Dalai Lama - to discuss longevity, regeneration and health. During the meeting, the spiritual leader honoured Blackburn’s scientific achievements by inducting her as a “Medicine Buddha”.
Alternative approach
If Epel’s psychiatry research had been another world, the conference delegates' Eastern philosophy seemed to Blackburn more alien still. Over dinner one evening, while explaining to the other delegates how errors in the gene for telomerase can cause health problems, she described genetic mutation as a random, chance event. That’s dogma for Western scientists but not for those trained in the Tibetan worldview. “They said ‘oh no, we don’t regard this as chance’,” says Blackburn. For these holistic scholars, even the smallest events were infused with meaning. “I suddenly thought, whoa, this is a very different world from the one I’m on.”
But instead of dismissing her Eastern counterparts, she was impressed. “They’re scholarly in a very different way, but it is still good-quality thinking,” she explains. “It wasn’t ‘God told me this’, it was more ‘let’s see what actually happens in the brain’. So there are certain elements of the approach that I am quite comfortable with as a scientist.”
Blackburn isn’t tempted to embrace the spiritual approach herself. “I’m rooted in the physical world,” she says. In general, Blackburn is more interested in how telomeres might help people directly, by encouraging them to live in a way that reduces their disease risk. “This is not a familiar model for the medical world,” she says.
Beachside meditation may have some surprising health benefits (Thinkstock)
Conventional medical tests give us our risk of particular conditions – high cholesterol warns of impending heart disease, for example, while high blood sugar predicts diabetes. Telomere length, by contrast, gives an overall reading of how healthy we are: our biological age. And although we already know that we should exercise, eat well and reduce stress, many of us fall short of these goals. Blackburn believes that putting a concrete number on how we are doing could provide a powerful incentive to change our behaviour. In fact, she and Epel have just completed a study (as yet unpublished) showing that simply being told their telomere length caused volunteers to live more healthily over the next year than a similar group who weren’t told.
Ultimately, however, the pair want entire countries and governments to start paying attention to telomeres. More and more evidence shows that the stress from social adversity and inequality is a major force eroding these protective caps. People who didn’t finish high school or are in an abusive relationship have shorter telomeres, for example, while studies have also shown links with low socioeconomic status, shift work, lousy neighbourhoods and environmental pollution. Children are particularly at risk: being abused or experiencing adversity early in life leaves people with shorter telomeres for the rest of their lives. And through telomeres, the stress that women experience during pregnancy affects the health of the next generation too, causing hardship and economic costs for decades to come.
Speaking out
In 2012, Blackburn and Epel wrote a commentary in the journal Nature, listing some of these results and calling on politicians to prioritise “societal stress reduction”. In particular, they argued, improving the education and health of women of child-bearing age could be “a highly effective way to prevent poor health filtering down through generations”. Meditation retreats or yoga classes might help those who can afford the time and expense, they pointed out. “But we are talking about broad socioeconomic policies to buffer the chronic stressors faced by so many.” Where many scientists refrain from discussing the political implications of their work, Blackburn says she wanted to speak out on behalf of women who lack support, and say “You’d better take their situations seriously.”
Embracing the fuzzier aspects of our minds may be part of delaying chronic conditions, research suggests (Thinkstock)
While arguments for tackling social inequality are hardly new, Blackburn says that telomeres allow us to quantify for the first time the health impact of stress and inequality and therefore the resulting economic costs. We can also now pinpoint pregnancy and early childhood as “imprinting periods” when telomere length is particularly susceptible to stress. Together, she says, this evidence makes a stronger case than ever before for governments to act.
But it seems that most scientists and politicians still aren’t ready to leap across the interdisciplinary canyon that Blackburn and Epel bridged a decade ago. The Nature article has engendered little response, according to a frustrated Epel. “It’s a strong statement so I would have thought that people would have criticised it or supported it,” says Blackburn. “Either way!”
“It’s now a consistent story that the ageing machinery is shaped at the earliest stages of life,” she insists. “If we ignore that and we just keep trying to put band-aids on later, we’re never going to get at prevention and we’re only going to fail at cure.” Simply responding to the physical symptoms of disease might make sense for treating an acute infection or fixing a broken leg, but to beat chronic age-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia, we will need to embrace the fuzzy, subjective domain of the mind.
