HoldsUp

Elissa Epel

University of California, San Francisco

Elissa Epel, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where she directs the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center. Her research focuses on stress biology and the mechanisms underlying healthy and cellular aging. Her published work investigates the relationships between perceived stress, telomere dynamics, eating behaviors, metabolic health, and social factors.

41 claims checked on air: 1 context 1 contradicted 2 overstated 34 supported 3 unverified 3 flagged

What they said on air - context

0:30:55needs contextmoderateDr. Elissa Epel on Telomeres and the Role of Stress Biology

Women have leukocyte telomeres that are hundreds of base pairs longer than men's, a difference present at birth.

"For example, women have much longer telomeres, like hundreds of base pairs longer, and that starts at birth, and that's probably related to sex hormones." (said at 0:30:55)

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses confirm that females, on average, have longer leukocyte telomeres than males across the lifespan. However, the claim requires nuance: the effect size is small (standardized difference of approximately 0.09 SDs, typically translating to tens to a few hundred base pairs depending on measurement method and age), and whether this difference is definitively present at birth or arises and widens early in life remains debated in the literature (with some neonatal studies finding significant differences at birth while others find comparable terminal restriction fragment lengths at birth).

Fact-checked episodes

Publications