Unlocking the Science of Longevity with Peter Attia, MD

I'm amazed at—because I see it in myself, so maybe I'm more attuned to see it in others—but the number of people who are so willing to work so hard at the expense of personal relationships ... I just have to remind myself that, you know, one day, none of this stuff is going to matter.

I always say to the people who tell me 'I don't need to exercise... because I believe cellular reprogramming is going to totally rescue me in 10 years,' I say, if you're right, that's wonderful; if you're wrong, you won't have a chance to come back to today and undo the damage. So, what's the downside in doing everything in your power to extract as much value as possible out of the current rudimentary tools—like exercise, nutrition, sleep, etc.

Every single day, two or three times, something is going to happen that's going to prompt you to want to scream at yourself. Take out your phone, and record a message, but look into the eyes of your best friend and pretend that they made that mistake. What would you say to them?

I think it's so much easier for me now to appreciate my irrelevance on this planet, and that makes it easier for me to focus on the things that matter.

Imagine you've never exercised in your life ... The ayahuasca journey might be the thing you need to realize, holy shit, you need to exercise, but guess what? Now you have to exercise.

I start with alcohol... There is no dose at which it is healthy ... Zero alcohol is the best, probably up to 1 drink a day has minimal effect, but after that it starts to actually climb up.

Most of that downside of saturated fat seems to be transmitted through its effect on lipids. So, there's no denying that a diet high in saturated fat, for many people, will raise atherogenic lipids.

I had my first colonoscopy at 40, which at the time, was 10 years before any recommendation. That recommendation from 50 has now been lowered to 45, thankfully. I still think it's too high. I really do believe everyone should have their first colonoscopy at 40.

I think you've got to ask yourself the question, do you have someone you can really confide in? ... Do you have someone you could call in the middle of the night if something was wrong? If you can't answer yes to that question, I wonder why.

Animal protein is simply more bioavailable than plant protein. That generally has to do with the fiber that's associated with plant protein ... There's two ways to overcome it. The first is you cook the plant. So, when you liberate that fiber, you make the plant protein more bioavailable. You can also just consume more of it.

When you talk about a person who has a heart attack at 50, that thing didn't start brewing when they were 40; it certainly didn't start brewing when they were 45; that thing was brewing when they were 20. And if we'd acted when they were 20, they wouldn't have had a heart attack at 50.

You have to be exercising. I mean, there is simply no better elixir for metabolic health, fuel partitioning, glucose disposal than being active. And if your sleep is dysregulated, it's almost impossible to overcome it with enough exercise and nutrition.

There is no shortage of data that demonstrate for non-diabetics—that is to say for people whose hemoglobin A1c is below 6.5—it's unequivocal that lower blood glucose is better than higher blood glucose, even within the 'normal range' in terms of all-cause mortality.

That doesn't mean that trauma isn't intergenerational; it really is. It weasels its way down. And that realization coupled with being at rock bottom was sort of like, you know what, I'm going to stop it; I don't want this going to my kids.

I think the single most important thing a person has to do here is... start asking questions. Like, are you living in a way where your relationships with other people are healthy? What was modeled to you? What did you see? And if you go back and reflect on that, do you think that represents the best version of how people can interact?

HDL cholesterol is not causally associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and low HDL cholesterol is not causally related to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease ... Higher LDL cholesterol is causally related to more ASCVD.

One thing that is abundantly clear... is that, stage for stage, the fewer cancer cells you have in your body, the better your body will have a shot at beating a cancer with even traditional treatments.

If you count up the graveyards with heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases; that's a lot of bodies ... Once you have type 2 diabetes, your risk of those other diseases doubles.

In our practice, any patient that is above the 20th percentile for visceral adipose tissue on a DEXA scan is a huge red flag.

Today, I believe that energy balance is the single most important driver of ill health as it pertains to nutrition.

If you look at the strength of the association between grip strength and any disease of all-cause mortality... the stronger you grip, the longer you live.

If I have one gift, it's that I can usually identify people who are really smart and somehow convince them to mentor me. And that's sort of what I've spent the last 12 to 14 years doing.

One of the ways I had rationalized my bad behavior for so long was my kids aren't going to suffer what I suffered, and I think that addicts can sometimes do that.