Reverse Engineering Longevity with Peter Attia - [Long Talk]
One of the hot interests of the health community concerns longevity. There are many researchers actively doing work in this field, some of them pursuing 'esoteric' questions which might not lead anywhere, while others going for a more approachable and reasonable target.
It's fair to name a few people who I think do a very good work for that matter. These include:
- Cynthia Kenyon and her work with C. elegans
- Nobel Prize winner Liz Blackburn and her work on telomeres
- Nir Barzilai and his study of centenarians
- David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School
- Valter Longo of USC School of Gerontology
- and I could go on and on.
Gathering ideas from all of these and from a few others, Peter Attia MD has been putting up a conception of what he thinks is a good approach to improve our longevity. He starts by viewing longevity as a function of two variables: lifespan and healthspan.
He then goes to divide healthspan into four targets (mind, body, distress tolerance, sense of purpose and sense of social support), after which he discusses centenarians. To point out is that 80% of the current deaths occurs because of 4 major causes:
- heart disease
- cancer
- neurodegeneration
- accidents
And it's not that centenarians are avoided by these plagues, it's that they get them at a much later age and for a shorter duration.
Peter Attia also talks about model organisms and their longevity - some of the most important pathways affecting longevity are the nutrient sensing pathways (IIS/IGF1, mTOR, DAF in C. elegans, and more).
He finishes with tactics to potential improving our longevity, which deal with:
- nutrition (maintaining relatively low blood glucose levels)
- exercise physiology
- sleep
- distress tolerance
I'd really encourage anyone interested in making their lives better to take time and slowly digest this one hour long talk. The part about sleep and the original approach to nutrition are what caught my attention the most.
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Cristi Vlad Self-Experimenter and Author
Peter Attila, yes I was following him several years ago, but somehow lost track of him, well forgot about him after I changed my email and stopped getting updates from his blog.
Now, Peter brings whole this ketogenic diet and way of living on a whole lot new level. He did numerous lab testing on himself trying to better understand body and it's bio chemistry. I have learned a lot from him. He was the one who turned me to start drinking coffee with a heavy cream. I started to follow him and side effect is, that coffee testes better. ;-) But, last few years I switched to organic coconut oil, since it should be healthier. Taste is not as good but one gets used to it...
Peter, he does a lot of exercises, he can afford rich meals. I need to increase this part.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me of him. I sort of spaced him out. My loss!
I need to also check what happened with that company he funded years ago, with one renown doctor that preaches healthier living.
OK, off to watching the video now
Attia does not adhere to any diet as of courrent (as per his public opinion).
I'm a Peter Attia fan as well and came across his name in I believe a Tim Ferriss podcast long ago. I follow a keto lifestyle and there is probably one thing that drives me to keep it up: I simply feel really good.
I suspect that I am just a bit insulin sensitive, however, I find that I just feel fantastic when I live the lifestyle.
Thanks for sharing your content.
Captain Bob
Yes, it seems to me that 80% of the current deaths are the main causes of death:heart disease, cancer, neurodegeneration, accidents.
Resteemed! I'll be looking into these names thanks to your help... keep sharing such great content!