OUTLIVE by Peter Attia
Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia – A Book Worth Reading
Dr. Peter Attia has done us, the world of preventive medicine, and the medical community a great service by writing this book. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity is a timely and urgent call to change the way we look at longevity and later life.
In this carefully researched book full of self-experimentation and experience, Dr. Attia describes the current medical attitude toward later-life health, what he calls Medicine 2.0, as outdated and primarily focused on treatment, not prevention. He then proposes his own version of Medicine 3.0, a comprehensive preventive practice and outlook to avoid or delay the onset of major health impairments before they surface on current medical radars.
This means beginning to practice preventive health in your 40s and 50s or even earlier. (Dr. Attia now devotes his medical practice to this.) He acknowledges that each person is different and requires a personal program suited to them. Yet throughout this book he shares his philosophy and practice in broad strokes. Much of his practice comes from his own health warning signs at around age 40 and his experimentation with alternative ideas and practices.
The four main conditions that claim us early and halt longevity, what Dr. Attia calls the “Four Horsemen,” are atherosclerosis (heart and arterial disease), cancer, dementia, and diabetes. Keeping these at bay is the heart of his mission.
He makes some bold claims, which I agree with but may run afoul of the traditional medical community. He claims that metabolic syndrome, a condition of ill-health and inflammation that comes with poor diet and lack of movement in modern life, could be the root precondition of the “Four Horsemen” conditions. Avoiding the onset of as well as treating metabolic illness greatly increases our chances of avoiding the onset of fatal disease later.
With some help from modern diagnostics and medical treatment, the core of the practices that Dr. Attia advocates are:
1) Exercise and move much more, including both aerobic and strength training.
2) Find the right eating pattern, what he calls nutritional biochemistry and predominantly means avoiding processed foods and eating less in general.
3) Get better sleep.
These commonsense practices should come as no surprise to anyone who has ventured onto a healthier path in life. They certainly mirror my own path. Yet his book contains a wealth of persuasive back-up information and new detail, plus his own spin on these matters. This makes Dr. Attia’s book a must-read for anyone who cares about their health. I for one am going to experiment with some new ideas I’ve picked up to see how they work for me.
Perhaps my greatest applause for this book is that he shared his own courageous journey to find out what makes himself tick emotionally, and he discovered how that can be a major factor in our health outcomes.
At one point in the book, he boldly states that “Why?” is the most important question we can ask ourselves when we say we want to be healthy and live longer. “For what? For whom?” he urges us to ask ourselves.
Answering these questions and living passionately with those answers has certainly been the driving factor in my own health journey. I haven’t seen very much talk of these dynamics in other studies of health, although the world of religion and philosophy is filled with these questions. We need more people, and more doctors like Peter Attia, to explore these issues and take preventive medicine to the next step in its evolution.
