Outlive | Peter Attia, MD

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti discusses the book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD. Vigliotti explains that the book has gained tremendous popularity due to Attia's large following and widespread promotion, but in no way, does that lower the importance of the work itself. He describes Outlive as “required reading” for anybody serious about their health and well-being. Vigliotti clarifies that the book focuses on getting the most out of one's mind, body, and life—not becoming superhuman. He discusses Attia's philosophy of proactive healthcare, contrasting it with the reactive approach of traditional medicine, specifically in reducing the risk of the four horsemen: cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and metabolic disorders. Vigliotti highlights the uber-importance of exercise, sleep, and emotional and mental health in promoting longevity. He concludes by encouraging listeners to share the podcast, connect with him on Instagram, and visit the website for more information.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I am featuring a book that has been super popular since its release at the end of last year, and it's called Outlive by Peter Attia, MD. The author has been all over the internet promoting this book and has been all over the internet for quite some time. He has a podcast. He's been featured on a lot of prominent podcasts over the years. He's just got a really big following and a big audience. So it's no surprise that the book has done extremely well. And of course, I don't say that to in any way, shape or form demean the content of the book itself because that's why I'm featuring it on the podcast. I, more or less, led with that to say I don't have any interest in sharing this book other than to say I think it's required reading for pretty much everybody, and I do truly believe that.

(01:11)

Now, there are aspects of it that I think go a little bit further than what would be required, but at the end of the day, the basis of this book is that important and could be that beneficial for that many people, and that's why I wanted to share it on the podcast. So just a little bit about the book, it is a big book. It is about 500 pages or so, give or take. It's a medical book. Obviously, Peter Attia is a doctor. I like to think of him as a super primary care physician, and that's not a knock on any primary care physician. There's just always the extreme version of anything, and I think that Atia definitely falls on the extreme versus what would be the average. His method of healthcare, which is something that I will get into momentarily, is in and of itself a big difference from what the average or standard way is.

(02:11)

So the title itself of the book is called Outlive, and I think it is a bit misleading because it's labeled as a book about longevity, but it's more like a sweeping examination of what the science says about the things that will most impact your health not as an athlete or some super achiever, more as an average Joe or an average Jane. So it looks at the totality of what we know and says, this is what we should be doing moving forward based on what we know to be true at this point based on the research and the data, and of course his personal experience as a physician. The reason why I say it's misleading is that I think when most people hear the word longevity, they think AI or augmenting their body or mind or supplementation to prolong their life or maybe even doing some kind of gene enhancement or I don't know, anything crazy like that.

(03:12)

This book really deals more with Attia’s philosophy, really deals more with how could you get the most out of your life? How do you get the most out of the body that you have been given? And I think that's where he introduces the concept of lifespan versus healthspan lifespan being how long your life is and healthspan being how long you are healthy for. And ideally, you want to be as healthy as you can for as long as you can. And the inspiring part about all of this, of course, is we are seeing people live much healthier lives for a lot longer periods of time. And we can point to centenarians of course, and all the work that has been done about blue zones and people being able to run marathons basically into their hundreds. And I get it, some of that is gene and some of it is luck.

(04:06)

Obviously, there are components to remaining healthy that require a great deal of luck. But I think to bank on luck as if that's all that's required is not only a misaligned way to think about your health situation, but it's also not a very empowering or inspiring one, especially because there is so much that we know as this book will point out to you about how we can better take care of ourselves in a very proactive way. And that's really the core philosophy or fundamental layer of Attia’s whole ideological standpoint when it comes to healthcare. The basis of this book is Medicine 2.0 versus Medicine 3.0. Medicine 2.0 is basically the reactive way of providing healthcare, and it's the current way for the vast majority of healthcare providers and also structurally how we are set up on a societal level with insurance companies and healthcare networks and so on and so forth in that we treat the disease once we see it or we treat the ailment once we see it, and we don't take preventative measures to ensure that the ailment or the disease doesn't develop beforehand.

(05:32)

Now, again, I want to just reiterate that I understand that this is a societal and structural issue in that insurance companies don't pay for preventative measures, and taking a lot of preventative measures can be costly. But the thing that Attia points out in this book is there are a lot of things you can do that are beneficial for you that don't cost anything, and we don't popularize these modalities because sadly there's not an economic incentive to do so. And I get it, that may sound cynical, but I think if you really dig deeper into how the healthcare system works, you will see that there's a good deal of truth to that. And that's not to say that your primary care physician today doesn't want you to exercise, sleep better, and all these different things that the science says will really make a big difference in the development of certain diseases and ailments that could occur to you as your life goes on.

(06:35)

But it is to say that with all the pressure and ingrain of the status quo, I'm not surprised that healthcare providers and patients just acquiesce to the more popularized medicine 2.0 approach to healthcare treatment. And I get it, life is fucking hard enough, and so we don't want to think about this stuff and we don't want to believe that there might be another way that could be beneficial or is it really up to me on what disease I develop as I age? And look, I'm not like some Yahoo is going to tell you that you have total control over what happens with your body and your mind and your life because there are a lot of factors that go into it. But there are a lot of preventative things that you could do to stave off what Attia calls the four horsemen, cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and metabolic disorders.

(07:39)

Now, I'm not going to jump into each one of those because one, I'm not a physician, but two, he spends a great deal of time in the book talking about each one and then also giving you prescriptive measures on how you could dive off these diseases for as long as possible. Of course, there are many factors that are uncontrollable, but as a good example of everything that I just talked about, let's just look at the first one, cardiovascular disease, we know exactly how this disease develops. It's not cancer, it's not walking outside of your house today and getting hit by a Mack truck. It slowly develops over time in a very specific way inside of your body. And I'm not going to get into all the details of it, but in layman's terms, all you have to do is know what to look for, get screened for it, and then treat it to optimize your chances of not having a cardiovascular event.

(08:35)

And, based on the fact that 50% of first-time cardiovascular event individuals, so first-time people who have heart attacks, die. So one out of every two people that has a cardiovascular event will die. Why would you not want to decrease your chances of having a cardiovascular event? The only reason why is because you're following Medicine 2.0, not Medicine 3.0 in that we're only going to start treating this thing once we see that there is a problem. Instead of trying to attack this thing before it has the chance to develop inside of your body. And if longevity is of your concern, it's probably a good idea to try to stymie the number one cause of death where 20 million people die each year from cardiovascular disease. And now I'm not going to get into all of the other horsemen or the ways that those diseases develop because honestly, I don't know them well enough to do so.

(09:43)

But I have a pretty good resource that you can read to find out more. And it's of course the book that I'm sharing with you today. I will leave you off on this note. And I think there is probably a large portion of you who are going to go as soon as I say it. It's a direct quote from the book. Exercise is by far the most potent longevity drug I know for all you people who don't want to exercise, don't have the time to exercise, and all that. The research says clearly, the most important factor in you living a longer healthier life is to exercise regularly. It helps mental health, it helps your relationships, it helps stymie disease. The benefits are endless, but it's not just a benefit. It is the number one thing more important than nutrition, which is different than diet of course, and that's something that he'll get into in the book.

(10:47)

He relies more on biochemistry. So what these molecules are actually doing to your body as opposed to the fad. And I get it, it's a shortcut, and it's easier, but diets can be deceptive. They are also the most widely debated thing because we don't know a lot about them and why one works for somebody and not for somebody else. But what we do know is that protein is essential for building muscle. And in order to live a longer life, you need to maintain your muscle mass for as long as possible. You don't have to be a bodybuilder, but if you're not getting enough protein, then you're not going to be able to maintain muscle mass, whether you get it through fad diet A or fad diet B or whatever you need to get the protein. That's the difference between biochemistry versus looking at a diet. The other thing that we do now, and I'm going to be repetitive here, is that exercise is by far the most important thing to living a longer, healthier life.

(11:50)

Not just because I said so, but because there are swaths of research and science that say that, and it is followed in a close second by sleep. For most people, I know that sleep is hard, and I know that it's not easy to get a good night's sleep or to exercise on a regular basis, but they are for most people, absolutely free. And lastly, before I close this, I just want to mention that he focuses a great deal at the end of the book on emotional health and mental health, and rightly so, because in the absence of emotional and mental health, what is the point of living a longer physically healthier life? And of course, I'm not a doctor, so anything that I've said in this episode, do not misconstrue it as medical advice. It is my opinion based on the research that I've done and the book that I am sharing with you today.

(12:54)

On that note, this episode is a wrap. I want to thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed it, please share it with friends, family members, and other people who you think might enjoy it because word of mouth is everything. And with this podcast specifically, we're trying to inspire more men to read, and you could double down on that support by rating, liking, following, and subscribing on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. Because in doing that, you're helping more people find the show. Also, if you'd like to connect with me, you could do so on Instagram @douglasvigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. For more information, visit BooksforMen.org where you could get full transcripts for any of these episodes, as well as sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of every episode, complete with full book and author information, all the best quotes and newsletter only book recommendations. Again, you could sign up for that at BooksforMen.org.