Learning 1: Avoid Icebergs
Medicine 2.0 (the current state of medicine today) deals with problems after they present themselves.
- Medicine 3.0 focuses on prevention over cures.
- We are trying to avoid icebergs in the distance. It is better and easier to avoid the first heart attack than treat it after.
Learning 2: The 4 Horsemen
There are four major killer diseases: Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, Neurodegenerative disease, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction.
- Cardiovascular disease
- Cancer
- Neurodegenerative disease
- Type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction
(Metabolic health is the common thread)
Learning 3: Exercise is important
Exercise is "by far the most potent longevity drug." Attia recommends weekly training as follows:
- Weight training 3 days
- Zone 2 training 3 hours
- VO2 max training 1 day
- Get as fit as possible to prepare for natural decline with age.
Learning 4: Marginal Decade
You want to intentionally train for the activities you care most about continuing into your later years.
- Build up the strength and stamina while young to combat the predictable decline as you age.
- Want to ski at 80? You better be in top 1% condition at 50.
Learning 5: Diet
Avoid fads. Attia recommends Keto (hard) or Mediterranean diet (easier). More monounsaturated fats & less carbs.
Learning 6: Supplements
Learning 7: Sleep
Poor sleep impacts everything. It gives even seemingly healthy people "old-man blood": hormone and inflammatory levels of someone decades older.
Learning 8: Heart Disease
- Everyone 18+ has some degree of heart disease. Accumulating every day.
- Get your ApoB and Lp(a) tested. Those matter more than cholesterol.
- Goal: ApoB 20-30 (baby level)
- Impossible to get there w/ diet & exercise alone. 80% of his patients take statins.
Learning 9: Cancer
Cancer is closely linked to metabolic dysfunction. Get healthy to avoid it.
- This chronic inflammation creates an environment that induces cells to become cancerous.
- Otherwise aggressive early screening is our best defense. Late detection is a death sentence.
Learning 10: Neurodegenerative Disease
- Most difficult of the horsemen. Medicine 2.0 can't do anything for us.
- What's good for the heart is good for the brain. Exercise & sleep are our best weapons.
- Exercise maintains glucose homeostasis and healthy vasculature.
- Sleep heals the brain.
Learning 11: Metabolic Dysfunction
- Basically an issue in your body's fuel processing. On a spectrum.
- Heart disease, cancer, and dementia are all built on metabolic disease. Each one is amplified by metabolic dysregulation.
- Exercise, diet, and sleep are our weapons here.
Learning 12: Emotional Health
- Emotional health issues are one of the biggest roadblocks to longevity in his patients.
- If you are not happy, why would you want to live a long time?
- Take care of your emotional well-being just like you would heart disease.
SUMMARY: Prevention is our best medicine. Exercise often. Sleep well. Eat clean.
Below is a stack I have created for those who want to try out these principles:
This article was produced as a version from the Colin Keeley Article [1]. To anyone who is interested to learn further I would recommend Peter Attia's book [2].