Health
by Peter Attia
How do you stay well until ninety?
Peter Attia, a doctor who trained as a surgeon, argues that medicine is good at keeping us alive and poor at keeping us well. Outlive is about healthspan, the years you spend in good health, and how to make them last almost as long as your life.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Attia says most of us will die of one of four slow diseases: heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's, and type 2 diabetes with the metabolic problems around it. He calls them the Four Horsemen. Each one starts decades before anyone diagnoses it.
Attia calls today's approach Medicine 2.0. It waits until you're ill, then treats the disease. His Medicine 3.0 starts years earlier, looks at your own risks, and tries to stop the Horsemen from arriving at all.
Of everything Attia has studied, exercise does the most to extend healthy life. He wants four kinds. Steady cardio, which he calls Zone 2. Hard efforts to raise your VO2 max. Strength training. And stability work, so you can move and land safely as you age.
Attia spent years on strict diets himself, including keto. He now thinks arguing over labels like vegan or low-carb misses the point. What matters more, in his view, is eating the right amount for your body and getting enough protein to hold on to muscle as you age.
Medicine 3.0
Medicine 3.0 means acting decades early, long before symptoms, instead of waiting to treat you once you're ill.
Healthspan
Living longer only counts if those years are good ones. Attia calls that your healthspan.
Four Horsemen
Most of us will die of heart disease, cancer, dementia or type 2 diabetes. Attia calls them the Four Horsemen.
Exercise
No pill comes close to what regular exercise does for a long, healthy life.
VO2 max
How fit your heart and lungs are, your VO2 max, is one of the best signs of how long you'll live.
A story from the book
For years Attia obsessed over his physical health and ignored his emotional health. He admits his anger was hurting his family. After a crisis he spent weeks in a residential treatment programme. He now treats emotional health as part of living longer, alongside exercise, food and sleep.
One thing to try
List five things you want to still do in your last decade, like lifting a case into an overhead locker or getting up off the floor. Attia calls it your Centenarian Decathlon. Pick one and work out what you'd need to start training now.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. Outlive comes with a Name That Idea round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appHow do you stay well until ninety? Peter Attia, a doctor who trained as a surgeon, argues that medicine is good at keeping us alive and poor at keeping us well. Outlive is about healthspan, the years you spend in good health, and how to make them last almost as long as your life.
The Four Horsemen; Treat it before it starts; Exercise is the strongest drug; Forget diet tribes.
List five things you want to still do in your last decade, like lifting a case into an overhead locker or getting up off the floor. Attia calls it your Centenarian Decathlon. Pick one and work out what you'd need to start training now.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from Outlive in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Name That Idea round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
