Monday, June 26, 2023

13-Steps for a Long Healthy Life


Here are 13-steps for a long healthy life summarized from [1] by @ColinKeeley on Twitter:[2]

  1. Our Goal
    • Lifespan is the number of years you live
    • Health span is how long you’re healthy enough to do the things that matter to you
    • Longevity means maximizing health span and lifespan
    • Our goal is to live longer and live better and it all starts with prevention...
  2. Avoid Icebergs
    • Medicine 2.0 (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
  3. The 4 Horsemen
    • There are four major killer diseases: 1. Cardiovascular disease, 2. Cancer, 3. Neurodegenerative disease, 4. Type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction
    • Metabolic health is the common thread
    • Exercise is our best prevention
  4. Exercise
    • Exercise is "by far the most potent longevity drug
    • Weekly:
    • Get as fit as possible to prepare for natural decline with age
  5. 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
  6. Diet
    • Avoid fads. Attia recommends Keto (hard) or Mediterranean diet (easier). More monounsaturated fats & less carbs.
    • Avoid Standard American Diet: • Highly refined carbohydratesProcessed oilsAdded sugar
    • Eat more: • Real foodAvocados Olive oilProtein Nuts
  7. Diet Questions—Are you undernourished or overnourished? Are you undermuscled or adequately muscled? Are you metabolically healthy or not?
    • Most have poor metabolic health, are over nourished, and are undermuscled.
    • You want to reduce energy intake while adding lean mass.
  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 with diet and exercise alone. 80% of his patients take statins.
  9. Sleep 
    •  Poor sleep impacts everything. It gives even seemingly healthy people "old-man blood": hormone and inflammatory levels of someone decades older.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
    • It's ok to admit you need help.


References

  1. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and 
  2. Thread by @ColinKeeleuy on longevity
  3. Exercise and Its Benefits (Travel to Health)
  4. Exercise for Bone Health (Travel to Health)
  5. Travel to Health website (link)