The “longevity” industry really rubs me the wrong way — mostly a bunch of rich white guys clinging desperately to their 30s with marathons and trophy wives and Rogaine. But a friend I respect recently started building tech for a “longevity” venture and told me I had to read this book, so I did. And while I’m no convert, Attia is clearly a smart guy who makes a credible case.
His fundamental goal is to increase “healthspan,” which starts with being alive longer, but more importantly is about living your final years better and stronger — avoiding or reducing the risk of “slow death” conditions like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. His approach in a nutshell looks like this:
- Measure the crap out of yourself, early and deeply and often. Be data-driven and address issues even if they aren’t (yet) presenting clinically.
- Mostly do what we all know we should: eat well, exercise a ton, get enough sleep and take care of your mental health.
- Don’t shy away from drugs if #2 doesn’t get you there.
- Start all of this really early, like in your 20s (or at least “now”).
In short he’s an advocate of preventative vs. reactive medicine — and I certainly have no argument with that. For example, my LDL of 98 is “optimal” by standard ranges but Attia suggests it should be more like 30 — yeesh! A reasonable number is probably somewhere in between, but clearly I’m nudging the upper end of “OK” and that’s worth a bit of attention now vs. later when it’s worse.
Still, it’s hard for me to imagine spending hours every day of my life hyper-optimizing for the end of it. But that’s obviously not how Attia thinks about it, and many of his recommendations pay dividends in the immediate term as well. So I’m keeping an open mind and trying to keep my middle-aged self on the right path with some exercise and a reasonable diet and all of that. Check back when I’m seventy and we’ll see if I’m still so cavalier. 😉