Outlive
The Science and Art of Longevity
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4.4 • 71 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD • A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert
“One of the most important books you’ll ever read.”—Steven D. Levitt, New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics
AN ECONOMIST AND BLOOMBERG BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.
This is not “biohacking,” it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:
• Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your actual risk of dying from a heart attack.
• That you may already suffer from an extremely common yet underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
• Why exercise is the most potent pro-longevity “drug”—and how to begin training for the “Centenarian Decathlon.”
• Why you should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
• Why striving for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the ultimate curse of all.
Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Dr. Peter Attia doesn’t just want you to live longer, he wants you to live better. In this helpful guide, the former surgeon outlines his individual-centered approach (which he calls “Medicine 3.0”): promoting blood work and other lab tests to catch major issues like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer earlier. Attia also argues that developing peak muscle mass and strength while we’re in our forties and fifties is the best thing we can do to make sure we can withstand the inevitable loss of both muscle and bone density as we age, and we love his tip for customizing your workouts—creating a “Centenarian Decathlon,” which entails choosing 10 or more activities we’d still like to be doing as we get up in years (like golf or swimming) and targeting exercises to those specific desires. If you’re looking for long-term fitness inspiration, this is a great place to start.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This rigorous debut by physician Attia dispenses guidance on living longer while staying healthier. "The odds are overwhelming that you will die as a result of... heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or type 2 diabetes," he writes, outlining strategies to stave off these four "chronic diseases of aging." The author's medical philosophy emphasizes prevention over treatment, recognizes that what works for one person might not work for the next, evaluates "risk versus reward versus cost" on a case-by-case basis, and prioritizes maintaining one's "healthspan." He strikes the delicate balance between providing scientific background and keeping his explanations accessible, as when he relates that long-distance running and biking help fend off neurodegenerative disease because they cause the body to generate a molecule that bolsters the health of brain structures implicated in storing memories. Attia's acknowledgement that diets aren't one-size-fits-all is a welcome departure from the overgeneralizations of similar volumes, and he provides recommendations on modulating protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake depending on one's age, sex, and activity levels. The familiar suggestions to reduce stress, eat healthier, and exercise are elevated by the depth of detail and lucid prose that Attia brings to the table. This stands a notch above other fare aimed at boosting health and longevity.
