Sunday, March 31, 2024

Outlive: Book Review

 

Published 28 March 2023

Peter Attia writes a book that is a little too technical (statistics and biochemistry) for the lay reader, but I highly recommend it anyway. 

Why? 

He promotes the idea that people can work on longevity much earlier in their lives by adopting healthy lifestyle choices decades before one becomes an older adult.  Many people wait until they have symptoms of chronic diseases before they make changes. 

Attia implores people to start decades early so that they can not just have a long life span but a long health span. 

Longevity runs in my family, but I do not want to spend the last 20 years of my life on the couch. 

Here is a video that gives an overview and includes a chart about expanding the years that we have good mobility and cognition.


He spends a lot of time discussing biomarkers that can show risks for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other common culprits that shorten one's health span and life span.  This is where he gets too technical for the lay reader. However, he does include suggestions for lifestyle changes that can alter these biomarkers, and finding these golden nuggets makes it worth reading through the too-technical sections. 

He admits to being a "numbers guy," and it's evident. 

Here is my Goodreads review that contains a line or two about each of his 17 chapters. I am very dissatisfied with this chapter-by-chapter summary; however, it will give you some indication of the contents of his book. 

Be well, gentle reader. 

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4 comments:

  1. Because of my father dying when I was 3 I have always been aware of health issues eventually becoming a RN.

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    1. It's great that you are aware of wellness. I work at a university, and a lot of people "live in their heads" and neglect their bodies. All my best to you.

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