#342 ‒ Aging well: Peter shares strategies for improving longevity with residents at a senior living center

Peter’s definition of longevity [2:30]

• Olivia is with her dad Peter and are here to talk about longevity
• Over the summer Olivia volunteered at a senior living center called Querencia
• During that time she met Sally who was very interested in Peter’s work
• Sally couldn’t join this episode because she’s sick, so this episode will be a conversation between Olivia and Peter for an audience at Querencia followed by their questions

The word longevity means different things to different people. When you talk about longevity, how are you defining it? 

• Definitely not living forever, although understandingly that’s what some people think of when they think of longevity
• Peter is talking about it in terms of 2 things: lifespan and healthspan
• The lifespan part is how long you live
  • This is what most people think of
• The healthspan part is how well you live
• Both of these are of equal importance, and an extreme of one without the other is not ideal
  • Nobody is saying, “I’d love to live to 100, but I want to spend the last 20 of those years unable to move.”
  • Similarly no one would think it’s ideal to live an amazing, healthy live, but having that life cut short prematurely at 50

“When I think of longevity, what I’m really thinking about is maximizing both the length of life and the quality of life.”‒ Peter Attia

Quality could further be broken down into a physical piece 

• Am I free of pain most of the time?
• Am I able to physically do the things I enjoy doing?
  • That could range from just the activities of daily living and self-care to recreational activities
  • If you like to garden, how long do you want to be able to do that? 
  • If you play golf, if you like to go for walks and hikes or swim

Then there’s a cognitive piece 

• Peter doesn’t think anybody would fully expect that his brain (at his age) is as sharp as Olivia’s is, but he still wants to believe that his mind is pretty sharp
  • We all want that for as long as possible

The final piece is an emotional piece 

• That deals with happiness, sense of purpose, connection to others
• You can imagine a scenario where somebody has perfect physical healthspan, meaning they can do anything they want to do physically, their brain is sharp, but they have no friends and no relationships
  • We would all agree that that’s not really an ideal life
  • Nobody would aspire to that
• When you put all those things together, that’s what longevity is 

Why it’s never too late to invest in your longevity [5:30]

If some people here are wondering, is it too late to start caring about longevity and living longer, what would you say to them?

• That is not the case
• On the one hand, the earlier a person begins to take steps to increase their longevity, the more opportunity they have

It’s like investing 

• When is the best time to start saving for retirement? 
• Probably the minute you start earning your first paycheck in your teens or 20s
• But does that mean you shouldn’t save money when you’re older? No, it doesn’t

What the data say 

• Data from clinical trials that are done with seniors that demonstrate for example: people who have never lifted weights in their life before, who start lifting weights for the first time when they’re in their 60s and 70s, have a remarkable benefit
• This is not just true of weight training; it’s true of any sort of exercise

The short answer is no, it’s never too late to really start thinking about this, but obviously the best time to plant the tree is yesterday, if not today 

Olivia asks, “Why do they have a benefit if they haven’t done it before?”

• There’s an effect of training
• Specifically thinking of exercise, the body is really a “use-it-or-lose-it” organ (or collection of organs)
  • And the muscles are a great example of that
• It’s actually true of young people and old people

⇒ The greatest effect of exercise is generally seen in the person who goes from being completely sedentary to even a mild amount of training 

• If you look at somebody who exercises all the time ‒ if they added 3 hours a week to their training, it wouldn’t have an enormous impact
  • Like Peter or Olivia
• If you took an individual who did zero exercise, and you took them to 3 hours a week, the impact is enormous
  • Let’s be honest, 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, is not a huge ask

The importance of adding “life to years” rather than just “years to life” [7:45]

Can you talk about the importance of adding life to years rather than just years to life and what that means to you? 

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