One of the foundational lessons we can take away from studying centenarians — those who have lived to the age of 100+ — is that if you want to live longer, you have to live longer withoutchronic disease, not live longer with chronic disease. Unfortunately, our current healthcare system is primarily geared toward helping you live longer once you develop chronic disease. This, of course, is the opposite of the approach I take with my patients.
In other words, statins are not addressing the associated risk in patients with an elevated Lp(a), and this population represents about 25% of those with previous CVD or an indication for statins.
So ironically, while Marks applies these insights to financial investments, many of the same principles apply to the way we should treat our health.
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“I believe that rigorously demonstrating that we can increase healthspan and lifespan in pet dogs will be a huge step toward gaining the support and credibility that the field needs.” —Matt Kaeberlein
“Elevated Lp(a) may have conferred a survival advantage for most of human history: a better ability to deal with acute trauma, but possibly at the expense of poor handling of chronic damage. In today’s environment, for many people, that’s not an advantage.” —Peter Attia
“The way that anything looks before we understand it is pretty imposing . . . when we have breakthroughs, they feel like an enormous relief, because something that seemed really complicated becomes really simple.” —D.A. Wallach
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Criticism and skepticism can be far more useful than praise and unflinching belief.
There’s an art and science to critical thinking and how to conduct yourself. There’s a multitude of fallacious appeals we could spell out, but a good rule of thumb is not to attack the person, attack the ideas. Don’t look for the flaws in the person, look for the flaws in the hypothesis. Let’s keep the brawling to movies depicting minor league hockey teams and political “news” shows.
Thank you for adding to the discussion.
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