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Peter Attia
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    The free weekly newsletter explores practical insights on longevity and health optimization. The newsletter simplifies complex research and actionable tips, making cutting-edge health knowledge accessible and relevant.

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    These articles are produced by Peter and our dedicated team of research analysts, and cover a wide range of longevity-related topics in much greater detail than those we send in our free weekly newsletter. Peter and our research team work hard to make these articles topical, exhaustive, interesting, and, whenever possible, actionable.

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  • Podcast
    Guest Episodes

    In these episodes, Peter hosts experts to discuss topics spanning health, longevity, and performance. Through engaging conversations, you’ll learn alongside Peter as he delves into insights from leading minds in exercise, nutrition, mental and emotional well-being, and more.

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    AMA Episodes

    These episodes are comprised of detailed responses to subscriber questions, typically focused on a single topic, and are designed to offer a great deal of clarity and detail on topics of special interest to our members.

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    Quarterly Summaries

    In these episodes, Peter shares his biggest takeaways from the previous 90 days of guest episodes and how it has influenced his personal and clinical practices. Additionally, Peter breaks down complex episodes and makes the most important points easier to understand.

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    • Guest Episodes
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  • Explore Topics
    • Exercise
      • Strength & Muscle MassMy framework for exercise is built upon four pillars: stability, strength, aerobic efficiency, and anaerobic performance. Strength may be the most intimidating of the four, especially for people who aren’t accustomed to strength training. In its simplest form, strength means utilizing muscle to generate force. And if you are interested in living a long and healthy life and playing with your great-grandkids someday, then muscle mass should be a priority. Never in the history of human civilization has a 90-year-old said, “I wish I had less muscle.” Below are a compilation of clips, podcasts, and articles specifically discussing the longevity benefits from greater muscle mass and strength, as well as tactics for preserving muscle mass.
      • StabilityIf you’ve been following me for a while, you may know that my framework for exercise is built upon four pillars: stability, strength, aerobic efficiency, and anaerobic performance. Stability is truly the cornerstone upon which your strength, your aerobic performance, and your anaerobic performance relies. And when it comes to working on any of the other pillars, stability is critical for doing so safely. Below is a compilation of clips, articles, and podcasts specifically discussing stability. My hope is that this content can serve as helpful resources to dive deeper into this topic and support how stability can help you along your ongoing longevity journey.
      • Zone 2Zone 2 is the third of four pillars in my framework for exercise: aerobic exercise. Zone 2 is defined as the highest metabolic output/work that you can sustain while keeping your lactate level below two millimole per liter. Below is a compilation of clips, podcasts, and articles all about zone 2 training, why it is important, and how often you should be incorporating it into your exercise regimen.
      • VO2 MaxYou have likely heard me talk about the importance of knowing and tracking your VO2 max. As Alex Hutchinson and I discussed in episode #151, your VO2 max refers to the maximum rate at which your muscles can extract oxygen from your blood and put it to metabolic use to generate energy. Your VO2 max is often used as an indicator of overall cardiorespiratory fitness and can serve as a metric for tracking progress. As I discussed in detail during AMA #27 and again on Twitter in early March 2022, when looking at VO2 max in relation to all-cause mortality, we see a very clear trend. Simply bringing your VO2 max from ‘low’ (bottom 25th percentile) to ‘below average’ (25th to 50th percentile) is associated with a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality. When you go from ‘low’ to ‘above average’ (50th to 75th percentile) the risk reduction is closer to 70%! The following is a collection of content diving deeper into the topic of VO2 max, including: what it is, how it is measured, and how to improve your VO2 max with Zone 5 training.
      • Centenarian Decathlon
      • High Intensity & Zone 5 TrainingZone 5 exercise, a high-intensity zone, is the fourth pillar of my framework for exercise: anaerobic performance. While you do not need to spend nearly as much time in Zone 5 as you do Zone 2, neglecting it completely may come at a cost down the road. Below is a compilation of clips, podcasts, and articles specifically discussing Zone 5 exercise, VO2 max, and higher intensity exercise. 
      • All exercise
    • Nutrition
      • Body Composition & DEXAMany of us use body weight or BMI (body mass index) for a quick approximation of our health status. Yet the utility of these metrics is limited because they provide little information about a far more relevant parameter: body composition – and in particular, body fat and its distribution. Body weight and BMI alone do not discriminate between muscle mass (which we want to maintain or increase to promote longevity) and fat mass (which we generally want to keep relatively low). Thus, when we set a goal to “lose weight,” our real aim ought to be losing fat. Losing fat mass isn’t necessarily easy, but unfortunately, that struggle pales in comparison to the challenge of keeping it off. This is caused in large part by a hormone called leptin, which is secreted by fat cells and plays a critical role in numerous endocrine pathways and functions, including the regulation of energy homeostasis. Leptin is secreted at levels proportional to body fat and acts as a “satiety hormone” in the brain, causing a reduction in food intake. However, as leptin signaling decreases – due to fat loss or to key neurons becoming leptin-resistant – the brain interprets this as a sign…
      • ProteinMost people do not consume enough protein. As I discussed in episode #202, protein consumption is a variable I’ve become increasingly attuned to with my patients. The more I research this topic, the more I find that the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight is simply not sufficient to build and maintain muscle mass as we age — a critical component of my 4-part exercise framework for longevity. Instead, in our practice, we recommend patients aim to consume 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (or about 1 gram per pound).  I have found that this level of protein consumption can often be difficult for patients if they are also fasting or engaging in time-restricted feeding (TRF). Although fasting and TRF can be useful tools in some cases, particularly in combating insulin resistance, for others they can be problematic due to the heightened risk of protein deficiency and subsequent loss of muscle mass.  Below is a collection of content that dives deeper into this topic, including dispelling the myth that excess protein intake increases cancer risk.
      • Metabolic health
      • Alcohol
      • FastingLearn more about fasting, including types of fasting, fasting metabolism, health effects, and mechanisms of fasting.
      • KetosisLearn more about ketosis, including the ketogenic diet and nutritional ketosis, exogenous ketones, ketone metabolism, and diabetic ketoacidosis.
      • All nutrition
    • Sleep
      • All sleepGood sleep is critical to our innate physiological repair processes, while poor sleep triggers a cascade of negative downstream consequences, from insulin resistance to cognitive decline, as well as mental health issues. Study after study has found powerful associations between insufficient sleep and adverse health outcomes ranging from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. But as important as sleep is for the physical body, it may even be more so for the brain. Good sleep—in terms of both amount and quality—is critical to our cognitive function, our memory, and even our emotional equilibrium. Below is a collection of past articles, audio clips, and podcasts discussing the science of sleep and how sleep can be a powerful longevity tool. If you are new to this content, I would strongly recommend listening to our 7-part series with sleep expert Matthew Walker, where we discuss everything you could possibly want to know about sleep, the affects of sleep on your health, and how to improve it.
    • Medications & supplements
      • Medications
      • Supplements
      • Hormone replacement therapy
      • All medications & supplements
    • Mental & Emotional Health
      • Quality of life
      • Trauma & therapy
      • Relationships
      • Mindfulness & MeditationAs many of you have heard me discuss, longevity is a balance of lifespan (living longer) and healthspan (living better). One of the key elements of living better is addressing your mental and emotional health. Mindfulness (or self-awareness) is the ability to know what’s happening in your head at any given moment without getting carried away by it. Meditation is like exercise for your mind; it is a powerful and practical tool to help us develop mindfulness, self-awareness, and compassion — all of which support emotional health and well-being.
      • All mental & emotional health
    • Risks
      • Cardiovascular DiseaseOne of the scariest things about heart disease is that it is often a silent killer, with few to no outward symptoms. As one of my medical school professors liked to point out, the most common “presentation” of the disease is a sudden, fatal heart attack. You know the patient has heart disease because he has just died from it. And while mortality rates from those first, surprise heart attacks have dropped significantly thanks to improvements in basic cardiac life support and time-sensitive interventions, such attacks are still fatal roughly 1/3 of the time. Below is a collection of past articles and podcasts related to heart disease prevention, atherosclerosis, coronary disease, cholesterol, apoB, and more.
      • CancerIt’s impossible to talk about cancer without realizing that everybody’s life has been touched by it either directly or indirectly. In the United States, half of women and one-third of men will be afflicted with cancer in their lifetime, and it still ranks as the second leading cause of all death, only a hair behind atherosclerosis. But unlike heart disease, cancer lethality is even greater in mid-life than among seniors. In fact, for people between the ages of 45 to 65, cancer is the leading cause of death, killing more people than heart disease, liver disease, and stroke combined. When thinking about how to prevent mortality from cancer, there are three key questions to consider:  (1) How do you prevent cancer?  (2) How do you screen for cancer to detect it early?  (3) How do you treat it when you have it? Below is a collection of clips, podcasts, and articles discussing the latest science on cancer prevention, treatments, and the importance of cancer screening.
      • Neurodegenerative DiseasePatients often tell me they would like to live as long as they reasonably can, provided they do not suffer cognitive decline. More often than not, people care less about how long they live and more about how well they live, specifically as it pertains to their brain. Anyone who has seen a relative suffer from a neurodegenerative disease – such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease – can no doubt relate to the debilitating nature of these conditions. Unlike heart disease and cancer, which kill directly, the fatal impact of neurodegenerative diseases is often indirect. While much is still unknown, data suggest that there are indeed things that can be done to ward off one’s risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease. Aside from genetics, the next most common risk factor we see is vascular disease. The adage “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain” rings true here. Meaning, the factors that increase your risk for atherosclerosis – such as high blood pressure, smoking, and elevated apoB – also increase the risk of dementia. Below is a collection of past articles and podcasts exploring such tactics. My hope is that this content can serve as helpful resources to dive deeper into this topic as well as support…
      • Metabolic healthOne way to think about metabolic disease is as a disorder in fuel processing. Whether we’re talking about hyperinsulinemia or type 2 diabetes, the fundamental problem is that the body is not doing a good job storing and accessing fuel. I think of the three most deadly chronic diseases — heart disease, cancer, and dementia — as pillars all resting on the foundation of metabolic disease. While complications from metabolic disease often do not directly lead to death, the indirect cost is staggering. Each of the other major pillars of chronic disease is exacerbated and amplified by metabolic dysregulation. Metabolic disease typically exists on a continuum — progressing from hyperinsulinemia, to insulin resistance, to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, all the way to type 2 diabetes — and tends to cluster with five signs which make up the diagnostic criteria for Metabolic Syndrome, including: high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood glucose, truncal obesity, and low HDL-cholesterol. The following is a collection of content that dives deeper into the topic of metabolic health, discussing specific strategies for prevention and treatment.
      • Hormones
      • Family Medical History & GeneticsWhen patients join my practice, one of their first exercises is to gather a detailed family medical history. We want to know everything knowable about their mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. Although I recognize this is not possible for everyone, for those who are able to gather this information, it can help reveal patterns that may prove critical for your longevity journey. The more data you collect, the more likely you are to understand what’s really at the root of the genetic template that you inherited.  Below is a collection of audio clips and podcasts all about genetics, what to look for when gathering your family history, how genetics can influence your risk of certain diseases, and even the potential role of genetics in determining one’s success in a given discipline.
      • Accidental Death
      • All risks
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    • Exercise
      • Strength & Muscle Mass
      • Stability
      • Zone 2
      • VO2 Max
      • Centenarian Decathlon
      • High Intensity & Zone 5 Training
      • All exercise
    • Nutrition
      • Body Composition & DEXA
      • Protein
      • Metabolic health
      • Alcohol
      • Fasting
      • Ketosis
      • All nutrition
    • Sleep
      • All sleep
    • Medications & supplements
      • Medications
      • Supplements
      • Hormone replacement therapy
      • All medications & supplements
    • Mental & Emotional Health
      • Quality of life
      • Trauma & therapy
      • Relationships
      • Mindfulness & Meditation
      • All mental & emotional health
    • Risks
      • Cardiovascular Disease
      • Cancer
      • Neurodegenerative Disease
      • Metabolic health
      • Hormones
      • Family Medical History & Genetics
      • Accidental Death
      • All risks
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  • About
    About Peter

    Peter Attia, MD, is the host of The Drive podcast and founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of simultaneously lengthening their lifespan and increasing their healthspan. 

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    Media Appearances

    Peter has had the honor of appearing as a guest on many podcasts, given keynote presentations, and contributed articles to various publications. Explore his media appearances here.

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    Disclosures

    It is very important to Peter, as it has been from the moment he became a public figure, that all his potential conflicts are disclosed. He believes this is a practice that every person who is in a position of influence should adhere to.

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