HEALTH
EVERYONE – DOCTORS, SCIENTISTS, Big Pharma, me, you – is looking for a longevity hack, a drug or supplement or superfood that will help us live healthier, longer lives. It turns out we already have one. “Exercise is by far the most potent longevity ‘drug', ” says Dr Peter Attia, a surgeon turned physician who focuses on extending health span – stretching the portion of life when you're able to do what you want to do versus being frail and weak. “The data are unambiguous: exercise not only delays actual death but also prevents both cognitive and physical decline better than any other intervention. It is the single most potent tool we have in the health-span-enhancing toolkit – and that includes nutrition, sleep and meds.”
Attia presents his approach in a new 496-page book called . The 50-year-old, he goes deep on the four primary causes of slow death: heart disease/stroke, metabolic dysfunction, neurodegenerative disease and cancer. But he goes deepest on exercise, specifically what strength and fitness levels are associated with longer, happier lives. Spoiler alert: he recommends way more exercise than the government guidelines, ideally 10-12 hours a week. We adapted the fitness chapters in Outlive and interviewed Attia to give you a concise version of his life-extending exercise prescription. Peak aerobic cardiorespiratory fitness, measured in terms of your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilise during intense exercise), is perhaps the most powerful marker for longevity, says Attia. A 2018 study in that followed more than 120,000 people found that higher VO2 max was associated with significantly lower mortality. The study also determined that someone of below-average VO2 max for their age and sex (that is, between the 25th and 50th percentiles) is at double the risk of all-cause mortality compared with someone in the top quartile.
