Exercise beats any other medical intervention
“There is no other medical intervention that helps you to live longer than……”
I wanted to talk a little bit about someone’s work that has really resonated with me recently. His name is Dr Peter Attia and he is, probably, the leading medical professional in the field of Longevity.
Longevity is not simply living as long as possible – what is termed “lifespan”. It incorporates a far wider idea called “healthspan” – bluntly: living as well as we can, for as long as we can.
Peter is someone I have been following for a number of years, because his ideas on health chime so closely with mine. Sleep, nutrition, hydration….. and EXERCISE 😊
You have all probably noticed that I have asked a lot of questions of people recently in clinic about their exercise habits. Often, they are relevant to the problems people come to see Gee and I with, but it gives us much more than just that – it tells us something about how well you will respond to treatment, because that is something which is governed by how well you live!
To quote Dr Attia on a recent podcast: “There is no other medical intervention that helps you to live longer and better than exercise.”
OK. So we all probably know that, although hopefully seeing it spelt out here reinforces why Gee and I bang on about it in clinic.
The biggest reason I hear for not exercising is simply – “I don’t have the time.” And I get it. I really, genuinely do. So how do we fit it in around a busy life that has ………(fill in the blank)
Lets just start small...
Take a walk.
It’s more effective than you might believe – and here is some data to prove it from my whoop strap:
This was my morning Dog Walk yesterday. I walked at a comfortable pace, that pushed my heart rate up into “Zone 2” (light blue on the bar graph). I did this before I ate breakfast as that helps to get my heart rate up into that zone – an approach called “fasted cardio”.
The research that Dr Attia and others in the field refer to shows that if you can aim to do 3 hours of zone 2 cardio a week, you reduce your risks of all cause mortality more than ANY medication is capable of doing.
1 dog walk, for 1 hour, per day can help you to live a healthier longer life.
If you are struggling to think of ways to build exercise into your day, have a chat with us. We have recently launched online video consults (you can book via the usual link here) and we can talk through ideas and approaches to help you start building the healthier, longer life you want.
If you want to follow Peter Attia’s work, Id recommend these:
He has published an excellent and genuinely well written book “Outlive, the Science and Art of Longevity”
He was interviewed by Stephen Bartlett on Diary of a CEO podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uCL9TUZ7geg32eqsmUOiS?si=7ea27b2e15484b27
He also runs an excellent podcast called “The Drive” which is excellent and very, very detailed.
Long life 😊 J
