AMA #7: Exercise framework, deadlifting, lower back pain, blood pressure, nootropics, CGM, and more

**Peter Attia** (0:04)
Hey, everyone, welcome to The Peter Attia Drive. I'm your host, Peter Attia.
The drive is a result of my hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, critical thinking, along with a few other obsessions along the way. I've spent the last several years working with some of the most successful top performing individuals in the world. And this podcast is my attempt to synthesize what I've learned along the way to help you live a higher quality, more fulfilling life. If you enjoy this podcast, you can find more information on today's episode and other topics at peterattiamd.com.
Welcome to AMA number seven. I am again joined by my right hand man, Bob Kaplan. This episode is dubbed the two minute drill, even though none of the questions were answered within two minutes. I sort of tried. In this episode, we'll discuss how not to wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I go over my note card system to keep organized, including a list of dumb things I like to do, which was initially codified by Tim Ferriss.
How to understand scientific studies that come out. How to obtain a CGM without a prescription. Conversations around blood pressure, no tropics, concussions, and CTE. My current exercise routine and how it can focus on healthspan and lifespan. My history with back issues and my current deadlifting routine. And lastly, we end with an update on if the Attias got a dog.
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**Bob Kaplan** (2:37)
Hi and hello podcasters, or subscribers actually.
I think most of the subscriber demand is that the fact that I'm behind a paywall, so everybody's just clamoring to get more of the Bobatron. Bob Kaplan here, Peter Attia over there. I think this is AMA number seven, so time flies, yes?

**Peter Attia** (2:57)
Maybe more, because remember Matt Walker did one too.

**Bob Kaplan** (3:00)
Oh, that's right. Yeah, could be the eighth in order. So I thought we might flip things around a little bit. We'll put the system on trial. We'll do the two minute drill first, and then we'll do a couple of deep dives, and then maybe you can chuck the ball out of bounds at first on First Down, and then we can do a deeper dive later in this episode.
So here's the first question. What can I do to prevent myself from getting up to pee at night?

**Peter Attia** (3:23)
At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, the first, second and third step would be to not drink in the proximity of bedtime. But the second step would be not to drink alcohol, because alcohol inhibits a hormone called ADH, the antidiuretic hormone, also known as vasopressin. And as the name suggests, if you inhibit the antidiuretic hormone, it has the effect of acting as a diuretic.
So alcohol disproportionately will drive you to wanna pee, which anybody who's ever been at a bar and had too many drinks knows, somehow by the end of that evening, you're like going to the bathroom every 30 minutes or something like that. So just taking more hygiene around how much water or any liquid you drink, but in particular being mindful of alcohol, are probably the most important steps.

**Bob Kaplan** (4:16)
Just to cut you off for a second, it sounds trite, but you actually might be able to kill two birds with the Captain Obvious Stone, is a lot of people ask me how to avoid a hangover. What I tell them is, don't drink the night before. So it's another tip right there.

**Peter Attia** (4:30)
I love the free tips being infused. So now for people who are, so let's say someone's gone through all the usual, they've done the common sense, like I'm not drinking, I'm doing all these things. We have a journal that people can fill out that allows them to keep track of what they drink and how much they're voiding and when they're voiding, et cetera. When you've gone through all the usual housekeeping on that stuff, in men in particular, you then wanna sort of investigate prostate size.