AMA #8: DNA tests, longevity genes, metformin, fasting markers, salt, inflammation, 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.
Hey everyone, I'd like to take a couple of minutes to talk about why we don't run ads on this podcast, and why instead we've chosen to rely entirely on listener support. If you're listening to this, you probably already know, but the two things I care most about professionally are how to live longer and how to live better. I have a complete fascination and obsession with this topic. I practice it professionally, and I've seen firsthand how access to information is basically all people need to make better decisions and improve the quality of their lives. Curating and sharing this knowledge is not easy, and even before starting the podcast, that became clear to me. The sheer volume of material published in this space is overwhelming. I'm fortunate to have a great team that helps me continue learning and sharing this information with you. To take one example, our show notes are in a league of their own. In fact, we now have a full-time person that is dedicated to producing those, and the feedback has mirrored this. So, all of this raises a natural question. How will we continue to fund the work necessary to support this?
As you probably know, the tried and true way to do this is to sell ads, but after a lot of contemplation, that model just doesn't feel right to me for a few reasons. Now, the first and most important of these is trust. I'm not sure how you could trust me if I'm telling you about something when you know I'm being paid by the company that makes it to tell you about it.
Another reason selling ads doesn't feel right to me is because I just know myself. I have a really hard time advocating for something that I'm not absolutely nuts for. So if I don't feel that way about something, I don't know how I can talk about it enthusiastically. So instead of selling ads, I've chosen to do what a handful of others have proved can work over time, and that is to create a subscriber support model for my audience.
This keeps my relationship with you both simple and honest. If you value what I'm doing, you can become a member and support us at whatever level works for you. In exchange, you'll get the benefits above and beyond what's available for free. It's that simple. It's my goal to ensure that no matter what level you choose to support us at, you will get back more than you give.
So for example, members will receive full access to the exclusive show notes, including other things that we plan to build upon, such as the downloadable transcripts for each episode. These are useful beyond just the podcast, especially given the technical nature of many of our shows. Members also get exclusive access to listen to and participate in the regular Ask Me Anything episodes. That means asking questions directly into the AMA portal, and also getting to hear these podcasts when they come out. Lastly, and this is something I'm really excited about, I want my supporters to get the best deals possible on the products that I love. And as I said, we're not taking ad dollars from anyone, but instead what I'd like to do is work with companies who make the products that I already love and would already talk about for free, and have them pass savings on to you. Again, the podcast will remain free to all, but my hope is that many of you will find enough value in, one, the podcast itself, and two, the additional content exclusive for members to support us at a level that makes sense for you. I wanna thank you for taking a moment to listen to this. If you learn from and find value in the content I produce, please consider supporting us directly by signing up for a monthly subscription.
Welcome to AMA number eight, featuring once again my head analyst, Bob Kaplan. In this episode, we talk about my thoughts on DNA and genetic kits, genes that can drive longevity, top guess that I'm hoping to have on future episodes of The Drive, inflammation and inflammatory markers, NMR lipoprofile versus other tests for advanced cardiac measurements, in addition to a conversation around the recently emerging use of electrophoresis. We talk about taking metformin for longevity, as well as a little side conversation around berberine. Talk about what drugs I think are the most exciting drugs on the planet today. We have a little conversation around salt. And we talk about markers and metrics that surprised me during my most recent nothing burger. As a reminder, AMAs are for subscribers only. If you're not a subscriber, you'll only be able to hear a preview of the AMA here. If you are a subscriber and hearing this, it means you have yet to download our members only podcast feed. With this members only feed, you'll be able to subscribe to The Drive in your podcast player to get every episode of The Drive without the subscriber callout, plus full episodes of the AMA podcast directly, along with other exclusive content. You can learn more about it at peterattiamd.com forward slash members. To become a subscriber, to have access to the members only podcast feed, as well as other benefits such as detailed show notes and member only discount codes and the products I believe in, you can visit peterattiamd.com forward slash subscribe. We'll continue to pull these questions from the AMA forum and we encourage all subscribers to participate, ask questions, as we hope to get to all of your questions in time through future AMAs.