Improve Vitality, Emotional & Physical Health & Lifespan | Dr. Peter Attia

**Andrew D. Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, my guest is Dr. Peter Attia, his second time on the podcast. Dr. Peter Attia is a medical doctor who did his training at Stanford School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health. He is a world expert in all things related to healthspan, vitality, and longevity. In this episode, we focused on many topics, focusing mainly, however, on healthspan and longevity and mental health. Healthspan and longevity, of course, relate to how long one lives. And Dr. Attia goes systematically through the seven major causes of death worldwide, beginning with cardiovascular disease and cerebral vascular disease, also cancer, also accident-related deaths, dementia, deaths of despair, and in every case explains the three or four major levers that one can employ in order to offset, that is to prevent those major causes of death. What follows is an incredibly informative and actionable set of tools for anyone, male, female, young, or old. He explains the behavioral, nutritional, supplementation-based and prescription drug-based approaches that one can use in order to extend healthspan and longevity. Dr. Attia explains the key tests and markers that we should all pay attention to if our goal is to extend our healthspan and how to do so while maximizing our vitality. This is something that not a lot of people think about when they think about healthspan and longevity. But as Dr. Attia illustrates for us, emotional health has everything to do with our physical health and vice versa. And he shares quite openly about his own experiences in pursuing ways to improve emotional health and thereby healthspan, lifespan and vitality. Dr. Attia is quite open about his own experiences, exploring different practices to improve emotional health as ways not just to improve healthspan, longevity and vitality, but of course also to derive the most meaning and satisfaction from life. Throughout today's discussion, we also discussed Dr. Attia's newly released book, which is entitled Outlive, The Science & Art of Longevity. This is a phenomenal book. I've read it cover to cover now three times. I have extensive notes written throughout. And the book of course focuses on longevity and healthspan and also has an extensive section on emotional health. It gets quite detailed into Dr. Attia's personal experiences with emotional health and tools to improve emotional health that are very actionable for anybody to use. I think the best way for me to summarize my feelings about the book would simply be to read the back jacket quote, which I provided. So I read quote, finally, there is a modern, thorough, clear and actionable manual for how to maximize our immediate and long-term health. Firmly grounded in data and real life conditions, this is the most accurate and comprehensive health guide published to date. Outlive is not just informative, it is important. And indeed Outlive is an important book, as is the discussion that Dr. Attia so graciously provided us in today's episode. Outlive is released on March 28th, 2023, and is available for pre-order prior to that date. You can find a link to where it's sold in the show note captions. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is 8Sleep. 8Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating and sleep tracking capacity. As I've talked about before on the Huberman Lab podcast, there is a critical relationship between sleep and body temperature. That is, in order to fall asleep and stay deeply asleep, your body temperature needs to drop by about one to three degrees. And in order to wake up in the morning and feel alert, your body temperature needs to increase by about one to three degrees. The problem with most people's sleeping environment is that even if you make the room cool, the actual environment that you sleep on, that is your mattress and underneath your covers, is hard to regulate in terms of temperature. With eight sleep, regulating the temperature of that sleeping environment becomes incredibly easy. In fact, you can change the temperature of that environment across the night, making it a little bit cool at the beginning of the night, even cooler still a few hours into your sleep, which really helps getting into very deep sleep, and then warming it as you approach morning so that you wake up feeling most alert. I've been sleeping on an eight sleep mattress cover for over a year now, and it has completely transformed my sleep. If you'd like to try eight sleep, you can go to eightsleep.com/huberman to save up to $150 off their pod three cover. Eight Sleep currently ships in the USA, Canada, UK, select countries in the EU and Australia. Again, that's eightsleep.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means plenty of salt, magnesium and potassium and no sugar. The electrolytes, salt, magnesium and potassium, are critical for the function of all cells in particular neurons or nerve cells. And of course, proper hydration is critical for mental functioning and physical performance. To ensure that I stay hydrated, I consume one packet of Element in approximately 20 to 30 ounces of water every morning when I first wake up. And I will also consume one Element packet in about the same amount of water when I exercise or when I'm doing any kind of mental work, preparing for a podcast, writing grants, working on papers and so forth. I find that allows me to maintain my focus and physical performance at levels that I just simply can't otherwise. If you'd like to try Element, you can go to drinkelement. That's lmnt.com/huberman to claim a free Element sample pack with your purchase. Again, that's drinklmnt.com/huberman.