The LIFE-EXTENSION Doctor: "The ONE thing that's increasing your chance of early-death by 170.8%!"

TL;DR

Dr. Peter Attia argues that modern medicine (Medicine 2.0) successfully eliminated "fast death" (infection, trauma) but made scant progress against "slow death" (cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes), so a new approach called Medicine 3.0 is needed. The most powerful lever for extending both lifespan and healthspan is exercise, specifically high VO2 max (hazard ratio of 5.

Key insights

• Atherosclerosis (cardiovascular disease) begins at birth and compounds silently for decades; autopsies of young accident victims already show advanced disease in coronary arteries.
• Comparing the fittest 2.5% of people (by VO2 max) to the least fit 25% yields a hazard ratio of 5.0 for all-cause mortality — a 400% higher risk of death in the coming year for the least fit group.
• High muscle strength (top 15-20% vs. bottom 15-20%) produces a hazard ratio of ~3.0 (200% difference in all-cause mortality); muscle mass alone gives ~2.0 (100% difference). Strength is more predictiv