According to longevity authority Dr. Peter Attia, the majority of individuals undergo a rapid decline in their 70s, but this isn’t necessarily inevitable.
The Stanford-educated doctor, who manages a medical facility in Austin, Texas, stated in a recent “60 Minutes” interview that “at 75, both men and women fall off a cliff.”
Attia discussed some of his best tactics for extending life and maintaining strength, health, and involvement throughout the interview, ensuring that the final decade is as pleasurable and independent as possible.
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According to Douglas E. Vaughan, M.D., director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, this is what experts refer to as “healthspan”—the time of life when one is free of “age-related diseases.”
He told Fox News Digital that “there are certainly things that people can stop doing to extend healthspan.” Giving up smoking, cutting back on alcohol, keeping a healthy weight, working out regularly, avoiding processed foods, and developing good sleeping habits are a few examples.
The five tactics that Attia shared with “60 Minutes” are listed below.
Attia suggests treating life, particularly in old age, as an athlete would a sport.
He pointed out that as people get older, their fitness, strength, and mobility levels become more important than many conventional indicators.
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The longevity specialist stated that he spends roughly 10 hours a week exercising, which includes fat-burning cardio, high-intensity intervals (to raise VO₂ max), and strength training to maintain muscle.
Attia stated that he alternates between “zone two” exercise, which involves consistent cardio activity that allows for conversation, and more intense “zone four” training.
Attia advises carefully monitoring VO₂ max, which gauges how much oxygen the body uses when engaging in intense exercise.
VO₂ max is typically expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min).
Attia stated that “your VO2 max is more strongly correlated with your lifespan than any other metric I can measure.” “It predicts your chance of dying from any cause, even more so than your blood pressure, cholesterol, or smoking history.”
He said, “I believe this is the neglected aspect of medical testing: how fit are you, how strong are you, how well do you move?” “And in many respects, these tests are even better predictors of how long you will live than what I might learn from your blood work.”
Attia also employs scans such as DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), which evaluates bone density, muscular mass, and body fat.
He continued, “When you examine things like cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle mass, and strength, they have a much greater association than even cholesterol and blood pressure.”
Attia is also a proponent of full-body MRI scans, which can identify malignancies and other disorders earlier for improved outcomes, though he cautions against the possibility of false positives.
He also advises getting tested for APOE, the gene that indicates a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease. According to data, having one copy of the gene roughly doubles or triples the risk of developing the common dementia, whereas having two copies increases the risk by tenfold and lowers the average age of onset by five to ten years.
Studies demonstrate that increasing protein consumption has been linked to increased muscle mass and strength, improved immune function, and a lower disease burden.
Attia advises consuming more than twice the protein advised in current nutritional guidelines.
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which translates to 55 grams for a 150-pound individual or 73 grams for a 200-pound individual.
According to Attia, emotional and mental health are equally as vital as physical health.
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He stated, “It’s as much a practice as what I put into exercise, blood work, and cancer screening.”
“We can slow down the rate of decline by working hard on our physical health,” Attia continued. “But if we’re being intentional and active about our emotional health, it can actually get better.”
The expert gives credit to his wife of over two decades for making his progress possible.
In the interview, Attia stated, “Just like the exercise data, I don’t believe this is just a correlation.” “I truly believe that there is also some causality that flows from having wonderful relationships to living a longer life.”
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Vaughan reaffirmed that the common trait among “super agers” is a strong community, a healthy social environment, and regular interaction with people who care about one another.
While Attia acknowledged that decline is unavoidable, he stated that his objective is to make what he refers to as the “marginal decade” as pleasurable as possible.
“The marginal decade isn’t going away. We will all have a final decade of life,” he stated.
“The way I explain it to my patients is that if you don’t do anything about it, those last 10 to 15 years of your life will drop to about 50% of your total capacity, cognitively [and] physically.”
Fox News Digital contacted Attia for comment.
