Why I disagree with @PeterAttiaMD

Could @PeterAttiaMD live to 150? He recently told his podcast audience he’s bored of ‘sci-fi’ portrayals of ageing biology—and so am I!—but here’s why I think Peter living to 150 years old is not sci-fi…it just requires far greater investment in longevity research.

To be clear, I still think it’s far from certain that Peter will hit the big 120—but I think he’s missing something important when he makes comments like these.

tl;dr? If you want to know how to live to 150, the most important thing isn’t biohacking, or optimising your supplement stack—it’s spreading the word about longevity science.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:06 Where I agree with Peter
02:32 Where I disagree with Peter
10:14 The most important thing Peter could do for his health (and yours!)

Sources and further reading

Credits

Thanks to @MarkusWaas who sent me a message with the idea for this video!

And finally…

[DrAndrewSteele]

Peter said something similar to this in his book, _Outlive_ – ‘[There] are those who are convinced that science will soon figure out how to unplug the aging process itself, by tweaking some obscure cellular pathway…or “reprogramming” our cells so that we no longer need to age at all. This seems highly unlikely in our lifetime.’

It’s a real shame to see such a dismissive comment squirreled into the opening chapters of such a popular (and otherwise great!) book. Peter, if you’re reading—I’d be very happy to come on the podcast to chat to you about why I take issue with this! :)

[AP-klqe]

This... This is why i try to be as healthy and fit as i can be. And it motivates me to go running, even in winter.

[nichtsistkostenlos]

I don't know if it's fair to criticize Peter on not advocating for funding of anti-aging research. He already highly advocates for more money being spent on long-term preventative care in the medical establishment, this is his entire point of Medicine 3.0. This is effectively challenging the medical establishment to focus on anti-aging and avoiding early death, just a bit more broadly defined. I don't think he disagrees that these breakthroughs could come and that the research itself is important, it just sounds like he's frustrated about how misrepresented the current research is by some of its advocates and that they're basically lying to people about where we really are. Some people seem to think we are literally on the cusp of curing aging and that is just not true in any meaningful way. I find anti-aging research to be deeply interesting, and as such, I follow it very closely. I'm motivated to stay healthy for both the reasons that Peter mentioned (I don't know if these anti-aging cures are coming, so let's focus on what I can control), and what you mentioned, if those cures are coming I'd like to live long enough to benefit. I think your worldview and his are completely compatible as long as we're being real about what's really going on in this space and not lying to ourselves or the world.

[Sonnell]

Andrew, great video as always. You should have a lot more subscribers, as you represent true science and sanity so well!

[theikimashoclub]

So what is the answer? Just sit back and die when we can something about it? People want to live longer and for some of their time is running out. I get the snake oil salesmen tactics but clinical trials that take forever will age out some people. We as a society need a serious discussion to move this forward.

[MarkusWaas]

Great video, exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Peter's thoughts on this topic seem quite narrow and I just don't know why.

[adrnjgr]

In the meantime, basically as Bryan Johnson puts it, don't die.

[TSutton]

Great video as ever, I’m always impressed with how approachable and understandable you make incredibly complex topics appear, even to those such as myself with no biological or medical backgrounds!

Here’s hoping your platform continues to grow to help further campaign towards further research :D

[frankiecal]

Dr. Andrew Steele is correct I've been eating my pea's and carrots since I was in diapers and today I'm 315 years old. Thanks Dr. Steele.

[AlanZucconi]

It is *very* difficult to believe anyone claiming their protocols can make people live up to 120, when they're not 120 yet. 😅
Jokes asides, I'd be quite interested to know if there's any "hardcoded" limitation on how old the brain can get. I think is a very interesting question, as brains do age and have not really evolved to remain effective and efficient beyond a certain age! For instance, how more difficult it is to create new memories/pathways as the brain ages? Do you know any research on this?

[SilverFank]

Thanks for this video of its cool to see you + Peter both talking about this subject

[georgbrindlinger]

Very nice video, thank you. This does not even consider the acceleration of science due to AI...I am two years younger than Peter, so thats a bonus :) Hopefully many good things to come for us.

[pubwvj]

Aye. I plan to live forever, or die trying. I come from long lived ancestors, have done the “right stuff” all my life and still fell about the same as when I was 25. I am 61. So many interesting things to do.

[KasKade]

Obviously, almost anyone with a science background will think science and technology will somehow extend their life. It's just a matter of time and more and more money, right? Well, if anything science and technology improves lifespan very little at the cost of healthspan right now. Every powerful drug has side effects. That we humans can somehow manipulate the aging proces of the body, that took millions years of evolution and nature's works is crazy to me. This is why Peter his thoughts are refreshing to me. He has a frontrow seat with science and technology, but still doesn't believe we're on the cusp of anything major. That's alot more believable than you asking for more funding and buying your book.

[SilverFank]

I respect Peter but it seems he only repeats exercise + VO2 max over and over.

[hedu]

What is your opinion about David Sinclair and changing the epigenom?

[bepeem]

I will refer to this comment in 164 years from now. Since I'm mentioning this regularly in the last years, I think it''s time to make it public now. I hope YouTube will still exist in some form then. Here we go: I am the first person in the history of mankind that will turn 200 years old. Prove me wrong haters!

[paulsenjohannes]

Living such a long life span, I dearly don't want to experience. Even 80+ is just trouble. Politicians, scientists, businesses, farmers, people, and governments just make it unbearable. The sooner I leave, the better.

[greenstar]

Are there any credible organisations that money could be donated to by members of the public though?

My being willing to take the idea of slowing down aging substantially, happened after speaking casually to a near retirement biology professor in London who specialised in genetics. I asked them if people claiming we could slow down aging in humans were talking out of their rectum or not, and they basically said that offering a general opinion wasn't something they were comfortable doing as biology has become more and more specialised and advanced, which makes it difficult to offer summary judgements on a complex multifaceted topic, but that the advances they were seeing in genetics made them feel that kids entering primary school at the time (this was about 6 years ago) could realistically be breaking 100 on average barring injury etc.

I'm a mathematician, currently retraining as a physicist, so I'm not qualified to judge their opinions on genetics, but it was enough for me to start taking the idea of anti-aging research more seriously rather than dismissing it as a kind of con or hopeless cause.

Nevertheless, whilst I have made a couple of small donations to SENS, if I'm honest I'm still far more comfortable making regular donations to Cancer Research UK, and Alzheimer's' Research UK (which I have been donating to for years), because I know they are serious organizations with excellent reputations.

Are there any comparable organisations I could point to when I comes to donating for other avenues of anti-aging research? I think I've managed to convince just one family member (a parent) to sort out their lifestyle to give themselves a shot. I did convince them to start making donations to Cancer Research UK as well, but I wouldn't know an organisation to even point to for anti-aging research more generally. It would be hard for me to point to Aubrey de Grey or something he's associated with, as most people I know would dismiss him out of hand based on his physical appearance, regardless of whether his theories are right or not.

Regards

[DeliciousHoneyDewDew]

In science, our optimism far outpaces reality.