So your favorite “longevity expert” is in the Epstein files….
Dr. Peter Attia is all over the Epstein files, so who should you turn to for solid longevity advice now? Spoiler alert: You don't need a longevity expert to give you advice.
2 quick notes before the article: Tomorrow I am offering my monthly MOVEMENT THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE class. It’s donation-based and all proceeds will benefit a Colorado organization working with refugees and immigrants. The class tomorrow is. 30-minute strength training practice. I’d love it if you joined me. More info and sign up is here.
Also, I had plans to write about something else this week, but then I kept seeing an image of a comment someone made online about his frustration over seeing Peter Attia show up in the Epstein Files and a request for longevity experts to follow who are not also friends with sex traffickers. Fair question — except that you don’t really need to listen to someone who calls themself a “longevity expert.”
While there are other folks diving into the awfulness of all that Attia did as Epstein’s friend, I wanted to talk about something I’ve been writing a lot about lately from various angles — the boring basics and why longevity experts are helping no one except themselves.
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Hey, health-minded friend!
It’s been quite a week. On top of everything, you’ve just discovered that Dr. Peter Attia, your favorite longevity expert, was friends with Jeffrey Epstein and made some disgusting statements about women’s bodies. While he claims he never actually visited the island, he did write an email to Epstein that reads, “Pussy is low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten-content, though.”
What a charmer.
It sucks, right? Maybe you’ve really loved his advice over the years because it seemed measured and scientific, even though if you really wanted to work with him it would cost you more than the down payment for a house.
Ok, and maybe the guy might have had more red flags than a Chinese military parade, but who doesn’t in the wellness space, am I right?
Plus, Chris Hemsworth and Hugh Jackman worked with him. He couldn’t have been that bad.
Sigh…I hate to break it to you, friends. But Peter Attia is a grifter, has always been a grifter, and thanks to his relationship with high profile male celebrities, he has convinced a lot of people that he is trustworthy.
I’m not here to give you more information on Attia’s dirty deeds. You can read all about his relationship with Epstein in this article by Dr. Jen Gunter.
What I want to talk about is the idea of “longevity science” and what you really need to be healthy. Most of the stuff I’m going to share isn’t new or fancy or trendy. It’s boring and basic and I’ve written about it before. Many times.
But after Attia was outed by the most recent release of files, someone posted this:
Here’s the short version, friends:
First of all, the term “longevity expert” is marketing jargon designed to make someone who is not all that impressive sound legit and to help the self-proclaimed expert sell you a lot of stuff you don’t need.
Second, while longevity is a legitimate field of science and study, the good news is that you don’t need to follow wellness influencers or longevity experts for health advice. You don’t need to be up on the latest diet fads or listening to 2hr long podcasts featuring people who call themselves longevity experts without actually being scientists themselves.
Most of what we know about good health has been established by science for years. Much of it is very basic.
Here’s a breakdown of the building blocks of living a healthy life:
✔️ Eat foods that are nutrient dense and high in fiber. Lots of plants and whole grains. Limit foods that are high in processed sugar, salt, and ultra-processed foods that are low in nutrients. To be clear, I am not suggesting you never eat ultra-processed foods. You just don’t want them to be the foundation of your diet.
Also notice how I haven’t even mentioned protein here because most of us get enough of it in our diets already.
✔️ While we’re on the topic of things we consume/put into our bodies, don’t smoke. Avoid or limit alcohol. Don’t do hard drugs.
Not to be a party pooper, but alcohol is bad for you, no matter what the new food pyramid says. Smoking cigarettes is also bad for you. Lung cancer is no joke and there is literally no safe level of cigarette use. And while I am a big fan of cannabis, if you can avoid smoking it, your lungs and your body will be a lot better off for it. All other drugs – cocaine, speed, heroin, meth – shorten your lifespan, period.
✔️ Move your body regularly. Ideally you’re doing strength training and cardio consistently and moving your body daily.
Strength or resistance training helps to build muscle and increase bone density. Despite what some experts have suggested you actually can increase your muscle mass as you age, so strength training is a worthwhile endeavor.
Heart disease is the number 1 cause of death globally. Getting your heart rate up consistently can protect against heart disease.
The good news is that you don’t need to become a gym bro and dedicate your entire life to movement. Small chunks of movement can make a big impact.
✔️Get quality sleep, most nights.
The benefit of sleep cannot be overstated. Lack of sleep or low sleep can impact health on so many levels. In a recent substack, I wrote, “When we don’t get enough sleep, we’re cranky and irritable. Getting insufficient sleep has also been linked to mental difficulties like brain fog, decreased cognitive performance, and decreased motor skills, as well as increased stress and a higher likelihood of experiencing anxiety and depression.
When you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re also more susceptible to getting sick because sleeping helps your body recover and fight off infections while poor sleep weakens your immune system. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Yes, getting sleep can be difficult, but it’s important. So prioritize it.
✔️Stay connected with friends and engage within your community.
Interestingly, this is just as high in the scientific data around health and longevity as sleep, movement, and nutrient dense foods. Why? Well, having things to do within your community encourages you to get out of the house and be active. It can give meaning to your life to participate in local events, group classes, or even a regular game night or book club with your neighbors.
Friendships and community relationships can stave off loneliness and isolation, which are common as we age and also contributors to dementia, as well as other illnesses associated with aging.
Relationships and community activities can reduce stress, create a sense of purpose and belonging, delay cognitive decline, and improve overall quality of life.
✔️Learn healthy ways to manage stress and proactively deal with mental health challenges.
This can look like a lot of things, the most obvious being talk therapy. But sometimes there are simple ways to handle daily stress like talking to a friend, going for a walk, doing a puzzle, organizing your bookshelf, working in the garden…the options are broad. Stress management is essential for your mental health, which impacts your overall health.
✔️Stay up-to-date on vaccines.
Definitely get your yearly flu and covid vaccines, as well as others that are more relevant as you age. Your supplement stack won’t keep you safe from the flu, but vaccines will – the reminder being that while you still might get the flu, you are not as likely to die from it if you are vaccinated.
✔️See a doctor regularly and take medication when necessary.
By doctor, I mean an actual medical professional. Not a naturopath. Not a Chinese medicine practitioner. Not a functional medicine practitioner. An actual doctor.
Yes, there are some good alternative medicine professionals out there who will offer helpful advice, not just loads of unnecessary tests and a supplement protocol that won’t do much for you other than put a dent in your bank account.
And yes, there are plenty of bad medical doctors out there, too. Many are fatphobic. Some are dismissive of symptoms, especially with women. And some are not interested in building relationships with their patients.
However, there are many who are good. And while it can be work to find a good doctor, that’s a relationship you want to nurture when you find one. This is so important because when your doctor knows you well, if something seems off, they are less likely to dismiss your concerns and look into it.
While you’re at it, see the dentist once a year, too.
✔️Vote for politicians who believe health care is a human right.
While this one might not seem relevant to you if you already have health care, it’s important because access to quality, affordable health care is one of the things that can contribute to a longer, healthier life.
Older adults are more vulnerable to losing health insurance coverage for a number of reasons: the transition between medicaid and medicare which can result in a loss of insurance plus more out of pocket payments (this is what’s known as the “medicare cliff”), income and eligibility changes, loss of coverage upon retirement, the new increased premiums on the ACA (thanks to Republicans in congress), and basic administrative barriers that can be difficult to navigate.
We need better health care coverage for all Americans, period.
*****
It’s also worth noting that many longevity influencers tend to overemphasize things like supplements, expensive medical interventions, and trendy protocols, as opposed to focusing on the boring basics listed above.
And this kind of stuff is showing up everywhere these days. I just read a substack article announcing the launch of another substack publication geared toward “longevity and aesthetics.” It’s a sister publication to the other, whose tagline is “It’s a store. It’s a magazine. (It’s a fashion shopping newsletter.)” One can confidently assume that this new publication will sell things, too, likely related to “longevity and aesthetics.”
Here’s what the author of that substack wrote about her health protocols in the month of January:
It’s exhausting to read all of that. Honestly, it’s a little disturbing. Some of it is absolutely valuable, but much of it is largely unnecessary, not to mention expensive. I cannot even begin to guess how much this cost the author financially, but also how much it’s costing her mental health. The amount of energy poured into obsessively tracking every little thing is inching in the direction of disordered behavior.
Also forgive me, but how is Botox a preventative health measure?
And remember, friends: she’s launching a new publication that will likely profit off of the very things she is referencing here as health protocols.
It’s tough to sell the boring basics, mostly because they are things you do as an individual, personally and quietly, in your own home. They’re not things you can buy from a “longevity and aesthetics” publication.
That’s the same reason why longevity experts, particularly the ones who are highly visible like Peter Attia, Bryan Johnson, David Sinclair, Mark Hyman, and Rhonda Patrick, are not particularly helpful, either. They might talk about the boring basics but rather than giving simple advice, they offer tools for optimization that you can only purchase from them.
They rarely, if ever, mention the social determinants of health because the reality of wealth, genetics, access to health care, and environmental factors contradict their arguments that you are personally responsible for your health and longevity.
At the end of the day, these self-proclaimed “longevity experts” are more interested in your money than your health. They want you to believe that you can buy your way to good health.
But as Jessica Knurick, PhD, RDN wrote in a note recently, “The major pillars of longevity are already well known, evidence-based, and frankly not that mysterious. They work precisely because they’re boring, repeatable, and grounded in decades of data.
They just don’t lend themselves to multi-hour podcasts, viral clips, biohacking product sales, or programs that cost $100k per year.”
And here’s the thing: We don’t actually know if any of these high cost, high intensity interventions will really increase “health span” as Attia calls it. We don’t know if spending 2 million dollars every year and getting blood transfusions from his teenage son will actually help Bryan Johnson, “live forever” which is apparently his goal. We don’t know if working with Attia will help Chris Hemsworth avoid Alzheimer’s, which is largely the reason he started working with Attia in the first place.
We don’t know if our friend creating her new “longevity and aesthetics” publication is truly benefiting from her extensive list of health protocols or if she’s struck the genetic lottery and has an enormous amount of disposable income and privilege.
To be clear, the reason I’m saying we don’t know is because these folks are still very much alive and making some truly wild claims about their health — like Johnson saying he has the “the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old, the gum inflammation of a 17-year-old, and the nighttime erection rate of a teenager.” Sorry, but ew.
And since we do know that a lot of the interventions they are using are largely unnecessary (cold plunges, red light therapy, resveratrol, and most supplements do not hold up to scientific scrutiny as offering any health benefits), we can guess that these folks are benefitting from a combination of things — genetics, privilege, luck and likely some of those boring basics. At least so far.
I appreciate what Dr. Gunter wrote about the difference between public health and individual health as they pertain to the pursuit of longevity. “When you think about it, community health and public health are the specialties that are truly dealing with longevity, as they are trying to help the greatest number of people with the greatest need. In contrast, modern longevity is the opposite, the pursuit of the individual at all costs.”
This fits so neatly with the way the current administration approaches health, generally — which is that health is a personal choice, not a consequence of policies and systems which benefit the wealthy and powerful while doing real harm to those who have less power, privilege, and money.
This is why it’s no surprise to me that someone like Attia, who values individual health over collective health — because it benefits his personal bottom line — would show up in the Epstein files.
I know the idea of longevity is appealing for a variety of reasons, but you don’t need self-proclaimed longevity experts to give you the inside information.
The information already exists.
It’s just boring and basic and sometimes contradicts the way cultural norms suggest we should live our lives. It’s not flashy or pinterest-worthy. Unfortunately, brands won’t want to sponsor your YouTube channel or your instagram account because you probably wouldn’t be using their products.
But you will be saving yourself a lot of money, stress, and time — which will help you feel healthier in the long run.
*****
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Good common sense approach.