Longevity for Women
Peter Attia’s book, Outlive, is for everyone. Peter shows that losing fat, building muscle, building your peak performance, taking the right supplements, and doing a few more things will help you be much healthier in your years after 50. But in 17 chapters, he doesn’t even mention menopause once. I think he wanted to make the book accessible to everyone and guide people on the same basic journey.
But Peter knows a lot about women and aging. I’ve seen all his podcasts and read his blog posts. This video, I believe, is an explanation of female hormones and aging that every woman and her husband should watch:
Peter has also spent a lot of time debunking the myth that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) causes breast cancer. He believes almost all women should start HRT with estrogen and the micronized (bioavailable) progestin most HRT programs use today. Peter, like most doctors, now recommends working with your doctor to start HRT as soon as you begin feeling symptoms (premenopause).
The top ten causes of death for women
The top-ten causes are:
Heart Disease: 21.8%
Cancer: 19.6%
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases (CLRD): 6.2%
Stroke (Cerebrovascular Diseases): 6.1%
Alzheimer’s Disease: 5.8%
Unintentional Injuries: 4.3%
Diabetes: 2.8%
Influenza and Pneumonia: 2.1%
Kidney Disease: 1.8%
Septicemia (Blood Infection): 1.3%
You might think some of these are beyond your control, but being lean and strong is highly preventative for most of these endpoints. There is always something coming to get you next. But the stronger you are, the better your chances of pushing that death off by years or decades.
Do women age differently than men?
Women do have some genetic factors in their favor, but in general, women mostly outlive men by being exposed to less risk and being willing to get help sooner. Unfortunately, they don’t live much longer than men, and they die from mostly the same causes. So at a high level, the same principles apply to both sexes:
Lose fat
Build as much muscle as you can to stay protected
Build grip strength and agility to prevent falls
Build your endurance
Build your peak performance
Get the protein you need
Take supplements to help preserve what you have
Make sure to get enough quality sleep
Stress and anxiety are killers. Address mental-health issues; don’t let them slide because you are too busy thinking about others
You might think: most of that is for the macho boys at the gym, but that’s a poor excuse for doing what’s necessary to stay healthy for decades longer than you would without. Here’s the story of Jane McDonald, who is 75. She finally had enough of being sick and tired, lost 60 pounds, got into the gym, and now inspires others to do the same:
I’m not saying you should become a competitive bodybuilder. I’m saying what Peter Attia says: get a little stronger every day. If you can give it 30 minutes a day and 3 cardio sessions a week, you can have a huge impact on the quality of your life for decades. Book your onboarding session with me and let’s make a plan for how you can live much healthier for the next 3-4 decades.