Shawn Ryan Show
#181 Peter Attia - The Science of Longevity, Nutrition Myths and Medicine 3.0
Mon, 10 Mar 2025
Peter Attia, MD, is a Canadian-American physician, author, and researcher specializing in longevity medicine. He received his medical degree from Stanford University, trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and completed a surgical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Attia is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice focused on extending lifespan and healthspan, and hosts "The Drive," a popular podcast covering health and medicine topics. Attia is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller "Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity," published in March 2023. Attia has been featured in various media outlets, including the Disney+ documentary series "Limitless" with Chris Hemsworth. He is a sought-after speaker, appearing at events such as TEDMED and SXSW, where he discusses longevity science and proactive health strategies. Attia was named in Time's 2024 list of influential people in health and opened 10 Squared, a hybrid testing lab and training center in Austin, Texas. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://ShawnLikesGold.com | 855-936-GOLD #goldcopartner https://tryarmra.com/srs https://patriotmobile.com/srs | 972-PATRIOT Head to https://lumen.me/srs for 20% off your purchase. https://ziprecruiter.com/srs https://ROKA.com - USE CODE "SRS" https://babbel.com/srs Upgrade your wardrobe and save on trueclassic at trueclassic.com/srs #trueclassicpod https://betterhelp.com/srs https://drinkhoist.com - USE CODE "SRS" Peter Attia Links: Website - https://peterattiamd.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/peterattiamd X - https://x.com/PeterAttiaMD Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/peterattiamd YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/PeterAttiaMD Early Medical - https://earlymedical.com The Drive Podcast - https://peterattiamd.com/podcast 10 Squared - https://10squared.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Dr. Peter Attia and what is his expertise?
peter attia welcome to the show thank you for having me sean so uh i'm really excited about this interview i've been diving into the health space pretty hard uh about the past month and um had a bunch of your constituents on here and uh it's like drinking from a fire hose here for me so really excited to talk to you about about everything that we're going to cover today but um real quick everybody starts out with an intro so
Dr. Peter Attia, you are the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of simultaneously lengthening their lifespan and increasing their health span. You're the host of The Drive, one of the most popular podcasts covering health and medicine. You frequent number one in the category. Congratulations. That's awesome.
And like I said, I've interviewed a lot of your constituents, and everybody has amazing things to say about you. You're also the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Outlive, The Science and Art of Longevity. You're also an accomplished long distance open water swimmer, including being the first male to complete the round trip between Maui and Lanai.
I've heard that the only thing you do in moderation is moderation itself. And like I said, I'm really excited to dive into Medicine 3.0, but we had a little side conversation downstairs when we were getting started. So you're a hunter.
Yep.
How long have you been hunting? Uh, about six years now. What got you into that?
Well, I got into archery first just because I really love precision things. Um, and I was just looking for another hobby and something to do and get really into. So I'd been doing archery for a couple of years and really enjoying it and really just enjoying it for the art of learning how to shoot a bow and arrow. And then a buddy invited me on a hunt. And I was kind of ambivalent.
I was like, I mean, okay, I get it. Like, I think it'd be pretty cool to kill something that you eat. And I think we just got lucky. You know, we went to a place in Hawaii that was amazing and got to hunt a type of animal that is very difficult to hunt called axis deer. that is not only very difficult to hunt, but is very invasive to the state of Hawaii, incredibly destructive.
And so it's a win for the state. It's a win for the people of Hawaii. It's an important part of population control. And it turns out that I would say along with elk, it's probably the most delicious sort of wild game there is. And then the rest is history. You sort of get hooked on it after that. How often do you hunt?
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Chapter 2: How did Dr. Peter Attia get into hunting and what is its significance?
And Hep B strikes me as something like, I don't think we need to do that right away, but I'd like to see it studied. So that's kind of three extreme examples of how to think about this. But as you can tell, given that it just took me 10 minutes to explain those three things at a superficial level, nobody wants to have this discussion. They just want to be black or white.
Are you pro-vax or are you anti-vax? What about neither? I have a nuanced approach to every single one of these if you're willing to sit down for three hours. Yeah, yeah.
That was actually, that was my question is, you know, do we, if we were to vaccinate our kids, do we break it up? You know, because, you know, we'll go to the doctor and they want to do, they want to do them all at once. And it's like, you know, like I said, for somebody that's not a medical professional. It's overwhelming. Is this too much? Yeah, yeah. In too small amount of time? Do we...
Do we try to drag this out so that it's one every month? I don't even know the schedule. I'm just saying, do we prolong this so that it's not so many vaccines in such a short amount of time?
Well, and the other thing, to your point, is some kids are going to have no problem. They're going to sail right through it. But you don't know if that's your kid. I mean, at the end of the day, you're sort of – your goal is to figure out what's the best thing for your kid and whatever you can do to kind of minimize that risk.
And of course, the doctor is looking back at you and your wife saying, yeah, look, we're not opposed to spreading this out, but how do I know we're going to keep you on schedule? Now, there's also some nefarious stuff that I understand why it takes place, but the optics of it are really problematic. And that is that Medicaid reimburses physicians for vaccinations.
So you'll hear that, and people who are really in the anti-vaccine camp will point at that and say that's a blatant conflict of interest. And the answer is, it is and it isn't. It's not at all uncommon for Medicare and Medicaid to reimburse physicians
to incentivize them to provide good care to patients right so just as if you have high blood pressure and you're on medicare you might have a physician who's being reimbursed if they can control your blood pressure better that's viewed as a win-win your life is better because when your blood pressure is lower there's less chance of a heart attack or stroke
The medical system is better off because you're now going to cost the system less money by not having a heart attack or a stroke. And they want to reward the physician by saying, here's an extra $100 because you managed to get Sean's blood pressure down. So everybody agrees that that's kind of a good system.
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Chapter 3: What are the key insights about nutrition and diet from Dr. Peter Attia?
I think one of the most powerful experiences I ever had was probably 2017. So, and I didn't go into this experience knowing what was going to happen, but I had a remarkable vision of something in my childhood that was quite unremarkable. But it was, and I'm sure you've heard this from people who have
Used high doses of psilocybin, but you sort of disassociate so you are no longer experiencing this thing from Your viewpoint is where you were and I'm trying to think how old I was I was probably 13 So I was no longer 13 I was me as an adult but I had lifted up to the top of the room and I was now watching me as the child with
with my father, and I was watching something, an interaction that we had, but through a totally different lens, which was through his eyes. And I saw the world through his eyes, and I gained a compassion for him that has endured to this day in a way that I'm so grateful for. And it was, you know, I mean, it was...
Woke up I remember waking up and thinking someone had spilled water on the floor and realized it was my tears Wow, and I couldn't understand how there was so much water on the floor after this many hours I mean it was such a profound experience that said on the opposite side of that Sean I've had experiences with some of these agents that have I described them as Guantanamo Bay for my soul just horrible experiences
Do you continue to do those therapies? No, I honestly think I have extracted the value that can be extracted from them and I'm grateful for it, but I do not believe that there's any more value to me to be extracted from those agents, with the exception of MDMA. I still think MDMA, because of its very gentle, forgiving nature, offers a wonderful opportunity to kind of heal oneself a little bit.
But I think, I'll never say never, but I'm not at all eager to re-engage with any of the others. What about you?
You know, yes, I do every once in a while. I'm very I have very clear intentions when I do it. And I've done psilocybin, 5-MeO, Iboga.
And that's what I was confusing. Sorry. It's 5-MeO that's the 10-minute ride. Yes.
Yes. But what I see, especially in the veteran community, is I see people, friends of mine, that... They go and they do Ibogaine. Then they do psilocybin. Then they do ayahuasca. Then they're doing MDMA. Then they're mixing it all together. Then they're going and doing peyote. And they start living in that space. And it's like, man, look, what are you digging for here?
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