Chapter 1에 나온 내용 소개합니다. 여기서 “Horsemen”은 4대 질병을 가리킵니다. 저자가 “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”에서 따다가 붙인 이름입니다.
Excerpt From: Bill Gifford. “Outlive.”
– Despite throwing billions of dollars in research funding at the Horsemen, mainstream medicine has gotten crucial things dead wrong about their root causes. We will examine some promising new theories about the origin and causes of each, and possible strategies for prevention.
– The typical cholesterol panel that you receive and discuss at your annual physical, along with many of the underlying assumptions behind it (e.g., “good” and “bad” cholesterol), is misleading and oversimplified to the point of uselessness. It doesn’t tell us nearly enough about your actual risk of dying from heart disease—and we don’t do nearly enough to stop this killer.
– Millions of people are suffering from a little-known and underdiagnosed liver condition that is a potential precursor to type 2 diabetes. Yet people at the early stages of this metabolic derangement will often return blood test results in the “normal” range. Unfortunately, in today’s unhealthy society, “normal” or “average” is not the same as “optimal.”
– The metabolic derangement that leads to type 2 diabetes also helps foster and promote heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Addressing our metabolic health can lower the risk of each of the Horsemen.
– Almost all “diets” are similar: they may help some people but prove useless for most. Instead of arguing about diets, we will focus on nutritional biochemistry—how the combinations of nutrients that you eat affect your own metabolism and physiology, and how to use data and technology to come up with the best eating pattern for you.
– One macronutrient, in particular, demands more of our attention than most people realize: not carbs, not fat, but protein becomes critically important as we age.
-Exercise is by far the most potent longevity “drug.” No other intervention does nearly as much to prolong our lifespan and preserve our cognitive and physical function. But most people don’t do nearly enough—and exercising the wrong way can do as much harm as good.
– Finally, as I learned the hard way, striving for physical health and longevity is meaningless if we ignore our emotional health. Emotional suffering can decimate our health on all fronts, and it must be addressed.
