Last Updated: March 14, 2026
The objective is easy to say and hard to live: maximize functional healthspan, delay chronic disease, and keep enough energy and happiness to enjoy the life I’m extending. If I’m not enjoying any of it, none of the rest matters.
The framework has two layers. One is about not dying early: lifespan. The other is about staying capable of the things I love for as long as possible: healthspan. Both lean on Peter Attia’s Medicine 3.0 work, tuned against a decade of my own testing, training, and trial and error.
Background: Peter Attia AMA on the Four Horsemen
Lifespan: The Four Horsemen
Over 80% of non-smokers over 50 die of one of four things: atherosclerotic disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or metabolic dysfunction. Octogenarians usually get one of these too. The difference is just when. The whole point of the lifespan work is to push that when as far into the future as possible.
Atherosclerosis
This is my number-one focus, for two reasons. It’s the leading killer, and I’m genetically set up to have trouble with it. My baseline ApoB was high despite doing everything else right. For years my PCP told me my LDL looked “fine.” The Ticker guide on heart disease was what finally convinced me that standard lipid panels miss the thing that actually matters.
The thing that actually matters is ApoB. Not LDL-C, not total cholesterol. ApoB.
My approach: rosuvastatin 10mg and ezetimibe 10mg for pharmaceutical reduction, omega-3, CoQ10 to offset the statin, and taurine for endothelial function. No seed oils. Clean diet. Consistent aerobic training. My ApoB has gone from ~120 to 56 mg/dL. LDL-P is 574 nmol/L, below the 20th percentile. CRP is 0.29 mg/L. Calcium CT score: zero.
Cancer
Mostly defensive. Keep inflammation low. Keep antioxidant capacity high under heavy training load. Stay current on screening. CRP at 0.29 mg/L is outstanding. Broccoli seed extract (Nrf2 activation) and NAC do the antioxidant work.
Neurodegenerative disease
Alzheimer’s is the big one. The three biggest levers (metabolic health, vascular health, and inflammation) are the same ones I’m already pulling for everything else. Magnesium L-Threonate (AM and PM) is the one targeted addition for cognitive support.
Metabolic dysfunction
The spectrum runs from hyperinsulinemia to insulin resistance to fatty liver to type 2 diabetes. The key insight: you can be lean and still be metabolically broken. Visceral fat and insulin resistance correlate even at normal BMI.
Clean ancestral diet, no processed sugar, no seed oils, tight glucose control. HbA1c sits at 5.0–5.2%. Fasting glucose 75 mg/dL. I used a CGM (Levels) for a while and learned my patterns; I don’t wear one now because my eating keeps me in range.
One thing I watch: fasting insulin runs low (1.2–2.2 µIU/mL), below the functional sweet spot of 2.5–5.0. I address it with post-workout carb timing and a bedtime protein + honey routine, not supplementation.
Healthspan: Three Pillars
Lifespan is about not dying. Healthspan is about the quality of the years you get. Three components here, all tightly connected to the Four Horsemen work above.
Cognitive health
The three biggest drivers of long-term cognitive function are metabolic health, vascular health, and inflammation. Which means the work I’m already doing for the Four Horsemen (clean diet, ApoB management, cardio) does most of the work here too. The specifics: no alcohol (since 2015), no processed sugar, Magnesium L-Threonate, and enough cardiovascular fitness to keep the brain well-perfused. My food lifestyle is the foundation.
Physical and structural health
Muscle mass, stability, strength, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, freedom from pain. This is where training lives.
Seven days a week, hybrid style: heavy lifting, running, mobility. It’s structured in periodized blocks for long-term athletic development. The physical targets are specific: VO2 max in the top 10% for my age group minus 10 years, progressive strength numbers (360 lb squat, 450 lb deadlift), a sub-6:00 mile.
Muscle mass matters more than most people realize. It protects bone density, improves metabolic health, and keeps you functional into old age. That’s why the strength work isn’t optional and neither is the protein.
I walked away from competitive Hyrox in 2025 because the training had quietly turned net-negative. My body always hurt, I wasn’t actually progressing, and race-day stress wasn’t aligned with my real goals. Now I train more hours per week than I did as a competitor, and I’m stronger, faster, and healthier. The difference is training for longevity and performance, not for a finish time.
Emotional health
The frame here is from Lost Connections: depression and anxiety are often downstream of disconnection. From meaningful work, from other people, from values, from status, from the natural world, from a hopeful future. Not just chemistry.
The practical focus is stress and cortisol. Chronic stress disrupts sleep, impairs recovery, elevates inflammation, and degrades every other pillar. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers is the foundational text.
In practice it’s simpler than it sounds: training I enjoy (not training that stresses me out), food I love (not food that feels restrictive), relationships and work that give me energy, and enough flexibility in my protocols to avoid being miserable about any of it.
The Through-Line: Energy and Happiness
The pillars are clinically real, but what actually matters day-to-day is energy. Consistent, sustainable energy for both work and training, without crashing, without being wired, while feeling genuinely good.
Energy is the output of the whole system: sleep, food timing, training load, stress management, supplementation. When it’s all dialed, the energy shows up. When one thing’s off, everything else suffers. The Four Horsemen tell me what to prevent. The healthspan pillars tell me what to protect. Energy is the daily signal telling me whether any of it’s working.
Happiness is non-negotiable. If optimizing my health makes me miserable, I’m doing it wrong.
Current Biomarkers
Comprehensive panel every 3–6 months. Full set here. As of February 2026:
| Marker | Value | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ApoB | 56 mg/dL | <60 | ✅ Desirable |
| LDL-P | 574 nmol/L | Low | ✅ Below 20th %ile |
| hs-CRP | 0.29 mg/L | <1.0 | ✅ Outstanding |
| Calcium Score | 0 | 0 | ✅ No calcification |
| HbA1c | 5.0-5.2% | <5.4 | ✅ Tight control |
| Fasting Glucose | 75 mg/dL | <90 | ✅ |
| HDL | 80 mg/dL | >60 | ✅ Excellent |
| Triglycerides | 56 mg/dL | <70 | ✅ |
| Vitamin D | ~49 ng/mL | 70-75 | ⚠️ Increasing dose |
| Homocysteine | 9.1 µmol/L | <8.0 | ⚠️ Improving |
| MCV | 101 fL | <96 | ⚠️ Addressing |
The numbers are the scorecard. They tell me whether the system’s working and where to focus next.