Behaviors

In teenage years, prioritize looking at cortisol rather than estrogen/progesterone because the reproductive axis is often still immature and variable.

Use stool testing to assess the microbiome, including markers such as beta-glucuronidase relevant to estrogen recirculation and possible estrogen dominance.

Preferred over blood when possible because it provides metabolomics in addition to hormone levels.

For people who do not like vegetables, use smoothies as a practical way to increase intake. If daily smoothies are unrealistic, aim for three times per week. One example given was a daily high-variety smoothie with many fruits and vegetables, prepared in batches and frozen into daily portions.

Use red blood cell or whole blood magnesium rather than standard serum magnesium.

Listed as a major target for improving vitality and longevity.

Avoid not moving enough; choose exercise according to individual phenotype rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Especially avoid lots of cardio without much resistance training because it may elevate cortisol; runners, especially marathon runners, were cited as tending to have higher cortisol levels.

Use enough specificity to drive adaptation but enough variation to reduce overuse injury risk and maintain progress.

If you lack heavy weights, use slower reps and more time under tension to stimulate hypertrophy; when traveling, very slow reps such as a 10-second eccentric, 10-second hold, and 10-second concentric can create an effective hotel-room workout.

Perform speed, power, and strength work at the beginning of the session while fresh, and avoid cardio or other fatiguing work beforehand because it compromises quality.

Power work can range broadly in total sets per workout, roughly 3 to 20 depending on context, though 3–5 is the core framework.

During planks, actively contract scapulae, core, quads, and glutes as hard as possible rather than merely holding position passively.

For hypertrophy, make sure training is sufficiently hard; the only clearly wrong combination is infrequent, low-intensity, low-volume work.

Include a combination of bilateral and unilateral exercises in hypertrophy training to support balanced development and reduce imbalances over months and years.

For hypertrophy, pre-fatigue a target muscle with an isolation exercise before compound work if you want to guarantee that muscle gets emphasized.

Colon cancer was described as something no one should die from because it is easy to screen for and treat early; Attia says everyone should be screened no later than age 40.

Contract the pelvic floor muscles for 5 seconds, then fully relax for 5 seconds, repeating in a controlled cycle. Use the muscles that stop urine flow only once to identify the right muscles, but don’t practice during urination, since that can train dysfunctional patterns. This builds pelvic floor strength and control while avoiding habits that can interfere with normal bladder function.

Spend time with your bare feet directly on natural ground outside, ideally in the morning and optionally while getting sunlight. The idea is that direct contact with the earth may help you feel more settled and connected, though the evidence for strong physiological effects is limited.

Take on learning something difficult that you resist doing, such as a musical instrument, a second or third language, dancing, gymnastics, pottery, music, math, or art. Framed as a way to engage the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and build tenacity.

After concussion, do not use prolonged total rest or return full steam immediately; get up and moving and return to work gradually, doing as much physical and cognitive activity as you can tolerate without worsening symptoms such as headache or light sensitivity.

Use science-based online cognitive exercises targeting specific mechanisms, especially after concussion/TBI.

Use sophisticated neurologic testing after concussion; eye tracking is described as a very sensitive way to detect brain problems after concussion because tracking worsens. In sports such as football and hockey, pre-season eye tracking can establish a baseline for later comparison.

After meeting total daily protein needs, distribute protein relatively evenly across the day. For maximizing strength and muscle, aim for 4–5 meals per day, usually 4, with the first meal within an hour of waking and another within an hour of bedtime.

He usually does a 5-minute warm-up on the bike before training.

Include some proportion of weekly resistance training focused on slow controlled contractions and lowering phases to emphasize nerve-to-muscle pathways and muscle-derived signals that benefit the brain. In one example, move the weight as quickly as possible on the concentric phase, lower it at least twice as slowly, pause while keeping the muscles under tension, engage the target muscles before the rep, and avoid setting the weight down until the end of the set.

Deliberately place yourself into situations that moderately increase adrenaline, then cognitively and emotionally calm yourself while activated in order to raise stress capacity over weeks to months. This can be done by bringing heart rate very high through high-intensity exercise such as sprinting or going hard on the bike, then relaxing the mind while the body is highly activated. Practice about once per week; it does not need to be done every workout.

Only about 10% of sets in a workout, or 10% of workouts overall, should be high-intensity efforts taken to muscular failure. Most sets should stay shy of failure to allow more total training volume.

Recommended as part of deep nutritional testing to assess methylation-related status.

Spend time in silence as a reset; initial discomfort tends to give way to calm. Includes turning off background music and TV instead of keeping constant noise on.