I am a little late into the Longevity game, mostly because I didn’t care about all that.
In 2020, while the world was shut down. I received a diagnosis that shattered my existence. After some bad bloodwork, I was told to rush to the hospital.
My blood pressure was at an all-time high, and I couldn’t stop shivering. Even taking my blood pressure was extremely uncomfortable because I was so bloated.
It turns out I had an extremely rare disease called Goodpasture’s or Anti-GBM. It affects one in a million people. My case was rare for the rare diagnosis too. First Goodpasture usually affects both the kidney and the lungs. Mine was Kidney only. Also, I didn’t have the traditional blood markers for it. It was only after a Kidney Biopsy that it was discovered and since then confirmed.
Now with Goodpasture’s your body will attack the kidney and essentially wipe it out. Even though I am a Type 2 Diabetic, my kidneys were in ok shape because I kept my sugar levels mostly under control.
So, I had to get on hemodialysis. Three times a week four hours each visit. Worse yet, I was not doing well with it. I was slowly dying.
So, I was not interested in longevity because I was battling to make it another day or week at a time.
Then I received the best news ever. Someone was willing to donate to me. And they matched.
After the transplant, my main focus in life has been to extend it by becoming the healthiest person I could be. I feel that is the only way I could give anything meaningful back to my amazing donor.
I had heard of Peter Attita as I’ve been deep-diving into a bunch of YouTube Fitness and Health Channels. But I hadn’t heard of Outlive.
That all changed when I saw his book after searching Audible or Apple Books for something to listen to or read during workouts at the gym.
Once I picked it up I quickly bought the book every way I could. I own it digitally on Audible and Apple Books and have a hard copy that I bought from Amazon. (I wish I had gone to a mom-and-pop bookstore and given my money to them instead).
A lot of what Outlive talks about echoes my thoughts and things I pondered through my 12-hour weeks of dialysis. But the other stuff gives me something to prioritize as goals.
I immediately added Farmers Carry to my workout routine, and already feel the difference.
I like how he didn’t push any certain diet or lifestyle change, but straight up gave you the numbers and what the evidence is pointing to.
Since my father died of pancreatic cancer when he was 49, I have always perked up when hearing anything about this horrible disease. After reading this book rightfully so.
I liked the philosophy of if you lived to 100 or more years of age, what do you want to be able to do? I definitely would hate to have someone take care of me or assist me in getting dressed or carrying my groceries inside.
I used to have to take a chairlift up my stairs at night because the dialysis gave me horrible sciatica. That is no way to live, and I understand his concept now.
Also when I first started focusing on my health and developing a workout routine with a Personal Trainer I asked myself what healthy looked like for me. It was being able to be as active as the other people in my life that stuck out as my answer.
Anyways, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to live for as long as they can.
