Peter Attia, MD · Health

The Peter Attia Drive

Expert insight on health, performance, longevity, critical thinking, and pursuing excellence. Dr. Peter Attia (Stanford/Hopkins/NIH-trained MD) talks with leaders in their fields.

Episodes

#409 ‒ Inside modern drug development: the science, economics, and regulatory hurdles behind bringing new medicines to patients | Lloyd Klickstein, M.D., Ph.D.

28 Sep 2026

2h 26m

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Drug development transforms scientific discovery into clinical reality through a rigorous, multi-year process of identifying unmet medical needs, selecting therapeutic targets, and navigating complex regulatory hurdles. Physician-scientist Dr. Lloyd Klickstein illustrates this journey using bimagrumab, a monoclonal ant...

#408 ‒ AMA #89: Thyroid health: interpreting symptoms, diagnosing and treating dysfunction, and navigating the gray zone

21 Sep 2026

16m

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Thyroid hormone regulation relies on a delicate "Goldilocks" balance where both excess and deficiency cause significant physiological harm. The thyroid gland functions as a metabolic amplifier, secreting the inactive pro-hormone T4, which tissues locally convert into active T3. Diagnostic challenges arise because sympt...

#407 ‒ Preventing cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease: lowering LDL early, APOE4, and promising new therapies | Michael Davidson, M.D.

14 Sep 2026

1h 59m

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Early intervention in lipid management is essential for primordial prevention, as maintaining low LDL cholesterol throughout a lifetime significantly reduces cardiovascular risk. Obicetrapib, a novel and potent CETP inhibitor, represents a significant advancement by effectively lowering LDL and Lp(a) while potentially ...

Blood pressure: how to measure, manage, and treat high blood pressure (AMA #48 rebroadcast)

07 Sep 2026

1h 16m

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Blood pressure serves as a critical, often overlooked risk factor for cardiovascular disease, dementia, and kidney failure. Accurate assessment requires standardized measurement protocols—sitting quietly for five minutes, avoiding leg crossing, and ensuring proper cuff size—rather than relying on potentially misleading...

#406 ‒ Migraine, cluster headache, and tension headache: symptoms, causes, prevention, and treatment | Brian Grosberg, M.D.

31 Aug 2026

1h 55m

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Headache disorders, encompassing over 300 distinct types, represent a complex neurologic challenge due to the absence of definitive biomarkers. Migraine, the leading reason for seeking neurological care, involves a neurovascular cascade triggered by genetic and environmental factors, with women being three times more s...

#405 ‒ AMA #88: Metabolic liver health: how to assess risk, catch dysfunction early, and prevent or reverse liver disease

24 Aug 2026

39m

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The liver serves as the metabolic headquarters of the body, acting as a critical regulator of glucose, fat, and cholesterol. Metabolic dysfunction often manifests in the liver through a four-stage progression: initial metabolic stress, steatosis, steatohepatitis, and eventually irreversible fibrosis. Visceral fat signi...

#404 ‒ Mental health beyond neurotransmitters: the role of hormones in psychiatry, why symptom reduction isn't enough, and the future of psychedelic therapies | Linus Abrams, M.D.

17 Aug 2026

2h 17m

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Mental health treatment requires a shift from simple symptom management to a holistic framework that integrates traditional psychopharmacology with endocrinology and whole-body physiology. Dr. Linus Abrams, a psychiatrist with 35 years of experience, argues that hormones like estradiol, testosterone, and thyroid hormon...

#403 ‒ Peptides: separating scientific promise from marketing hype

10 Aug 2026

53m

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Peptides represent a diverse class of molecules that require rigorous scientific evaluation rather than blind adoption based on marketing hype. A robust framework for assessing these compounds involves verifying a clear mechanism of action, demanding evidence of meaningful human clinical benefit, and understanding safe...

#402 ‒ NMR blood analysis: how heart disease risk, insulin resistance, inflammation, and mortality risk can be assessed from a single blood sample | Jim Otvos, Ph.D.

03 Aug 2026

2h 25m

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The clinical application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy offers a superior method for assessing cardiovascular and metabolic health by quantifying lipoprotein particle concentration rather than relying solely on traditional cholesterol mass measurements. Biophysical chemist Jim Otvos, who pioneered thi...

#401 ‒ How curiosity transforms medicine: extraordinary discoveries that changed modern healthcare

27 Jul 2026

1h 4m

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Medical progress frequently originates from curiosity-driven basic research rather than intentional, goal-oriented problem solving. Evolution has already developed a vast toolkit of biological mechanisms across millions of species, which scientists can repurpose for human health. For instance, the discovery of Green Fl...

#400 ‒ AMA #87: Environmental pollution and longevity: air pollution, noise, light, EMFs, and practical strategies to mitigate health risks

20 Jul 2026

19m

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Environmental pollution—defined as the introduction of harmful substances or energy like air, noise, light, and electromagnetic fields—presents complex challenges for longevity. Assessing these risks is difficult because randomized controlled trials are ethically and logistically impossible, leading to reliance on obse...

#399 ‒ The evolution of Alzheimer's disease and dementia care: how early detection, personalized treatment, new therapies, and a multimodal approach are changing the landscape | Gayatri Devi, M.D.

13 Jul 2026

1h 56m

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Dementia represents a spectrum of progressive neurological conditions rather than a binary diagnosis, requiring highly individualized, multimodal treatment strategies. Early detection through rigorous biomarker analysis—including amyloid, tau, and neuroinflammation markers—is critical for effective intervention, partic...

Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity (AMA #71 rebroadcast)

06 Jul 2026

1h 44m

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Building muscle mass and strength serves as a critical pillar for longevity, metabolic health, and injury prevention. Strength, rather than just muscle size, acts as a primary predictor of reduced all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and neurologic decline. Effective training relies on progressive overload—syst...

#398 ‒ AMA #86: GLP-1 RAs and muscle loss: new data, better questions, and how to preserve muscle during weight loss

29 Jun 2026

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GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound represent a step-function change in weight loss treatment, yet they introduce significant concerns regarding body composition and muscle preservation. Clinical observations reveal a troubling one-to-one ratio of lean mass loss to fat loss, where half of the wei...

#397 ‒ Endometriosis and adenomyosis: diagnosis, fertility, reproductive aging, and emerging treatments | Renato Tomioka, M.D., Ph.D.

22 Jun 2026

1h 58m

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Endometriosis and adenomyosis represent significant, often under-diagnosed conditions that profoundly impact female reproductive health and fertility. Endometriosis, affecting roughly 10% of reproductive-aged women, involves endometrial-like tissue growing outside the uterus, while adenomyosis involves similar tissue i...

#396 ‒ Breast cancer screening: understanding risk, deciding when to start and how often to screen, and choosing the right imaging strategy

15 Jun 2026

50m

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Breast cancer screening effectiveness hinges on personalizing strategies based on individual risk rather than relying solely on population-level guidelines. While mammography remains the foundational tool, particularly digital breast tomosynthesis, it often falls short for women with dense breast tissue or high-risk pr...

#395 - Brain lipidology: understanding APOE, cholesterol homeostasis, Alzheimer's disease risk, and the effects of lipid-lowering therapies on brain health | Tom Dayspring, M.D.

08 Jun 2026

1h 40m

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Cholesterol metabolism in the brain functions as a distinct, closed system, largely independent of peripheral plasma levels. While peripheral cholesterol is transported via APOB-containing lipoproteins, the brain relies on glial cells—specifically astrocytes and oligodendrocytes—to synthesize and distribute cholesterol...

#394 ‒ Sleep pharmacology: the role of medications in healthy sleep, the promise of emerging therapies, and the evidence for common sleep supplements

01 Jun 2026

54m

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Sleep pharmacology requires precise matching of interventions to the four primary drivers of sleep dysfunction: homeostatic pressure, circadian timing, hyperarousal, and sleep architecture. While behavioral strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) remain the first-line foundation, pharmacologica...

#393 ‒ AMA #85: A guide to medications and supplements: determining what to take, what to skip, and how to know if they're working for you

25 May 2026

13m

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Effective medical and supplement interventions require shifting from vague goals like "better health" to actionable, measurable problem definitions. A rigorous approach involves defining specific metrics, thresholds, and timelines—such as lowering ApoB from 130 to 60 mg/dL within six months—to avoid the pitfalls of imp...

#392 - Genetic testing: when it's valuable, how to choose the right test, and what to do with the results

18 May 2026

1h 2m

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Genetic testing serves as a tool for health assessment, yet its utility depends on the specific clinical question and the actionability of the results. Most genetic factors are probabilistic rather than deterministic, meaning direct phenotypic measurements—such as blood panels and imaging—frequently provide more immedi...

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