Peter Attia

Peter Attia was born and raised in Toronto, the son of Egyptian Christian immigrants. He studied mechanical engineering and applied mathematics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He changed to medicine and earned his MD at Stanford in 2001. He trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and did cancer research at the National Cancer Institute, but he left surgery to work as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

In his thirties, tests showed that he was insulin resistant although he exercised hard. He changed his diet and turned his work to the prevention of chronic disease. In 2012 he co-founded the Nutrition Science Initiative with Gary Taubes, and in 2014 he opened a private longevity clinic. His podcast, The Peter Attia Drive, started in 2018.

Outlive (2023), written with Bill Gifford, argues that medicine waits too long to act against heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and type 2 diabetes. He calls for earlier testing and treatment and names exercise as the most powerful tool. Some doctors say he promotes tests and treatments without strong evidence. He lives near Austin, Texas.