47 Living with Uncertainty-- A Conversation about Studies w Dr. Peter Attia

The InForm Fitness Podcast

Adam Zickerman and Mike Rogers of InForm Fitness are joined by Dr. Peter Attia to discuss the studying of the studies that we are constantly barraged with through the news and in our social media feeds. Dr. Attia explains the mechanics of scientific research and how to distinguish the relationship between showing cause and effect in an effort to become more equipped in understanding and possibly mistrusting the information we are given regarding exercise, nutrition, disease prevention, and more.
Dr. Peter Attia is the founder of Attia Medical, PC, a medical practice in New York City and San Diego that focuses on the applied science of longevity. Dr. Attia also happens to be a client of InForm Fitness.
Dr. Peter Attia's Website: https://peterattiamd.com
Richard Feynman on Scientific Method (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KmimDq4cSU
Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy? By GARY TAUBES https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16epidemiology-t.html

Adam Zickerman - Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen
For a FREE 20-Minute strength training full-body workout and to find an Inform Fitness location nearest you, please visit http://bit.ly/Podcast_FreeWorkout

47 Living with Uncertainty-Conversation about Studies w Dr. Peter Attia Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

study, exercise, relative risk, question, people, risk, difficult, point, drug, read, understand, epidemiology, picking, metformin, called, wrote, smoking, rule, squats, tricycle

SPEAKERS

Tim Edwards, Dr. Attia, Adam, Mike

Dr. Attia 00:06

You know, cognitive dissonance and bias are so strong. And once we lock in on an idea, it becomes very difficult to see evidence that contradicts that. And it also becomes very difficult to scrutinize evidence that supports it.

Tim Edwards 00:28

Welcome inform nation to Episode 47 of the inform fitness Podcast. I'm Tim Edwards with the inbound podcasting network and in a minute, Adam Zickerman, the founder of inform fitness and general manager slash trainer at inform fitness New York City will be joined by the gentleman whose voice opened the show, Dr. Peter Attia, who is the founder of Attia Medical, PC medical practice with offices in San Diego and in New York City, focusing on the Applied Science of longevity. He also happens to be a client of inform fitness like myself. Dr. Attia joins us today to discuss the studying of studies regarding the mechanics of scientific research, and how to distinguish the relationship between showing cause and effect. Now you might be asking, What does any of this have to do with slow motion high intensity strength training? Well, plenty. How many times in this podcast have we referenced a study based upon exercise and nutrition alone. You see it every day in your social media feeds and on the news. But how many of these studies are actually true or even accurate? How are these studies administered? And can you trust the results? Well, to quote Adam Zuckerman hopefully after listening to this episode, you'll be a bit more equipped to understand the barrage of information you read and hear about, and not to fall, hook line and sinker for every claim that is reported as a study.

Adam 01:53

Hello, everybody, this is Adam, very excited about this podcast. It's kind of a little heady, gets into statistics, but hopefully we're going to break it down for the layperson. So when you read headlines that make such crazy claims that you can kind of your your, your well, basically a bullshit detector goes off and you can kind of figure out how to navigate that. So we have with us to talk about this Dr. Peter Attia. He's a physician practicing in New York City and California. And his practice basically focuses on longevity which he calls the overlap of lifespan and health span, which is kind of cool. His clinical interests are in Nutritional Biochemistry, exercise physiology, lipid ology, endocrinology, and a few other cool things. He's also somebody who works out very easily. You just worked out here just now didn't ya,

Dr. Attia 02:39

sure. Did.

Adam 02:40

How you feeling?

Dr. Attia 02:42

that hurt. That was

Mike 02:43

sorry. Sorry, Peter.

Adam 02:45

Mike trained him. Yeah.

Tim Edwards 02:48

Sorry, not sorry.

Adam 02:50

Peter is also an incredible athlete, endurance athlete. And he understands the efficacy of these types of high intensity workouts that we talked about. So Doctor, thank you for coming on the show.

Dr. Attia 03:02

Thank you for having me. But I will add one correction. I don't think I can use the word athlete to describe anything I do anymore

Adam 03:10

former athlete,

Mike 03:12

he looks like an athlete. It looks like you haven't seen him. He looks pretty good,

Adam 03:15

he's a good looking guy. So beat up. I want to do this podcast because I read your series you wrote, you wrote a five piece series called studying studies. And you venture into much detail about the mechanics, if you will, of scientific research, and how difficult it is to distinguish without a shadow of a doubt the relationship between, of course what all research tries to do, show cause and effect. So Dr. Attia, you start off your series, quoting two iconic individuals. First, from Mark Twain, who I guess you mentioned is quoting Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli, who says there are lies, damned lies and statistics. And you also quote a Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman, one of my favorites, actually, I read his posthumously published Caltech lecture called the meaning of it all. Is that where you got this quote from? By the way?

Dr. Attia 04:07

I actually to be honest, I don't remember in which I mean, he said it so famously, so many times.

Adam 04:12

Yeah

Dr. Attia 04:12

My favorite book, of course, is surely you're joking. Mr. Fineman? Yes, which is the sort of the the sort of entertainment value of Fineman.

Adam 04:21

So Dr. Feynman says, The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. And this is our responsibility as scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think also to laymen. So doctor, you know, tell me if I'm wrong, but your main point of this whole series of essays is something that you actually say in your first essay, which is, and I'm quoting you, statistics can be both persuasive and misleading if we're not careful. And it's self persuasion that we must vigilantly guard against if w...